Ear Force DSS 7.1 Channel Dolby Surround Sound Processor

I love this! I'm so glad I bought it. I'm able to watch movies in my apartment in surround sound without disturbing my cranky neighbors. I have a nice pair of over-the-ear pair headphones, and they work great with this device. I watched Fury last night, and I actually felt the roar of the engine and the booming of the cannons, just like I would if my surround sound system was cranked up. In fact, I actually thought my system was on. I took off my headphones several times to make sure it was off (it was). The extra bass response makes such a huge difference. And the surround sound works great as well. I could hear sounds and voices behind me, which made for a great movie experience!I play Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare with this device, and I also love it! The clarity of sound is awesome. I feel every shot and every explosion. I can't tell if the surround sound works good or not, since there's so much going on in a deathmatch that it's hard to stop and evaluate from which direction I'm being shot from. But I love the quality of sound! I haven't tried using a microphone headset yet, but from reading other reviewers' comments, I'm sure it will work fine.I connect to my Xfinity cable box and Xbox 360 using a digital optical cable, which takes full advantage of the surround sound signal. I connect to my computer using a standard 8mm headphone cable, which I believe is an analog signal. I can't tell if the device creates a true "surround sound" or not. I usually use the bypass to let the original stereo signal pass through since I think this sounds better when watching videos. I will have to experiment more with this, since I don't watch many movies on my computer. I'm also not sure how PC gaming would sound using this device.A few notes:- Be sure to use a good pair of over-the-ear headphones. I have used a good pair of earbuds, and the sound was ok. My ears got tired quickly, and the sound response wasn't as good as my over-the-ear phones. I use a pair of 808 Drift headphones, and they work great.- Since the device has to be attached to an audio port, make sure to either have a long optical cable or a long 8mm jack extension cable. Otherwise, you'll have to sit the length of your headphone cord away from your TV to watch movies! i would suggest either buying a longer optical cable so you can have the device near you to use the volume and bass controls, or use headphones with built-in volume controls and buy a long 8mm jack extension cable to stretch across the room. Both approaches will have wires running across your living room while you watch TV, but this doesn't bothr me.- Invest in an optical cable for each device or use an optical cable switch. I only have one optical cable, and I'm constantly having to plug and unplug it when I change devices. Having more than one may help this.Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. It's made a huge difference in my TV, movie, and gaming experiences, while not upsetting my cranky neighbors!

So, I bought this after nearly a year of gaming using headphones. Yes, thank you my minotauran upstairs neighbors, you caused me to see the light, though the excessive and mostly unfounded complaints to management were more focused on you expanding the extent of your douchebaggery. Lousy hypocritical neighbors who eventually were ignored by the management aside, I wanted better sound from my Xbox360. It's nice to use stereo headphones, in fact my Halo gameplay improved greatly once I could hear the nuances in sound to indicate what direction my enemies were coming from. Its so cool the first time you hear someone reloading or crunching the grass while they try to sneak up on you! BLAM! Just like that! I knew you were coming around that corner!However, stereo is limited. Enter the future! The Earforce dss is a great little (kinda pricey) toy. It gives you simulated 7 channel surround sound in your stereo headphones. ANY headphones. Even your old red and blue accented game boy original headphones (dot matrix, stereo sound!)Couple this with a good set of headphones and now you're playin' with power! Seriously. No really. It's sweet.Pros:The simulated surround effect is done really well. Not pinpoint precise but enough that you'll spend tens of minutes spinning around your favorite levels throwing grenades and shooting tank rounds just to enjoy the effect. This really will improve your gameplay (assuming you dont suck to begin with... if that's the case then you can now use these newly bought powers of audio discernment to stop getting killed so much. Seriously. You're not helping your team-mates by getting the other team to "waste" their attention and bullets on your face. Just stop dying so much and people will stop harassing you for being a noob, nub, noobie, et al.)You can connect to your gaming system through RCA or TosLink (I never knew or cared about the difference in aural quality till this little guy) in addition you can pass through an external sound source like your ipod and have both game sound and music going at the same time. oh! and if your headset supports it you can also have your xboxlive chat run through here as well. It sounds great! The clarity is wonderful.Line-in volume control, line-out volume control, bass boost control, Dolby digital sound.Small portable form factorCONS:The device is small and very lite weight. Once you plug a gaming headset in and have the power USB and TosLink and AUX source and headphone USB and headphone 3.5mm plug coming in, this little box flips and flops every which way. Adjusting any cable causes it to move. It's not a deal breaker but it would have been nice for them to include inside of it a lump of steel or lead -just to keep it stationary.LED's. These ginormous little blue "lights" indicate "power" and the type of audio encoding currently being enjoyed. They also indicate that you need to go to the eye doctor. You see, those little blue squares that remain visible to you whether your eyes are open of closed (suspiciously shaped like the LED display lights on the DSS unit). They are the result of searing your eyes while playing in a darkened room. I've discovered that black sharpie doesn't dim them enough. Seriously, what happened to being subtle? Keep the blue lights hidden, they suck.OVERALL: Very happy with purchase. Its a little pricey but well worth it (c'mon, you can use any headphones you want!) I recommend you buy it. The downside is that you will suddenly rate games based on auditory experience almost as much (if not more so) than the visual experience. Halo: Reach is an amazing audio triumph and this device teaches you exactly why. Careful, it will change your opinions on games you once thought you liked!

I purchased this DSS with a Micro II in order to utilize the toslink from my computer to the DSS. This is the configuration recommended by Turtle Beach for converting stereo to digital piped to the DSS. This and other supported configurations sound good and are certainly better than standard analog stereo. However, when I used only the Micro II, it was even better than the combination of the two or DSS alone. Once I used the Micro II and compared it to the recommended configuration by Turtle Beach, the combination and solo DSS either one produced surround sound, but muffled in comparison to the Micro II. Both DSS and Micro II produce surround sound so together it seems a redundant configuration and sounds as such. The DSS is a good product, but the Micro II provides much better clarity and positional direction in movies and games. Works great on my MAC and PC. Oh, if you download the software for the Micro II, Windows only, you are able to configure mono, stereo, 5.1 or 7.1 and effects with and equalizer. This capability and software does not exist for the DSS. This is a much more expensive product with less features, user control and sound quality.

Ich habe mich bewusst für dieses Modell und nicht den Nachfolger entschieden. Denn diese Version unterstützt noch Dolby Headphone, was der Nachfolger nicht mehr bietet. Und Dolby Headphone ist einer der genialsten Erfindungen überhaupt. Meine Soundkarte im PC (Asus Xonar DG) bietet ebenfalls diese Funktion sowie einen Headphone AMP. Wer solche Klangqualität gewohnt ist, hat es mit der Konsole nicht leicht, wenn man Kopfhörer verwenden will.Haupteinsatz ist die PS3 und PS4. Selbst moderne Konsolen haben keinen Klinkenausgang, weshalb man nicht einfach so seine Kopfhörer anschließen kann. Also habe ich mir das Teil bestellt, mit dem optischen Kabel und der Konsole verbunden und dann in das Gerät per Klinke meine Stereo-Kopfhörer. Und dank Dolby Headphone habe ich perfekt simulierten Surround.Vergisst die Marketing-Lügen von 5.1 Headsets. Die bedeuten folgendes: Kleinere Treiber (weil pro Ohrmuschel mehrere verbaut werden müssen, wegen "5.1/7.1", was eine schlechtere Klangqualität nach sich zieht. Außerdem benötigt Klang nunmal Raum. Wenn die Treiber direkt auf euren Ohren sitzen, ist es unglaublich schwer RIchtungen zu orten. Ganz kurz und einfach: das menschliche Gehör unterscheidet das durch unterschiedliche Frequenzen. Und der Soundprozessor, also eure Soundkarte oder eben dieses Turtle Beach Ear Force mit Dolby Headphone, kann diese Frequenzverschiebungen so gut simulieren, dass es euch vorgaukelt, der Sound käme tatsächlich von "vorne links", auch wenn ihr "nur" einen Stereo-Kopfhörer habt.Es gibt keine bessere Kopfhörer-Erfahrung als vernünftige Stereo-Kopfhörer (die hervorragend für Musik geeignet sind) in Verbindung mit diesem externen Sound-Prozessor um euch satten Film- und Spiel-Sound zu präsentieren. Wer also keine AV-Anlage (mit Kopfhörerausgang) hat und nicht das bereits schlampig bearbeitete Soundsignal vom TV abgreifen will, sollte dieses kleine Teil dazwischen schalten.

Better than expected. Went for the DSS over the DSS2 primarily due to price plus didn't want to be toggling equaliser and speaker positions all the time, just plug and play. Adds a whole new depth to xbox games and even works with movies such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Now TV. Very convincing surround giving an advantage in FPS games and the added bass boost is like having a sub woofer added to your room. You can also adjust analogue in to balance between switching from xbox to tv. I use a pair of low end Sennheiser over ear headphones and sounds great. Even on analogue the surround sound upscale is a step up from plain stereo so even none Dolby sources sound good. One thing I noticed straight away is unlike stereo I can hear footsteps in games, characters interacting in the background, the rumbling wind in Skyrim, and which way to swing my bat in State of Decay now I can hear which direction the zombie is sneaking up on me.

Cuando pones el earforce dss la experiencia de juego, películas, etc cambia por completo. El sonido es espectacular. Eso sí, no hace milagros así que es importante usarlo junto a unos cascos decentes, no los típicos de 5 euros del chino.

This does a very good job of simulating surround sound from stereo headphones. I've paired it up with the Turtle Beach X12s and they work great, so much so I've stopped using my Xbox with my surround sound system. Mostly because I can play late at night and still have it nice and loud.I initially got this whilst playing Gears 3 and they worked a treat allowing me to hear people sneaking up behind me, you hear a lot more with headphones compared to proper speakers.I've now got them plugged intro my Xbox 1 via the chat adapter, this saved me buying a new XB1 compatible headset and it still works great, the surround effect in BF4 is very immersing!I doubt you'll be disappointed with this. Although it's now discontinued but you can get its replacement, the DSS2, which a friend has now bought and loves it.

Ich nutze das Gerät ausschließlich zum Filme schauen mit einem Sennheiser HD558.Es ist erstaunlich was man damit auf die Ohren bekommt.Räumlichkeit und Dynamik werden deutlich gesteigert und der Bass Boost macht richtig spaß.Die Ortbarkeit von Geräuschen kommt natürlich nicht an die meiner Heimkinoanlage heran, trotzdem höre ich fast nur noch via Kopfhörer.Der Prozessor wird über das beiligende optische Kabel von meinem Panasonc BDT131 gefüttert.HD/DTS Signale werden als DPLIIx ausgegeben und klingen ebenfalls deutlich besser als über den Analog Ausgang vom AV Receiver.Fazit: Eine wirklich lohnende Investition.