Which Medusa 5.1 Headset?

jubei

jubei

jubei

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Medusa progamer/home or the Barracudas?

I have decided to buy myself a decent headset as i have avoided wearing headphones for a long while due to my logitechs being uncomfortable to wear.

However, being unable to get my creative speakers to do 5.1 surround with this onboard sound on the Asus PK5 Premium and my friend continuously praising his barracudas for positional sound i am gonna treat myself.

Does anyone know the major differences between the medusa home and medusa progamer headsets? What exactly is the amp needed for? seems an odd addition to a headset no?

Are Barraccudas recommended over the medusas or whats the general view of them both? If anyone has tried both i would really appreciate your input.

Finally do i want USB edition headphones or just normal ones with the usb power lead? Is tehre a big difference?

Thanks all, will be ordering today so sooner i get reponses the better, have a good day :)
 
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I wouldn't recommend any headset i would look at getting the best open headphones for your budget and have a separate mic or clip on.
 
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Well i currently use a labtec stand alone mic that is excellent quality. However for portability i would like one built in if poss. Also the 2 headsets i mentioned both come with one anyway.

Is the barracuda worth the extra money over the medusa set? I am getting very mixed reviews on the medusas. IGN say they are the best things ever, better than barracudas. Other people all talk about having to rma for random faults and how the positional sound is better on razer.

Razer are twice the cost though which means i want a definitive 'yeah razer are better' before i shell out.
 
From what i have heard and read £40 + headphones are miles better than any headset such as the koss hq1 £30 ish / equation audio rp21 £40-£45 next best is probably sennheiser hd555 then Grado sr60.
I truly believe you'll be doing your ears huge favour not getting a headset you can buy mics that clip on to any headphones i think.
I know this is a thread asking which medusa to get but i couldn't help but invade the thread and beg you to get decent headphones and separate mic.
People who rave about these headsets have probably never heard sound through decent headphones.
I have equation audio rp21 and it's the best sound i have ever heard positioning in cs source is perfect to my ears.
 
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Does anyone know if there is a major quality difference between the home and the pro gamer version as i am still finding mixed reviews and i want to get the best sounding ones possible.
 
I agree with C64. I'm no audiophile myself, by any means. Like you, I had some Creative 5.1 speakers, although I did get 5.1 sound with my ASUS P5K Deluxe. Anyway, I had both the Pro Gamer and Home Edition versions of the Medusas and both were absolutely useless. I sent the Pro Gamer one back straight away as I was sent that by mistake (I had actually ordered the Home Edition), although not without trying it first.

I didn't notice any differences in the audio quality between the 2, since both were very, very poor. There was very little bass, and the "subwoofer" speakers inside each cup only worked in conjuction with the "front" speakers. So if, for example, sound is coming from behind you, it'll sound very tinny.

The reason I chose the Home Edition over the Pro Gamer was because of the amplifier. I wanted to be able to have my speakers and headphones connected simultaneously, and the amplifier allowed for this and enabled me to switch between the 2 very easily. However, the actual headphones were useless.

I sent those back I bought myself a desktop microphone and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros. Even though these are only stereo headphones, they're far better for positional audio than the Medusas by miles. Plus, the audio quality is actually good--great, in fact!

I highly recommend you consider a pair of stereo headphones instead of these generally poor-quality, surround-sound headsets marketed toward gamers. They use tiny, low-quality drivers in each cup, their build-quality is generally poor and sound awful for both music and gaming.
 
'5.1 headphones' are utter garbage.
They are expensive for what they are (crap), their sound quality is terrible and their speaker setup is very poor.

You are much better of with a decent set of open or closed back headphones.

If you really want all in one gaming headphones I can say that the senny 161's or the 166's are fantastic open headphones/mic combo with a very clear mic.

Some great quality proper headphones like HD485/555's or closed such as the HD280 or HD 215 would be a much better (and cheaper) alternative.

You can guess I'm a bit of a fan of senny products. :p
 
In the market myself for some good cheap phones and have decided on the £31 Goldring Dr100's.
The Allesandro ms-1 are also very good for around £60 imported from the states they are basically tweaked Grado sr60's But to a point where they match £100+ headphones, the goldring Dr150 are also worthy of mention in the £60 area as a lot of review places are saying better than the sennheiser hd555 and even the Grado sr80's.
 
Hi, I have the Medusa and Xfi.
medusa pro gamer that is. I don't know if the others are any better, but I adored my medusa. my left speaker broke, and I am still getting the RMA sorted with overclockers ( they arent good at RMAing products, no offense)

Now I have the Steelsound 5h V2, and the medusa is many times better than this headset.
 
I have the Medusa Home Edition headset. I really wanted a way to easily switch between the headphones and speakers. I also have two computers, the Medusa allowed me to connect two PC's and the headphones and allowed me to swap between them easily which was pretty important to me.

The headphones themselves are OK. As others have said the bass is a little weak. Once you get used it the surround kind of works, again it's not what I would call great. The build quality is again OK. Overall they are, you guessed it, ok. I thought getting the headset and "amp" for 40 quid was a decent deal. If I could find a relatively easy and cost effective way to have two computers connected to the same 5.1 speakers (open to suggestions) I don't know if I would buy them again. But they did offer me a straight forward solution to my requirements. I'm happy enough with them I guess.

I'm curious as to how positional audio in stereo headphones work.
 
I agree. But am I going to get that just putting on a set of stereo headphones for example? It didn't seem to work like that last time i used stereo headphones. :)
 
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I've owned both the Medusas and the Zalmans and IMO neither of them sound good, but the Medusas are better than the Zalmans (which are the worst headphones I've ever listenned to). The positional audio is completely useless on both sets though, it's just nothing like you get with 5.1 speakers. There's only the vaguest hint of front/rear positioning. Positional audio is the only selling point of these sets, and they can't do it remotely well, so they're basically pointless.

I honestly think you would be better off with a quality stereo headset (made by someone like Sennheiser), or even stereo headphones and a seperate mic as someone suggested above.
 
I have a set of Medusas (the original ones). Had them about 3 years and nothing's broken yet!

Set up correctly they are very good for their purpose: surround sound in games and movies. In stereo mode (for the models that support it) and with an external amplifier (not the one supplied - use a hi-fi amp or a dedicated headphone amp - it makes a huge difference) they are acceptable for music. I'd say about as good as a few £20-30 stereo sets I've heard. Granted they are not going to compete with more expensive
Grados etc, but they're not as bad as people make out.

To those complaining about lack of bass - you need to set the LFE crossover (or bass management) on your soundcard to approx 100 hz. The input source really makes a difference to them. I've used a yamaha ddp-2 receiver and onboard realtek sound with them. Both sounded poor and lacking bass. Neither source had decent options for setting LFE crossover. The problem is that the 'satellite' drivers really don't reproduce bass well, so there's a frequency gap that needs to be filled by the 'sub' driver. You get the same thing happening with surround systems with small satellites a lot. Some systems redirect the bass themselves but the medusas rely on the soundcard.

With a Club 3D Theatron DD (same chipset as X-mystique) or Audigy 2 set up correctly these are a serious set of surround sound cans, very clear with quite deep bass. I've tested them with reference tones and things do get rather messy for deeper bass. They still vibrate down to 20Hz but I'm pretty sure I'm only feeling it rather than hearing it down there.

I find their main problem is the dreadful supplied amp. It has practically no RF or EM shielding so they pick up a buzzing noise from my wi-fi and bleep horribly every time my mobile goes off. I've allieviated this a little with a ferrite ring and careful placement but it's hard to eliminate entirely. I get no interference at all using my Sony stereo amp. Using the medusas for surround sound, you're kind of stuck with the one provided though. The amp is poor for music. Compared to my other amp, it gives the headphones a rather harsh quality that's tiring on the ears.

Just aquired an X-Fi XtremeMusic so I should be able to report how that behaves with them later.

Edit - for positional audio, I find them quite good. The soundfield seems too 'wide' though. If I'm gaming and a character at the side of the screen speaks ("Look Mr Bubbles, it's an angel!") it sounds like they're a lot further to the side off screen. The trouble with surround sound headphone technology, both physical and simulated, is everyone has different ears. Surround sound speakers work well because the sound is actually coming from a certain direction so the sound is consistent with what you'd get in real life.
 
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C64 said:
In the market myself for some good cheap phones and have decided on the £31 Goldring Dr100's.
The Allesandro ms-1 are also very good for around £60 imported from the states they are basically tweaked Grado sr60's But to a point where they match £100+ headphones, the goldring Dr150 are also worthy of mention in the £60 area as a lot of review places are saying better than the sennheiser hd555 and even the Grado sr80's.
Click to expand...

Have you tried the Goldring DR100s yet? They're got a 5* rating in WhatHi-Fi?. Was thinking of getting a pair myself.
 
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