Question Headphones to PC Issue - Optical Cable related

[smith332]

I did the best I could to describe the overall issue in the title, hopefully it was enough to give a scope of this issue. Overall really I'm having a troubleshooting issue on how to phrase all of this to find something helpful online. My brother uses this site sometimes for tech help, I'm hoping this issue can be resolved in the return window of this headset I just bought.

So I just bought a 7.1 Audio Headset for my PC:
ASTRO Gaming A50 Wireless Dolby Gaming Headset - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G3WBIJ0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

It has a receiver that has Optical Cable input and output connections, and an Auxiliary Cable input along with a micro usb input for power. Plugging those together, the receiver and the computer, enables power to the transmitter and allows me to use my headphones in a 2.1 capacity already. When I try to plug in my Optical Cable into the PC, I don't have a Optical Cable input for the computer. Since it's custom built, here are the spec for my motherboard (I don't have a soundboard):

Asus Z97M-Plus
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97MPLUS/

After doing a bit of research, I learned an Optical Cable could share the same type of information through a 3.5mm headphone audio cable. So I bought a Optical to 3.5mm cable. The instructions say plug it into the Opt-Out input on the receiver and plug it into the Opt-In connection to computer. Trouble is, I don't have one of those . I figured I would need to disconnect my surround sound speakers with all the connections their using in the 6 audio inserts behind my computer. To be 100% on how I'm looking at this right now, I'm quite lost on what to do next.

I'll supply images:

https://imgur.com/cwkGVcZ

View: https://i.imgur.com/cwkGVcZ.jpg

https://imgur.com/exwDaXL

View: https://i.imgur.com/exwDaXL.jpg

https://imgur.com/dTR8i9a

View: https://i.imgur.com/dTR8i9a.jpg

https://imgur.com/CiInyN5

View: https://i.imgur.com/CiInyN5.jpg

 

[boju]

Have a look here

ASTRO + Dolby Atmos & Windows Sonic - ASTRO Gaming Blog

At ASTRO Gaming, we believe the experience of gaming is vastly improved by great audio: it’s why we created the MixAmp Pro TR. Immersive gaming is why the new wave…

blog.astrogaming.com

From what i gathered, need Windows Sonic or Dolby Atmos app to encode/process audio in real time and send the virtualisation to your headphones using the 3.5mm jack at the back of the mix amp.

Since pc motherboard audio jacks only have two channel rings, think you need to use the mix amp to receive optical audio from pc. Atmos/Windows Sonic hopefully processes the audio and your headphones connected to the mix amp taking advantage of the multiple jack rings should give you 7.1 headphone audio as intended.

How many rings does your headphone 3.5mm jack have? 4?

 

[smith332]

Hey Boju, thanks for reaching out.

First of all, you deserve an apology. It's been nothing but pure chaoes lol. Anywho I thought you deserved to know.

On the mix amp, I have an Aux input on the mix amp. On the headphones themselves, I have a micro USB input as well as what appears to be a 3.5 audio jack with a game controller logo stamped next to it.

After reading your breakdown here, I went ahead and purchased the Dolby ATMOs sound software and changed the "Spatial Sound Format" found in the "Sound settings", within the devices properties. To know if it's playing 7.1 audio, I'm unsure.. never heard 7.1 sound ever come out of headphones before (I'm quite new to this lol).

 

[boju]

I've never heard surround sound in a headphone either but id guess it be similar to normal surround and should give the impression of something making noise behind you.

Having a look at these videos, do you need a mix amp or is the base station enough? Im not sure. Have a look at these anyhow.
Setup:

Then see this review. I didnt see all of it but from about 3:50 he talks about Dolby. See if any of it helps.

 

[hang-the-9]

Had to edit my first post since I did not see you were working with the base station. Don't bother with the optical connection since your system does not have them. You will still get good directional audio from the standard setup. If you do want to connect it up that way, you can get a sound card that has optical out, this external is pretty cheap and should be OK https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com...=B002LM0U2S&psc=1&refRID=KXN1YST5WSHTKWADC3HZ