Gaming and your audio set up

[Agua]

So, I'm going to start working/apprenticing at an acoustics firm and was wondering how much time/effort you all put into your gaming sound systems/room.

The guy I'm working for/learning from does installs in all sorts of venues: theaters, studio, home theater, and we'd like to get some insight how much thought gamers put into their audio system--including how much they consider room acoustics, if they consider it at all.

Do you know that the shape and size of a room has just as much if not more of an influence on the sound as the speakers?

I know must of us are students or recent grads, but how much do you think it costs/would you be willing to spend the money to make your room have optimal audio for games/movies?

We drop so much money on expensive amps and speakers, but that will only take you so far. The room has to have good acoustics to make it an amazing sounding room...but is that important to you? While some speakers have DSP auto-tuning features, these are not completely fool proof. This is more for audio engineers, but some home theater types get into this stuff as well.

Thoughts?

[Drunken F00l]

Headphones.


But I'd be interested in cool setups.

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

We drop so much money on expensive amps and speakers, but that will only take you so far.

Thoughts?

99.9% of gamers have no fucking clue about audio equipment, and will usually use some shitty external-subwoofer system or some shitty usb headset.

The average price I have seen ANYBODY spend on computer audio equipment is 35$ for headphones and 50$ for speakers, and gamers are stingier than that.

If you thought that anybody here actually had the competence to see the necessity of a head-amp, or actually knew the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit sound when they shelled out 100$ for their CREATIVE X-FI then you have severely overestimated the gaming community.

All-in-all, though, when I set up a sound system I usually just put up thick curtains and buy more drivers. You can cancel out the acoustics of the room fairly easily and replace it with good sound equipment that is properly aligned, almost to the point where the shape of the room is sort of meaningless.

[Tarquin]

I know some gamers with pretty awesome audio setups. Mine is about $300-$400, and works really well for me, and while you could spend a lot more or a lot less, I think a reasonable investment in audio equipment should be about at least this much (assuming you have the cash) because it will pay dividends for years to come, while a gaming rig needs to be replaced every 3-5 years.

The audio section of the Hardocp forums is really awesome, and a good place to check out to see what kind of audio equipment gamers like.

[db_cooper]

I use my $50 studio monitor headphones for gaming most of the time. I dont really see any point at paying for headphones that are capable of frequencies that i cant even hear. A lot of the serious audiophile headphones boast very silly features, im not really sure if people understand what most of them mean. </audioproductionrage>

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

I know some gamers with pretty awesome audio setups. Mine is about $300-$400,

depending on how you did it that could be absolute shit or high-end stuff.

A lot of the serious audiophile headphones boast very silly features, im not really sure if people understand what most of them mean.

define 'serious audiophile' headphones.

Because I haven't seen anything that I didn't understand on Grado or Sennheiser cans.

if you think that something doesn't exist or is arbitrary you can always stop by head-fi's sound science board.

[db_cooper]

The default studio monitors in north america for mixing are the sony 7506, chances are you're not going to hear any mids and highs that are beyond the capacity of those $50 headphones. Low end frequencies are mixed on actual speakers for obvious reasons. My comment on audiophile level gear wasnt because im ignorant of what most of those features boast but because most consumers have no idea what they are. Unless they're applying some sort of post processing to the music its never going to sound better than what was heard on the cheap ass studio monitors.

From an engineers point of view on a commercial project, if im seeing weird inaudible artifacts during post production in my DAW then im going to do my best to get rid of it. Its not intended and i dont want the client to think im a sloppy asshole.

I can count the commercial things i've done on one hand so take it with a grain of salt.

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

cheap ass studio monitors.

Don't underestimate your amplifiers. They matter a LOT more than your drivers.

shitty amp + awesome speakers < horrendously bad speakers + average-to-decent amp

[Agua]

Thanks for the responses so far. I want to differentiate between audio engineer and audiophile. While some audiophiles are truly in the pursuit of quality audio, but the folks that pay $6000 (that's not a typo) for a 6 ft cable are insane. The acoustics guy I'm working for knows folks who have dropped 120K on speakers that actually sound like ass. There are many parts of the audiophile scene that are totally a racket. While most consumers will never be able to tell the difference between 44.1kHz/16bit and 192kHz/24bit recordings, having a room that sounds good can improve the either experience for the listener.

Per the argument of not wanting good headphones because you can't hear above a certain frequency:

Yes, most people can't hear above 20kHz, and most people don't even get that high (my hearing tops out at 16kHz+, so I have to be really careful considering that audio is my job). But, these frequencies in the "air band" DO affect frequencies in the audible range. This is why mp3s sound like ass. They are compressed and have harmonic frequencies missing. While I can't hear those frequencies, most of the time I can tell the changes they create.

I've recorded violins that have significant harmonics all the way up to 44kHz. And if I had recorded at a higher sampling rate, I'm sure there would have been more (I'll post a screen shot when I get home later tonight). If you were to roll off the highs after 20kHz, some engineers would be able to tell that something was off. There are mixes I've listened to that are "good" except for the fact that they are grating as hell, and I'm not talking about a mix being too bright. Popping those audio files into a spectrograph often times reveals some funky shit going on above 16kHz.

@OZA
Damping a room is one way to do it, but if you have good drivers, diffusion (depending on the room) can make the room sound great. The key to acoustics is balancing damping and diffusion. And you're right, few gamers have been in a room that has been properly tuned, let alone considered having it done. And it's amazing the difference a good headphone amp can make. This is due to having a better slew rate (that's a lesson for another time) and that the output is more linear. You should see what many op-amps do to audio signal. There are some really good bodies of research that test things like intermodulation distortion in op-amps. It amazes me how many people buy a sub and all of a sudden thinks it sounds good...cross-over frequency...what's that? Room nodes...huh? I have sennheiser hd650s myself that I plug into my old pioneer (back when they were actually quality) 240 watt power amp (quad FET design). That amp also drives some old AR-3's, which were one of the first high quality bookshelf monitors back in the early 60's.

@Tarquin
Out of curiosity, what is your setup, and what is the room like? Since you have invested in the audio, have you considered that the room itself plays just as important part as your gear? Thanks for the suggestion, I will check out that forum.

@coop
Those Sony's are everywhere. They are great for live audio, seen in radio stations all over, and are in most studios. They are a great tool for verifying mixes. What all have you done audio wise? SourceOP seems to have a handful of people in the audio industry hanging around.

Do you all think if gamers were put into a room that was properly designed would it increase the enjoyment level enough to make them want to spend money to achieve that experience?

[db_cooper]

@coop
Those Sony's are everywhere. They are great for live audio, seen in radio stations all over, and are in most studios. They are a great tool for verifying mixes. What all have you done audio wise? SourceOP seems to have a handful of people in the audio industry hanging around.

Do you all think if gamers were put into a room that was properly designed would it increase the enjoyment level enough to make them want to spend money to achieve that experience?

I think it'd be easier to sell high end audio gaming systems to the console market where people are more liberal with their cash.

I havent done anything important. I mostly muck around in various electronic scenes (not techno/house/etc). I've worked with a couple hip hop groups on commercial stuff. To honest im much happier on the mastering end of things than the mixing side, its really hard to make people happy with a mix.

What i do is more interesting to people that are into the breakcore/industrial/IDM scenes and all of their musical or in some cases non-musical offshoots. Im not a very traditional sort of Record Analog Instruments > Mix > Send To Be Mastered "engineer". I have no fancy studio and work totally through DAWs.

We all start somewhere right? Im still amateur as all hell but its all about a learning process isnt it.

Im sure enforcer could name drop some famous people he works with. I think he said he's contracted through universal or sony.

I really know nothing about acoustics and the finer art of setting up spaces for "deep listening" or whatever phrase people use for it.