A sound card like the EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 is one of those things I’ve historically thought “Yeah I’ll get myself one of those” but then, never actually pulled the trigger. When I built my last PC in fact, it never even crossed my mind, the “gaming” motherboard I had was hailed for having relatively good onboard sound, so after that, I stopped looking into it.
Then I saw the EPOS line of USB sound cards and it piqued my interest. They have a small selection of these ranging from £69 (which is the one we’re looking at today) up to £219. After having spent around 10 days using this product I feel I’m in a decent enough position to tell you whether I believe it’s worth spending your money on. The short answer is, yeah, I believe it is!
To begin with, we’ll start by answering a question that I believe many people may have on their mind and that is, “Why would I need something like this?” and honestly that’s really easy to answer, while for most people onboard sound will be more than enough to suit your needs, there are people out there who want to hear their sound in higher detail.
The entry point into the realm of better sound quality will always be the same, acquire a standalone sound card and a set of purpose-built headphones. That’s where the EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 comes in, for those people who aren’t comfortable taking their computer apart to install a sound card, you can simply plug this lil fella in via the included USB cable, introduce your peripherals and head over to the EPOS website and download the gaming suite then you’re good to go!
So, now we can delve into it a little more. The whole point of a product like the EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 isn’t just to “improve your sound quality”, the point is to give you the ability to tweak the sound to your preferences or, rather your needs, especially on the fly using the button situated on the front of the device, is massively helpful.
The software already comes with a few saved presets which are great, straight out of the box, however, you can add more presets to suit your needs, I’m currently using a Logitech G933 headset, usually over USB, however since receiving this product I now use my headset using AUX cable and honestly, as much as I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference since the audio quality of this headset is already fantastic. It actually did.
I found it seems to reach higher volumes now, the audio is a little more clear and the ability to click a button on the unit and tune it to be better for FPS games or for a movie I’m watching is super useful. However, if you would prefer you can change the button to switching between stereo and surround sound.
The technical bit, so how does it work? This device uses DAC, Digital to Audio Conversion which in terms you and I can understand, is an electronic system that converts a digital signal into an analogue signal so that your headphones play sound.
Normally, this is if you don’t have a separate sound card that is handled by your motherboard, however, having this conversion away from your pc in this desktop form factor will reduce the risk of having “Electromagnetic Interference” which will add extra noise to the signal. Reducing the quality of your experience, pretty simple! Using the Gaming Suite the EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 will support 24 bit/96kHz (Hi-Res) audio in stereo and 16bit/44kHz audio with the Virtual Surround Sound.
The EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 comes in dark grey or a “snow” edition which will suit almost any style, it’s got a very small desktop footprint, it’s very simple to use and works very well.
EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 overall thoughts
I feel like if you’ve ever considered buying a sound card, it’s kind of a no brainer as an entry point, but there are definitely going to be better options out there if you’re looking for a high end, audiophile-level listening experience. However, you’re going to be dumping a lot of your hard-earned cash into a set up like that and honestly, for £69? This to me seems like a bargain. I can easily recommend buying this.
When I consider everything above I feel like it’s an easy 10/10.
You can find more information on the EPOS | SENNHEISER GSX 300 over on the official website by clicking HERE. And more of our hardware reviews by clicking HERE.
