Audio Headsets and Faux Surround

The Turtle Beach XO Seven, XO Four, and Polk 4 Shot are all stereo. So far I've read instead of pushing a simulated surround sound mix to them the initial focus is on high quality/clarity stereo with a possibility of surround mixing with an update in the
future. That being said a lot of games have headphones as a choice under audio option. BF4, COD Ghosts, NFS Rivals, and I think TitanFall beta had it. Using A50s with the One before they added Dolby back in and had to use stereo it did help a little bit using
the option.

Built quality it's hard to say they look so similar in features they both share.

It is very annoying not to be able to look up a straight answer. The titanfall headset is the X04 essentially so I guess the surround style would be used. I want to order some but not sure which to go for, money is the sticking point with it appearing only
build quality being the only difference.

Thank you. And to be clear so that I can make sure I am understanding correctly, the behavior you're expecting is that when plugging in a mono headset it is for not just chat but to pass game and chat audio to the headset? or is the mono headset only meant to pass chat while the surround sound system continues to cast game and console audio and is switching the TV/Surround sound audio from its settings? Thus when unplugging the surround sound system works as intended but does not work as intended when a mono headset is plugged in.

With the sony headset are you trying to pass all sound through the headset? or through the headset and the surround sound system?

Thanks,

John

Unless a headset has multiple drivers that cover each piece of a 7.1 component system, a "surround sound headset" receives a matrix based simulated surround signal that is either a DTS, Dolby, or similar codec. The older simulated surround sound wireless
headsets transmitted the matrixes audio signal via a separate RF frequency via an external module after the module received the original audio signal from the console.

MSFT added a feature that will allow one to connect the modules from their older simulated surround head sets to the optical port on the Xbox one and still allow them to receive the intended matrix surround signal, but this will not have an affect on any
headset connected to the controller via the stereo connector.

The stereo connector will receive the audio signal from the console via a 2.1 stereo version, so it doesn't matter whether the game has its audio formatted for 2, 5, 7, or more components, the audio received will not exceed a stereo configuration.

That being said, there system will transmit the non-simulated surround signal via WiFi direct, so the non matrixes surround, stereo signal, should sound better than the matrixes surround signal of older headsets if the physical components of each headset
are similar. The problem is that there aren't conclusive specs aside from driver size have been listed about the current Xbox One headsets vs. the older headsets, so the limited reviews about the headsets are anecdotal at best.

In conclusion, until MSFT allows for the system to transmit a similuated surround signal and headsets that are capable of interoperating and recreating theta signal to a good degree are available, there will not be any "surround audio" transited directly
to the controller via the system itealf. All simulated surround signals will need to be transmitted via an externally connected RF module, but the new stereo signals should sound good if the hardware in these headsets are even the same as the old ones due
to the high mb/s rating of the Wifi Direct signal when compared to the older bluetooth or similar signals.

I hope this helps your decision process, and until a simulated surround signal can be transmitted from the console and a capable headset is provided, I don't see how the TurtleBeach or Polk headsets will have better audio than MSFT's stereo headset.

The Xbox One is compatible with the Turtle Beach headsets... in stereo sound. The only option for surround on the XO through the optical audio is DTS surround which isn't supported by my XP-500 or any Turtle Beach headset for that matter.

You can select regular Dolby Digital on the HDMI audio options though... Weird.