grainy. grainy is the perfect word for these. i didn't notice it so much with games, but music sounded awful. on the other hand, i thought they were very comfortable. didn't have any problem wearing them for a few hours. the 3d positioning was pretty good in wolfenstein, too.

I read somewhere that the 495 were better for 3d positioning in games. You start looking at the 570's and you need to start looking at amps. ...and I wouldn't put too much weight in GameSpots' reviews.

PS: What exactly can you use the optical in/out for anyway? DTS decoding?

Hey Grif, I just went through this...with the same soundcard. By the way...Hercules.com has new 6.1 drivers for the card if you check out the website. I wound up with the HD600's...probably not the best move. Grado's are out because the general opinion is that they're very difficult...

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried wearing the headphones without any input, and got similar results. Its like a pinching feeling towards the front of my ears, and really distracting. They sound GREAT though...sure hope they'll loosen up. If not, anyone have an XBox they want to...

I'm listening to mp3's (160-192kbps) on my computer through a Hercules Game Theatre XP. The Volume pot is turned up a little lower than half-way. About normal volume. Not too loud... Maybe I just had a headache to begin with.

Just got these today... after about 20 minutes, I notice that my head/ears start to hurt. I'm not sure whether this is due to the pressure, or the kind of highs/trebles I'm not used to hearing. Has anyone else experienced this? Any solutions?

wow. could you sell me one of those?

Quote: Originally posted by Gluegun Don't even consider the MDR-V600's. you didn't actually BUY THEM, did you? if you did, return them, IMMEDIATELY. I wasn't reccomending them...just using them as an example that they were harder to drive. I received them as a gift 4 years...

hey, i was looking for headphones for the same exact application (mp3's through my jornada). i tried Sony MDR-V600's, Koss KSC50's, and a pair of Sennheiser MX500's that just arrived today. My pocket PC had a little trouble driving the 600's...maybe the IPAQ is different. I did...