Souncard(s) woes after moving from Xbox to PC gaming

p1dg1n

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My friend had AR40's with the Mixamp Pro that he used on his Xbox One X via Optical, he sold that to go to PC gaming and the £1200 Intel/GTX PC did not come with a 'dedicated' sound card!

- he got a Soundblaster Z (SBZ) but couldn't get it working even following a video on youtube for the exact model + MixAMp Pro on PC.

He ended up selling the AR40+MixAmpPro and yesterday he had issues just getting the normal Sennheiser headset (no mic) to work, turned out he had it in the wrong port, thing is the SBZ is 8 years old and he is now convinced he wants a newer AE7 with a Mixamp.

- he is a technophobe with no to little tech experience and im having to pass messages...so can be difficult, time-consuming and frustrating, also because as we cant play Fortnite and chat - I use Xbox & steel series 9x all Bluetooth (which his PC supports) but he wants to be wired DIRECTLY into the sound card because he believes it will give him the best sound quality and less chance of interference or sudden battery power loss (and have to rush and plugin)

Can anyone on here advise?

He currently has the SBZ and just normal headset no mic- but is going to sell the SBZ to get the AE7 - but even then he needs to know how to set it up to work, it would be the same i would imagine.

I am new to gaming and also new to soundcards themselves as I've never needed to install one, know how to and can...but when it comes to gaming and in particular headset setups, to go with this AE-7 for someone on the other end of a messenger is difficult and time-consuming.

I've posted on 4 forums now and all give the same video off youtube...how to setup AR40s with MixAmp Pro on Youtube - now he no longer has them. only the SBZ...so now he is at square one!

He wants advice on the best combo and HOW to use it and or set it up ..in particular, CHAT MIXER so how loud CHAT is over GAME audio, my headset, for example, has it built-in as a slider on one side and OVERALL VOLUME on the other... something like that wired into this AE-7 would be perfect. otherwise he gunna have to go into windows/soundcards settings mid-game and adjust the slider or volume of MIC etc...

Any and all help is much appreciated and we thank you in advance.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Hi There, thanks for the swift reply:

yes just PC gaming and decent headset and mic,

I've explained this but he firmly believes that a soundcard will give him a much better audio experience than onboard sound, I've explained that the differences are subtle, but at one point he thought he was getting 7.1 through his AR40 + MixAm pPro headset until I pointed out its just Stereo with 'snake oil -ish' -I explained that only if he had 7 speakers surrounding him and a subwoofer on the ground would he truly have 7.1 surround sound, a headset can only tell you what is left or right to you - and 3D Binaural Audio may do slightly better as it captures the reverberations of a room, and just like in real life allows you to sense if someone is above or below you - but whether or not that can be virtualized very good I dont know...

edit:
also the PCIE x1 is right next to his GTX GPU so if anything wouldnt he get more intereference that way?? just an observation
 
Hmm, seems like you've got your work cut out trying to convince him.
He should at least just try it with the onboard audio and get that working first.
Tell him the "experts" on AVForums use the onboard soundcard and because we're on the AVForums we know what we're talking about ;)
Depends also on how your chatting to each other. Using something like Discord to chat makes it dead easy to set the volumes of other people while you're in game with no faffing about with Windows sound settings.
Personally (and from what other's have said on this forum) a decent
headset plugged into a modern motherboard will give you great sound quality. Using some dedicated chat software like Discord and you have easy control over volumes and don't have to rely on in game chat which can be lower quality and obviously only works when the game is running, whereas Discord is running all the time so you can keep talking when you switch games.
 
well he has links to all 6 threads posted on forums so is reading them all ...i hope!! lol

so u mean to use a separate app within windows to use to chat, instead of epic and Fortnite? and I will hear him on Xbox without this discord app? or do I have to install that? ...if this is the case I dont think he will go for it but will let him know...
EDIT: also I dont want to have to mess up my config just because his doesnt work, i just bluetooth in and away i go, start using apps to chat universally is fine i suppose....but we only play fortnite together..nothing else...sounds good though and willing to try
 
...also discord I assume mixes with the game audio and lowers the game audio when u speak?
 
so in that respect what o you recommend>?
that he just buy a regular headset with split ended EAR and MIC and remove the SBZ and get rid nd just EAR and MIC in the front of PC (Realtek HD he has onboard - same as me and i find it good) and just use that and the HD REALTEK MANAGER same as me? also as i have that on MY PC (not a gaming rig) I can help better with the options?
 
...continuing from my previous post..., ive a feeling finding a good high end quality gaming headset with Ear and MIC may be hard as most use USB or Optical mixamps n Bluetooth
 
--deleted-- incorrect. sorry
 
Get rid of the Soundblaster. It's causing him more issues than he's going to find any benefit from.
Again if this is just for Fornite, then a decent USB gaming headset would be easy and work well.
I'm really happy with my HyperX set and they have an inline control for mic and headset volume.
As he's not tech savvy he needs to make it easier, and it can be done without any real sacrifice in audio quality.
 
He'd be far better off getting a decent usb headset and using Discord. A usb headset will configure itself as a sound input/output device in Windows with no messing around. Check out the higher end models from companies like Steel Series, Logitech or Astro.

If he's insisting on a sound card then he should get a proper dedicated usb audio interface like a Focusrite Scarlett. Either that a dedicated headphone amp. The MixAmp seems like a lot of money just for the feature of balancing chat and game audio. Companies like Sennheiser make high end headsets if he really wants to splash the cash.

What are the AR40's by the way, speakers or headphones?
 

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