How can sound create the ultimate gaming world?

While it’s all too easy (and understandable) for gamers to become obsessed with visuals, there’s no doubt that sound is essential to the experience. It means you can hear another player’s sneaking footsteps and make that sweeping cinematic cut scene even more epic.

Yet, you can have the best graphics in the world, but without great sound you’ll never truly be absorbed into your favorite gaming world. And for those into modifications, tweaking your sound set-up can be just as satisfying as squeezing more power out of your GPU.

Config

There are a few options when it comes to getting the most from your game’s audio. You could opt for headphones, speakers, or both, depending on how much you want to annoy the neighbors with the cataclysmic sounds of your space battles. Either way, you’ll need a good soundcard. Some motherboards are better than others for customizing card-wise, and ROG offer some great out-of-the-box desktops too.

Headphones

If you’re an avid FPS player, or simply game with your buddies a lot, then you’ll probably want to consider some headphones with a built-in mic (especially for coordinating your Arma 3 squad, or begging for mercy after being force-fed six tins of beans in DayZ).

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Without doubt one of the most annoying things about using headphones is the often choppy quality of voice comms. But thankfully, options like the Strix DSP feature environmental noise cancellation, so you’ll always hear your teammates’ frantic warnings about that errant grenade. If you really want to hear every nugget of sound design in your cockpit as you throttle up, then the immersive true 7.1 surround audio of the ROG Centurion is a great option, too. Both of these headphones also feature four sound profiles so you can tweak your audio experience to match what you’re playing at the press of a button. To celebrate your victories without sending your peripherals flying, Strix Wireless gives you the freedom to.

Sound Cards

For the ultimate in cinematic, single player experiences, then you can’t beat a fully-equipped surround sound system designed specifically for gaming. Just like with GPUs, the better the sound card, the better the sound quality and fidelity. The Strix Raid DLX is built from the ground up with only the best components, so if you’re looking to satisfy that inner audiophile, then this is the card for you. The control box doesn’t just look cool either (although that is supremely important, of course); you can easily switch between preset sound profiles while gaming using the ‘raid’ mode, and the Sonic Studio software means you can fiddle with EQ settings, voice volume, and even reverb to your heart’s content.

(From left: Strix RAID DLX 7.1, Strix RAID Pro 7.1, Strix Soar 7.1)

Motherboards

Using an on-board sound card is generally a no-no if you’re looking for high-end fidelity. Chances are you’ll be wanting to set up a fully-customized build from scratch anyway, so a motherboard with plenty of options like the ROG Rampage V Edition 10 is a good starting point as it comes with a SupremeFX Hi-Fi front panel with quality inbuilt OP amps and headphone amp. There are also some complete out-of-the-box systems that have incredible audio such as the ROG GT51CA which has an audio jack on the front connecting to an ESS Sabre headphone DAC (digital-to-analog converter) and an amplifier, if you want to dive in without too much initial setup.

Wrap your ears around it

Whatever your gaming requirements, getting the most from your audio setup will help create a truly immersive, rewarding experience. With superb quality audio now more affordable than ever, there’s a whole new world of high-fidelity to wrap your ears around.

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By Simon Marshall