Functions

Let's go over the touch controls and what they represent. The GSX 1000 has no drivers, so you can't do anything with it outside of what's offered on the sound card itself. To make it easier for you to understand what I'm talking about, I marked the appropriate parts of the touch-display with red rectangles.


The speaker/headphones toggle is self-explanatory. It will simply switch the output from the headphones to the speakers, assuming you have both connected.


The built-in equalizer has a grand total of four settings: Off, Music, Story, and eSports. If you don't want the GSX 1000 to change the native sound of your headset or headphones in any way, simply set the equalizer to "Off". Other profiles change the sound in certain ways. If you set it to "eSports", marked with an icon of a crosshair, the bass will be significantly reduced while the rest of the frequency spectrum gets a boost. The idea is to make it easier to detect footsteps and to hear your teammates clearer, without getting distracted by the rumble of the bass. All of that results in a thin, unpleasant sound that could perhaps give you a slight competitive advantage in certain games, but I can't say that I enjoyed using it. This is "hardcore gamer" territory - ordinary users are better off steering clear from this equalizer setting.


The "Music" profile basically increases the low frequencies in an attempt to thicken up the bass. If your headphones are bassy enough, using this setting will actually introduce a fair amount of excessive rumble and boominess. However, if you're unhappy with the way your headphones sound in the low end, this setting could make their sound a bit livelier. Finally, the "Story" setting also increases the weight of the bass (not as much as the "Music" setting, though, which is a good thing), and I could also hear changes in the upper mid-range, which will translate into a slight emphasis on certain vocals. As I use high quality headphones, the best equalizer setting in my case was "Off" regardless of the content I was playing. Your mileage will vary depending on the sound signature of your headphones or headsets. It's very likely that the "Story" setting will be the best setting for those who want to increase the bass as its overall balance is better than that of the "Music" setting. It's a shame that more advanced users have no way of custom-tuning the equalizer to their own liking.


Underneath the volume indicator are two more touch-sensitive buttons. The left one regulates the so-called sidetone level. Sidetone, otherwise known as microphone monitoring, is an excellent feature that can be used with closed-back headsets. It reproduces the sounds picked up by the microphone inside the headphones. By doing so, you'll almost feel as though you are using an open-back headset - you'll have a greater sense of the loudness of your own voice, so you won't be inclined to talk louder than necessary or sound like you're talking through your nose (a common side effect when talking without hearing your own voice). The button basically swaps between three possible volume levels of the microphone-monitoring feature - neutral (no sounds from the microphone are played through the headphones), low, and high. The feature works with no perceivable delay, so it's a pleasure to use.


The bottom-right button switches between the 2.0 (stereo) and 7.1 (virtual surround sound) modes. When 7.1 mode is selected, two additional controls light up - reverb and surround amplification.


Reverb does just that - it adds a certain level of reverb to the surround sound. It can be set to Neutral, which actually turns it off, Confined Space (marked with a "+"), or Open World ("++"). Depending on the headphones I used, the "Open World" setting added more volume to the sound and improved its spaciousness. It's best if you experiment and see what works best for you. It will depend on your exact headphones/headset, but also the content you're currently playing.


The surround amplification button will change how you perceive the surround sound. If you set it to "Front", it'll feel as though the sound is coming from in front of you. When set to "Back", it moves behind your ears. I didn't find any purpose for either, and the surround sound was the best when the surround amplification was set to "Netural".

Sound and Microphone Performance

The overall sound quality of the Sennheiser GSX 1000 is excellent; audio output and microphone input are dead silent. There's no audible noise even when the volume is set to its upper limit, which is marked as "99" on the built-in display, but actually corresponds to a value of 100 in Windows. Sennheiser doesn't talk about the electronics they're using, so we can't know for sure which DAC and amplifier are being utilized. What I can tell you, though, is that they sound accurate, rich, and slightly warm across the board.


There are two main ways of using the sound card, and you should decide which one you'll opt for right from the start. If you'll use it in stereo mode without ever diving into its 7.1 surround sound functionality, make sure you set the sample rate and bit depth to 24-bit / 96 kHz (Control Panel > Sound > GSX 1000 Main Audio > Properties > Advanced). That way, you'll get the best sound the GSX 1000 has to offer. After doing so, the 2.0/7.1 touch-sensitive toggle will switch to "2.0 HD", and every other control, except for the headphones/speakers switch, will be turned off. 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.

The virtual surround sound is handled by the so-called 7.1 Sennheiser Binaural Rendering Engine. All of the processing happens within the sound card, and you don't need to install any drivers or own a 7.1 headset to utilize it. How does it sound? I can't believe I'm writing this about a virtual surround sound solution, but it's pretty darn awesome. Actually, it's without a doubt the best surround sound I've ever heard coming out of a pair of headphones - any pair. You actually get a real sense of the sound coming from outside of your head and various directions, which can be amazingly fun in videogames and movies. That's actually exactly what it is - it's a fun addition to your everyday gaming endeavors. I didn't find it easier to figure out the location of my in-game targets with the surround sound turned on as compared to stereo, but I did truly enjoy the way it messed with my senses and made me feel like I was completely surrounded by the sound for great in-game immersion. The sound quality remains very good with the surround sound turned on - you still get plenty of bass without an excessive amount of reverb (unless you turn it on manually) or significant hits to clarity and balance. You can even still use the built-in equalizer presets.

There's one thing I don't like about the GSX 1000 - the way Sennhesier handled its microphone input. Any connected microphone simply sounds too compressed. It's quite obvious that Sennheiser equipped the microphone input with strong noise cancellation in order to make bad microphones sound quieter (in terms of background noise) and cleaner. They did manage to achieve that, but not without collateral damage. If you plug in a great microphone, it will never be able to reach its full potential. Take a listen of this sample, recorded by using the Sennheiser's very own Game One gaming headset and its terrific, class-leading microphone:



Now, compare it to the same microphone plugged into an integrated sound card or a cheap $50 USB sound card:




The samples say it all. If the GSX 1000 offered a toggle that would allow us to turn the microphone noise cancellation off, it would be very close to flawless. Unfortunately, it doesn't, and for many demanding users, this issue will be a deal breaker.