Trtle beach x12 and dss 2 no surround sound?

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leroy1985

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Jun 12, 2011
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so i got both the dss2 ands the x12 headset for gaming on my pc, when i play on my 360 i get the full features, surround sound and all that, i know this cuz all the indicaters light up on my dss2, but on my pc the dolby digital surround light doesnt light up and only lights up when testing through device manager, i know nothing about sound cards and settings, i read that id need a sound card but thought surley the 360 doesnt have some special sound card that lets me use these does it? im using a p8z68-v non pro, gen 1 mobo, can someone help me please, ive got no idea whatsgoin on, so confusing, im new to all this dolby didgital stuff too
cheers

also if i need a sound card can someone recomend one, cheap with a link to one, i think its 5.1 dolby i need for the dss2
 
PC's typically don't use Dolby/DTS, because there is no reason to bother with compressed audio formats when you have massive HDD's at your disposal. Consoles however simply don't have the space needed for uncompressed audio, especially on the 360 (DVD9 is basically saturated at this point...).

Problem is, you can't transmit uncompressed 5.1 audio over an optical cable, as the cable simply doesn't have the necessary bandwidth. So the only way to get 5.1 using optical is via Dolby/DTS, which I again note PC's typically don't use.

This means you need a soundcard to convert uncompressed 5.1 audio signals to Dolby/DTS audio format, which also means a loss in audio quality.
 
thanks very much for your reply, im a bit gutted as i feel ive wasted money getting this dss2 for my turtlebeach headset, is it worth me getting a sound card? i mean im really looking for it to sound just the same as it does with the 360. if so is there one you could link me too that would fit my needs i really have no idea about sound card to much tech specs that i dont understand
 
so what are my options for me to get the best out of this setup, are the turtle beaches not meant for pcs then, it says in there manual they are, so gutted at the moment
 
ok so after reading a bit on the turtlebeach website it says this, i was hoping someone who know what it all means could read it and then link me to what i need for it to work, id really appreciate it

The situation is more complicated for surround sound playback in headphones from PC games. These soundtracks are just about always in the multi-channel Linear PCM ("LPCM") format, which cannot be transmitted over S/PDIF, either optical or coaxial. The solution is to install a sound card that includes Dolby Digital Live ("DDL") processing, which encodes the multi-channel LPCM audio into a Dolby Digital bitstream. Once this has been accomplished, the Dolby Digital data can be sent from the sound card to the DSS. Headphones connected to the DSS will then play the resulting Dolby Headphone surround sound.

We no longer offer a DDL-equipped sound card, but there are some available. DDL is only necessary for PC games. DVD movies and any other Dolby Digital-encoded audio data can be transmitted through the Riviera or Micro II to the DSS with no problems, even without DDL.
 
The ASUS Xonar DX is one of the cheaper soundcards that offers Dolby Digital Live support. You might be able to find one of the old Diamond/Turtle Beach soundcards that have DDL support for cheaper, but I can't speak of them as I've never used them.

The ASUS Xonar DG you linked to does not have DDL support.
 
ok so its a good job i waited then, so is it specificly the ddl, not dss or both as you can tell i have no idea about sound card specs and dont want to get the wrong one, if someone could link me one or give me a name of one to look up id be very greatfull
 
jesus christ one of the cheaper cards? the asus xonar dx costs 60 pound and upwards lol, i was hoping more like 20 pounds, maybe 30, oh well i think the dss2 has been a big waste of money for me then, a bit gutted really as turtlebeach make it sound like its just plug in and play, i mean thats not to say it doesnt work, when i plug the dss2 and x12 headset into my pc i can get sound ok. im just not getting dolby digital wich is the whole point of the dss2
 
it wont let me edit my own posts for some reason so i have to keep replying, but anyway i get what you mean now, the one i linked is the cheaper one but it doesnt have dll, what about the turtle beach montego or something
 
yeah thanks for coming back to reply, ive had no such luck finding one, so it looks out the question, gamerk316 im guessing you know a little about all this sound tech, doesnt the dss2 virtul surround sound suppose to decode it or something, i just dont understand the point in the dss2 if i have to buy a sound card
 
Ok, there are two seperate techs we're talking about here.

The first is ENCODING, or changing from one format to another. Because uncompressed 5.1 audio can not fit over an optical connection, you have to encode to Dolby Digital. The tech taht does this is called Dolby Digital Live, and *most* modern soundcards offer this, but few onboard audio chipsets do.

The second tech is Virtualized Surround. They take a 5.1 audio stream, and adjust it so it fits onto a stereo output. You get a stereo signal, but the audio has been shifted to make it *sound* like it is true surround sound. Again, most soundcard offer this, but most onboard audio chipsets don't.

In either case, you need a soundcard, and the cheapest one with Dolby Digital Live support that I can find is the ASUS Xonar DX. I know the ASUS Xonar DS can do DTS encoding, so if you headset can accept DTS, you could go that route instead as the DS is a cheaper card.
 


just wanted to come back and say thanks very much for explaining that mate, it makes prefect sense now, i will go with the card you recomended as its everywhere and i will just have to save up, alot of poeple say they feel the best sound is to get a decent sound card and normal headphones instead of the gaming headsets, whats your take on that, so rather than this virtual surround they say just get decent sound card and decent headphones
 
Personally, I prefer virtualized surround to "real" surround on headsets, mainly because its so hard to get the drivers positioned right and with the right amount of power within a headset. Its doable, but most do it poorly. I'd recommend trying both methods.
 
well i suppose this will force me to get a sound card and it will be the dx one you listed, i think ill just be happy with what i got, its a little annoying ive had to get a sound card really, specaily when turtle beach make you think its plug and play, only when you read the small print located on a differnt page you realise thats not the case and ill have to spend another 60 pounds, ive allready spent about 100 pounds on the dss2 and dx12, i will get better headsets in the future and at least the dss2 can be used with many others, but i got to say this is the first headset ive ever tried, well half decent one anyway and to me it sounds great. thanks for your help, are you using a headset at the moment if so what one? any youd recomend for me in the future?
 
Well, technically the Turtle Beach headset will work fine for Dolby audio streams that already exist. This is the exact reason why I hope HDMI eventually replaces Optical for these types of things, since you could just stream the uncompressed 5.1 audio stream.

Right now, I'm using a DT 770 as my primary headset. I'm using the 250Ohm version, but a 32Ohm version is avaliable for people who have a soundcard without a built in amp. More bass then my old(er) Sennheiser PC350's, but not overkill like some headsets.
 


sorry to dig up an old post. I'm reading this with interest as I'm considering a Turtle Beach DX12 combo. I have (had) the Turtle Beach Z6A headphones which actually takes in 5.1 input from my sound card & reproduces the sound with numerous speakers in each ear piece. I found it worked brilliantly & the sound quality was not too bad (I'm not an audiophile & my untrained ear thinks they're OK, they do the job of presenting 5.1 to my ears when I'm PC gaming and that's what I want them for).

Unfortunately, one of the speakers stopped working and the sound became very one sided. As they are under warranty, I returned to Lygo international in the UK (distributors for TB) & they say that the set has been discontinued and they are struggling to get in any stock to replace it with. Would I take a DX12 combo (X12 headset and the DSS unit) as a replacement? My initial response is "No", so I'm searching around for opinion.

I've got a SoundBlaster X-Fi extreme card that supports optical & appears to support all the Dolby Methods described in the preceding posts. But I'm wondering now after reading all this. If the sound card can process the 5.1 feed to a stereo feed, why do I need the DSS unit? Presumably the DSS unit is doing what my sound card is doing so the DSS unit is only useful on the XBOX? Would this virtualised surround takes its cues from the game or does it just randomly spatialise the sound & invent a surround by adding echo & reverb and other effects like you get when you turn on "concert hall" & "jazz" modes on your stereo?

If the DX12 is going to be surround sound that's driven by in game events and true (spatially, if not in quality) to the games output then I guess i'm fine to have those as a replacement. Otherwise, I'd be better advised to hold out for the Z6As to come into stock?

Thanks for sharing your opinion!
 
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