Quote:
Originally Posted by mbd2884 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I played Bioshock and Fallout 3 (not completely, among the few who got bored), and played it with sound off with just my music playing in the background. Made no difference to me at all.
Game sound overrated.
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You're effectively saying the equal of "Just buy a $20 headset for music since music is overrated." From you arguments, it sounds like you frequently only use your headset for VOIP and are effectively missing out on at least 40% of the game. I find it hard to believe you even enjoy games at all and by no right would I call you a gamer. The best games don't even require the use of a mic, which you seem to consider to be a necessity to all games. You are not a gamer, you are using games as an excuse to chat. Do yourself a favor, just drop gaming and install Skype. It's all you seem to really need anyways.
Anyone who has any appreciation for games should be able to feel the difference between hearing a monster creep up behind you and hearing a flat sound with no sense of direction or depth to it.
When it comes to games, it probably is impossible to beat a good 5.1 surround sound system. Headphones cannot hope to match a truly good surround sound system but even $20 cans can exceed cheap to moderately priced surround sound system(even some of the expensive surround sound systems are beaten senseless by $20 headphones since expensive != good). A good surround sound system will let you audibly detect and pinpoint a fly fart from across the map while maintaining sound quality that is true to the source. However, there are times when that is not an option. Like, you want to play your games without waking up the neighborhood or you just don't have anywhere to place the rear speakers or whatever.
In these cases you basically have to choose, quality of sound or quality of positional audio. You can't choose both because that doesn't exist in this world, yet. I can't speak from experience because I don't have the cash to blow on dozens of headsets ranging from $45 to $1000+ each. I can say that I have spent many days reading reviews and comparing endlessly to see what is most likely to be the best.
I personally have my eye on the
Medusa for 5.1 sound. I also have my eye on the
Plantronics 770 for comfort and over all sound quality per $ ratio. I'm likely to buy both and only use the Medusa when positional audio is critical but I've yet to find out how much I will even like the Medusa.
Of course, comfort and sound quality are a subjective thing and not everyone will agree on my choices, so I should at least explain why I have set my eyes on both headsets.
First, the Medusa is said to have unrivaled quality when it comes to positional audio(for headsets; it has 4 speakers per ear). I have yet to find anyone compare a true 5.1 headset to it and say that it was in any way better. Further, it is said to be a reasonably comfortable around the ear design. Personally, I like the idea of a headset that sits around the ear instead of on them because every headset I've tried that rests on my ears causes a great deal of pain to the point that I have to go the next day or two without wearing them, after a single extended game session. The problems with this headset are that the customer service and quality control seem to be lacking. Further, I'm sure this headset will sound like utter crap at producing quality sound compared to even headsets that are half the price due to sacrificing quality for better positional audio. This is why I say it is impossible to have both good positional audio and quality sound from the same headset. If anyone has experienced the Medusa headset and compared it to other headsets, feel free to correct me since I'm going solely on what I've seen others say. The gamers I know who use a Medusa absolutely love it. The audiophiles absolutely hate it.
The reason I find the 770 as an attractive choice is purely based on comfort. Again, the 770 is an around the ear design and said to be extremely comfortable. Further, it is said to have good sound quality for both headphones and mic. It is also about half the price of the Medusa and I wont have to pay international shipping if I get a DOA one(see support forums for further info, if you care).
People can argue sound quality until their ears bleed but the most important things to a gamer when it comes to sound are, above all else, comfort(without this, you may be limited to gaming only an hour or two at a time) followed by a mix of positional audio and sound quality. Comfort allows you to enjoy extended gaming sessions without headaches and without feeling like your ears will fall off. Positional audio adds a great deal of depth to a game since you can actually hear where a sound is coming from. Sound quality is important for all the same reasons as it is in anything else; the more realistic the sound is the more immersion you get and the more your ears will enjoy it. As for what headset will have the comfort you want and the mix of positional audio and sound quality that appeals to you can vary a great deal from person to person. If you absolutely need to be able to pinpoint the location of a sound, you're likely to find yourself sacrificing a lot of quality for correct positioning. On the other hand, a person can usually adapt to simulated positional audio on a headset that merely has good quality sound.
So far, I haven't even seen anyone make recommendations based on positional audio. This isn't surprising from a group that'd rather listen to music than play games. I'm no audiophile, I wont claim to be. I am, however, very serious about my games. I've been researching headsets a lot recently as I attempt to find one or two headsets to fulfill my gaming needs. I would be willing to spend almost any amount for a single headset to do everything but such a headset simply does not exist. Currently, I'm thinking about getting the Medusa for competitive play and the 770 for casual play. This is purely from the perspective of a gamer. If I were hardcore about music, I'd probably need a completely separate setup for music.
Oh, a final note for the OP, you don't need anything special in the way of a sound card. However, any 5.1 or better sound card is an upgrade over integrated sound simply because integrated sound eats CPU cycles(read: kills frame rates) and the more dubious ones can even make your entire system unstable(disable your integrated audio in the BIOS and uninstall the drivers for it if you add an expansion audio card). The better integrated sound cards wont sound any different but they will still eat into your CPU. If you're tired of Creative sound cards the Xonar DX made some waves recently in the gaming community. If you want some real comparisons of audio cards, you're going to have to do a lot of research and BS detection.
tl;dr: True 5.1 and comfort are for real gamers, VOIP whores need not apply.