One of the challenges when it comes to switching gaming setups from the Windows world to Linux, is fully-featured hardware support.
The Xbox Wireless Headset + official dongle does a decent job with a lot of bang for the buck. However, It’s not (yet) supported by XONE or any other driver. I can connect it via bluetooth, but then it just sounds dull - no surprise!
That’s why I’m now looking for a new headset which is approved by the community. It must offer decent (surround-)sound in games.
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A few of things I’d look out for:
- Bluetooth protocol. Many Bluetooth headsets switch to a low-bandwidth but full-duplex mode when used as a headset. As a result you can hear and be heard at the same time, but at abysmal quality. Think old phone. You want a headset that supports at least AptX, which supports full-duplex communication at reasonable bandwidth and thus quality.
- Spatial audio. Don’t bother! It’s a non-issue that you can replicate in software, with the help of pipewire. I wouldn’t spend money on it.
- I’d stay away from proprietary 2.4GHz connectors and stick with plain Bluetooth, as that doesn’t require a specialised driver that possibly requires support from the vendor.
I’m not sure AptX is capable enough. In LowLatency mode, it may sound dull again. But higher bitrates come with too much latency.
I guess LLAC would be the codec to go, but I lack the experience with it.
Good to know. Thanks for the heads up. I’m still on the tether.
What I usually do is set the headset to act as speaker only and use either my laptop microphone or webcam mic as input. That way I get the higher quality for the output at least. Still annoying and not optimal though.
a headset that supports at least AptX, which supports full-duplex communication at reasonable bandwidth and thus quality
Specifically, I think you mean AptX Low Latency. FastStream can reportedly do this as well. Both are nonstandard extensions to Bluetooth, so we have to look for them as features rather than assuming they’ll be present.
Maybe. Every time I’ve looked into this so far I found it confusing enough to just go with a cable.
Since pipewire is the default in Nobara (I recently started with it), I hope I don’t need to care too much about it (fingers crossed!). What I want to achieve is a realistic feeling of the room accoustics in games. I recently noticed that in Cyberpunk 2077 (windows, with the xbox headset): I could close my eyes and still tell where I am in the game.
@n3cr0 ahh, I guess that’s more or less normal hrtf, which any respectable audiogame can replicate
Exactly. You set up the virtual sink for 5.1 output and make pipewire convolute the signal with a suitable impulse response to turn it into a stereo signal that sounds like it’s coming from the correct direction. And yes, most games will output surround sound, given the option.
@Chais do games actually output 5.1 nowadays? Most of those I know use libraries like steamaudio, which simulates it using in-app hrtf, mixing the signal on its own
It depends on the game. I have 5.1 speakers on my computer and can hear things behind me in some games, but not others.
At least I can play games and get directional audio. Beyond that I care little how they achieve it.
I’d rather go with proprietary 2.4 GHz than only Bluetooth. Especially because many 2.4 GHz devices have Bluetooth additionally.
To me, Bluetooth has too many latency and quality problems if used for a long time or gaming. It’s one reason I’m still sticking to headphones with external DAC on my pc.
Steelseries Arctis 1 for sure. Hits all the right spots and is reasonably priced.
The connection is made through a usb c dongle but I prefer it that way because it lets me be use bluetooth for controllers instead. Also has a detachable mic and a headset jack.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that chatmix worked properly with my arctis 7s USB receiver.
I love my steelseries arctis. Works great in Linux, no weird software required.
I have a pair of Sony WH-H900N and they work fine over bluetooth. I use it for Hunt Showdown, in which hearing your enemy is very important. I can tell pretty easily which way another player is, what they’re stepping on, if they’re running or walking, if they’re above or below, etc.
The build quality however is not very good, it always starts in noise canceling mode which I don’t want, and recently it has started to try to deafen me by playing a loud buzzing noise at max volume. I’m careful now not to put them on before turning them on.
I’ve been looking at a pair of SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless to replace them but I can’t justify the purchase right now.
Sennheiser/Opus GSP 670.
Sennheiser audio quality, with a bit meh but still above average mic, (wireless bandwidth limit I assume).
What really makes these my favorite wireless pair ever, is the truly insane battery life. 100 hours, enough that by the time you get the low battery warning, you can still finish gaming for the day, and the next, and then plug them in to charge. They go into standby on their own, I’ve only ever touched the power button to turn them on the couple times I completely drained the battery.
What do you mean by surround? Headsets either have good stereo or they don’t. Are you referring to virtual 7.1 surround that basically all cheap gaming headsets advertise? (it doesn’t work, there’s a reason Sennheiser, an actual audio company, doesn’t bother) I have never once used the feature on a headset that supports it. You have two ears, the headset has two speakers. Either the game has good positional audio or it doesn’t, some extra processing in the middle has never been able to fix that imo. The GSP 670 seal well and positioning footsteps or gunshots has been easier than on any previous set I’ve had.
And they work perfect on linux, they use a usb dongle and are detected like any other usb audio device.
Maybe “Spatial audio” fits my description better than “surround sound”. I wasn’t quite sure whether additional processing is mandatory for realistic ingame sound. Back in the day (long long ago), EAX 4.0 was a huge improvement above direct sound. I guess that has changed, luckily!
Long story short: What I’m looking for is an immersive sound simulation for ingame environments, and I don’t like to lack behind proprietary solutions.
A really good stereo pair is ideal, something that gets the audio into your ear as clean as possible. I like closed because it’s easier to hear the quiet sounds as well as the loud ones, I’m often the first to pick up an approaching squad in apex with my friends.
In modern games all the advanced spatial processing is done by the game engine.
That was always going to be the best way to do it, as the game engine can account for not just the position in space of a sound source, but the geometry around it.
“Surround” only makes sense when dealing with a physical set of speakers. While with a stereo headset feeding audio into each ear, modern games are able to positionally process and place audio at any point around you.
Virtual 7.1 surround is just a worse way to do the same thing, and often in a way that ruins the audio quality. Not to mention it’s a standard for 7 discrete points of audio, not truly 360 degree spatial placement. But it can be done for cheap in software, no matter how crappy the hardware, so gaming peripheral manufacturers keep slapping it on as a marketing gimmick.
TLDR: Good clean stereo is worth way more than support for some BS “processing”, modern games already process audio positionally and turn that into the appropriate stereo signal for your two ears.
