Zalman ZM-RS6F+M or Medusa 8790?

Angilion · 4 Apr 2006 at 22:54

I'm going to buy a 5.1 headset, for when I'm gaming in the middle of the night. Not as good as my speaker system, but better than stereo headphones for gaming.

Does anyone have any definite opinions on which of these two is better? OcUK have both in stock at about £30. Both come out well enough in reviews.

What I'd really like with whatever set I buy is a simple switch to choose between speakers and headset. Or, preferably, speakers, headset and headset, so I can keep my existing headphones for music, but that's just jam. The speaker/headphone switch would be handy. Am I right in thinking that the Medusa has one and the Zalman doesn't? Or is it only the Pro Gamer edition of the Medusa that has one?

I'm going to OcUK tomorrow to pick up a replacement on an RMA and I will buy something while I'm there (as usual), so it might as well be some 5.1 headphones. There's nothing else I need or want.

That's not quite true. There's nothing else I want that I can reasonably justify spending the money on

Aidoscuz · 4 Apr 2006 at 23:10

The Medusas definitely seem to be better than the Zalmans judging by people's comments here. I've got a set and they sound good to me. The amp's really handy as well, since I can keep my speakers plugged in at the same time. It comes with the regular edition as well as the pro gamer one. I'd say go for the medusas.

TooNice · 5 Apr 2006 at 00:10

Angilion said:
Not as good as my speaker system, but better than stereo headphones for gaming.

This is... disputed

Angilion · 5 Apr 2006 at 01:46

Aidoscuz said:
The Medusas definitely seem to be better than the Zalmans judging by people's comments here. I've got a set and they sound good to me. The amp's really handy as well, since I can keep my speakers plugged in at the same time. It comes with the regular edition as well as the pro gamer one. I'd say go for the medusas.

I have a 6.1 system (Audigy 2, Logitech 6.1 speakers+amp), though, and the medusa's amp is 5.1, right? I'm not sure that the connections are the same and, at best, I'd lose the rear centre speaker.

Hmm...decisions, decisions.

I want a new toy, and it's either 5.1 headphones or a serious upgrade, like an X-Fi and a new 7.1 speaker system, and that isn't worth the money to me.

Angilion · 5 Apr 2006 at 01:51

TooNice said:
This is... disputed

True, but there are enough people saying 5.1 headphones are better for gaming than stereo headphones for me to think it's worth trying £30 on a set. It's the new toy thing.

The next worry is whether they'll fit on my unusually big head. I've had trouble with full headphones before. In fact, I haven't worn a comfortable pair other than those horrible little foam affairs that will expand to fit any head size but sound like what you'd expect for a couple of quid.

Aidoscuz · 5 Apr 2006 at 16:43

Yep, the Medusa Amp says it's 5.1. Although as far as I know 5.1 and 6.1 use the same connections - can anyone confirm this? If they do you should be alright. And as for whether they'll fit comfortably, you probably don't have to worry. You can make them really damn big if you need to, I have mine on almost the smallest position and they feel really nice.

fish99 · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:33

Medusas are 5.1. For what it's worth I think stereo headphones are better for gaming than the Medusas or Zalmans (Medusas sound better than Zalmans btw). You get a better quality sound for your money and the 3d sound on these 5.1 headphones is pretty dodgy.

Angilion · 7 Apr 2006 at 00:41

Well, I bought a set. Rather silly packaging - black cloth, like a necklace on display in a jeweller's, and a red bow. With no sign that the cables were in a box underneath the cloth, which led to me wasting a couple of minutes thinking there was a problem.

Lots of different cables, to connect the Medusas to almost anything. If you happen to be beamed aboard the Enterprise in a bizarre temporal incident, you'll probably have the right cable to connect your Medusas to the Enterprise's systems

Comfy to wear, though a bit heavy, and they expand hugely. Good news for me and my big head.

It's handy to be able to have your main speaker set plugged in as well as the Medusas. There's a tidy little box for connections that has 5.1 outputs too - PC to box, box to speaker system, Medusas to box.

Aidoscuz - I can confirm it. 5.1 has left and right front over one cable, left and right rear over another cable and centre over a third cable. 6.1 simply has front and rear centre over that third cable.

However, it isn't possible to use a 6.1 speaker set as a 6.1 speaker set if you want to have your speaker set and your Medusas plugged in at the same time. To get that, you will have to swap connections at the back of your soundcard to switch between 6.1 speaker system and the Medusas. If you use the tidy little box to connect both at the same time, you will lose the rear centre on your 6.1, so you will have to configure to 5.1.

It also isn't possible to turn the headphones off. So if you turn your speaker set on, you will get everything through the headphones and the speakers. There are 3 volume controls for the headphones, though (front, rear, centre).

EDIT: Well, that's wrong

You can turn the headphones off on the Medusa connections box, the "5.1ch AMP", without stopping sound to the speakers. Which is a little odd - if it's a pass-through connection, i.e. not needing the "5.1ch AMP" box on, why does it lose the rear centre channel?

Having tested them, I'm with fish99. The 3D sound is indeed "pretty dodgy". Maybe I can configure it better, but the actual channels I have right now is:

left (instead of front left)
right (instead of front right)
centre
left and very slightly rear
right and very slightly rear

and, of course, a tiny fraction of the bass of a sub. Maybe 5.001 instead of 5.1

Rather mediocre, really.

TooNice · 7 Apr 2006 at 00:50

Angilion said:
Rather mediocre, really.

Either you had fairly high expectation/have heard better or you are pretty objective

It is usually hard for people to admit that their new toy are not the best thing since sliced bread

That said, do continue to experiment with it, you've already paid the money, so you might as well try to get the most of it.

Angilion · 7 Apr 2006 at 00:55

I wasn't expecting them to be particularly good. If I can fiddle and get the "front" channels to sound very slightly front, to match the very slightly rear channels, I'll be content.

Maybe if I play more with them, I'll get used to it. Right now, I am finding them more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to locating the source of a noise in the gameworld.

Or maybe they'll be better with an X-Fi. Aha! Another reason to talk myself into buying an X-Fi

TooNice · 7 Apr 2006 at 01:33

Haha, I wonder how the X-Fi would work with those. I have to say that the X-Fi work well with headphones, but I've only tried it with regular stereo headphones

Regardless, they aren't a bad buy IMO, if you are a gamer.

Arcane · 7 Apr 2006 at 16:39

They work well with the X-fi, Quake 4 sounds very good

.

fish99 · 7 Apr 2006 at 17:00

It's worth pointing out that the pseudo 3d effect the X-Fi (and older cards like Audigy2/Audigy/Live) does is no use with the Medusas, since that effects is only used if you select stereo output, either stereo headphones or stereo speakers. If you select 5.1 out (which is the only way to get a 5.1 signal to the Medusas) then your soundcard recognises that you have surround hardware and doesn't mess with the 3d positioning.

Make sure you have them wired right btw, don't rely on the colour of the cables since the colours are wrong, follow the actual wires and check you have the right connections between amp and soundcard. Also don't have the inline volumes on more than about 60-70% or the headphones will hiss. They should have plenty of bass though, so that's a little odd.

Angilions review says it all though.

Aidoscuz · 7 Apr 2006 at 19:14

It took me a while to get used to find the right settings with mine but I think they sound quite good at the moment. As fish99 said, check your wiring - I think the colours for the centre and sub wires are mixed up.

I have lots of bass on mine though. Maybe try turning up the VIB control on the Medusas? I think this increases the bass as well as making the headphones vibrate a bit. Perfect for giving yourself a nice head massage as stuff blows up around you in games

Angilion · 8 Apr 2006 at 23:41

Hmm...I wired it colour to colour, so I'll check that. Channel tests in the Audigy 2 speaker settings thing seem to be right, though. I don't see separate centre and sub wires...maybe I have the wiring completely wrong

The manual doesn't help, although maybe it would if I could read German.

My headphones don't vibrate, either. I didn't know they were supposed to.

I'll play with them when I get a day off work.

fish99 · 9 Apr 2006 at 02:26

There isn't a seperate sub and centre wire, it's the same wire carrying both signals. Don't rely on the wire colours, check the labels on the sockets on both soundcard and amp. Well, you have to look in the audigy 2 manual for the sockets on the card since they're not colour coded. The one next to the firewire port is centre (pink), followed by rear (black) and then front (green).

They should only vibrate on something really bass heavy. Try the lobby shootout scene from The Matrix. If you have the new ones with the VIB control, try adjusting that.

Angilion · 9 Apr 2006 at 03:03

fish99 said:
There isn't a seperate sub and centre wire, it's the same wire carrying both signals. Don't rely on the wire colours, check the labels on the sockets on both soundcard and amp. Well, you have to look in the audigy 2 manual for the sockets on the card since they're not colour coded. The one next to the firewire port is centre (pink), followed by rear (black) and then front (green).

They should only vibrate on something really bass heavy. Try the lobby shootout scene from The Matrix. If you have the new ones with the VIB control, try adjusting that.

There must be some variation, as my Audigy 2 card has colour-coded sockets and the pink from my Medusas is the microphone. Audigy 2 speaker test confirms that centre is correct (it's a light orange on my setup), so the only possible mixup would be front and rear. Since they sound so close with the Medusas, it's possible I have them the wrong way around. It's right for my speakers, though, which I have connected with the same colouring to the Medusa amp, so I think the inputs to the amp (from the soundcard) must be right.

Aidoscuz · 9 Apr 2006 at 14:06

Angilion said:
I don't see separate centre and sub wires...

Sorry, I meant centre and rear wires. Anyway, do your medusas have a VIB control on the remote on the wire? I think the older ones have a switch for CD/DVD and the newer ones have a dial for VIB.

Angilion · 9 Apr 2006 at 22:40

Aidoscuz said:
Sorry, I meant centre and rear wires. Anyway, do your medusas have a VIB control on the remote on the wire? I think the older ones have a switch for CD/DVD and the newer ones have a dial for VIB.

Mine have a dial for VIB. I wondered what it was for.

I definitely don't have centre and rear mixed up. Channel testing with the Creative settings tools confirms that. I have a day off work (at last! at last!) tomorrow, so I will sleep in and then start messing with settings. Maybe I can get left and right to be slightly front, as they should be. I have a new graphics card to install too, and I want to try a few things to tweak the cooling to noise ratio on my PC. I think I can get away without a rear case fan, as I have an EVO 120 CPU cooler.

This is why I like PCs. There's always something to fiddle with.

fish99 · 10 Apr 2006 at 10:55

Left/right don't sound 'front' really, they're more like pure left/right than front left/front right. Rear left and rear right should sound like they're slightly more behind though. It's the mono centre channel that's fed to the front 2 speakers.