is it worth investing in some gameing headphones

They don't have perfect sound, although that headset it by no means the worse (and yes I have some, and have one of the original fatal1ty cards, although I dont use it anymore). Music wise they're pretty horrid though, and I much prefered the old PC160 headset I had in comparison.
 
I'm thinking of getting a headset/headphones and have a question for some of you. Say you use your sennheisers for gaming, what do you do for a mic? Have one on a stand or something?
 
bibalasvegas said:
I'm thinking of getting a headset/headphones and have a question for some of you. Say you use your sennheisers for gaming, what do you do for a mic? Have one on a stand or something?
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Any mic you want effectively, some use desktop stand mics, some use clip-ons, some people even DIY I mic onto the headphones.
 
my brother had a set of 5.1 medusa's, and they sounded terrible compared to my 2 years old sennheiser pc150's i had at the time. he borrowed them from some LAN party his mate held, he came back amazed how much better my pair was... emphasising how easier it was to hear where people were coming from in CS.

The problem with the 5.1 sets is that the sound sources are not in the right place. yeh, sure theyre further back or further forward in the cups than the centre channels, but they don't sound naturally correct. Put that up against a headset with decent psychoacoustics being output, like the sennheisers, and the sennheisers will always come out on top.

Wikipedia psychoacoustics if u dont know what im on about, but basically its the study of sounds from different directions, then the differences in those being applied to these sounds. For example, things above you sounding more tinny, and the lack of low frequencies... then these characteristics being applied to a sound source from above... job done
 
I'm in the same scenario as the OP.

I had a set of Medusa 5.1s and to be frank they were horrible.. couldn't tell if ppl were coming from the left or right in CSS.

So.. since a mouse has chewed through the wirse I am classing it as a sign that I should replace these properly this time.

The Sennheiser HD 555s are on OCUK for ~60 and I've found another place selling Sennheiser HD 595s for unde 100.

Having read this thread.. should I get either of those 2 sets and then add a clip on mic?
Where would I get a decent mic from?

And.. would it be a case of, since I also have a xi-fi music card, setting 3D CMSS off and then setting my games to 5.1?

Thanks.. nearly bought the Razer 5.1 set 2night.. so glad I checked here first :)
 
Let me first say that I have neither a "5 channel" headset nor a stereo headset at present, since I am currently using a cheap Creative 5.1 system driven by a X-Fi Xtreme Music.

Shortly however I will be able to contribute more effectively to this debate as I am buying some stereo headphones (probably Sennheiser HD595 or HD600s).

I am certainly going down this route as I also like to listen to music loudly without disturbing the neighbours, however for gaming purposes I am torn as to the best solution.

Imagine for a second that music was irrelevant to this argument and that gaming was the only consideration. In this case, music quality and arguably even quality of sound is relatively unimportant. For gaming, positional accuracy and detail of effects is surely the most important thing, and I keep asking - how can headphones with drivers placed specifically to convey directional sound be less good for gaming than some similarly priced stereo headphones, using audio hocus-pocus to trick the brain into believing certain sounds are coming from behind it and others from in front?

"Go and read to find out" some of you will be screaming, which I will do later on, as well as listen to that YouTube clip.

I suppose I'm going to find out how good stereo headphones can be at surround sound quite shortly, so I'll post back then.
 
For gaming needs get a 5.1 head set.

I have HD555s working with cmss3d sound superb, positioning ok.

Medusa 5.1 sound ok - positioning perfect.

The problem with cmss3d is that whilst it gets simulated that something is happening behind you, it's very quiet.

Where the medusas 5.1 get completely different audio from all the drivers.

For example left4dead:

With the medusas i can hear the tank exactly where he is coming from miles away. if he's coming from behind you can only hear him from the rear drivers and no sound of him in the center or front.

with the hd555s and cmss3d, by the time i can hear where he's coming from its too late and you can already see him. Also if something "loud" is happening in front of you - you can hear **** all from behind...

No matter what everyone says and I do love my sennheisers for music.
But for 3d positioning nothing beats 5.1 headsets.
 
Gecco said:
For gaming needs get a 5.1 head set.

I have HD555s working with cmss3d sound superb, positioning ok.

Medusa 5.1 sound ok - positioning perfect.

The problem with cmss3d is that whilst it gets simulated that something is happening behind you, it's very quiet.

Where the medusas 5.1 get completely different audio from all the drivers.

For example left4dead:

With the medusas i can hear the tank exactly where he is coming from miles away. if he's coming from behind you can only hear him from the rear drivers and no sound of him in the center or front.

with the hd555s and cmss3d, by the time i can hear where he's coming from its too late and you can already see him. Also if something "loud" is happening in front of you - you can hear **** all from behind...

No matter what everyone says and I do love my sennheisers for music.
But for 3d positioning nothing beats 5.1 headsets.
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Well with my Xonar DX & Dolby Headphone (Senn HD595's) positioning is perfect and far exceeds what the Medusa's could do.

I can pinpoint the horde in Left 4 Dead with ease, it sounds like CMSS-3D is inferior to Dolby Headphone or maybe you don't have something set up correctly.

For 3D positioning, nothing beats a good pair of stereo headphones with a sound card capable of Dolby Headphone, not sure what CMSS is like as I haven't used it with the 595's before.

If you like hearing stuff come behind you faintly with no bass in the rear speakers, by all means the Medusa's are the cans for you. I don't think you should simply tell him to get a 5.1 headset as many, many people experience better results with stereo + Dolby Headphone/CMSS. I cannot understand how you find your 555's + X-Fi worse than the Medusa's for gaming as my experience blows the Medusa's out of the water in every way possible.
 
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I use a pair of Audio Technica ATH-A900 stereo headphones. They're great for everything. The "surround" headphones are a gimmick and there aren't any real quality sets made just yet.
 
Margaret said:
For 3D positioning, nothing beats a good pair of stereo headphones with a sound card capable of Dolby Headphone, not sure what CMSS is like as I haven't used it with the 595's before.
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Laughing my fornicating bottom off.... of course thats why all the cinemas in the world just have two speakers, one either side of the audience.

now in reality for 3d positioning you need mutiple speakers. and that is a FACT.

now to say that set A of high quality headphones beats set B surrond sound headphones is a matter of oppinion as everyones ears are different, and people prefer different things. this is also a FACT

(before you tell me that im wrong just think if we all liked the same thing there would only be on food on sale, one type of car to drive, one television channel with one programme....EEEKKKK etc:) )

to the opening poster and anyone else interested in a gamming suround sound headset, they work quite well and they give a good feeling of surroundsoundedness:p(depth) when they are set up correctly.
likewise a nice set of headphones married up to a 3d soundcard will give decent results also, it will be up to you which you think is better.

if you want to use your headphones/headset for more than just gaming then the two speaker headphones are more versitile in my humble oppinion.


for the record i own a set of medusa's and i find them brilliant, it did take quite a while to set them up correctly for my likeing but i think it was worth it.


of course it goes without saying, feel free to now go ahead and tell me i am wrong and i dont know what i am talking about, i mean they are only my ears what do i know.....:rolleyes:
 
bru said:
Laughing my fornicating bottom off.... of course thats why all the cinemas in the world just have two speakers, one either side of the audience.

now in reality for 3d positioning you need mutiple speakers. and that is a FACT.
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No, you don't. Why don't we have more than two ears? Because with two ears you can exactly pinpoint where a sound is coming from. Thus, with the exact processing applied to two channels (one on each ear) you can stimulate this sensation. The processing is, put simply, minute differences in the time that the sound hits each ear. If it hits one ear first then the source of the sound is closer to that ear.

The reason that you have surround SPEAKERS is that the speakers can supply sound to BOTH of your ears, thus the same sound from one speaker arrives at both your ears, but slightly delayed to the ear furthest from that speaker.

With headphones, all the speakers are right next to your ears, and only feed one ear at a time. The only advantage to surround headphones is (apparently) being able to change the volume of separate channels. But this is obviously not what people buy them for...
 
anything that does not have sounds actually comming from different places is just tricking you into thinking the sound is coming from different places, now dont get me wrong the way modern sound cards do this is very good indeed, and lets just remember here that regardless of how good your headphones are they will only play the sounds that the sound card sends them and it is the 3d jigery pokery on in the sound card that creates that illusion of surroundsoundedness(depth).

so i stand by my earlier coment
bru said:
now in reality for 3d positioning you need mutiple speakers. and that is a FACT.
Click to expand...
 
But if you have, for example, 7 speakers, the soundcard decides what position the enemy is at, and sends different sounds to different speakers. Your TWO ears then receive this sound, and due to it being to your left, the left ear hears it slightly louder, and earlier.

Now, consider only having two speakers, right next to your head. Like a pair of headphones. Instead of splitting the sound up into 7 channels and then having your ears re-interpret it you can simply play the "clever" sound through two channels, and potentially your ears will hear exactly the same sounds, with exactly the same subtle phase shift as with the surround speakers.

So I disagree with your statement that you need multiple speakers for 3d positioning. It's not a fact. And the reason is in bold just above.

Sound can only get into your head in TWO discrete places, your two ears. So it MUST be possible to do 3d positioning with 2 speakers, right next to your ears.
 
bru said:
anything that does not have sounds actually comming from different places is just tricking you into thinking the sound is coming from different places, now dont get me wrong the way modern sound cards do this is very good indeed, and lets just remember here that regardless of how good your headphones are they will only play the sounds that the sound card sends them and it is the 3d jigery pokery on in the sound card that creates that illusion of surroundsoundedness(depth).
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We know...

now in reality for 3d positioning you need mutiple speakers. and that is a FACT.
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WRONG.
 
For positioning surround speakers are better. Fact.

For positioning with headphones it's personal taste, but I'm in the 5.1 headsets are a gimmick camp, as they don't sound as good and stereo can's are getting better and better at positional stuff with the software.

For example of how good surround can be with stereo listen to the virtual barber shop above. You telling me that that can be better with 5.1? It wouldn't, but because no matter what it's never a seemless transition between speakers in 5.1, if you listen hard enough you can always tell when which crappy tinny speaker it's coming from, and that for me ruins any immersion it creates.
 
Pred said:
^ ^
Fight !
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harryhillfightzv9.jpg
 
All this arguing, tut tut, just think about how lucky you are to have the ability to hear. Think of all those deaf people out there that will never experience positional audio.... shame on you all
 
I cherish my hearing. That's why I don't expose my ears to ear bleeding bad sound form the likes of the medusa's :p

j/ks
 
To the doubters, try listening to this with standard headphones and tell me you can't do surround through 2 headphones:

 
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