[ronfifer]

EDIT: Decision made. I will give the Samson SR850 a go. Now i need to enable 3D surround sound (using Dolby or any other technology) on these headphones by buying a 3rd party USB sound card or mixamp. I dont think my on-board stereo sound card will suffice. I dont have any experience or knowledge about the right USB unit to activate 3D surround on the new headphone, so i would appreciate your help on this.
Which USB sound card or amp can i plug into my laptop and connect the Samson SR850 headphone to it and enable a true Surround sound experience (3D pinpointing of sounds in FPS games).
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Hi Guys. I would really appreciate narrowing down my choices after doing a long dedicated research with too many options in my hand.
 
I am looking for a Gaming headset to be used for FPS gaming and listening to some electronic music.
 
I mostly play: Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2 -  Call of Duty Series - and other modern shooters.
 
My platform:
 
HP Pavilion DV6-6096 Laptop
Soundcard: On-board IDT High definition with BEATS Audio Technology.
Sound input: Three 3.5mm jacks and USB 3.0 inputs.
 
Requirements listed according to priority:
 
1) Positioning of in-game enemies in terms of DIRECTION(as close as 360 degrees and not just left and right)+DISTANCE. Distinguishing footsteps. (Similar to the AD700 experience)
2) Immersion in terms of sound clarity and detail level, richness of explosions and bullet sounds, and hearing sounds i couldn't hear before.
3) Plug and play: The Headset should be full functional when plugged to my built in sound card on my laptop. I dont mind buying a USB sound card that supports Dolby Surround if you name me one. (Do i need it?)
 
So I'm looking for a compromise between excellent in-game positioning (and 3D audio mapping) and a high quality bass rich sound in one headset.
 
Budget: Between 40 and 80 dollars max including shipping. I live in France. Dont worry about that, i just need the name of the One headset.
 
Narrowed down list: People on this forum suggested to similar users to get the:
 
1) Samson SR850: 50mm drivers. up to 30KHz response. Users on Head-fi claim it to have an excellent soundstage and detail level almost similar to the AD700 AND it offers better bass. But it lacks long term comfort. I am not sure about how well it performs in positioning the enemy (direction+distance); if this happens to be also covered decently by the SR850 then i am going for it. 49 Euros
 
2)JVC HA-RX700 (plus modding?): a good bang for the buck! Anyone can give more insight on its performance in FPS games?comes with 50mm drivers. 41 Euros
 
3) Shure SRH440: 40mm drivers, up to 22KHz response.Recommended by a forum member. More Expensive: 75 Euros.
 
A general rule of thumb was that I should get a Headset that has a good neutral bass which i can lower down for better in-game positioning rather than a headset with little or no bass which provides synthetic quality audio if I am to manually increase its bass. (like the AD700).
 
My list of candidates before coming to this forum:
 
4) Corsair HS1 USB: also offers 5.1 Surround, can perceive sounds from the sides but Not quite well from front and rear. It beats the Creative tactic3D sigma Headset (Stereo) in gaming due to its surround features. 76.9 Euros
 
5) Creative Draco HS-850 Gaming Headset: 0-20KHz ,  40mm. It has a 40% discount and claims to offer great directional positioning. Not high end. On sale @24 Euros down from 49.
 
6) Atari Live Gaming headset: low impedance, microphone freq response up to 16KHz, looks cool but no reviews. On sale @ 23 Euros down from 40
 
Based on your experience with any of those in the list, please help me choose one of those to match my requirements listed above. I am not sure if i need a true 5.1 Surround Headset for better positioning, feedback on this forum related to this subject got me confused.
 
Thank you.
 
EDIT:
For those who vote for the Samson SR850, please write a line or two on how well it performs in positioning the enemy (direction+distance) in FPS gaming -Thanks.

 

[fabio-fi]

Not a hardcore gamer (i game occasionally), but i think the SR850's are pretty accurate and immersive for games. 

 

[Eric_C]

You might want to try asking this in Mad Lust Envy's gaming thread.

 

[NamelessPFG]

It doesn't help that I haven't tried any of those headphones, mostly just the AD700, a vintage Stax Lambda (which will exceed your budget), and the HTF600. But you can rest assured that a competent stereo headphone with Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D Headphone will give you all the surround you need. (If you don't want to buy a USB sound device to get one of those two, you can look into MyEars.)
 
You're definitely better off asking in the Mad Lust Envy thread for this sort of thing.

 

[ronfifer]

Quote:

It doesn't help that I haven't tried any of those headphones, mostly just the AD700, a vintage Stax Lambda (which will exceed your budget), and the HTF600. But you can rest assured that a competent stereo headphone with Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D Headphone will give you all the surround you need. (If you don't want to buy a USB sound device to get one of those two, you can look into MyEars.)
 
You're definitely better off asking in the Mad Lust Envy thread for this sort of thing.

 
Thanks
 
I had the Panasonic HTF600 on my list too but I filtered it out because I heard people who experienced both the Samson SR850 and the HTF600 saying the Samson came in first in gaming.