Dolby Headphone settings in ASUS Xonar

[Bucic 1]

A fellow forum member has asked me about this and there's no DH-dedicated topic yet.

If you own ASUS Xonar, DH is the best option you have to make up for lack of proper true 3D audio in contemporary games.

The general rule is DH virtualizes all the channels the game supports into stereo so you only set anything less than 8 for troubleshooting.

Virtual Speaker Shifter is obsolete as far as DH goes.

DH-1 and other DH profiles. The higher the profile, the more 'roomy' the sound will get. This is bad side-effect in general because e.g. you run through an open field and you get an echo like you're in a big hall. That's it

Note 1:

Most games use 44.1 kHz sample rates so if you set it to anything else you'll force re-sampling and loss of quality.

Regarding sample rate or sampling rate: The setting should match the sampling rate of the sounds you're CURRENTLY listenining to so advice given by some people in the form of 'for general usage' etc. is not a good advice. Youtube uses 44.1 kHz sound and so do most games, keep that in mind. Same with number of channels. The Analog Output list is where you confess to the card what you actually use to have the sounds played back :) If you say the truth, you get rewarded. For example, if you listen to stereo music but have 5.1 speakers AND you confessed the speaker setup to the card :) you get the music played on all speakers. It's called upmixing and Xonar cards do that for you. I don't think the other way around makes sense e.g. setting 6 channels + Headphones as analog output. For such setups the Dolby Headphone is provided and intended for. GX is EAX emulation (for games only).

Note 2:

I'm posting this in the troubleshooting section because most of audio-related topics end up here.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Bucic

[miketim 20]

I have an Asus Xonar DSX and that setting doesn't show up for me :(

I thought it used to, but im not sure, I have all the same settings as you except for sample rate, but I changed it to 44.1 and it didnt make a difference for the dolby option showing up.

[Bucic 1]

Expand to the full panel by pressing the small 'triangle in circle' in the bottom part of the initial panel.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_xonar_essence_stx_soundcard_review,4.html

[miketim 20]

I did.

http://imgur.com/lgVahTm

It just doesn't show that dolby option at all,also I think I might be running some other sort of drivers for the Xonar stuff though im not sure

Possibly some "unified" driver or something? But im not sure.

[Bucic 1]

Oh, I forgot. Only some Xonars feature Dolby Headphone! DSX may simply not.

EDIT:

Yup, I've just confirmed it with the official website. Neither DS nor DSX have Dolby Headphone. If you need DH, you can switch your card for DGX (X indicates PCI-E version of a given card). You should be able to sell yours and for the money buy a DGX and a couple of bottles of good beer :)

Edited June 7, 2015 by Bucic