This sound card could give gamers a competitive edge

Andrew Liszewski is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.Fosi Audio announced a new sound card today with a unique feature designed to give FPS players an advantage. The C3 Gaming Sound Card, which sits outside your PC or laptop and connects with a USB-C cable, includes the company’s StepSense “audio enhancement technology” powered by a model that was “trained on extensive FPS audio data.” With StepSense turned on, sounds that offer positional cues for opponents, such as footsteps or vaulting noises, are boosted so they’re not drowned out by the game’s overall audio mix.For competitive players looking for any advantage they can get, that feature alone could justify the $129.99 C3, which is now available through Fosi’s online store. But that’s not the accessory’s only feature. It also functions as an amp for headphones connected with a 3.5mm audio cable, or you can wire up speakers using its stereo RCA output. There’s an additional 3.5mm input for a microphone, and a pair of sliders. One’s a master volume control, while the controls the mic level.Other features include noise-canceling for the microphone so other sounds in your gaming room will be quieted, support for 7.1 spatial audio, and both additional sound presets and an adjustable EQ that are accessible through a browser-based interface so you don’t need to install an app. In addition to PCs, the C3 is compatible with consoles including Sony’s PS5 and the Nintendo Switch.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew Liszewski