Recently I made a thread discussing how I was torn between buying a surround sound headset (medusa 5.1, Razer Barracuda, Razer Megalodon, Logitech G35 etc) or, with my Asus Xonar D2X already purchased, some 2/2.1 headphones.
This thread can be found here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14209211&posted=1#post14209211
The general consensus was that with a good sound card, headphones were infinitely better than the widely regarded "gimmiky" headsets. It followed a pretty logical train of thought, orienting around the fact that you only have 2 ear drums, and how the human brain uses time differences between noises in each ear to locate the source, not the actual "direction" that the noise came from. By that logic, surround sound sets were redundant. So I took the plunge and got myself a set of Beyerdynamic DT880's to compliment my Asus Xonar D2X, my decision was largely based on this guide:
http://base.teamxbox.com/43202/
For a headphone set worth £200 I had high expectations. The Beyers came through the post today, and I was giddy with excitement, which was only heightened when I first put them on. They sat beautifully and comfortably on my head, the soft leather padding cushioning my scalp, and the deep ear pads preventing any squeezing what so ever, I liked them more and more every second. I put on a few MP3 tracks through them, and although people say to run them in for 200 - 300 hours, I could already tell they were very very good. I was hearing notes I never knew existed and my songs were all the better for it.
With tingles coursing down my spine due to my revitalised songs, I quickly loaded up Counter Strike: Source to test the gaming potential of these headphones - realistically the only reason I purchased them.
Initial thoughts were, as I fully expected, that these sounded just like every other stereo headphone I had tried in a 3D gaming environment - crap. They sounded just like headphones, 2 channels and boring - but I knew hadn't setup my Xonar correctly yet, the Beyer's were nothing without the "Dolby Headphone" software, so I started tweaking with that.
Hours of blind tweaking, googling and tweaking a bit more came and went, and eventually I believed I had them sounding as good as they were going to get; disappointingly though, this "good as they were going to get" wasn't that good at all.
They were respectfully depicting surround sound, but their accuracy of the sound just wasn't that good. In comparison to the Medusa's I was running a few months ago (before they broke) their performance was woeful. You could tell general direction of noise but the precision just paled in comparison. This was supplemented by the inability to change the volume of individual channels (because there's only 2, not 5). Sound was too loud from the front left and front right virtual speakers, to the extent that it matched the centre one. This resulted in highly reduced audio spatial awareness and as far as I am aware, there is no way to change it. With Surround sound sets, you just adjust the individual channel volume - simple. Sound was also practically indistinguishable from behind. You could hear noise but it was as if someone had put a big cloth rag behind your head and the sounds were muffled trying to get through.
Now, where as the above problems were problems I believe lay in the limitations of 2D to 3D audio technology which lies in the Xonar’s department, so the Beyer’s were not directly to fault and I would like to state that they are amazing headphones. I just don’t believe that true gaming surround sound can be implemented with anything other than headset, and after trying both sides of the fence, I think I’ll stick with the one that works in the future.
As to not completely disregard my own potential incompetence, if anyone knows the appropriate XP settings for a Xonar D2X and headphones to get crystal surround sound, please do share because at the moment, my heart and faith in headphones has sunk.
This thread can be found here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14209211&posted=1#post14209211
The general consensus was that with a good sound card, headphones were infinitely better than the widely regarded "gimmiky" headsets. It followed a pretty logical train of thought, orienting around the fact that you only have 2 ear drums, and how the human brain uses time differences between noises in each ear to locate the source, not the actual "direction" that the noise came from. By that logic, surround sound sets were redundant. So I took the plunge and got myself a set of Beyerdynamic DT880's to compliment my Asus Xonar D2X, my decision was largely based on this guide:
http://base.teamxbox.com/43202/
For a headphone set worth £200 I had high expectations. The Beyers came through the post today, and I was giddy with excitement, which was only heightened when I first put them on. They sat beautifully and comfortably on my head, the soft leather padding cushioning my scalp, and the deep ear pads preventing any squeezing what so ever, I liked them more and more every second. I put on a few MP3 tracks through them, and although people say to run them in for 200 - 300 hours, I could already tell they were very very good. I was hearing notes I never knew existed and my songs were all the better for it.
With tingles coursing down my spine due to my revitalised songs, I quickly loaded up Counter Strike: Source to test the gaming potential of these headphones - realistically the only reason I purchased them.
Initial thoughts were, as I fully expected, that these sounded just like every other stereo headphone I had tried in a 3D gaming environment - crap. They sounded just like headphones, 2 channels and boring - but I knew hadn't setup my Xonar correctly yet, the Beyer's were nothing without the "Dolby Headphone" software, so I started tweaking with that.
Hours of blind tweaking, googling and tweaking a bit more came and went, and eventually I believed I had them sounding as good as they were going to get; disappointingly though, this "good as they were going to get" wasn't that good at all.
They were respectfully depicting surround sound, but their accuracy of the sound just wasn't that good. In comparison to the Medusa's I was running a few months ago (before they broke) their performance was woeful. You could tell general direction of noise but the precision just paled in comparison. This was supplemented by the inability to change the volume of individual channels (because there's only 2, not 5). Sound was too loud from the front left and front right virtual speakers, to the extent that it matched the centre one. This resulted in highly reduced audio spatial awareness and as far as I am aware, there is no way to change it. With Surround sound sets, you just adjust the individual channel volume - simple. Sound was also practically indistinguishable from behind. You could hear noise but it was as if someone had put a big cloth rag behind your head and the sounds were muffled trying to get through.
Now, where as the above problems were problems I believe lay in the limitations of 2D to 3D audio technology which lies in the Xonar’s department, so the Beyer’s were not directly to fault and I would like to state that they are amazing headphones. I just don’t believe that true gaming surround sound can be implemented with anything other than headset, and after trying both sides of the fence, I think I’ll stick with the one that works in the future.
As to not completely disregard my own potential incompetence, if anyone knows the appropriate XP settings for a Xonar D2X and headphones to get crystal surround sound, please do share because at the moment, my heart and faith in headphones has sunk.
