[Ninjax]

I'm looking for a nice headset for gaming, and this one seemed to appear a lot in my searches. Is it any good? Does it give true 5.1 sound? Should I buy it? I'm looking to use it with my PS3 (Metal Gear Solid 4) and PC (Counter Strike: Source).

 

[vkvedam]

Check out Turtle Beach AK-8 on Cnet reviews.

 

[darkswordsman17]

"Surround" headphones are frowned upon for the most part by audio enthusiasts. Regular, 2 channel headphones are quite capable of presenting a full 3-D sound field (just give a decent binaural recording a try to see just how good they can be). Of course, there's very little audio recorded/mixed in such a manner, and so we end up with little demos of what we could be getting.

However, for gaming, specifically on the PC, it is much better, as most competent games nowadays have decent positional audio effects (and as Creative's influence starts to wane, we'll probably see more games with more robust audio engines). Console games aren't as lucky, mostly because they tend to be encoded into 5.1 surround audio, which is good for speakers, but not as good for headphones. The PC can overcome this (provided your sound card/chip is capable) by utilizing Dolby Headphone.

What makes surround headphones not so good is that in order to get the about 8 drivers (4 per side) in, they have to go with cheaper, smaller drivers which just are not as capable as those found in a decent pair of "audiophile" headphones.

So, in short, if you want good audio quality, you'd be better off going with a good pair of stereo headphones, and then relying on your sound card (the X-Fi is actually pretty decent with headphone effects, thankfully other companies are starting to get the benefits of Creative's EAX so we can get better quality cards/drivers, oh and don't forget Dolby Headphone) or the game to provide the good positional audio.

 

[Ninjax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vkvedam /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check out Turtle Beach AK-8 on Cnet reviews.

Thanks for the reccomendation, those look kickass awesome.
But sadly thats way over my price range.

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkswordsman17 /img/forum/go_quote.gif "Surround" headphones are frowned upon for the most part by audio enthusiasts. Regular, 2 channel headphones are quite capable of presenting a full 3-D sound field (just give a decent binaural recording a try to see just how good they can be). Of course, there's very little audio recorded/mixed in such a manner, and so we end up with little demos of what we could be getting. However, for gaming, specifically on the PC, it is much better, as most competent games nowadays have decent positional audio effects (and as Creative's influence starts to wane, we'll probably see more games with more robust audio engines). Console games aren't as lucky, mostly because they tend to be encoded into 5.1 surround audio, which is good for speakers, but not as good for headphones. The PC can overcome this (provided your sound card/chip is capable) by utilizing Dolby Headphone. What makes surround headphones not so good is that in order to get the about 8 drivers (4 per side) in, they have to go with cheaper, smaller drivers which just are not as capable as those found in a decent pair of "audiophile" headphones. So, in short, if you want good audio quality, you'd be better off going with a good pair of stereo headphones, and then relying on your sound card (the X-Fi is actually pretty decent with headphone effects, thankfully other companies are starting to get the benefits of Creative's EAX so we can get better quality cards/drivers, oh and don't forget Dolby Headphone) or the game to provide the good positional audio.

I don't really have a sound card, I rather buy a single 5.1 headset than buy a sound card and another high priced headphone. And I don't think sound cards currently work with the PS3, so it's not practical for me. Also, if your in doubt about 5.1 headsets, just look at all the pro gamers using them, some even say a good pair is better than 5.1 speakers. And to get 5.1 sound off a normal stereo headphone, you need to listen to some binaural sound. Whilst 5.1 gives the 3D effect without needing to be binaural.