[Hamsterball_Z]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ularewolf You should call and find when they're in stock man, instead of driving everywhere, heh.

In stock? They don't carry them in the stores at all! In the case of Circuit City it's only available from the website. Fry's doesn't even have them on their's. Kinda surprising to me, Fry's carries other Zalman stuff, just not the headphones. Looks like a bad sign to me....

 

[Ularewolf]

From what I believe, it's for things not for cell phones. It's for video consoles it says. I think it's for PC as well.

And Hamster,

Huh, that's unbelievable! You should go to CompUSA and pick up LTB USB headphones, but go to www.compusa.com and check the in-stock item of the CompUSA stores near your zipcode.

 

[Hamsterball_Z]

Five stores listed in my area and all out of stock. My guess would be that this is a web only item for CompUSA as well.

 

[Ularewolf]

No man, it is in stores. It does not give you the choice to check if it's in stock near you unless it's in stores. Online only items says not in stores. And also, the 5 stores around me are out of stock, but a CompUSA in Manhattan says in stock. But no way am I driving 25 miles for it.

Also, I can't even buy the USB version headphones now. Reason is I'm getting a good sound card (Audigy) and well, I need either the AC'97 or a pair of SS headphones that plug into my sound card.

 

[mattbert]

Ularewolf,

You might want to checkout the Gainward Xplosion 5.1 headphones. You can get them for $30 at NewEgg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...06-450&depa=10

How good can they be for 30 bucks? I don't know, but if they suck you can always return them, and in my experience NewEgg always waives the restocking fee if you buy something else instead (they sell the LBS and Tritton headphones as well).

Here are some reviews, for what they're worth:
http://www.elitebastards.com/page.ph...d=1&comments=1
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Sound...Pack-Review/4/

Beauty is in the ear of the listener; headphones that sound great to one person may sound horrible to another. I purchased the Sennheiser 212 headphones based on the company's reputation and glowing reviews - they were the most terrible headphones I ever used, even worse than the cheapo set that came with my portable MP3 player. My favorite is the Koss Portapro - ugly as sin but the sound is incredible (to my ears anyway) - and they're less expensive than the Sennheisers.

 

[KGT]

The LTB's also come in an AC97 model with a microphone and are amplified using the USB port for power. You can order them and find more info at Pcrite.com.

 

[mattpwill]

My advice - spend at very least $70 on surround headphones, otherwise they will definately be crap

 

[Patrick Wolf]

It's been a year since the last post, are SS headphones still considered crap? How about a decent pair coupled with an X-Fi?

I found this interesting:

Medusa Banned from the Cyberathlete Professional League

The Medusa 5.1 Surround Headset was banned from the Cyberathlete Professional League, because it gave gamers who were equipped with the headset an unfair advantage over the others who weren’t so lucky!

 

[iliketuna]

back in the early days of pro gaming... thresh once refused to let his opponent use an optical mouse fearing he would have an unfair advantage. little did he know that first generation optical mice tended to skip, and would have greatly disadvantaged his opponent.

the cpl is just playing it safe over a little known technology.

 

[neoice]

I heard the cmss-3d thing the x-fi's have with a good pair of headphones (like the ath-a500) do a pretty good job of faking 5.1 sound. Who knows though, I'm considering getting both, since the a500s are good regardless.

 

[ComfyCan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Wolf It's been a year since the last post, are SS headphones still considered crap? How about a decent pair coupled with an X-Fi? I found this interesting: Medusa Banned from the Cyberathlete Professional League The Medusa 5.1 Surround Headset was banned from the Cyberathlete Professional League, because it gave gamers who were equipped with the headset an unfair advantage over the others who weren’t so lucky!

I have used, and loved the Pioneer surround sound decoder/wireless headphones since they first came out a couple of years ago:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...990338,00.html

They are amazing for watching movies. They are not amazing for listening to music. If you are looking for a solution for watching movies by yourself on a normal television with maximum impact, without disturbing others, this is the ticket.

They sound better than most home theatre systems, which suffer from poor acoustics. Check the reviews from people who have actually owned these. It's a good product.

 

[liRetro]

I have the Sony DP-IF3000 decoder/transmitter with the MDR-IF3000 headphones (basically the MDR-DS3000 system). As headphones they are comfortable and light enough to wear for about 2hours then they start wearing a bit on my ears but I have big dumbo flappers, so don't stress out about it. The drivers are 30mm with a 20-20khz range. The decoder is where the magic happens though so I'll discuss that first.

The decoder does DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital and Dolby PRO logic II with a digital optical in and a backup analog rca input. The decoder decodes the 5.1 into a virtual 3d stereo signal and broadcasts it through an analog infrared (I think one way) transmitter. The re-coding is probably where all the money goes because the infrared transmitter sucks. The analog transmission is what kills the audio quality since the receiving headphones have a constant hiss. I can increase the hiss by moving objects around me, though this takes considerable effort. Regardless of this shortcomming (which I think could be cheaply overcome with a simple digital conversion with spread spectrum double broadcasting & crc error checking at the cost of battery life) the hiss does not mask the better than average quality of the audio stream.

The headphones themselves are just wireless infrared receivers. To me they seem to have decent bass and good mid level clarity. The highs are not too bright though if I turn up the volume the mids and lows become underpowered in comparison, but I suspect that is the cost of using a weak power source. The 3d simulated stereo signal reproduced is not highly separated. In comparison I have heard A3D 2.0 produce better directional simulation sound, but I can still tell if something is occuring behind the focus. The drivers seem to have enough range to do better definition of location so I suspect the "virtual phones" technique needs some more work. All in all I got a very portable DTS decoder that does a decent enough job at 3d virtualization.

BTW: With the exclusion of your body picking up vibrations (including your skull), directional information should be perfectly replayable through earbuds. The problem may be though that everyone hears things differently due tot he shape of their ears, so unless a headphone can analyze how sound is changed by the lobe structure the 3d simulation may never be exactly the same as surrounding speakers (though it should come damned close).

BTW 2: I think Dolby sucks. After 5.1 audio encoding they should have made an N.1 channel spec. With equipment processing power being the determining factor of how many channels and speakers can be used. Each sound source should have positional data and the hardware should determine which speakers get what percentage of that sound sent to it... perhaps with suggested values embedded to give slower hardware some assistance. With this setup a chained usb/firewire/wifi setup could be used with speakers to achieve a litteral ball of sound.

 

[dqniel]

I personally have the Medusa 5.1's and enjoy them greatly for watching movies in 5.1. However, in game, attempting to use 5.1 results in poor positioning for some reason. I'm sure it depends on the game, but in every game I've tried (F.E.A.R., BF2, CoD and CoD2, HL2, CS:S, CS 1.6, and a few other random FPS) the positioning is more accurate with just 2 channels. They are comfortable and sturdy but heavy if you wear them a long time.

I think sound quality has a VERY important impact on being successful in FPS games. I'm on a current top 3 team for CoD2 in the USA and have previously played MOH:AA and CoD 1 on the best teams in the USA as well (feel free to look up the history for end-effect and [BoRo] in CEVO, CAL, TWL, GGL, and SG). My point in mentioning this is not to brag, but to show that I know what's important when prioritizing the factors that go into gaming successfully. Headphones with MINIMAL, tight bass (yes, you read that correctly) and clear mids and highs are a necessity when playing. You want the bass from a gunshot or explosion to be over and done with ASAP so that you can hear footsteps and the clear differentiation of your teamates on comms. Sure, booming bass from an easy-to-drive set of cans might be great for immersion in single player, but in competition where positioning of the enemy is of paramount importance you want less distractions and more clarity in the proximity of footsteps.

In short, for competitive gaming you want:

2 channels
Clear mids and highs
Lowest possible bass
Great comfort (raw ears distracts from gameplay

)
Separation from outside noise (only important when LANing or in another loud environment)

Now that you know what a gamer needs out of his headphones, the guys here with more experience will hopefully point you in the direction of a pair of cans that fits the bill

. The HD280's look like they'd probably suffice from what I've been reading.

 

[StealthR6]

So it sounds like your describing the Audio-Technica A900's

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StealthR6 So it sounds like your describing the Audio-Technica A900's

Or A900s being driven by a SU-DH1.