[Aiur]

I was originally looking at surround sound headphones but read several negative feedbacks about them on this site so I steered clear.

1.Currently I’m deciding between the Audio Technica ATH-AD700the Denon AH-D2000 and the and the Sennheiser HD-555 , if you have any other opinions on what headphones would be good for me at around the same price range.


But the main issue I have at the moment is trying to figure out what to do about my crappy integrated sound card, which is worthless in almost every way possible, on my gaming LAPTOP (thus i can’t install a new sound card like you can on a PC)

I have a few options and I hope you guys can help me figure out what the best option for me is. im thinking of a soundcard/dac that incorporate.

A) dolby headphones such as: USB asus xonor U1, or optical astro’s mixamp.
or
B) creative X-fi product that have CMSS 3d:
USB models: X-Fi Surround 5.1, Sound Blaster X-Fi Go!
Expresscard models: X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook, ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook



Please talk about:
1) Pros and cons between express card and USB
2) the perceived ability for them to be used as DAC’s
3) benefits between CMSS and Dolby headphones processes. , especially if you have used both.

Thank you.

FYI
- I use my computer for : 50% games, 25% movies, and 25%music.
The games I play are mostly FPS, but I play almost anything such as: bioshock , masseffect , GTA4, RTS’s, MMORPG’s, whatever suits my fantsy.
- I listen to every form of music under the sun, from classical to rock
- I’m running Vista 64bit. ( no i’m not switching

)

 

[Spiug31]

Quote:

the main issue I have at the moment is trying to figure out what to do about my crappy integrated sound card, which is worthless in almost every way possible, on my gaming LAPTOP (thus i can’t install a new sound card like you can on a PC)

likely worth reading the Head-Fi Computer Audio forum and posting there.
Computer Audio - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

welcome to head-fi

 

[EugeneK]

if you want to be able to tell what direction from which you're getting shot at in an FPS, headphones won't work, they're 2 channel by default. You'd need a 5 channel speaker system for an accurate surround effect. Maybe you should try and get your hands on a second hand klipsch promedia 5.1.

 

[Aiur]

Spiug31 Thank you for the link i will post my thread there too.

Eugenek I was under the impression that 5.1 headphones where a gimmic idea as our hearing is 2.0 anyways. its better to have a qaulity of stereo cans and have a sound card convert the 5.1 channel into 2.0 as our ears are 2.0 inputs. and that the 4 speakers in the headphones in 5.1 surround headphones are a poor qaulity and cannot compare to the hi-fi headphones. such as the Audio Technica ATH-AD700