This week only headphones. Plantronics GameCom 777 or SpeedLink Medusa NX 5.1 ?

Which one?

Also, are you looking the mentioned headsets because you want phones with a microphone, or because you are mainly looking at 5.1 sound?
 
I have the original XFI (Xtreme Music?) and the fatality edition.

I am looking for both a mic and 5.1 really. I don't want a set that need to be amplified, and something that I could plug direct into the sound card would be good.

Cheers.
 
Yes you have same one as me then. If you have a good pair of stereo phones, then the X-Fi will produce a very good surround sound effect. The problem with these 5.1 phones is, whilst they might be fine for gaming, if you should so wish to use them for music, that's when they fall flat on their proverbial face. Many users on here have dumped the Medusa's in favour of a decent pair of stereo phones, coupled with an X-Fi that has CMSS 3D or a Xonar with Dolby Headphone and have been pleased they did so.

Of course though, buying stereo phones will mean either a desk mic or a clip on one. Are you looking to spend no more than what the 5.1 headsets cost around, £50?
 
Same question here, I just need a package that has it all, mic and 3D surround. I already decided to grab the Xonar DS PCI, which sounds cheap. Is Medusa NX the way to go?
 
If you have already bought the DS, then maybe. I would say no normally, get some decent stereo phones. The Xonar DS which I have in my HTPC, however has no surround sound effect for headphones, only speakers. The more expensive DX or D1 has Dolby Headphones which does a great job with surround sound and stereo phones.

If you have not bought the DS yet, imo go for the DX or D1 whichever slot you have spare and get some Goldring's as Mike mentioned. Doesn't have to be the DR150, as they are £60. The DR50 are insanely cheap at £15, and Beep dumped his 5.1 Medusa's in favour of those and was very happy. :)

Of course thought that does mean buying a separate mic, Speedlink does a clip on one, which I think quite a few people use paired with their stereo phones. Or you could get a desk one.
 
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Same question here, I just need a package that has it all, mic and 3D surround. I already decided to grab the Xonar DS PCI, which sounds cheap. Is Medusa NX the way to go?
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Yep - Xonar DX or D1 with stereo headphones is probably the best 'affordable' option.

The DS isn't really intended for 3d headphone use. You could use it to send a DTS signal to a receiver that would do the headphone surround thing for you - something with Dolby Headphone (Denon, Marantz, Harmon Kardon) or Silent Cinema (Yamaha) maybe. The cheapest receiver / headphone amp I know of is the Victor SU-DH1, which you can import via auction sites. It's the Japanese version of JVC unit that lets you use an AC adaptor. The JVC version only takes batteries and eats them pretty quickly.

There are a few standalone Dolby Headphone sets. To use it with the DS you would need one with Optical in that will take a DTS signal. These are pretty rare.

Do not get a USB dolby headphone (or other surround) set. These are universally worse than a Xonar for EAX compatibility in games.

Unless you plan to use a receiver or dedicated Dolby Headphone set with a games console or DVD / Blu Ray player it would just be easier and cheaper to go for the Xonar DX or D1 in the first place though. I'll echo the advice about not getting the DS, or selling it if you already have it. It's a pretty good card for HTPC use with speakers but it's not really for gamers using headphones.

I would steer clear of the Medusas (used to have a set myself) and all other 5.1 sets. They're generally overpriced and the multiple-drivers-in-each-earcup design is flawed; it's incapaple of producing natural sounding surround sound without some additional signal procesing. To my knowledge, no consumer audio device or soundcard acutally does the processing that would be needed to make it work.
 
CMSS-3D is a lot easier to set up than it used to be. With recent drivers you just hit the 'optimise for headphones' box in gaming mode on the X-Fi. Also make sure the CMSS-3D settings Elevation Filter and MacroFX are set to 'auto'. The CMSS-3D tab also lets you do a listening test to make sure it's working.

In game settings need to be for 5.1 or 7.1 too, not headphones, if you have the option.

Please note the above only applies to X-Fi - not Xonar cards.
 
Hmm. I'm running a Prelude at the moment. It was there on an Xtreme Music I was using a couple of months ago (OEM version SB0770 rather than the usual retail SB0460). Come to think of it, I may have been using modded or beta drivers at the time.

Maybe it's an Auzentech innovation?

Just wondering Rroff - on your Xtreme Music do you still get the options for MacroFX and Elevation filter if you set speakers to 5.1 or 7.1?
 
If I select 5.1 or 7.1 in windows control panel and headphone mode in the creative drivers they are still there - I'll check see if they are still there with 5.1 selected in both.
 
With 5.1 or 7.1 selected as the output the macroFX options dissapear and are replaced with settings for upmixing stereo streams to surround and expanding the surround soundstage.
 
Cheers - that's what I thought.

Basically neither of them work once you go over 4.0 speakers (actual not virtual), something Creative have kept rather quiet in their marketing materials. I've done some listening with 4.0 vs 5.1 in a few games and it can make a huge difference.

Just wanted to make sure it wasn't just the Auzentech cards that were affected.

Edit: For the CMSS-3d headphone to work properly on the Prelude you still need to select the right number of chanels for windows. I believe the 'optimise for headphones' tick-box used to be called something like 'syncronise with windows'. Is that more like what you have?
 
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