[Stanich]

Hey!
 
I have a question: On my headphones (HyperX Gaming Headset) there is an option for 7.1 surround sound. 
 
If I listen to music on YouTube, I can turn on the 7.1 and the sound becomes different. 
 
Is this the original sound of the music, i. e. the music was recorded and posted in 7.1, or is it just a distortion?
 
Thanks if you take your time to answer!

 

[alynx]

You said it yourself. You are turning 7.1 on on your device, not on youtube.Youtube supports "only" 5.1 channel according to this site:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en-GB
Btw, the hyper x headsets are not really 7.1 setups but "only" stereo headphones with virtual 7.1 beeing processed via the dsp. You can call it distortion if u like.

 

[buke9]

Hey!

I have a question: On my headphones (HyperX Gaming Headset) there is an option for 7.1 surround sound. 

If I listen to music on YouTube, I can turn on the 7.1 and the sound becomes different. 

Is this the original sound of the music, i. e. the music was recorded and posted in 7.1, or is it just a distortion?

Thanks if you take your time to answer!

Your headphones aren't 7.1 it is simulated in software. If the song was recorded or remastered in 7.1 and encoded that way it might sound ok but not a lot are and would make it a echoey mess if it wasn't. Some software does a good job at it though like Out of your Head it is very good. You can give it a try and see for yourself if the 7.1 sounds good to you but why use it if the song is in stereo?

 

[Stillhart]

  Hey!
 
I have a question: On my headphones (HyperX Gaming Headset) there is an option for 7.1 surround sound. 
 
If I listen to music on YouTube, I can turn on the 7.1 and the sound becomes different. 
 
Is this the original sound of the music, i. e. the music was recorded and posted in 7.1, or is it just a distortion?
 
Thanks if you take your time to answer!

 
If your sound card (aka headphones in this case) has 7.1 turned on, it looks for a 7.1 source.  If it has it (like you set your video game to output 7.1), it will give you a pretty accurate simulated surround representation.  If it has a stereo source (like a Youtube video), it will make a guess and try to 3D-ify your sound.  This generally sounds not good and isn't worth doing like... ever.
 
So no, you're not getting a true representation when you turn on virtual surround with a stereo source.  Try to only use that mode when you actually have a multi-channel audio stream feeding into it (like when gaming or watching a Netflix video that shows 5.1).

 

[Stanich]

Thanks to all!