5.1 gaming (speakers) - worth it?

[Gimpymoo]

Is it worth the effort?

Had my Z5500 for years and only ran in 3.1, is 5.1 gaming worth the effort of running the cables etc?

Any worthy 5.1 gaming experiences specifically?

 

[Gimpymoo]

I have had my z5500 since 2009, great piece of kit , and running in 5.1 but I struggle to really notice 5.1

Thing is, it's sadly very variable. For every Titanfall 2 'Trial by Fire' masterpiece there's 100 other games with poor mixing in general or that barely use the surrounds.

That was my concern.

I do think the days of 3D hardware driven sound was the pinnacle, never really recovered when MS screwed up the DX sound api.

I was thinking that with gaming being more accepted in the mainstream as something in the "living room" more effort would be made regarding surround sound, especially thinking of console releases which are played in the living room but people seem to be less interested in audio nowadays, slap in a budget soundbar and be done with it which totally suck.

I do find when supported, 3.1 is a good compromise, works VERY well on a PC setup to separate dialogue but a lot of times, devs do not even get that right and they mix it with the L/R channels for some reason.

Everyone talks about graphics enhancements but sound seems to get more and more neglected in games. The movie industry gets it right but games seem well behind.

Then again, on a seperate topic, current generations seem less interested in audio fidelity and just want convenience.