Surround sound headphones!

Andr3w

Andr3w

Andr3w

Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
20,276
Location
England
Hi all, are surround sound headphones any good?

As my room is quite small I can't get a real 5.1 setup so thought the next best thing would be some decent headphones!

They will be using MOSTLY for PS3 gaming.

I've seen the Sennheiser RS 170 Closed Digital Wireless Headphone for £130ish at the rainforest shop, are these any good?

Would the headphones be plugged into the TV or the PS3's optical out?

Thanks for any advice!
 
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I've also seen the Sony DR-GA200 Gaming headset for about £80.

The only problem is all the headphones I find that have 5.1/7.1 have a built in microphone. I don't want a microphone!
 
No the RS range is stereo. For surround sound, you will need to use the PS3's optical connection. You will need headphones that use Dolby Digital and Dolby Headphone, in order to get surround sound. Turtle Beach X41, is such an example of what you would require.
 
If you don't want a microphone. another option would be something like an Astro A40 Mixamp, or a JVC Victor SU-DH1, to whch you can add headphones of choice.
 
There are other ways of doing 5.1 over headphones. Multiple drivers in each earcup is one. Dolby Headphone is one of many types of surround virtualisation.

Dolby Headphone is the most natural and realistic representation of 5.1 speakers I've tried over headphones so far but it is somewhat dependent on a user getting a decent match with it.

There are systems that can be calibrated to the user but they can cost thousands.
 
Are there any dolby headphones without a mic that would be good for gaming?

I ask this because I never use the mic and having one would just be a big PITA!
 
You could buy any decent headphones and spend the money on a good av receiver and sound card and run an optical cable from your sound card into your av receiver and then use the av receivers surround sound headphone features.

My av receiver only does stereo through the headphones but I find it to be good quality through the av receiver, as opposed to directly in to my sound card.
 
I do have a pair of Sennheiser HD 212Pro headphones that I used for my guitar amp.

I could just plug them into the headphone port on the TV but I fear the sound won't be as good as I could get, I also won't get that feeling of 5.1 :(
 
Just reaised that my TV doesn't have a jack for a headphones, it would have to come out of the optical port on the PS3
 
Dolby Headphone is designed to be simulate 5.1 over stereo headphones. Pretty much any Dolby Headphone capable receiver will take optical from the PS3.

The cheapest portable receivers are in the range of £50-100 - Turtle Beach DSS, Astro Mixamp or JVC/Victor SU-DH1. Denon, Harmon Kardon and Marantz all use Dolby Headphone in some of their full size AV receivers.
 
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