Headphones vs 5.1 cinema speakers for gaming?

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

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What do you prefer for single player games? For games like cod etc, yes headphones will be better for hearing footsteps etc.

I am wondering what is best for Survival horror type games

I all ready own £2000 AV setup, considering moving to headphones for gaming
 
Why not have both and get 5.1 surround headphones such as the Roccat Kave? They completely cancel the background noise so I find myself being more immersed in the game.
 
nightrider1470 said:
What do you prefer for single player games? For games like cod etc, yes headphones will be better for hearing footsteps etc.

I am wondering what is best for Survival horror type games

I all ready own £2000 AV setup, considering moving to headphones for gaming
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I dont understand why you have an expensive setup and are considering moving to headphones unless you're keeping your neighbours awake. Theres no way headphones will sound anywhere near as good as a proper setup. FWIW i have an asus D2X card that encodes to dolby digital live then i send it via toslink to my surround sound. I can still hear footsteps.
 
having both (granted not as expensive home cinema set up :p ) i like both for different things. for "try hard"/trying to do well in a competitive game I much prefer head phones, allows you to concentrate more on the sounds to get better directional sense. (stereo headset with dolby surround, also owned the kaves ;) ).

but I mostly use the home cinema with the ps3. now playing games on that kicks ass but have to turn it up a bit to get the best so not ideal for late night gaming (gotta think of my neighbours :p ) but loved the beast sound when playing MW2 single player and also **** myself silly when playing condemned 2.....JESUS!!!!!

but yeah... I mostly use headset as I use teamspeak to chat a lot so it's easier to balance game/voip levels and not transmit game audio back through the mic to my mates :)
 
I have a £300 sound setup and its not worth spending big money on it.

I've got a pair of BayerDynamic DT770 Pro headphones and a Asus Xonar Essence STX.

Don't get me wrong, the sound is fantastic, but there is very little difference between on board and a £50 pair of headphones compared to these.
 
LateX'Dog said:
I have a £300 sound setup and its not worth spending big money on it.

I've got a pair of BayerDynamic DT770 Pro headphones and a Asus Xonar Essence STX.

Don't get me wrong, the sound is fantastic, but there is very little difference between on board and a £50 pair of headphones compared to these.
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Would you say that's more an issue with the quality of sound in games?

As much as I dislike hype trains do you think TrueAudio will have the potential to make the more expensive/better kit shine?
 
=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
Would you say that's more an issue with the quality of sound in games?
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It could be, I'm assuming not every game uses the best audio quality, but i think the problem is telling the difference between them.

I had to send my DT 770's back for repair as the cable to the headphones broke, so i ended up using a £20 pair of Sen's, again i couldn't tell the difference.

So i think it all comes down to whether or not your a audiophile and you can really notice the difference in quality. I'd like to wager that around 80% of gamers couldn't tell the difference between a £500 sound card and headphone setup, compared to a on board with a cheapo set of heads.

I think we've reached the plateau of sound capture and playback and there is very little in the way of improving things that you can truly tell.

I remember back in 2000 and surround sound started coming out and a friend of mine had a 5.1 setup and then you could really notice something. But now headphones are what 7.1 or even 9.1 and every game comes with sound samples that utilize every channel.

So to sum, if you want to spends tons, go for it, but i doubt you'll get much in the way of return.

As much as I dislike hype trains do you think TrueAudio will have the potential to make the more expensive/better kit shine?
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What that sounds to me is there sticking a on board audio chip onto the graphics card (instead of the motherboard) to be able to not only charge more, but to having a 'bigger selling point'.

If I'm right, with a dedicated sound card of any type, the CPU pushes the sound information to the sound card to process instead of the CPU, which frees up the CPU to do other things. Possibly increasing FPS in games, but i think it's negligible the amount of gain you get.

Running the calculations to provide 3D audio over headphones and 2.1 speakers, or phantom speakers and above/below audio positioning in 5.1 setups is all very expensive. And for these reasons these effects aren’t used in current generation games. These are the kinds of effects AMD wants to bring (back) to PC gaming.
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Thats interesting to read.

To be clear here, nothing here is really groundbreaking; it’s merely a better implementation of existing ideas on positioning and reverb.
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http://www.anandtech.com/show/7370/amd-announces-trueaudio-technology-for-upcoming-gpus

I think sums it up
 
Dureth said:
Why not have both and get 5.1 surround headphones such as the Roccat Kave? They completely cancel the background noise so I find myself being more immersed in the game.
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1+
These Headsets rock I honestly wouldn't change them for anything out there.

True 5.1 - Check
True real Bass - Check
True Sub - Check
High quality 40mm speakers - Check
High quality Build - Check

Simply the Best :D
 
Sennheiser PC350's are better than the Kave. In fact any headsets/headphones advertised as surround sound 5.1/7.1 are usually a gimmick. I'm not saying the Kave is bad but it's definitely not the best.

Some good stereo headphones and a clip on/desk mic is better.
 
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Why would you suggest the Kave's? Virtual surround headsets are superior to headsets with "real 5.1" everyday and then you go could one better and get a proper nice stereo headset like Sennheiser, AKG or Beyer.

Most modern games use the HRTF principle so using either the in built stereo or using Dolby / EAX or similar will give you a closer reproduction of surround than a "real 5.1" and just remember if the sound is well developed in the studio a stereo headset will give you a far closer reproduction that virtual surround.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Oh btw I am a sound engineer (or rather was) and worked with some well known artists (kinda) The Cure, Snow Patrol, The View and others but don't believe me...cos "real 5.1" lelelel

edit..oh and don't even get me started on the dynamic range or frequency response of "real 5.1" headset with their multiple speakers.

edit 2... oh yeah but Kave's have "flash marketing hype words - check" bahahahah True real Bass, you gotta love dat true bass rather than all that fake bass.
 
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I've had the kaves (technically 6.2 as each cup has center, front, rear and sub ;) ) and the bass from them is amazing! wartapes on bfbc2 was just out of this world! the positional audio on these were excellent! I did have the speedlink medusa 5.1 (6.2 again) which weren't as good, direction was on but lacked the audio quality. did have a bass unit break on the kaves but they were replaced by the purple shirts with no hassle. this was using a xonar DX to drive them.

then I had some razer charcarias (spelling....can't even say it.... haha!). these were pretty decent too to be fair, a bit flat out of the box but some tweaks got them sounding good. but I found they felt heavy for me (crazy i know coming from the kaves) and also would make my ears burn :p the cloth would just bake my ears to the point of discomfort. that was using a xonar DX sound card.

I've now got the PC-350s and the xonar xense card in a bundle and mmmmmm.... tasty!!!the virtual dolby sound stage is awesome on it.... directional audio is simply amazing on them!!! they are a bit lacking in bass however :( especially coming from the bass happy kaves!!! out of the box they sound dull and flat but a few tweaks to the settings in the xonar/asus sound panel and they quickly come to life, much more vibrant feel to the sound and improved bass (but still lacking on the bass slightly).

the pc-360s i've have a short go of at lan and the bass response on these is a lot better.... but they are semi open backed so everyone else can hear it and it lets in ambient noise a bit more.

but yea. so long as the headset is decent then there's not all that much in it to be fair.... more just personal preference of how you like to hear sounds/music, like personally I like quite a bit of punching bass (wub wub wub n all that) and the kaves excelled at it as it had a dedicated massive driver per cup purely for bass. the bass is still rocking on the pc-350s but well as you know jack of all trades, you have one speaker doing everything there's going to be a tiny bit of compromise.


back to the OP point though, for horror games, I'd probably still go with the headset now as you can crank it up so you don;t miss any of the sneaky/scary little sounds ;) but if friends are round then out the tv system so we can all poop in our pants :D


edit: and I see joe has swooped in and trying to discredit my post before I've even posted it xD come on now joe, if you've ever used the caves with wartapes on bfbc2 then you know that is the for real bassizzle! but I do agree that the dolby soundstage on a decent stereo headset with a game that can use it is simply amazing.
 
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Suarez7 said:
Sennheiser PC350's are better than the Kave. In fact any headsets/headphones advertised as surround sound 5.1/7.1 are usually a gimmick. I'm not saying the Kave is bad but it's definitely not the best.

Some good stereo headphones and a clip on/desk mic is better.
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I have used a good selection of headsets over the years and nothing comes close to the Kave my option.
These are not Virtual surround, they are true 5.1 and the difference is unreal. You can feel the sound coming from each speaker while playing BF4
The also have a nice Rumble/Sub feature that works class while shooting guns or explosions happening. etc

JGStonedRaider said:
Why would you suggest the Kave's? Virtual surround headsets are superior to headsets with "real 5.1" everyday and then you go could one better and get a proper nice stereo headset like Sennheiser, AKG or Beyer.

Most modern games use the HRTF principle so using either the in built stereo or using Dolby / EAX or similar will give you a closer reproduction of surround than a "real 5.1" and just remember if the sound is well developed in the studio a stereo headset will give you a far closer reproduction that virtual surround.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Oh btw I am a sound engineer (or rather was) and worked with some well known artists (kinda) The Cure, Snow Patrol, The View and others but don't believe me...cos "real 5.1" lelelel

edit..oh and don't even get me started on the dynamic range or frequency response of "real 5.1" headset with their multiple speakers.

edit 2... oh yeah but Kave's have "flash marketing hype words - check" bahahahah True real Bass, you gotta love dat true bass rather than all that fake bass.
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Far from it been there and used a load of decent 2.0/ virtual surround headsets.

Nothing comes close. Have you used the Kaves? Honest question?
 
In Sasso's next post..Use beats headphones cos SOO MUCH BASS WUB WUB STEP.

Sasso plss, Bass heavy head phones are for listening to beat / bass based music style's and not for accurate sound reproduction. If I want more bass I dial it in on my soundcard EQ which I do for movies. Footsteps are around the 1khz mark so how would bass help hearing those?

Back to OP get yourself a decent set of stereo (non gaming) headset and if you want to use TS a mod mic as well as you are an audiophile or just get Sennheiser 360's.
 
JGStonedRaider said:
In Sasso's next post..Use beats headphones cos SOO MUCH BASS WUB WUB STEP.

Sasso plss, Bass heavy head phones are for listening to beat / bass based music style's and not for accurate sound reproduction. If I want more bass I dial it in on my soundcard EQ which I do for movies. Footsteps are around the 1khz mark so how would bass help hearing those?

Back to OP get yourself a decent set of stereo (non gaming) headset and if you want to use TS a mod mic as well as you are an audiophile or just get Sennheiser 360's.
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I said it was more of a personal preference and that I like the punching base ;) and by your logic nothing wrong with a bassy set of headphones as I could just EQ the bass down then ;) I was just giving my opinions on them :D and the bass helped with the immersion/cinematic feel to running around the battlefield with massive explosions going off ;) I wanted it and they delivered xD

wow, such beats, much wub, so clarity. :p but yea I probably wouldn't go back to the kaves now #sennheiserfanboi
 
shankly1985 said:
I have used a good selection of headsets over the years and nothing comes close to the Kave my option.
These are not Virtual surround, they are true 5.1 and the difference is unreal. You can feel the sound coming from each speaker while playing BF4
The also have a nice Rumble/Sub feature that works class while shooting guns or explosions happening. etc



Far from it been there and used a load of decent 2.0/ virtual surround headsets.

Nothing comes close. Have you used the Kaves? Honest question?
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Yes I have, a mate has them and mostly Roccot stuff (nice mouse). Shockingly bad headset IMO, sound quality is poor and there is too much crossover / phasing a well as a very bass heavy frequency bias. However they look nice, that's about all I got for that headset.

Most virtual headsets reproduce positional audio far better than real 5.1 (bahahaha sorry, I gotta laugh) headsets not to mention sound 100% beter for music due to their full (or rather fuller) range single speakers per side so yes "the difference is unreal" as suckers pay money for marketing terms and lower sound quality.

edit...must throw all my audio equipment away inc vintage valve amp..don't have "true bass" so all that bass must be fake :'(
 
Ever Try using Sound card like Asus Xonar D2X and adjusting the sound profile? or using the Remote and adjusting the Levels? So if you want to hear more the back speakers you can do so. Want lower bass you can do so.

It's all about fine tuning them to fit your needs.

If you wanted to just hear the Center speaker over everything else you can do so. Try doing that with virtual headset, it will just lower the full speaker set.
 
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Love the Kaves, used a set for 2 years and can recommend them highly. Only downside is they do get uncomfortable after a cpl of hours. Currently using corsair vengeance 1500's and they are very comfortable and sound great, but i still miss the Kaves.
 
shankly1985 said:
As I thought - Dissing something without even Tried or Used them. Typical internet stories.
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refusing to listen to sense, typical internet fanboy.

Much True Bass
Such Real 5.1

shankly1985 said:
Ever Try using Sound card like Asus Xonar D2X and adjusting the sound profile? or using the Remote and adjusting the Levels? So if you want to hear more the back speakers you can do so. Want lower bass you can do so.

It's all about fine tuning them to fit your needs.

If you wanted to just hear the Center speaker over everything else you can do so. Try doing that with virtual headset, it will just lower the full speaker set.
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Yeah, I have an Asus soundcard. Why would you want to hear the centre speaker over everything else? Did you know that with the use of my fingers I can unplug one side of my headset and just listen to one side...nope, that made no more sense than your statement either
 
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