Hey fellas,

I have been noticing recently that others can hear footsteps or other quiet sounds within games (bf3, cod4/mw2/mw3) significantly easier then what I can and so I thought I would bring it up to the forums for some help if you guys have a few spare minutes.

I currently have Logitech Z-5500 speakers using an onboard sound card (motherboard is an ASUS p8p67-m pro). Could the speakers (rather then headphones) or no sound card be the main problem here? Or could it be some setting/drivers which I have missed/unused. Or could it just be me being terrible? Right now I'm drifting towards the latter.

If it is because headphones/headsets are better, after reading most of the stickies in this forum and the headphone threads it seems that the general consensus is that purchasing an AD700 with a zalman microphone is the best thing to do (I don't really want to spend more than $150 on headphones).

However do you believe I should purchase an external sound card and if so what one would be appropriate for these headphones?

Also, someone has mentioned to me that there are programs you can download which further simulate positional audio. Is this in any case true or necessary for these headphones?

Thanks in advance for all the help you can give me

www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=8836

Problem solved.

actually researched it, kudos to you

proper headphones will definately help, a sound card further aids it by giving the headphones better drive



WTF, no!!

I recently did this after playing with a g35 for 6 months, and it's incredible. Although you wouldn't really be doing the headphones justice by running them through an onboard sound card, you would still notice a phenomenal improvement. I have the the same motherboard as you and can say the realtek onboard in it was still playable for cod4 audio (now using an ASUS xonar DS - http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=211&products_id=16792).

Also to state the obvious, using speakers is probably 99% percent of your problem, you'd need a decent volume level to begin with + positional audio wouldn't be that great (it'd depend where each individual speaker was).

If money is an issue, perhaps you're better off with a 'gaming headset' (ignore penguins link though) as an AD700 setup will set you back $250 +.

Please don't.

If you only have a budget at the moment, invest in some ATH-AD700's first. When you've saved up a bit more, buy the Asus Xonar ST/STX. You'll thank me later.

Hmm, I use to own a pair of G35's and used them with my on board sound and found they were much more accurate in COD4 compared to a pair of AD700's with on board sound. What settings were you using with the G35's and AD700's? Your on board is probably better than mine, im using an Asus P5K SE mobo.

Soon I will be getting most likely an Asus Xonar D1 or possibly a Creative Titanium.

Creative sound cards suck the ball bag hard.

The supposed 7.1 in the G35's were often misleading in a directional sense, quick question though how do you stand the comfort?! (must be made for small heads..). I have an ASUS P8P67 PRO, the onboard isn't amazing by realtek but I wasn't using it for a long time, just over 2 weeks. Also ASUS > Creative.

Yea, I agree, the comfort was ok. But definitely the sound was much much more accurate with my on board sound than these AD700's. Mind you with my G35's I had surround sound disabled, in game sound set to Stereo, and Windows set to stereo. With Surround Sound on the sound was horrible and muddied.

I keep getting recommendations from Head-fi forums and others that the Creative titanium is generally better with COD4, and other fps games compared to the Xonar range.

There is nothing wrong the the plantronics 367 mine's a couple years old and it still works fine.

Thanks for the help everyone, i'll definitely be getting the ad700s and probably the Asus Xonar Essence STX (or DX/DS if i'm really strict for money)

Well done OP you managed to ignore penguin. Best decision you made all day.

As for the plantronics - they're sufficient for some, sure, but they're not good by any stretch of the imagination.

I find my Platronics 367 an amazing headset for the price.

They really aren't.

They're good.