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Originally Posted by kpeezy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I've always thought CS 1.6 had detailed audio. Footsteps are a major portion of the game as are grenade sounds and many other audio related things. I agree that with some games (COD4, Halo, CS:S) the headphone hardly matters.
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First, let me point out that I work for Ety and am responsible for the EDGE products.
The audio in CS 1.6 is not good. The audio on CS:S is, on the other hand, vastly improved. The best examples come from games like GRAW2 (which won the best game audio award last year from the industry).
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The big thing that would worry me about using Etys for gaming would be the lack of bass. I love it for music, but I really doubt it would have a good sound for games. |
First, this comment is not correct in a few ways:
1. Ety's don't lack bass. We provide the bass that is there. We can't help it that everyone has been raised on solutions that dramatically overstate the bass because people respond to it as they do. Also realize that 90% of the time I encounter this statement it's because someone didn't have a good seal in their ears. I'm a Rush fan and that means a Neil Peart fan. I love my bass, but I don't need it artificially coloring everything else I'm trying to listen to.
2. Gaming is about accuracy. If what you're getting is not accurate then you will need to overcome that. The GX400 (and the ER-4P's) have an accuracy rating around 90% where competing products, (which are not designed for accuracy) are way, way below that. In what way would lower accuracy be helpful in a game? Remember that for all these years headphone technology was built around use for music. Music is not about accuracy for the masses. Manufacturers strive to "enhance" it to impress their customers in different ways. This then got applied to gaming as if this was a non-issue. It's no different that realizing you have a screw to loosen and having someone tell you a butter knife is the best tool for the job.
3. Bass, especially very enhanced bass, is not what you want in a game. This is like saying that you don't see how the lack of light at night hinders sight. Bass muddies spatial cues in games. You're trying to pick out specific sounds and, instead, those are drowned out with every single low that comes by.
Go see who recommends our products. Read the reviews from the gamers who bought them on Amazon.
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: E.D.G.E. Acoustics GX400 Enhanced Definition Gaming Earphones - Black
Look at the quotes. Not just random ones. John Miles, who does the 3D audio engine used in over 4200 games, has never recommended a product. He does recommend the GX400 and says it's what you want to use when you want to hear everything in the game. This is the guy responsible for the audio in the very games we play. I think he's in a position to know.
I came to Ety as a gamer. I wrote the Official Sound Blaster book series. I helped get audio adopted in PC's back in the day. I approached them because I've used most every headphone/headset on the market and found these to help my gaming the most. I realized later why that was. Everyone else has used solutions designed for music. Ety came at it from the medical audio equipment industry and hearing aid technology perspective where everything is about accuracy. It just so happens that this is a perfect synergy for games.
Foe-Hammer, while the audio in COD4 is decent, it's not a great example. Why? For one thing, the maps are so small that on a busy map you get so much detail that it tends to run together more than in less chaotic games. Yes, you'll be able to hear the footsteps but try out GRAW2 for an example of what I'm talking about. I can hear targets from 60 YARDS away. There are maps in COD4 that have trouble being 60 yards long in total. heheh
Please take a moment to read the white paper we did on this whole thing. We spent 2 1/2 YEARS in a research study measuring the response times of FPS gamers all over the world using different equipment. We had to invent a one-of-kind audio benchmark tool called, "Marco Polo" to get all this data. The results are pretty black-and-white. The better the accuracy of the product, the faster gamers are able to locate targets in a 3D game.
E.D.G.E. Acoustics Lab
There are two links there under Audio Research. One is about Marco Polo and the other is on why quality matters for gamers. Lastly we're one of the only companies that let you take our product at shows and go use it with your own stuff for hours and then come back. Why? Because we know exactly what the response is of people who actually use them. Just like the above poster experienced at PDX LAN. His comments weren't based on hearsay or theory. He actually used them, on his setup, with his games and he knows for himself now that the claims we make are not hype.