You have heard the story “I have moved to Linux (arch btw).”, well… this is also my story. Anyways I have problems with my headset’s virtual surround. I realized that almost all of the drivers are just simply not working on Linux, but also that there are a bunch of alternatives. I have a HyperX cloud 2 (it was cheap), it’s 5.1 by default and 7.1 if toggled. Since I switched to Linux it has been stereo only. And I also feel like the sound quality is worse.
I heard somewhere that any headset can be virtual surround if configured correctly. And they sell “gaming junk” because people don’t know of this. I’m writing this so that hopefully some of you can teach me how to make any headset surround. I feel like I also must learn how to do this if I’m planning on gaming on Linux.
PS: I tough about buying an actual good headphone, but if it’s not capable of surround than that’s kind of a deal-breaker. I don’t play that much, but I remember playing shooters on stereo and they were unplayable, I wouldn’t like to lock myself out of those kinds of games.
I don’t have any experience with virtual surround, but I do have a potential alternative if you don’t get it figured out.
If the games you play have a headphone mode, try it. That typically gets a pretty good virtual surround effect. As for improving sound quality, check out the AutoEQ project on GitHub. I got some cheap $20 Monoprice headphones that sound like they’re $150 or better when using the correct profile from AutoEQ.
I’ll do this too, I’m just going insane atm from pipewire.