7.1 surround headset - Great or Garbage?

Quick question: 7.1 or not for Apex?

What do you guys prefer, subjectively?

Or does anyone experienced with knowledge within the topic have some objective advice?

Personally, I'm struggling to find a good setup and settings for 7.1 and Win 11, and I'm now starting to think that 2.0 might be the better choice.


As far as I understand, Apex Legends supports 7.1, but please correct me if I'm, wrong. And there are so many garbage affiliation reviews and guides that I don't trust, so I turn to you guys.

Thanks 🙂

My background to this thread

Personally, I like the idea of using 7.1, to get a nicer experience out of the game and of course to hear the direction of footsteps and other sounds more clearly. But I'm struggling to make my choice of headset and settings, especially with Windows 11 sound settings that is driving me mad.


Another thing: Do you really have to change the sound settings to 7.1 in the config file? 😕

According to a guide i read, Apex doesn't pick up the 7.1 headsets and settings automatically, even if it says "7.1 surround" in a shaded box under audio settings. Apparently you have to edit the config file to change the sound settings from 2 channels to 8. And that I did, but I still can't seem to nail it with three different headsets that I tried.

Honestly, if you have to edit the config files to change from stereo to surround in a modern game that (as far as i read) support 7.1, it would show that some developer/developers have been very lazy haha. However, when I tried it and changed from 2 channels to 8 in the config file, I didn't experience much of a difference. So It could be that the author of the guide i read, is just a simple click-bait muppet.


Three headsets tried - None really good

Corsair HS60 is the best-sounding headset by far among the ones I have at home and tried. It has a "big", nicely balanced sound. It's clear but not too "crispy and scratchy", and i feel like the 7.1 surround actually works with them. But ICUE...... that software makes me suicidal.

Hyper X Cloud Alpha S confuses me and behaves very weird in WIn 11. Windows think that the mic is the output and vice versa, it sounds like the sound is coming through an empty tin can. It's thin, sharp and just annoying, and I just can't seem to find good settings. Plus! Using Hyper X makes Win 11 settings lag like a MF. The other headsets don't.

Logitech G432 is the cheapest of them, but it's really just plug & play where Windows and all games I tried seem to communicate well with the Logitech headset, unlike Hyper X and ICUE (🤒). But even though the Logitech software has a 10 band EQ that I tried all kinds of settings in, it still feels kinda like the sound is missing frequenzies and I don't get that great 7.1 experience, at least compared to Corsair.