I have seen many gamers that they are playing games on Xbox, blatantly ignoring the quality of their audio. As they don’t know that they’re missing half of the gaming experience! I’ve never understood this one-dimensional mindset of not properly using the Xbox Features.
For now, let me guide you to how you can improve your Xbox series x audio output and solve issues like audio lag or video lag due to wrong audio configuration, so you can get the full immersive gaming experience.
Let’s start from basic your HDMI cable, you need to upgrade to HDMI 2.1( copper/optical ) cable, I prefer optical cable as it provides 48 gigabits per second transfer rate so that you won’t get audio delay( you can go with the HDMI 2.1 Copper cable ), and for the audio setting, you only like to change a few setting or buy a premium license only if you have high-end TV or different audio set-ups like an audio receiver or soundbar.
Before changing any audio settings make sure you have changed or you’re using HDMI 2.1 Optical/Copper cable.
Which speaker audio settings will fit for my Xbox console?
To change the audio settings according to the device type or for your need, press the Xbox button to open the guide. Select Profile & system > Settings > General > Volume & audio output. Under Speaker audio, here you can adjust the audio output.
All the audio settings are there but if you’re not familiar with them, then you end up confusing whats the benefits of changing that option from the previous one, or should I spend money for the premium license or not as not all the settings are free.
Selecting Better Audio Source
▶️First choice( Television/Monitor )
Whenever we play games through any console, our first choice is TV, but not the old ones as they lead to many problems like you have to buy a different adapter to connect it to TV port, which can cause the audio delay that is not cool, to be honest.
TVs like LG C10 OLED or their alternative which supports Dolby Atmos are like cherry on cake man. And for connectivity, you don’t have to do much just plug the HDMI cable into their ports, and good to go.
▶️ Sound bars or the External Speakers
Which can we connect in different ways depending on the required source as input for the soundbars or to the external speakers, but you should connect your soundbars to the TV( If you are using TV as a Display ).
You can either connect the soundbars directly to the X box through the audio receiver as it’s only come with one HDMI port and the passing the Video feeds from the audio receiver to your TV or Monitor
▶️ Enhancing the audio of TV or Monitor
Connect the console directly to the TV and then pass the audio signals to the soundbars by using the TV’s arc or e-arc( enhanced audio return channel ) port to pass audio down to the soundbar.
Connecting TV first and then passing the audio signal down is also helpful in competitive gaming as it provides a better lag-free gaming experience. It also has one more benefit E-arc or arc allows uncompressed audio and supports audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS-X to travel via HDMI, which greatly enhanced the audio quality.
So, if you have a receiver that supports HDMI 2.1 then you can plug your console and any audio system into the receiver and then one HDMI cable to the TV from the console so that you won’t lag any audio delay or anything.
Here are some recommended options for the audio receiver:
Remember always connect TV to the console and if your TV support e-arc or arc ports then connect any audio system or receiver from the TV, if your TV doesn’t support the e-arc or arc port then you can connect the audio system or receiver from the console.
Settings For Different Audio Devices
To access the audio settings press the Xbox button to open the guide. Then move to Profile & system > Settings > General > Volume & audio output. Every audio setting can be tweaked from here.
Settings that you should and you can tweak here are:
▶️ Volume Options
In Volume options, we have Chat mixer and Party Chat output. Chat mixer lets you control your game audio relative to the audio coming from in-game chat( In SHort Friends Voice ), which you should set according to your preference so that you have better coordination with your teammates while playing a multiplayer game.
By default, it is set to reduce the game volume to 50% whenever or any member speaking in voice chat or text to speech is enabled for chat but nowadays I haven’t found anyone that enables that setting.
- In the chat mixer setting you have 4 other options:
- Mute all other sounds ( Not recommended for a better experience )
- Reduce the volumne of the other sound by 80%
- Reduce the volumne of the other sound by 50%( Default Setting )
- Do nothing( All mixed up )
- Party chat output
Party chats output lets you set up, up where the chat audio goes, you can set up to deliver to your headset, speakers, or both a headset or speaker.
Don’t set up both options as you don’t want your parents or neighbor to hear your friends shouting and it also causes sometimes audio delay when it is set for both options.
Let’s move to the good stuff speaker audio, by settings it up you can feel the difference from the defaults options.
▶️ Speaker Audio
There are not many options but selecting one of them according to your device greatly enhanced the sound quality. So better select the option carefully after testing it.
▶️ First Stereo Uncompressed
If you are using a normal HDMI cable to connect to a standard TV or using a stereo soundbar with virtual surround or a two-channel receiver then Stereo uncompressed is the best.
▶️ 5.1 uncompressed and 7.1 uncompressed
If you have a 7.1 system then it’s a great choice. It provides a deeper surround sound listening experience. Theater quality media designed for a 7.1 system will come through clearer than it would on a 5.1 system.
For larger rooms where sound may get lost in space 7.1, a surround sound system is preferred or you can go with a 5.1 System also.
5.1 and 7.1 uncompressed audio signals can only be passed over the HDMI 2.1 or e-arc and as from the name it gives the rough idea that they are completely uncompressed lossless audio.
The HDMI 2.1 cable is required for both e-arc and to pass the video data.
There are a few issues like the uncompressed audio takes a significant amount of bandwidth and could get in the way of some video features, also there is no getting Dolby or DTS anything.
▶️ Bitstream out
All those Dolby and DTS options can only be sent via bitstream which is a setting we are going through it. Enabling it unlocks new settings down below it.
By selecting bitstream out we have DTS Digital surround and Dolby Digital by selecting any of these you will get the best possible sound experience available in-game, streaming services, or Blue-ray Disc from your TV, but only if you are using HDMI 2.1 cable for the connection and Monitor or TV Like LG C10 OLED.
To get Dolby Atmos for home theater and DTS:X for home theater options, you’ll need an audio receiver that supports these formats you can get one of these or any other that you can afford with a budget that supports surround sound.
Here you take your surround sound experience to a whole new level. But if you don’t want to buy a receiver, then still there are some TVs like LG C10 OLED which support Dolby Atmos internally.
To use Dolby Atmos for home theater and DTS:X for the home theater you need to use your high-speed HDMI 2.1 cable to get this to your receiver if you route the console directly to your TV and no matter what remember to use an HDMI 2.1( copper or Optics one ) cable everywhere in the chain.
After connecting the audio receiver or TV to the console let’s move to pick one of them.
So, what should we pick Dolby Atmos or DTS?
To be honest it’s totally up to you and depends on what setup you are using for audio output but Dolby Digital is far the most common format available.
Try one of these and go with it if you like that format.
Setting up Headset audio
Here you got the basic Stereo uncompressed as a first option if your headset supports virtual surround sound and you really want to use it. Any headset wired or wireless headset you can use here.
But these next formats are way more convincing for headsets so my suggestion is to pick one of these.
Windows Sonic if you have windows headsets headphones and its Microsoft own surround sound technology, which you have seen on your windows pc if it’s not packed with other sound drivers.
As windows Sonic is not that much effective from stereo uncompressed audio quality, for free you get this only.
Dolby Atmos for headphones and DTS for headphones and hell it is scary how realistic it is. It is the closest thing to have a full-on surround sound system as you will ever be hearing.
Here is the thing, you have to pay for both but not for Windows Sonic( it’s free ), for Dolby Atmos you have to buy a license by paying a one-time fee of under $15, and for DTS headphone X you have to download an app from the store and after a 2-week free trial you have to pay $20 one-time license fee.
Which one should you buy?
My personal preference would be that, you need to compare it with each other in free trial duration then decide which one you have to buy.
I can’t just say which one is better because you have different headsets, so better test for yourself and then pick the best one for you which supports your headsets.
That’s all sums up for the preferred audio settings you can go with feel free to drop up a mail if you need any assistance.