REVIEWS

AudioFX Headset

By Cap Mason

AudioFX: The World's First Force Feedback Headset

The Audio FX from eDimensional is affectionately called the 'headbanger.' The Audio FX has a force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound and brings new excitement to flightsimming, music, movies, gaming and any other audio experience. People moving to FSX will enjoy a headset like this as it will allow them to take full advantage of the new multiplayer technology included in the sim.

Introducing the "Headbanger" Headset

The Audio FX allows you to turn on an amazing force feedback system that synchronizes the vibration effects with the sound. It's awesome when you crank up the rock-and-roll. OK, I'll admit to being a Baby Boomer rocker. When I cranked up George Thoroughgood's "Bad To The Bone" with this headset it gave a whole new meaning to the term "head rush."

The eDimensional Audio FX headset has built-in noise cancellation that blocks unwanted ambient noise and prevents it from interfering with your voice commands. It has a high-quality, voice recognition certified microphone and a fully adjustable microphone boom. The boom, by the way, is a perfect place to put the TrackIR tracking dot. Much better than on your forehead or cap.

Audio FX creates a unique force feedback envelope that is synchronized to the sound action of your game, music, DVD, or whatever sound comes though the headphones. It also has flashing lights on the headphones that scale to the sound intensity and vibration effects.

The overall feel of the Audio FX is surprisingly comfortable considering that it is larger than the Plantronics Audio 90. The Audio FX looks and feels more like an actual pilot headset. The ergonomic design, combined with the large padded headband and excellent balance make it very comfortable to wear for long flights. The soundproof padding on the headphones effectively blocks out all ambient noise. This immerses you into an audio envelope that is impressive to say the very least. It's hard to describe in so many words. You just have to try it and see for yourself.

Combines the Best of Analog and USB Technologies

If you've ever priced USB headsets, you know how absurdly expensive they are, often costing over US$100. While costing much more, USB headsets sound the same to me as lower cost analog headsets. So, I don't get it. On the other hand, USB enables designers to supply power to USB connected devices. The Audio FX does not use batteries to power the force feedback system. The headset gets it power from your computer's USB port. So, it blends the economy and excellent sound/voice signal qualities of analog connections with the convenience of USB electrical power and still comes in at a very low price point. I think this is excellent engineering for price performance.

As shown in the photo, the Audio FX has three jacks:


The Audio FX also has three controls on an inline switch console. From left to right:

  1. Vibration control that enables you to adjust the energy of the sound produced that synchronizes with the vibration action and the flashing lights on each headphone. This thumbwheel controls the intensity of those combined effects. When using Voice Buddy, I recommend that you set the vibrations effects to a medium or low level.

  2. Vibration On/Off switch which enables you to instantly turn the vibration effects on or off.

  3. Volume control which adjusts the sound volume. Sound volume will also influence the synchronization of the vibration effects. The louder the sound, the greater the vibration effects. You can combine volume and vibration to achieve just the right balance of audio force feedback.

Audio FX Plus Voice Buddy Make A Unique Value.

Voice Buddy comes in two versions: software only and bundled with an Audio FX headset. According to eDimensional executive, Michael Epstein, "You must make sure to use a top quality headset that is certified for voice control. Right now, we only certify two headsets: our new Audio FX and the original Plantronics Audio 90 that we shipped with Voice Buddy 1.0."

"Good voice control requires a very good microphone," Epstein explained. "We improved upon our original concept by creating the world's first force feedback headset. So now, you not only get excellent voice recognition qualities and stereo sound, but you also get an exciting new force feedback effect that gives new meaning to the term 'head rush'."

Once again, Epstein was right! The Audio FX vibration effects are quite amazing. At first, I cranked them to the max to get the feel of it all. I soon found that to be a bit too intense and dialed them down a bit to better suit the sound environment I wanted to create. Sound is very important on the flight deck. It tells you when all is good and also alerts you to impending doom.

The Audio FX alone is an excellent value. But, when bundled with Voice Buddy for the US$79.95 (approximately ₤43.45, €65.12, CAD 106.12, AUD 111.84) price, it's a real bargain.

Excellent Noise Cancellation

For good voice recognition, you need a top quality mic that is not too hot (sensitive) plus has good noise cancellation. The combination must yield a high signal-to-noise ratio. The greater the difference between the noise level, which should be low, and the signal, which should be high, the better.

Signal-to-noise is the difference between the background noise generated by your PC, the audio card, hard drives, fan motors and the headset speakers and microphone -- and the signal which is your spoken voice. In order for the computer to accurately hear and recognize your voice, it must be able to discern your signal from all the other noise. The noise canceling microphone feature of the Audio FX blocks out some of the environmental noises and prevents ambient sound from interfering with your voice commands.

FlightSim.Com's Lab Test Results for Signal-to-Noise Ratio

We engaged the help of an independent audio engineer to test eDimensional's Audio FX , the Plantronics Audio 90 from Voice Buddy 1.0 and compare them to a very expensive USB headset from Andrea, the Anti-noise USB NC-7100.

Test Procedure

The engineer recorded silence and a cell phone ring tone with each microphone, putting the cell phone about 7 cm away from the microphones. He used a PCM, 8 kHz, 16 bit format. Using this data he calculated mean value, maximum signal and noise values, and SNR (signal to noise ratio) based on the latter values for each microphone. 

Results

eDimensional AudioFX Headset
Ring Tone signal in time domain for the eDimensional headset.

 

Mean Value: Should equal zero, if not, it means that the microphone and/or the sound card have an offset. In this case Mean Value = 3.1180 e-5.
Maximum Signal Value (Smax): Is the greatest value of the recorded ring tone shown above. In this case Smax = 0.3866.
Maximum Noise Value (Nmax): Is the greatest value of the recorded silence. In this case Nmax = 0.0773.
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB (SNR) = 20*Log10 (Smax / Nmax) = 13.9816 dB 



Plantronics .Audio Headset
Ring Tone signal in time domain for the Plantronics headset.

 

Mean Value = 1.7172 e-4
Smax = 0.2511
Nmax = 0.0176
SNR = 23.0866 dB



Andrea Anti-noise USB NC-7100 Headset
Ring Tone signal in time domain for the ANDREA headset.

 

Mean Value = -2.5254 e-5
Smax = 0.2368
Nmax = 0.0041
SNR = 35.2320 dB

 

 

 



Conclusions

USB microphones such as the Andrea, have lower signal-to-noise ratios because they avoid the sound card. Sound cards, especially the high end cards such as Audigy or Sound Blaster that we often use for flightsimming, generate a lot of noise and add it to the original signal.

While the Andrea headset retails for around $100, which is more than twice the retail price of the Audio FX or Audio 90, and it did have a significantly better SNR -- in a real world qualitative sense, I could not tell the difference between it and the less costly analog headsets. The practical differences between the analog and USB headsets were marginal even if the test results for the USB Andrea were much better. I simply could not detect an audible difference when using them. All three sounded excellent both for the microphones' recording capability and the headphones stereo sound playback quality. With its significantly higher price tag, we expected the Andrea USB headset to perform noticeably better considering the fact that its digital interface tends to be less influenced by sound card and other system electrical noise. The disparity between our quantitative lab results and practical qualitative experience showed otherwise. You may get what you pay for, but in this case paying twice as much for a headset only gets you outstanding lab results but marginally better real world qualitative performance while significantly depleting your bank account.

What’s more, it is important to understand that USB headsets interfere with Voice Buddy’s simultaneous voice recognition and VOIP technology. So, with a USB headset you cannot talk to your PC and your friends on the Internet at the same time.

In our lab tests, all three headsets maintained excellent signal-to-noise ratios. The Andrea NC-7100 was the quietest as you would expect from a USB digital headset. The Plantronics headset was a bit noisier. The Audio FX generated slightly more noise while the vibration effects were turned on. The force feedback vibration effects did not degrade the microphone's voice recognition capability or the quality of sound heard through the headphones. It was a very cool "head rush" however.

We found that both eDimensional's Audio FX and the Plantronics Audio 90 headsets offer nearly perfect voice recognition after a single training session. So, our recommendation is to put the money in your pocket and not spend the extra dollars for USB headsets. We confirmed eDimensional's certification that both their headset and Plantronics' are excellent for voice recognition and all other stereo sound applications and the lower SNR does not interfere with voice recognition. Bottom line? Buying the better value Audio FX or Audio 90 seems like the smart thing to do.

Cap Mason
CapMason@FlightSim.Com

Purchase here:
AudioFX Force Feedback Headset
Voice Buddy


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