I recently got this headset, and wow is it good. My only issue is when certain people talk on discord, I can hear a really high pitched ringing. I fiddled with a bunch of settings, computer audio and discord, and nothing seems to solve the issue. It is primarily if not all in my right ear only. Is there something wrong with my headset, or was that ringing always there I can just hear it cause the headset is THAT good? I haven't had any issues with any other application, though I have yet to test if I can hear the ringing on a different version of discord, say on my xbox instead of my pc. Only other issue I've had is occasional static, but I can't tell if it's from the headset or the show/game/etc.
Apr 24, 2024
This 7.1 is indeed virtual surround.
By having the Sound Blaster E5 now appear as a 7.1 device at the system level (before it would only appear as a stereo device) game engines and the OS can feed our surround algorithm the 7.1 streams and this allows for a MUCH more immersive and convincing experience. The streams go to the E5 and the E5 takes those streams and then creates a virtual 7.1 experience over your headphones.
At the risk of sounding too snarky here...the reason why "some surround features" sound like an echo layer from the "other guys" is that most are just adding a reverb effect to broaden the soundstage. With SBX Surround powered by an actual audio processor we're able to create a much more convincing psycho acoustic binaural effect that is much more convincing when it comes to simulating location based audio. You can read several reviews about our tech versus other folks. We hang our hat on the technologies we've been developing for over 30 years and have dedicated engineers and audio scientists developing and refining the tech every day.
Our rationale was if we CAN add it to the E5 then we should as it was a feature that was highly requested from the user base of the E5. Originally we targeted the E5 to focus on the stereo output as the audio enthusiast crowd tends to gravitate towards "pure stereo" devices (or a large segment of the user base does) and is looking for the best possible accuracy to the source material. So we did just that with the E5.
And THEN we added our tech on top of it once we established the E5 on the hardware level with the audio purists. With the E5 you have the option to experience the best of both worlds . Audio purity or enhanced audio for entertainment and immersion.
Both devices are designed for headphones, neither device has the connections for 8 speakers or the Dolby/DTS encoding to put 7.1 channels through optical to a home theater receiver... though the optical port can be used if you separately buy Dolby or DTS encoding software for your computer (don't quote me/double check me on this, but I think Mac OSX can send already encoded content like DVDs or movies bought on iTunes out through optical?).