TL;DR: Superb sound spacialization through your headphones. Full home theatre experience, even when your household is asleep. Responsive devs. Very inexpensive. I love it - huge recommend!

Update 13/Apr/16: Now that I've racked up 160+ hours of usage (which will continue to climb for the foreseeable future), I want to add a quick addendum to my full review below to state straightaway that I've found Spatial Sound Card (SSC) to be nothing short of transformative to my audio experience on PC, and I now use it every day in my short list of "essential" software, with games, films, and music. Once properly set up and paired with quality headphones, and while being fed with good quality audio (not all audio sources are made equal!), the three-dimensional soundstage created by SSC is phenomenal (even with stereo sources, it sounds like you are in a balanced studio with freestanding stereo speakers rather than enclosed in your headphones). Frankly, I was too cautious in my optimism in my initial review, which was only based on ~10 hours of use. In addition, the development team has proven to be responsive, communicative, and willing to incorporate user feedback into their updates. My main criticism, lack of proper documentation, should be resolved any day now according to the devs. At this price, it's an absolute no-brainer - pick it up and try it out. The best surround video game audio I've experienced so far with SSC is Mad Max in 5.1 surround mode, with the SSC "Shanghai" studio preset and the LFE (low frequency effects) turned down a bit to eliminate distortion (depends on your headphones)... the roaring V8 car battles and getting caught in a raging sandstorm make me reminisce of the first time I ever experienced a cranked up 5.1 Dolby loudspeaker system many years ago. The fact that I can experience this late at night with my wife sleeping undisturbed mere feet away makes me very happy indeed. :)

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Original Review:

Warning: Your Mileage May Vary. My results, though, were impressive!

I can see why, at this point, there are a number of negative reviews. It's not at all apparent how to set it up properly, I can't find any documentation whatsoever, the various presets give no description as to what they actually do, there are no test sounds built into the program to identify how your settings affect the output and, finally, I imagine the end result may highly depend on your headphones. I really hope the devs correct these aspects, because many users will understandably become lost and go for a refund. But then they'd miss out on what this software can do, and that'd be a shame, because this is a unique little gem.

So I opened with the negatives, but what about the positives, which I feel won out? Well, I've persisted with this software past the point of no refunds, and I've finally gotten it setup properly (I think), and the net result is that *the soundscape being played through my headphones sounds much more 3-dimensional than it did without this software*. In fact, my headphones sound more "surround" than they've ever done (in 16 years!), apart from when listening to binaural recordings. In the end, it actually does what it says on the tin, provided you can get it working.

First, my hardware setup is almost custom-tailored for good results with this program. My headphones are a very loved set of Sennheiser HD600s paired with a small Headroom headphone amplifier plugged directly into the "Line Out" (not headphone jack!) of my (meh) Realtek onboard soundcard (Windows 7 64 OS). Straight away, I experienced the "garbled sound" effect that many have complained of. On my system, as with most I assume, I had to manually select my audio output device and make sure it was in WASAPI mode. If you don't know your WASAPI from your ASIO, then maybe you didn't take audio engineering courses in university like I did... and that's why some documentation would be useful! Anyhow... this fixed my garbled sound issue. Next, I chose a preset... I have no idea what the difference between the different "city" themes are yet, but I've settled on "Dubai" for the present, chose the EQ preset for Sennheiser HD600s (very handy if you have a pair of the headphones with built-in eq presets), and then lowered the LFE (low frequency effects) knob by a fair bit (numeric values would be more useful than a knob) because the default LFE was creating audio distortion in my headphone amp.

I've tried two games with excellent surround sound to properly test everything: Portal 2 and Alien: Isolation. And the litmus test was that I could walk into an area with a clear directional sound source, close my eyes, and tell more-or-less exactly where it was at as I walked around in-game. It was much better than the built-in positional audio from the standard "headphones" audio settings of the games. And in the end, that's what counts.

Also, I spent ~£5 for this software on sale, so I think it's important to maintain a little perspective. I'm definitely going to get my fiver's worth out of it. Heck, I'd pay that just to experiment with this software and encourage developers in trying to make cool audio tech. This wasn't a snap to setup and use, and I doubt it'd be all that great with poor headphones, so you'll have to weigh your own circumstances up when considering the purchase: do you have good headphones, and are you willing to tweak and experiment to dial in your settings? If so, I reckon this gives pretty impressive results.

中文用户必读指南：
安装好以后，立刻右键点击Windows右下角的喇叭图标，选择“播放设备”，然后在“扬声器 Spatial Sound Card”上点击右键，选择属性，把“扬声器”改名成SSC就能用了。

卧槽，老子看了半天英文论坛才知道居然是这个问题！老外你体谅下非英文用户的情况啊，据说露西亚用户也有这种问题。

If you have good sources, this software is nothing short of incredible. It takes surround input and gives you realistic headphone stereo.
This isn't like the other headphone-surround tools I have used (Razer, etc), which produce an overly clinical sound. SSC uses room virtualization to make the sound echo from one speaker around the room, which takes the realism to a much higher level.

I have primarily tested this with Rainbow Six Siege and Mad Max. In R6 this has allowed me to quite accurately kill people through walls based on sound positioning. That is how good this really is.

SSC does have some technical issues for me, namely the sound 'popping.' This gets less significant over time, but it sounds really bad when testing immediatly after launching the program. In the five minutes it takes to actually get ingame the pops generally recede to an ignorable level.

I bought his software since i wanted to add some virtual surround options to my Audio Technica ATH-M40X Headphones. Nice interface but horribe.garbled mess coming out of my Headphones. No matter if outputting through my USB - soundcards or onboard sound the results remain the same. Static, noise. whatever you want to call it. First time i refunded something on steam

**Update**
The developer was so nice as to send me a new code for review/testing.

Locking SSC to all Wasapi definitely solved the garbling problems when using my onboard sound, so for all you onboard-users you might want to have another look at this Software.
Better surround-soundstage and overall quality than Dolby Home Theater 4 or Dolby Headphone.
The other Comparison would be Razer Surround Pro which sounds more directly on-ear and is a little cleaner when it comes to positional audio. SSC is more of a movie / music listening solution, so don't expect it to do gaming audio like a software optimized for it.

Unfortunately the chopped up audio persists when using my USB Audio interfaces and since those are where the really good sound comes from in my setup, i'm still not going to use SSC right now. I will give it more tries if the dev continues to work on it and i can use my "real" soundcards.

If you are an onboard-sound user and you can get past the user interface (definitely needs some documentation or hover-overs) SSC can definitely give you a nice listening experience.

At it's current stage i can't give a recommendation but i'm seeing potential here and will continue to update my review

Recommended? (AKA tl;dr)

IMHO a great alternative to most cheap HRTF-solutions for gamers.
I tested the PRO-Version (hence the very short review-time!), yet the steam-version does basically the same core-feature wise. I really like it and don't wanna miss it anymore.

Do you need it or want it? Well, do you often use a headphone but would like 3D-surround-sound? Wanna know if your enemy is coming from behind you or is in front of you?
If yes, give it a go! Most soundcard-producers currently have their own HRTF-options available, but honestly they're just okay-ish.
My personal ranking in terms of the ability of precise position would be:

1. SSC
2. Creative Labs
3. Dolby Headphone
4. ...Others

If you happen to have a headset which is amongst the tiny selection of pre-set headphone-EQs then you're easily set. If not you will be able to just
ignore the setting or tweak your phones manually. But that assumes you already know how it SHOULD naturally sound like, which probably is kinda unlikely.
But if you don't really care for total precision and accuracy but more about personally felt "better sound" then just do whatever you want until it suits your ears :)


The good (what to love):

• Excellent 3D-Positioning
  
• Great headphone-surround
  
• Volume-Boost if needed
  
• Latency-settings (5.3/10.7/21.3ms)
  
• Headphone EQs to adapt sound to your cans
  
• Nice presets and enough settings to tweak the room to your liking
  
• Sleek interface, no bells and whistles (hence no blown-up crap) just the essential stuff

The mediocre (neither good nor bad, or simply not objectively either):

• No "no-preset-at-all" feature where you maybe just only select your cans to be good
  
• Could use some more tweaks maybe, for nerds u know? :-)
  
• Some testing-vid/sound is missing. Or some form of 3D-Testing-ability

The ugly (what to hate, may kill the fun):

• Missing a global bypass-option. You have to select another soundcard as a default if you wanna temporarily bypass SSC. Which would most likely kill every app that is currently using it. Please add!
  
  (Sorry, Option is there, just not made overly clear. "Disable Headphone-Surround" actually does this)
  
• Too few headphone-EQs. Though some major players are listed (Even Monsters...ugh, seriously, why?), many are missing. Hope they will be added in future...
  
  (Sorry too. More cans will be added in the next releases)

合了个愤怒的小鸟的卡得到的-75%优惠券，所以9块买的。
看来我遇到的问题还不少，既然现在我能用了，必然是要啰嗦一番把自己的经验分享出来。


1、64位系统问题。我的系统不知为何会把一些64位软件识别成32位的，所以不出意外的，这款软件也遇到了这个问题。

• 特征：

安装流程前中期很顺利，新装上的播放设备名字直接就是SSC，直到最后一步，提示不识别，但是已经是SSC了啊，无论是从steam打开【包括点击桌面图标】还是找到软件目录双击Spatial Sound Card.exe打开，主程序都会以SMALL模式显示并卡死。

• 解决方案：

打开右下小喇叭的播放设备选项卡，看是否有Spatial Sound Card设备，找到软件目录\DRIVER，双击 install_ssc_driver_l.cmd ，【凡是带有l的都是64位系统操作的】，可以看到原来的Spatial Sound Card设备消失，此时再次双击，即会出现正确的Spatial Sound Card设备。


2、扬声器改SSC。

• 特征：

找不到设备，新出现的Spatial Sound Card设备名字是扬声器。

• 解决方案：

打开右下小喇叭的播放设备选项卡，右键Spatial Sound Card设备——属性，把名字改成SSC就行。


3、由于改变导致的程序卡死。有时候，改正上述第2问题、安装系统更新 等会造成原本正常的主程序不正常工作、卡死。

• 特征：

解决了以上的问题后，或正常使用中，主程序卡死，并无法自行修复。

• 解决方案：

C:\Users\当前用户名\AppData\Roaming\Spatial Sound Card，删掉Spatial Sound Card.settings即可，会删除原本的配置。解决方法来自movision

DFX：目前个人测试此声卡软件可以与DFX共存，在DFX中播放设备设置成SSC即可。【但是有了SSC谁还会去用噪音满满的DFX啊！】

AIMP：使用AIMP的注意啦，由于AIMP的选项里怎么也出不来6.1，所以当SSC主程序调成6.1时AIMP没法播放，其它有类似情况的播放器注意一下。

使用体验很好，对音乐有一定加成，对我那一堆6.1电影和CSGO等游戏效果提升明显，
之前i5 3230m笔记本，7.1模式日常占用6-16%CPU，
现在i7 8700k台式，5.3ms延迟+7.1模式日常占用0.3%，
可以。

PS：难道就我一个喜欢用头戴听非头戴模式巴黎的吗？？？
PS：果然还是关掉之后更自然，毕竟设备升级了，这个模拟的感觉并没有v2w那么有意思……

Ok so i dont usually write reviews even though i probably should. I have over 1600 hours with this program. I use it pretty much every day and every time i start up my computer. Lets get some of the positives down first.

Its 10 dollars
Its better than onboard sound for im guessing any motherboard.
It works well with my logitech Z 506 setup.
It plays sound through my dedicated sound card which im not sure how but i dont need to plug anything into the onboard ports.
It has a lot of options.
It does an amazing job of giving you a sound stage you can use in either gaming or just listening to music.
You can set for stereo, 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 surround sound.
You have many headphones to choose from even if you dont have them you can use their sound stage. The short medium and long section is a little strange but it sets the general punchyness of the sound. So with low its more flat and with long its more drawn out in the sound. (best way i can describe it)
The sound stages are awesome and give you a good feel of where everything is when gaming.


On to two negatives so far. 1 There is no start up when computer starts up option because you have to start it up through steam. I would love to get a free upgrade where i can have it as a program that does the exact same thing but can set to start up when my computer starts up. Not a huge problem i am just saying it would be nice to have.
Second negative is that its always on top when you open it. So if you have steam open and you have the program open its gonna be over steam and may block some stuff so make sure to minimize it.

Those are just some small things that arent a big deal but i figure they are worth mentioning. I really really enjoy using this product and I look forward to playing more of the games i have in the future. It works really well with FPS games where the sound is always changing or if you have games with lots of explosions. BF1, COD (which i dont play), CSS, CSGO (which i dont play). I have over 400 games so i cant list all of them that this product is awesome with but it works well with music or gaming. Thanks for reading.

Eu estava muito duvidoso e com medo de comprar, arrisquei e foi a melhor compra do ano em relação a software que eu já fiz na minha vida.

O Spatial Sound Card Pro é uma placa de som virtual baseada em software. Ele fornece alto-falantes para monitoração estéreo e surround para o computador com fones de ouvido padrão.

O monitoramento profissional do conteúdo de áudio geralmente requer instalações de alto-falantes complexas e de alta qualidade, para as quais tanto o orçamento quanto o espaço são necessários. O Spatial Sound Card Pro permite o monitoramento de estéreo e surround até 7.1 com um fone de ouvido padrão no computador.

Este software transforma seu fone de ouvido baratinho em um fone de ouvido campeão. Quando você ativa o Spatial Sound Card parece que você entrou em um cinema de última geração. A qualidade de som de seus jogos vai para outro patamar.

Eu não consigo jogar mais nenhum jogo sem esse software. Da uma outra imersão e realidade sonora.

Realmente eu duvidava que isso era possível. Então eu comprei e estou desfrutando do melhor som possível.

Atualmente o software obriga a abrir a Steam para ele funcionar, evitando a pirataria do software. Porém o próprio desenvolvedor me falou pessoalmente que vão lançar um update em breve que vai permitir abrir o Spatial Sound Card sem a necessidade de estar na Steam.

Mesmo assim eu recomendo muito.

Folgt uns auf / Follow us on: German Review Group or German Review Group Curator Site and My Curator Site

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcEtTr_utSI
Ich bin kein Technik Genie, ich nutze diese Software privat für meine eigenen nutzen wie Filme, Musik und beim Spielen. Diese Review basiert auf meine persönliche Erfahrung und Meinung.

Wer kein Geld für gute 5.1 oder 7.2 Headsets ausgeben möchte, da er sie dazu eventuell zu selten benutzt oder schlicht weg zu teuer findet, dem kann ich das Programm Spatial Sound Card für wenig Geld nur empfehlen.

Wer gerne Filme schaut und das in guter Ton Qualität möchte, aber keine Surround Sound Kopfhörer oder Lautsprecher hat, kennt das Problem nur zu gut, entweder ist der Sound zu laut und die Stimmen zu leise oder aber beides.

Durch den 5.1 bzw. 7.2 Surround Sound kann man dies individuell einstellen, so dass man die Stimme lauter stellen kann und die Musik leiser. Man muss die Soundeinstellungen also nicht mehr mit der Fernbedienung lauer oder leiser drehen.

Ein ähnliches Prinzip gilt beim Spielen, wer gerne Shooter, 3rd Person usw. zockt, möchte gerne hören, wo sich die Feinde befinden, was mit normalen Stereo Headsets / Lautsprecher kaum möglich ist.

Durch 5.1 und 7.2 kann man anders wie bei Stereo, mehrere Richtungen wahrnehmen, so hört man bei Spielen nicht nur die Gegner besser, sondern nimmt Gleichzeitig auch die anderen töne wahr.

Stereo gibt nur eine Richtung wieder, während 5.1 die Töne aus 5 verschiedenen Richtungen simulieren kann, was einen realitätsnahen Ton wiedergibt und der Zuhörer sich mittendrin fühlt.

Wer Zuhause eine 5.1, 6.1 oder 7.1 Anlage hat, weiß das er dazu einen Surround-Verstärker, zwei Frontlautsprecher, zwei Rücklautsprecher, einen Center-Lautsprecher und einen Basslautsprecher benötigt, in manchen Fällen sogar noch mehr Lautsprecher. (6 sind üblich, aber es gibt auch bis zu 10 Lautsprecher Systeme). Dazu noch das Medium das mind. 5.1 wiedergeben kann, wie ein Blu-Ray-Disc.

5.1 und 7.2 Kopfhörer simulieren nun im Grunde all diese Lautsprecher, benötigen dementsprechend weniger Platz, da man sie nirgendwo aufstellen muss. Je nach Qualität hören sie sich genauso gut an, kosten aber dementsprechend auch sehr viel Geld. Funktionieren aber dafür sowohl am PC wie auch am TV, sofern man dementsprechende Hardware hat, die auch den Klang wiedergeben kann.

Viele möchten den 5.1 oder 7.2 Surround-Sound nur am Computer nutzen, entweder zum Filme schauen oder Zocken, in manchen Fällen auch für beides. Geld spielt oft eine Rolle, so möchte man kein Geld für teure Kopfhörer ausgeben, die man vielleicht nur 2 oder 3x die Woche oder im Monat verwendet und gerade für solche Menschen wurden Programme wie Dolby Atmos und Spatial Sound Card für den Computer entwickelt.

Sie geben den Surround-Sound auch ohne teure Surround-Sound Headsets oder Kopfhörer wieder. Der Virtuelle Raumklang hört sich sehr gut an, deutlich wird dies vor allem bei sehr günstigen Kopfhörern für 10-30€.

Den Nutzern ist es möglich, bei Spielen mehrere Raumklänge wahrzunehmen, was eine bessere Ton Qualität verspricht und ein einfacheres Spielen, denn man hört nicht nur die Blätter im Wind sondern auch den heranpürschenden Gegner von hinten. Bei Filmen fühlt man sich mittendrin statt nur daneben oder davor. Man nimmt Töne wahr, die man vielleicht vorher gar nicht hörte, bei Musik kann dies Gänsehaut verursachen, da sie intensiver sein kann und ein ganz anderes Erlebnis wiedergibt.

Ich persönlich finde Spatial Sound am besten, die Software ist günstig und kostet nur einmalig etwas. Sie wiedergibt beide Raumklänge in 5.1 und 7.2 fast genauso gut wie ein Surround-Sound Headset. Funktioniert sowohl bei Spielen wie auch bei Filmen. Die Musik hört sich auch wesentlich schöner an, selbst wenn diese keine 5.1 unterstützen.

Bei Netflix benötigt man ein dementsprechendes ♥♥♥ um es nutzen zu können, hat man dies, funktioniert es aber sehr gut. Hat man ein normales ♥♥♥ lohnt es sich dennoch, denn der Klang ist wesentlich lauter und sauberer als nur mit dem billigen Headset/Kopfhörer. Bei Amazon Prime ist ein 5.1 Surround-Sound über Browser nicht möglich, der normale Ton ist aber auch hier deutlich schöner.

Dolby Access bietet eine kostenlose 14 Tägige Testphase, kostet danach aber Geld und das jeden Monat 14€. Wer das Geld ausgeben möchte kann sich direkt ein gutes 5.1 Headset kaufen und hat auf längere Sicht ein besseres Produkt.

Sobald nämlich neue Updates erscheinen, muss man auch Dolby Access neu Konfigurieren. Daher kann ich dieses Programm nicht wirklich empfehlen.

Wer für wenig Geld ein Raumklangerlebnis wie im echten Leben möchte und das bei Filmen, Spielen und Musik, sollte sich das Programm Spatial Sound Card genauer unter die Lupe nehmen. Für grade mal 10€ erhält man hier eine Leistungsstarke Software, die jedes billige Headset in ein realistisches, günstiges 5.1 und 7.2 Headset/Kopfhörer verwandelt.

Endlich Filme in einer Lautstärke genießen, in Spielen die Feinde von Hinten wahrnehmen und Musik anhören, dass man Gänsehaut davon bekommt.

Das Programm kann individuell eingestellt werden, die Virtuellen Boxen können deaktiviert werden, so kann man bspw. statt 5 Boxen nur 4 laufen lassen, dazu gibt es noch verschiedene Hintergrundbilder, die die Tonqualität ebenfalls unterschiedlich wiedergeben.

Liste mit Software-Titeln, bewertet durch die German Review Group
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SPATIAL SOUND CARD - Программа для микширования многоканального аудио в стерео наушники.

И так! просто скажу, что программа очень круто позиционирует и эмулирует положения колонок в виртуальной комнате,
не одна программа не сравнится с этой!

ВНИМАНИЕ!!!!!!
у кого есть проблемы с запуском программы:
просто зайдите в устройство воспроизведения, переименуйте динамики так: "SSC"
и у вас все заработает.
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/3747/butpRK.png