Sennheiser GSX 1000 Audio Amplifier

[Inle]

The Sennheiser GSX 1000 Audio Amplifier is a beautiful external USB sound card equipped with the best 7.1 virtual surround sound system we've heard so far, and a host of other interesting features primarily aimed towards hardcore gaming.

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[bug]

Like you have noted, a proper equalizer would have been the #1 feature needed for this. I mean, surely Sennheiser knows it's not nice to play with the sound while still in digital form.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Meh, much better Amp/DACs out there for $250

 

[Athlonite]

Hmmmm naming shit like they're Suzuki now

 

[Fx]

Meh, much better Amp/DACs out there for $250

Like?

 

[Inle]

Meh, much better Amp/DACs out there for $250

Do keep in mind that an external DAC/amp isn't a "real" sound card - it has no microphone input. Or any surround sound capability. Both of these are selling features of the GSX 1000

 

[Upgrayedd]

Do keep in mind that an external DAC/amp isn't a "real" sound card - it has no microphone input. Or any surround sound capability. Both of these are selling features of the GSX 1000

Correct me if wrong, but isn't sound card surround just simulated? True surround has to be mixed at the source right? You can't take a stereo output and turn it into true surround.

 

[Arrakis9]

Do keep in mind that an external DAC/amp isn't a "real" sound card - it has no microphone input. Or any surround sound capability. Both of these are selling features of the GSX 1000

https://mayflowerelectronics.com/arc/

Only thing missing is the virtual 7.1

 

[Inle]

https://mayflowerelectronics.com/arc/

Only thing missing is the virtual 7.1

Well, that's an external sound card, based on a famous DAC/amp (ODAC) I've been trying to get one for the past couple of months, but there are constant issues with availability and/or worldwide shipping (I'm based in Croatia) If and when I get it, a review is in order!

Correct me if wrong, but isn't sound card surround just simulated? True surround has to be mixed at the source right? You can't take a stereo output and turn it into true surround.

The surround sound effect is virtual, correct. Its quality comes down to the rendering engine that's used to "simulate" it. There are plenty of really bad ones out there, with some being actually (and surprisingly) quite good. The Sennheiser Binaural Rendering Engine is the best one I tried to date. It's pretty much the only one that manages to achieve the feeling that the sound is coming from outside of your head/headphones, without completely destroying the overall sound quality in the process.

 

[Readlight]

For that money it's almost better to buy home cinema, is it taking out these annoying sounds from motherboard.

 

[bug]

For that money it's almost better to buy home cinema, is it taking out these annoying sounds from motherboard.

It's not the home cinema that takes care of interferences, it's the digital output that leads to the home cinema

 

[Vayra86]

For that money it's almost better to buy home cinema, is it taking out these annoying sounds from motherboard.

Or a good on-board audio section like 90% of the more serious boards do have these days.

Other than that I do like the looks of this product but it seems an awful lot of money for its purpose.

 

[Deleted member 171912]

I have this external sound card 3 months. Excellent sound, LCD touch panel, volume ring, rapid fingertip control, easy and quick config.

Inle, nice review, thanks.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Why no optical out?

 

[bug]

Why no optical out?

What would be the point, there's optical out on every motherboard out there already.

 

[Easy Rhino]

What would be the point, there's optical out on every motherboard out there already.

Isn't the point of this to not use the motherboard audio?

 

[bug]

Isn't the point of this to not use the motherboard audio?

I see that I have to repeat myself: what's the advantage of plugging a TOSLINK cable into an external USB sound card as opposed to plugging it directly into the onboard port?

Yes, the point is to sidestep the onboard audio because analog output is subpar more often then not. Sidestepping the board's digital outs on the other hand, is just silly.

 

[Inle]

Having an optical out would defeat the purpose of getting the GSX 1000 in the first place. By using the optical out you'd simply make the sound card work as a "transport" - it would "forward" the audio signal to the next device in the audio chain. That next device would then convert it from digital to analogue (if it's only a DAC), amplify it (if it's DAC+amp) and play it on the speakers/headphones. In other words, by using the optical out you'd go around the sound card's own built-in DAC and amp. Paying a $230 to use any sound card merely as a transport would be pure madness.

 

[EsaT]

Correct me if wrong, but isn't sound card surround just simulated? True surround has to be mixed at the source right? You can't take a stereo output and turn it into true surround.

First of all it's not some virtual surround, it's binaural sound simulation.
Whole virtual surround is just bad marketroid term.

And that's why Windows playback settings have to be configured for 5.1/7.1 speaker configuration, for game to produce also front-rear sound information besides left-right information.
Despite of marketing hype 7.1 just doesn't give any new information over 5.1.
Though best would be DirectSound like system, in which sound card can access actual 3D sound data of game for calculating output channels from that.
(sound source locations, samples and acoustical model of environment)
Microsoft completely killed PC game sound development by killing sound processing hardware acceleration with Vista.
Because sound processing not happening in real time has lot more serious consequencies than some frame rate variation in graphics.
(think about crackling of sound and such transients what happen when DPC latency is bad)


Binaural sound is just sucker for sound stage and has specific lot harsher requirements for headphones than any stereo music.
Which can actually truly benefit from smaller sound stage.
That's why some famous for music headphones, like Sennheiser HD650, would be just average good for binaural sound.
And closed design is especially bad for binaural sound, because of sound stage problems from its acoustical behaviour/physics.
Naturally most gaming trinket headphones as closed cans are at big disadvantage to start with, even without low bling bling trinket quality.
But with good sound quality open headphones with big airy sound stage besides 360 directionality you also have good sense of distance.

While that higher than default 100% settings isn't best (still lot better than Dolby Headphone) first minute of this works as excellent headphone test for sound stage:

This one is lot longer gameplay:

Just try those with bass neutral AKG K701/702 or below neutral bass ATH-AD700x which all have huge binaural sound stage.
(K712 has basically same sound stage, but above neutral fun bass just makes details not so obvious)

Of course shape and size of head and ears affects to what kind differences brain has learned to use for processing sound direction.
So for people with "non-standard head" immersion will always be worser, no matter the headphones or algorithm.

 

[EsaT]

Do keep in mind that an external DAC/amp isn't a "real" sound card - it has no microphone input. Or any surround sound capability. Both of these are selling features of the GSX 1000

"DAC" seems to be certainly effective marketing way to sell less as more for those without technical knowledge.

But for hardware review this is more like preview completely missing look of hardware.
Besides recording of game play audio for people to test.

Because for prize GSX is as snake oil over priced as gaming brand headphones.
It basically lacks that real amplifier and also D/A converter is below average.
By using low end Conexant DAC/Amp chip meant for cheap tablets:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sennheiser-gsx-1000-1200-impressions.824923/page-30#post-13504383
http://conexant.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CX20745_ds.pdf

Standard integrated Realtek codecs have literally as strong headphone output.
High end motherboards with additional output buffering/opamps have stronger headphone outputs.
And D/A conversion quality is below that of average Realtek in motherboards.
Budget priced Audigy Fx/Xonar DGX sound cards have literally better DACs!
(Audigy Fx literally using Realtek ALC898 instead of "reinventing wheel")
And it just gets better from that.

While still lot cheaper (than GSX) Sound BlasterX AE-5 has top level DAC and headphone output fully strong enough for most normal headphones.
Also unlike in older sound cards this time with very low output impedance for no headphone frequency response changes and technically perfect damping factor even with lowest impedance headphones.
(especially Sennheiser HD5xx serie has frequency dependant impedance)
External Sound BlasterX G5 is pretty near AE-5 with more connectivity than GSX.
By Sennheiser pricing those could cost 500$...

 

[bug]

I don't think the point of this is to be louder than onboard audio. But rather to provide cleaner sound by doing away with interference onboard solutions tend t pick up from other components. No idea if the end result is really better, but this very trick worked wonders in my case.

 

[shankly1985]

Correct me if wrong, but isn't sound card surround just simulated? True surround has to be mixed at the source right? You can't take a stereo output and turn it into true surround.

I have owned the GSX 1000 since its release last year and I couldn't change it for anything! That is if gaming is your main focus when you sit at the PC. The 7.1 surround sound is the best i have heard, I have the unit paired with Philips Fidelio x1. I have tested I think all types of headphone surround sound to date and nothing to comes close to the GSX - Dolby headphone, Atmos Headphone, Razer, Soundblaster z my other sound card I own.

The great thing about the GSX is how it gets the raw audio from the GSX to work at its full potential the game must also support 7.1 Windows sees the GSX has a 7.1 unit, therefore games send that raw signal to the GSX where the Sennheiser Binaural Rendering Engine does its magic.

"Note image" You also get another device the communication device, this allows you to have Discord, or Teamspeak away from the games audio, you can higher and lower these chat programs without changing the games audio. Or the best feature about this is if you like to record games you can record each of these devices and have the chat and game audio separate.

Here some of my videos I did on the GSX "NOTE! You must use stereo for playback! And because how I had to record the GSX its audio quality is sadly effected so while watching these videos dont listen for quality but for the audio positional.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Sorry, but this so called soundcard is overly expensive for the feature it has. Or basically the lack of them...
- no equiliser
- no bass, medium, trebble controls
- no 5.1 or 7.1 analog plugs
- no software what so ever (I mean, really??). And I though the Creative one was the worst of the worst...
-

 

[EsaT]

Sorry, but this so called soundcard is overly expensive for the feature it has. Or basically the lack of them...
- no equiliser
- no bass, medium, trebble controls
- no 5.1 or 7.1 analog plugs
- no software what so ever (I mean, really??). And I though the Creative one was the worst of the worst...
-

No software components can be advantage for less things for Microsoft to keep breaking in Wintoys10 updates.

But those three first things aren't its biggest scams.
Worst things are it advertised as quality DAC and headphone amplifier while it's neither.
That very low end Conexant CX20745 is meant for cheap phones/tablets and has worser D/A converter than most Realtek chips and 30-40$/€ budget sound cards like Audigy Fx/Xonar DGX.
And neither its headphone output is any better than that of Realtek chips.
(which is why Sennheiser proudly hides that 1Vrms into 32 ohms max output into datasheet pdf)

 

[The Twobbler]

Quoted from Review, "On the other hand, if you want to have full control and be able to use the 7.1 surround sound, you can't set the sample rate and bit depth over 24-bit / 48 kHz. "

This is wrong.

There is no 24bit 7.1 audio. It is ONLY 16bit when in 7.1 surround mode. 24 bit will only function in stereo mode AFTER you have set your Windows speaker config to "stereo". The device does not support 24bit 7.1, period.