**The Art of Audio Quality: A Deep Dive into Gaming Headsets and Equalizers**

As a gamer and audio enthusiast, I've spent countless hours exploring the world of gaming headsets and equalizers. In this article, we'll delve into the complexities of audio quality, specifically focusing on the nuances of gaming headsets and their respective drivers. We'll also examine the role of parametric EQs and software like Equalizer APO in enhancing our gaming experience.

**The Limitations of Standard Gaming Headset Drivers**

One of the primary issues with standard gaming headset drivers is their inability to accurately target specific frequencies within a range. For example, the Delta 2 features an eight-band graphic equalizer, which allows for up-and-down movement within specific frequency ranges. However, this limitation means that we can't adjust or target specific frequencies in between those ranges, a common criticism of many gaming headset drivers.

**The Power of Parametric EQs**

Parametric EQs, on the other hand, offer unparalleled flexibility and precision. By allowing us to Target very specific frequencies inside a game, parametric EQs enable us to enhance audio cues, elements, and even subtle sounds that are often overlooked. The Q value, in particular, is crucial in this context, as it enables us to expand frequency ranges or target specific frequencies with precision.

**The Equalizer APO Software: Unlocking the Full Potential of Your Headset**

Equalizer APO software offers a level of depth and complexity that's both fascinating and intimidating. This software allows us to get into the nitty-gritty details of EQ settings, such as what Q value stands for and how to adjust it for a particular headset. By utilizing the Squig link software, we can import values and apply them to our Equalizer APO settings, effectively creating custom EQ profiles tailored to our specific headset.

**Microphone Quality: The Unsung Hero of Gaming**

When it comes to digital or wireless headsets, microphone quality is often an afterthought. However, as a content creator, I've come to appreciate the importance of having a reliable and versatile microphone. For me, two key factors are crucial: side tone and microphone noise reduction. Side tone refers to the ability to hear one's own voice clearly, while microphone noise reduction eliminates unwanted background sounds.

**Noise Gate and Echo Cancellation**

In terms of noise gate settings, I prefer to keep it simple yet effective. By enabling Noise Gate and adjusting its sensitivity, we can eliminate ambient noises that might bleed into our recordings. This is particularly important in low-noise environments where even the slightest sound can be picked up by microphones.

**The Importance of Presets and Customization**

When creating custom EQ profiles or microphone settings, it's essential to approach with a clear mindset. Two common approaches are to enhance gameplay audio cues or create a more enjoyable listening experience for our specific headset. By working within these parameters, we can create unique presets that cater to our individual needs.

**Conclusion and Community Engagement**

Ultimately, the art of audio quality is a highly personal and nuanced subject. As gamers and audio enthusiasts, we're constantly seeking new ways to enhance our experiences. I'd love to hear from you – how do you configure your sound profiles for specific games with your preferred headset? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let's work together to push the boundaries of gaming audio quality.

---

Dimitri

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right so you just got a brand new gaming headset and trust me I know how exciting it is to put this thing on and experience new sound for the first time in your favorite games but did you know there's a proper way to set up your gaming headset no me neither so I just got the rag Delta 2 which is surprisingly good and I'll go over all the ways that I configure my new audio products whether it's headphones dacks headsets and all the housekeeping things that I configure first all the EQ customization that I try to go over microphone setup and Etc so I hope this is kind of a helpful guide for newcomers uh who are potentially getting into the gaming headset space because even though everyone loves to hate on gaming headsets they are getting so good especially on the wireless side because of the convenience of like not needing to deal with the cable and battery life is good enough for like occasional charging once in a while throughout the week and it's not like a thing that will die every day with you even though this thing has R GB the battery life is actually quite good this is an RGB headset so we all know what to do okay this video is sponsored by Asus so I will use the Delta 2 as like the primary example but everything you hear in this video basically will apply throughout any gaming audio product so don't worry so first let's get some housekeeping out of the way with the initial setup I always update the drivers and if any pending firmware is available always install that especially for the wireless or the USB be wired direction if you're using an analog headset don't even worry about this part depending on how many audio devices you have I always find it's a good idea to rame the source and you can even change the icon for just slightly easier recognition since I play around with so many audio devices I always make sure to set my default devices for both audio and microphone input so it doesn't automatically jump around when a new device is detected also I love the volume mixer being able to lower the system sounds and adjust my volume per app basis so as I'm editing a video I can have music in the back background and I can have let's say tutorial on the side as well that are all adjusted per app bases and everything is mixed in perfectly and for headsets that have the chat mix functionality I make sure that my audio devices are properly set so that when it comes to actually mixing the chat versus game volume it can function properly and of course I said the highest bit depth available on the headset and up to 48 khz for the sample rate with all wireless gaming headsets I like to check if the headset can be used in just USB mode with a dongle unplugged un Ely like with many other wireless headsets you can't the cable is for charging only and like updating the drivers and stuff if you want wired connection we do have an analog cable so the 3.5 mm cable included with the Delta 2 to run them with like an Xbox or if the headset dies if you want to still maybe utilize an amp or a Dack most wireless gaming headsets today have Bluetooth connectivity so razor and log dech but it's not simultaneous so on the Delta 2 you can run Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz at the same time without interruption which is a huge value ad my steel series Ser does that and I use it constantly the Delta 2 also has a separate button for Bluetooth connectivity so you can toggle that on and off independently of your 2.4 GHz signal I absolutely love that of course with many popular gaming headsets you have the option to buy replacement ear cushions from different brands which is an awesome way to turn a headset for being like semi comfortable to something that you can wear all day no problem I've done that with my sennheisers with my hyperx with my steel series but the inclusion of extra earpads on any gaming headset is always a bonus the Delta 2 comes with two sets of earpads which is expected in this price category with your standard leather red which is super soft and has really good isolation not too much heat accumulation and the more fabricyellow interior and my test here is to swap them out and see how they feel with glasses I mean Comfort is a huge thing for gaming headsets and I love to see which earpad gives me least amount of that annoying squeak when they rub against the glasses temples with the leather red ear pads I find them to be more comfortable when I wear them with glasses but I generally prefer the fabric ear cushions over Le the red because they're slightly more open they breathe a little bit more leather red right now especially in a slightly colder environment are very Pleasant on the ears now when it comes to sound I would say the best way to experience a new audio product is to listen to something that you know either your favorite songs the games that you constantly play and use the new audio device in areas that you know very well so you can either hear something new hear something different or hear something familiar this way you can better perceive the sound characteristics of your new headset or a headphone and are able to potentially use that information to adjust your EQ to flavor the sound to your liking so when it comes to playing around with your equalizer settings and different sound profiles in a particular software there's a general rule of thumb that you should follow of increasing your treble or the heist for better footstep awareness and better definition of the critical details in the game for example the sound cue of a spawn during death match can be emphasized by increasing the 4K Herz slider if you want to be more aware of your surroundings during quieter moments this also helps with low ammo sound Q when you're about to run out of bullets in the magazine and footsteps live in the same region between 2 and 4 Hertz so there is a reason why treble is so important but it's also very easy to make the game sound harsh and unpleasant if you go too far like Delta 2 by default is way brighter versus my audio technical r70x headphones so making treble adjustments on the appos r70x is actually more important to extract more detail adjusting the low end or the base region for better engine sounds for example or the thuds and some some that like rumbling of the explosions in the background in CS2 for example I love the base hit you get with a head shot or a kill during death match which is where increasing the subbase region under 125 HZ helps to emphasize that audible Que in hail divers 2o you can really feel the power of any strategy when they fly down from orbit or any weapon for that matter because the sound design is so good but you can again slightly improve it with an aute adjustment of touching up that 125 HZ slider or below frequencies if they're available and the mid-range spans a pretty wide spectrum that controls your vocals uh your Sound Stage expansion or the narrowness depending on the type of game you play I normally don't touch the mid-range unless I want to widen my Sound Stage by lowering the 1K Herz band I like for closed headphones with battlefield for example or single player games where you want your headphones to sound bigger and even slight adjustment make a big difference so be careful the most popular EQ adjustment for better footsteps is the FPS preset so right now I an Armory crate and uh lets me enable Esports and the razor synup software and you can see the those two curves are pretty much identical slightly lowering in the base region and then anything from 1K Hertz that has been boosted to give us better Clarity in the footsteps and those critical cues you can see the same thing applies with the logic headset lowering of the base region and increasing our like uh low mids all up to the treble slightly more emphasized for better definition and detail the problem with this approach is that all headsets sound different so you tweaking certain settings that have worked for the logistic pair and maybe razor might not necessarily apply to another gaming headset because they all have different tuning Etc one quick and dirty way that I found that has worked for me is to play a game play that has no commentary that you normally play or maybe even watch your favorite stream or whatever and adjust those sliders accordingly so you can hear the difference uh in the games that you play without needing to be inside the game itself and then there's also Squig so you choose your favorite Creator so I like Gadget rch he does Awesome Audio stuff and from there you can search by whatever headset you have so let's try Delta 2 and here you can see the frequency response of your headset versus the Harmon line and uh that gives you a good reference point of like how colored or neutral it is you can actually go into the equalizer setting and you can do the auto EQ setting that would spit out of how you're supposed to configure the bands in the software to match the Harmon line and that's a really powerful tool to sort of equalize the headset to something a bit more neutral which is how you're able to let's say combine all three headsets let's say or whatever headphones that you have to something that sounds fairly close to one another but man there's so many nuances when it comes to working with equalizer settings and creating your own profile that for example with the Delta 2 it's a eight band graphic equalizer so you have the up and down movement for these specific frequencies but you don't have an ability to adjust or Target a specific frequency in between those ranges which is pretty much the same across all gaming equalizer drivers with ltech and razor being the same and so this is where parametric AQ comes into play which is both really complicated and fun at the same time right now I'm in sonar and this is a perfect example of parametric EQ and its power because you can Target very specific frequencies inside a game to either boost certain audio cues elements like a Reload speed or uh like a certain hum for like a loot box or something uh and that's where the parametric Q especially with the Q value because right now you can expand that frequency range or you can really Target it to fight a specific like audio element and emphasize only that and not so much uh the audio Keys around it then there's also the equalizer APO software which is really interesting to learn it's also super complicated but it gives you the ability to get into the gritty details of like what does the Q value stand for and where to adjust it for a particular headset and that's where you get the values from the Squig link software and put them into the equalizer APO setting to EQ the headphone or the headset properly just make sure to watch some tutorials because it's both really fun and complicated at the same time on the microphone side for any digital or wireless headset I look for two things number one is side tone and number two is being able to adjust the microphone quality in any way and how it perceives my voice because my voice is a little dark I have some Bas but I don't have that much trouble and I don't have that much power output as well so being able to Tinker with some the settings is actually very beneficial for me as a content creator as for the microphone settings we don't have that much to play around with with the Delta Tu we do have Noise Gate which is ability to eliminate anything in the background Beyond a certain deciel level so right now it's being enabled I'm sure my HC is not being picked up and the vocal range of the microphone is uh pretty compact anyway so I would leave Noise Gate on and really cranking it up means you have to speak really really loudly for the Noise Gate to actually pick up some of that volume now perfect voice for my voice is okay my voice is quite dark so I add a little bit of base and a little bit of clarity and so this one adds a little bit of clarity boost so a certain percentage 60% it sounds fine and noise cancellation and Echo cancellation this is quite important for like a maybe a large echoey room and low setting is very natural and decent sounding and Asus has always done like really good job with the noise cancellation and noise reduction in general and in the mid preset it sounds still good in a high preset if you have these breaks in your voice it might have a little bit more of that unnal modulation of trying to eliminate anything that is quiet in the background between your speeches for example I do love me a good s tone option I'm surprised that's in here and not in the microphone settings but it's whatever being piped from the microphone into the headset directly so you can hear yourself which for a closed headset is absolutely crucial for my environment in particular the cyone on Delta 2 for example is good it's latency free it does add a little bit of that extra noise floor not really a problem as soon as you have anything playing in your headset I wish more Brands included a microphone equalizer with their gaming headsets just because the mic boost preset for my voice with this headset sounds wonderful and I would love to be able to do some equalizer directly in the driver software for this headset instead of doing it the post I think one of the biggest takeaways when it comes to creating your own EQ profiles Etc is that you can approaches from two perspectives one is to make your headphone to be slightly more competitive and being able to hear sound cues that are important for your particular game or you can go the opposite route of trying to make the game sound good for the headphone that you have to be more enjoyable smoother slightly more richer in the base department and basically turn a headphone that sounds probably maybe like mediocre to good and or taking really good sounding headphones and making them sounding better but it's also very easy to complete destroy the sound signature and it's really important to create different presets that uh allows you to just revert back to what was originally there but I would love to hear how you guys configure your sound profiles for particular games with whatever headphones you use let me know in the comments I'm Dimitri and thanks so much for watching I'll talk to you in the next videoall right so you just got a brand new gaming headset and trust me I know how exciting it is to put this thing on and experience new sound for the first time in your favorite games but did you know there's a proper way to set up your gaming headset no me neither so I just got the rag Delta 2 which is surprisingly good and I'll go over all the ways that I configure my new audio products whether it's headphones dacks headsets and all the housekeeping things that I configure first all the EQ customization that I try to go over microphone setup and Etc so I hope this is kind of a helpful guide for newcomers uh who are potentially getting into the gaming headset space because even though everyone loves to hate on gaming headsets they are getting so good especially on the wireless side because of the convenience of like not needing to deal with the cable and battery life is good enough for like occasional charging once in a while throughout the week and it's not like a thing that will die every day with you even though this thing has R GB the battery life is actually quite good this is an RGB headset so we all know what to do okay this video is sponsored by Asus so I will use the Delta 2 as like the primary example but everything you hear in this video basically will apply throughout any gaming audio product so don't worry so first let's get some housekeeping out of the way with the initial setup I always update the drivers and if any pending firmware is available always install that especially for the wireless or the USB be wired direction if you're using an analog headset don't even worry about this part depending on how many audio devices you have I always find it's a good idea to rame the source and you can even change the icon for just slightly easier recognition since I play around with so many audio devices I always make sure to set my default devices for both audio and microphone input so it doesn't automatically jump around when a new device is detected also I love the volume mixer being able to lower the system sounds and adjust my volume per app basis so as I'm editing a video I can have music in the back background and I can have let's say tutorial on the side as well that are all adjusted per app bases and everything is mixed in perfectly and for headsets that have the chat mix functionality I make sure that my audio devices are properly set so that when it comes to actually mixing the chat versus game volume it can function properly and of course I said the highest bit depth available on the headset and up to 48 khz for the sample rate with all wireless gaming headsets I like to check if the headset can be used in just USB mode with a dongle unplugged un Ely like with many other wireless headsets you can't the cable is for charging only and like updating the drivers and stuff if you want wired connection we do have an analog cable so the 3.5 mm cable included with the Delta 2 to run them with like an Xbox or if the headset dies if you want to still maybe utilize an amp or a Dack most wireless gaming headsets today have Bluetooth connectivity so razor and log dech but it's not simultaneous so on the Delta 2 you can run Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz at the same time without interruption which is a huge value ad my steel series Ser does that and I use it constantly the Delta 2 also has a separate button for Bluetooth connectivity so you can toggle that on and off independently of your 2.4 GHz signal I absolutely love that of course with many popular gaming headsets you have the option to buy replacement ear cushions from different brands which is an awesome way to turn a headset for being like semi comfortable to something that you can wear all day no problem I've done that with my sennheisers with my hyperx with my steel series but the inclusion of extra earpads on any gaming headset is always a bonus the Delta 2 comes with two sets of earpads which is expected in this price category with your standard leather red which is super soft and has really good isolation not too much heat accumulation and the more fabricyellow interior and my test here is to swap them out and see how they feel with glasses I mean Comfort is a huge thing for gaming headsets and I love to see which earpad gives me least amount of that annoying squeak when they rub against the glasses temples with the leather red ear pads I find them to be more comfortable when I wear them with glasses but I generally prefer the fabric ear cushions over Le the red because they're slightly more open they breathe a little bit more leather red right now especially in a slightly colder environment are very Pleasant on the ears now when it comes to sound I would say the best way to experience a new audio product is to listen to something that you know either your favorite songs the games that you constantly play and use the new audio device in areas that you know very well so you can either hear something new hear something different or hear something familiar this way you can better perceive the sound characteristics of your new headset or a headphone and are able to potentially use that information to adjust your EQ to flavor the sound to your liking so when it comes to playing around with your equalizer settings and different sound profiles in a particular software there's a general rule of thumb that you should follow of increasing your treble or the heist for better footstep awareness and better definition of the critical details in the game for example the sound cue of a spawn during death match can be emphasized by increasing the 4K Herz slider if you want to be more aware of your surroundings during quieter moments this also helps with low ammo sound Q when you're about to run out of bullets in the magazine and footsteps live in the same region between 2 and 4 Hertz so there is a reason why treble is so important but it's also very easy to make the game sound harsh and unpleasant if you go too far like Delta 2 by default is way brighter versus my audio technical r70x headphones so making treble adjustments on the appos r70x is actually more important to extract more detail adjusting the low end or the base region for better engine sounds for example or the thuds and some some that like rumbling of the explosions in the background in CS2 for example I love the base hit you get with a head shot or a kill during death match which is where increasing the subbase region under 125 HZ helps to emphasize that audible Que in hail divers 2o you can really feel the power of any strategy when they fly down from orbit or any weapon for that matter because the sound design is so good but you can again slightly improve it with an aute adjustment of touching up that 125 HZ slider or below frequencies if they're available and the mid-range spans a pretty wide spectrum that controls your vocals uh your Sound Stage expansion or the narrowness depending on the type of game you play I normally don't touch the mid-range unless I want to widen my Sound Stage by lowering the 1K Herz band I like for closed headphones with battlefield for example or single player games where you want your headphones to sound bigger and even slight adjustment make a big difference so be careful the most popular EQ adjustment for better footsteps is the FPS preset so right now I an Armory crate and uh lets me enable Esports and the razor synup software and you can see the those two curves are pretty much identical slightly lowering in the base region and then anything from 1K Hertz that has been boosted to give us better Clarity in the footsteps and those critical cues you can see the same thing applies with the logic headset lowering of the base region and increasing our like uh low mids all up to the treble slightly more emphasized for better definition and detail the problem with this approach is that all headsets sound different so you tweaking certain settings that have worked for the logistic pair and maybe razor might not necessarily apply to another gaming headset because they all have different tuning Etc one quick and dirty way that I found that has worked for me is to play a game play that has no commentary that you normally play or maybe even watch your favorite stream or whatever and adjust those sliders accordingly so you can hear the difference uh in the games that you play without needing to be inside the game itself and then there's also Squig so you choose your favorite Creator so I like Gadget rch he does Awesome Audio stuff and from there you can search by whatever headset you have so let's try Delta 2 and here you can see the frequency response of your headset versus the Harmon line and uh that gives you a good reference point of like how colored or neutral it is you can actually go into the equalizer setting and you can do the auto EQ setting that would spit out of how you're supposed to configure the bands in the software to match the Harmon line and that's a really powerful tool to sort of equalize the headset to something a bit more neutral which is how you're able to let's say combine all three headsets let's say or whatever headphones that you have to something that sounds fairly close to one another but man there's so many nuances when it comes to working with equalizer settings and creating your own profile that for example with the Delta 2 it's a eight band graphic equalizer so you have the up and down movement for these specific frequencies but you don't have an ability to adjust or Target a specific frequency in between those ranges which is pretty much the same across all gaming equalizer drivers with ltech and razor being the same and so this is where parametric AQ comes into play which is both really complicated and fun at the same time right now I'm in sonar and this is a perfect example of parametric EQ and its power because you can Target very specific frequencies inside a game to either boost certain audio cues elements like a Reload speed or uh like a certain hum for like a loot box or something uh and that's where the parametric Q especially with the Q value because right now you can expand that frequency range or you can really Target it to fight a specific like audio element and emphasize only that and not so much uh the audio Keys around it then there's also the equalizer APO software which is really interesting to learn it's also super complicated but it gives you the ability to get into the gritty details of like what does the Q value stand for and where to adjust it for a particular headset and that's where you get the values from the Squig link software and put them into the equalizer APO setting to EQ the headphone or the headset properly just make sure to watch some tutorials because it's both really fun and complicated at the same time on the microphone side for any digital or wireless headset I look for two things number one is side tone and number two is being able to adjust the microphone quality in any way and how it perceives my voice because my voice is a little dark I have some Bas but I don't have that much trouble and I don't have that much power output as well so being able to Tinker with some the settings is actually very beneficial for me as a content creator as for the microphone settings we don't have that much to play around with with the Delta Tu we do have Noise Gate which is ability to eliminate anything in the background Beyond a certain deciel level so right now it's being enabled I'm sure my HC is not being picked up and the vocal range of the microphone is uh pretty compact anyway so I would leave Noise Gate on and really cranking it up means you have to speak really really loudly for the Noise Gate to actually pick up some of that volume now perfect voice for my voice is okay my voice is quite dark so I add a little bit of base and a little bit of clarity and so this one adds a little bit of clarity boost so a certain percentage 60% it sounds fine and noise cancellation and Echo cancellation this is quite important for like a maybe a large echoey room and low setting is very natural and decent sounding and Asus has always done like really good job with the noise cancellation and noise reduction in general and in the mid preset it sounds still good in a high preset if you have these breaks in your voice it might have a little bit more of that unnal modulation of trying to eliminate anything that is quiet in the background between your speeches for example I do love me a good s tone option I'm surprised that's in here and not in the microphone settings but it's whatever being piped from the microphone into the headset directly so you can hear yourself which for a closed headset is absolutely crucial for my environment in particular the cyone on Delta 2 for example is good it's latency free it does add a little bit of that extra noise floor not really a problem as soon as you have anything playing in your headset I wish more Brands included a microphone equalizer with their gaming headsets just because the mic boost preset for my voice with this headset sounds wonderful and I would love to be able to do some equalizer directly in the driver software for this headset instead of doing it the post I think one of the biggest takeaways when it comes to creating your own EQ profiles Etc is that you can approaches from two perspectives one is to make your headphone to be slightly more competitive and being able to hear sound cues that are important for your particular game or you can go the opposite route of trying to make the game sound good for the headphone that you have to be more enjoyable smoother slightly more richer in the base department and basically turn a headphone that sounds probably maybe like mediocre to good and or taking really good sounding headphones and making them sounding better but it's also very easy to complete destroy the sound signature and it's really important to create different presets that uh allows you to just revert back to what was originally there but I would love to hear how you guys configure your sound profiles for particular games with whatever headphones you use let me know in the comments I'm Dimitri and thanks so much for watching I'll talk to you in the next video\n"