Headphones

J

justinct

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Hey guys,

I am looking for a decent set of headphones with a mic for playing games.
I.E counterstrike and source, i need a pair that has surround sound or four speaker each side etc, because i need to hear if the dude is behind me or infront of me, with the current stereo headphones i have to turn around ingame to find out if the dude is behind me or infront of me which inevitably leads to a few deaths... :mad:

I have just bought a 7.1 - 24bit soundcard and am now looking for headphones to match. Preferably something in the price range of R300-R600, thanks. :)

Ciao
 
ovann baby, they have like those big princess laya (i don't know how to spell star wars ****) types, which is good for atmospheric stereo because it blocks real world sounds better and then the digital DJ type which are easier to manipulate (so you can listen with one ear only etc)
 
I would advise that you purchase yourself a decent pair of SSenheizers ... the quality can simply not be matched
 
nope sorry, no link (gooooogle) I have to agree that SSenheizers are good quality, I just hate how you can't swing em around by the wire and stuff without em breaking (not that you would... but you know, **** happens)
 
what about surround sound earphones? whole bunch available and the cheapest in SA are probably the ZALMAN 5.1 earphones. AWESOME stuff, but thats just my opinion...
 
You blokes seem to be losing your minds. What part of 4 speaker surrond sound did you not understand ?

Justinct, u're outta luck, none of the surround sound sets have the microphone attachment, which is so damn typical of the retarded gaming acessories industry.

Sybaritic have packaged a deal where they include a mic with the headset that you must stick somewhere. Just can't for the life of me figure out where to stick the mike.

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/pr...=6472&osCsid=e7c13b0600532d7c0e1395a1ee677888

[ed]It's the Zalman that eye-suc is talking about above...[/ed]
 
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Ye im looking for surround sound/dolby digital 5.1/6.1/7.1 surround sound earphones, as far as i can see the link i provided above gives me the best option specs wise and price wise.
 
Can i just say something on that, there are no REAL surround sound headphones. All its doing is taking 5 channels and putting them together through a stereo device.

So you have left, mid left, center, mid right, right and the headphones just put left, mid left and center through the left channel and center, right mid and right through the right channel which is stereo.

You do get headphones with 6 speakers (3 for each ear) but because its direct on each ear all its doing is the same as a stereo headphone set except keeping the channels seperate (and some have good control over mid speakers to give better atmospheric sound, but thats nothing you can't achieve with software)

basically surround sound headphones is a myth
 
Ye the zalman ones are exactly what i am looking for and the specs are pretty decent too, the only thing is that i really cant afford to be playing around with a mic thats dangling everywhere while im trying to shoot ppl at the same time as talk to my team...i also dont wanna prestick the mic to such a nice earphone set...il look at the other zalman earphones available,perhaps there is one with earphones attached?

p.s thanks for the speedy responses guys, looks like im not the only one at work with nothing to do :P
 
slimothy, have you used the zalman 5.1? have you seen what the unit looks like?

its shaped to look like crap but that is to allow the surround sound to pass through to the ear in the correct manner. surround sound a myth? then sue ZALMAN for making a surround sound device that actually works :)
 
the zalman claims it is true surround sound earphones, so i dunno i reckon it must be true?
 
well, the human ears are "stereo". there are only two of them. the direction of the sound hitting your ear (those funny twirly cartilege channels) funnel the sound into your ear, giving you a directional sound. as you might guess, i am not a scientist or doctor, and this explanation is crap. but thats what earphones do. if the whole unit covers your ear then those 3 speakers (per ear) within it just feed you with sound and its the same as a 5.1 unit.

i do not own a zalman (in america there are lots of different surround sound earphone manufacturers to choose from) but a friend has one and he frequents LANs here in cape town. i must say, i nearly cried when i heard how cool it is to play unreal with this set on. you can almost FEEL the fire raining down on your back. and the bass is impressive. doom3? wear brown pants.

the zalmans are NOT the best quality surround sound headphones, but it appears to be the only ones available in this merry country. otherwise, try importing from newegg or someplace. tomshardware had an awesome review on headphones a month or two back. druel
 
yes, however what I am saying is that since the sound is only from 2 directions, left and right there is no advantage to having 6 speakers and letting your ear mix the channels together when 2 speakers playing 5:1 sound is doing the same thing (and you'll find that software does it better because it can preproccess what your ears can't hear or funny effects that don't work)

having said that, I own a couple sets of headphones and 2 are 6 speaker setups, and the one I use most often is a 6 speaker setup, but thats just because the volume knob on the wire lets the music go louder than the other ones
 
hmmm, strange :P then real life should also be stereo only...

5.1 earphones do not send audio from two directions only. thats why the zalmans are so big. you only have two ears, not 5.1. so the audio is directed at the ear.

in the zalmans, each earpiece has 3 speakers (center, front{being either right or left} and rear). each of these recieve their audio from your soundcard from the correct channels (the wiring is hooked up like normal surround sound speakers), and then send the audio to your ear in a directional manner. the center channel is angled in order to reproduce the center channel, ditto the front and rear. it is exactly like having a nice logitech speaker system in your room, only this system fits on your head. the sound reproduction is astounding and the directional quality is the same as real speakers. watching a dvd with this is great.

there are headphones on the market that boast more than 1 speaker per ear piece, but these are not always surround sound headphones. having more than 1 speaker per ear piece helps nothing if they are not connected to the correct channels (like the zalmans). erm, this is not a flame, but slimothy, they really work. just check out tomshardware (will fish out the link later)
 
well i'm into sound so anything that makes my music better, i'll give it a shot

who supplies these in ZA?
 
erm, sybaratic, or whatever, never bought from them but they are cool...

the people who stock it (supplier) would be Frontosa

they are a friendly bunch :)
 
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