oh no not another massive cod update as we wait though what are you guys
running for audio i'm on the new black shark v2
x pretty good budget option going directly into my motherboard i've
actually been using the g pro x from logitech with its own usb sound card it
does the job i am running the trusty gsp 300 from sennheiser
and trying something new the epos gsx 300 epos what is epos yeah epos that's
what i said what the fudgicals is epos it's a new brand why don't you google it
okay so there's epos watches there's the european plate observing system
it's also european pediatric orthopedic society no no no ippos audio
there's the confusion yeah that would cause some brand confusion
so let's talk about this whole brand separation of all gaming products from
sennheiser that are now under the epos umbrella
just a few clarifications it's not like a separate brand that bought sennheiser
it's a different division within sennheiser that separated
and is now epos so all existing gaming products from sennheiser
have the epos slash sennheiser uh indication
while moving forward from september or whenever they release new products it
will just be epos carrying over the exact same
technologies as what's been developed from sennheiser
just under a different brand i think it will take some time for epos to gain
some popularity and brand loyalty because you see the
sennheiser logo this is instantly recognizable and
immediately adds value while epos doesn't really so
in this video let's talk about the gsx 300
the new external usb sound card from epos i will be comparing it to the gsx
1000 because that was the original and it
still is one of the best surround sound usb sound cards on the market
and we'll also compare it to the shit full of three which is a 99
dac amp combo also geared towards gamers because of that mic
input i really hope that epos will be able to fix all the driver
and software issues that i've experienced with sennheiser products in
the past and i'm hoping we don't stumble upon in
this review all right let's begin right after this
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coolers by liam lee down below so first of all i would say
buying an external usb sound card for gaming is not
necessary in 2020 because most motherboards have
really good audio amplification and pretty decent microphone quality as well
i've done both audio and microphone testing on different motherboards and
external solutions you can check out those videos here but
the reason you might want to pick this up
is literally for convenience mainly using this with a notebook or if you're
moving computers and you want to still carry over the same audio that
you're used to this is primarily why you'd want this
in terms of physical characteristics it's a fairly small unit
available in black or white but the black model i have here
is not exactly black it's kind of like gunmetal gray we have some rubber pads
at the bottom and the unit is angled to kind of face
you which is nice at the front we have a volume wheel with
beautiful tactile steps so you can control exactly how
much volume you're adding or removing it is not a button so you cannot like
press it to mute beside it is a button that you can
function either enable surround sound mode
or switching between presets in the back we have a micro usb connection
and your headphone and microphone inputs the volume adjustment is also
instantaneous without any delay and the only way to mute it is to go all the way
down so it's a really simple and basic usb sound card
and the one thing they all share between the full shield 3 the gsx 1000
and the gsx 300 is a really short usb cable so if i plug this into my machine
i don't have much flexibility on where to position it on
my desk so what i'm interested in is really hearing the difference between
the full sheet 3 the gsx 1000 and the gsx 300 in terms of
power output in terms of clarity sound stage delivery
and the overall character and i'm really interested to hear what
the surround sound implementation is like
on the gsx 300 which is so much cheaper than the gsx 1000
which has incredible binaural engine built in
and we'll see if any of that carries over the gsx300 is the only one that has
any software included because the gsx1000 has all the controls
on the actual unit while the 403 is completely driverless
inside the gaming suite we have all the usual eq customization
and profiles lots of microphone controls which i appreciate
and the only thing you can map the smart button to is to either change your
profiles or enable and disable surround sound i
really wish that you could map it to mute as well
all right so let's begin with the power comparison using the gsp 300 a fantastic
99 headset it's a 19 ohm device at 113 db
sensitivity so you don't require too much power to drive this thing and
with the fuller 3 at 60 volume i'm more than comfortable
driving this with beautiful low end tones and overall smooth presentation
moving on to the gsx 300 and this thing requires almost 100
volume to drive this headset properly there are audible crackle when you
change the volume so like each step is kind of like it's
not distracting and it's only present when
you are changing volume the one advantage of this thing though
is that it delivers a fuller sound versus the fulla 3
and it has better stereo imaging giving you slightly wider sound stage in a
default mode not even enabling the 7.1 surround
sound as for the gsx 1000 so this thing is
slightly more powerful at 70 volume i'm comfortable here
so it is more powerful than the gsx 300 but they share very similar
sound characteristics nice beautiful body and the low end
not too sharp on the high end uh and the slightly wider sound stage
than the fuller three moving on the headphones we have the hd58x
this thing is incredible sound wise build quality eyes
value wise 150 ohms and 104 db sensitivity using this with the
gsx300 more volume is desired just because it's an open
headset so you do eventually kind of lose out some of the
detail you might want to crank up the volume in order to maintain
everything in the headphone but we have great tones and still good detail even
at 100 volume the gsx 1000 is slightly more powerful
so at 70 volume it's about equivalent to what you get at 100 with the gsx 300 but
this thing to my ears has more sound stage pickup especially when you're
listening to live recordings it's like your ears are there instead of
the microphone and the 403 of course is a lot more powerful
has no problem driving the ht500x but it has a slightly flatter and neutral sound
signature so i actually prefer the characteristics
of the gsx sound cards and moving up to something even more demanding the
hifiman he-4xx these are planar magnetic drivers
and even though they're 35 ohms their sensitivity is at 93 db which
means i had to bump the volume to almost 100
with the 403 and this thing delivers beautiful tight base with nice smooth
high end using the gsx 1000 at 100 volume this is
not a sound card for headphone that has low sensitivity but it was a perfect
example on hearing the difference between the sound
signatures where both the gsx cards have slightly fuller body on the low end
and like more pleasing tones whereas the fulla 3
while it is incredibly powerful delivers very
analytical clean output while both gsx units have
warmer presentation more pleasing sound slightly wider sound stage by default
and the gsx 300 i wish it had slightly more power to drive something like the
he-4xx because everything about the sound
signature i like in this sound card and the bass while
still very tight is slightly more airy than what you get
with the gsx 1000 and the 403 especially when it comes to
planar magnetic headphones alright so let's move on to the
microphone test next as for microphone quality this is what the gsp 300 headset
sounds like via the gsx 300 sound card it doesn't sound so good
now but watch this simply enabling that worm preset for the
vocal enhancer significantly improves the vocal quality
it doesn't only add the bass but really improves the entire spectrum you
also have gain control side tone that doesn't work for some reason
noise gate adjustment and noise cancellation this is what the gsx 1000
sounds like it is quite sensitive there is active
noise cancellation applied it's not too aggressive but there's a
bit of like compression happening it's not the most natural sounding
microphone back to the gsx 300 and the really unfortunate thing
is that throughout my testing and recording sound samples and listening to
them back as i was about to start recording a
sound sample for the 403 the microphone jack appeared to have
died there's no microphone signal going through
and that means there's definitely something wrong with the fulla 3. but the
gsx 300 with the warm preset sounds fantastic and before we conclude
the surround mode on this thing is actually quite good
for 79 dollars i am impressed it's not as good as the gsx 1000 we don't have as
many features but we do have a reverberation slider so
you can customize how big or small your space is
but put on some headphones and hear the surround mode for yourself
one
huh
so after you've heard that what do you think about the surround node
i think it's controlled well for a 3d audio environment for open world games
it's a benefit with reverb at minimum i find it helps to smooth out the stereo
separation gives you more of a 360 degree rotation for audio
and it does sound quite good while maxing out that slider gives you
speaker like playback in front of you without making things too distant or
eating out too much of the detail i still find the soundstage expansion
and 3d world with layering to be better on the gsx 1000
but for 79 this is an absolute recommendation
if you are after surround sound but that of course if there were no issues with
software which is a perfect segue into driver issues a surprise surprise so
first of all the epos gaming suite does not actually show up in the
taskbar when it's open and the only way to access it is through the hidden icons
or finding it in the apps i don't know why it doesn't simply open
up as an app the site on feature on my unit does not work
even when adjusting the slider i still cannot hear the microphone and the smart
button ah it's not so smart after all it works
fine switching profiles but it for some reason does not actually
work when you're trying to enable surround sound or stereo all right so
here's an example what i'm talking about i am physically clicking the button on
the gsx 300 unit and you can actually see the mode changing on screen right um but
i don't actually hear the difference in audio so nothing is being activated
it's only when i physically navigate my cursor over the button
and click it that you can actually hear that surround sound mode or stereo mode
being applied which is super bizarre and this type of bug
is not allowed to happen even though it's a fairly inexpensive unit
the fact that we have a button called smart button that you can change
to do either this or changing profiles i don't get it it really is unfortunate
that on every single sennheiser gaming product that has drivers i've
encountered all types of bugs and issues and the gsx
300 is no different which is so unfortunate
because for 79 it has plenty of power to drive gaming
headphones has a really good microphone quality especially when you enable the
warm preset and the surround mode for the price
point is brilliant especially with the reverberation adjustment lowering it to
minimum gives you slight sound stage expansion
but maxing it out gives you really large speaker format that feel like
they're in front of you so make sure to subscribe for our
ultimate gaming sound card amp combo comparison because i have like
seven and we'll do similar testing as we've done in this video
but yeah i hope you enjoyed let me know which microphone sounds best to you and
the surround mode improve your experience based on the headphones you
wear i mean for me does but not for
everything all right i'm dmitry thanks so much for watching check out this
other relevant content subscribe for more i'll talk to you in
the next video