Psyko 5.1 Gaming Headphones

[spoodie]

These are ludicrous but I'd still love to have a go. Not enough to pay the inevitably huge price tag though.

http://www.tested.com/first-look-at-the ... nes/47-33/

In my limited experience with piped-sound, no doubt from low quality devices, is that it's muffled. I supposed it depends on the reflective qualities of the pipe. Although my more traditional Medusa 5.1 headset doesn't sound all that great with sound sound direct from the speaker source. Possibly due to the amount of stuff they had to cram into the ear piece.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I wish people would stop trying to make surround work with cans. it's not needed, and it's not right.

Also, stop fucking well calling them 5.1, which means 6 channels inc sub (the .1)

I've not seen a pair of 5.1 cans that have 5 speakers (Left, Right, Centre, Rear Left, Rear Right) and a Subwoofer.

You don't need special hardware for spatial sound to work, you only have 2 ears, why not feed them using 2 sound sources and some cunning?

Real 5.1 works well for movies (though I personally prefer headphones), but for gaming etc, you're better of with the clarity of headphones and the cunning of devs.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNYcOU0gk4I[/media]

[Mr. Johnson]

300 dollars?

Cheaper than a real 5.1 setup, but it's still pretty expensive for a headset. It'd be pretty cool if it actually worked though.

[deject]

I've found that regular stereo headphones are pretty damn good at positional sound as is, and if the audio engine is set up for headphones, going with 5.1 is probably overkill. I know in games my headphones are more than adequate to very closely track sounds.

Those are an interesting idea though. If they weren't so expensive I would say they might be worth looking at.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Also, this brings me to a bit of a rant/question.

Why is it gamers place so little value in audio?

I'd guess the majority of 5punkers have a 20-24" LCD monitor that cost £150-250, and a GPU that cost £100-250

I'd also guess that 5punkers mostly wear headsets that cost £20-50, plugged into onboard sound.

Now, I don't know about you lot, but I place a lot of value in my hearing, both in general, and in games. admittedly not as much as sight, but fairly bloody close.

So, why do people put so little consideration and effort into their audio setup (average say 10% of what they do on video?) just seems a really weird habit to me.

[Mr. Johnson]

Because I can't afford it. Also because humans usually use their sight before anything else.

/shortest answer.

[Stoat]

My perceived gains are very low.

"Oh yes, that zombie has a much nicer timbre, I'm glad I spent hundreds of pounds on this new set up plus getting someone who knows what they're doing to set it up correctly."

And even if I said that, I'd be lying. I have no idea what a timbre is.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

[buzzmong]

Just to be opposite to Berk's view, I always run a moderately decent sound setup for the PC.

It's not made up of expensive pro parts, but back home it's a proper Creative 5.1 setup with a XFi card.

Granted, uni is a bit simplier despite having an actually better pc, but I'm running an Audigy 7.1 SE card with some not too shabby cheap £30 Logitech 2.1 speakers.

I can't estimate at cost as the speakers are a few years old and the cards were bought OEM, but I remember my last set of 4.1 creative speakers being £100+ with a £40 creative Audigy 1.

So, ~£150 on sound isn't too shabby and I do notice the difference. Mostly from having a seperate sub if I'm honest, but the counterpoint is that I've never actually use a decent set of cans with my set ups.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Just to be opposite to Berk's view, I always run a moderately decent sound setup for the PC.

Hence the majority thing, I know a few 5punkers run proper audio setups, myself included.

I'm just trying to understand why the majority don't.

[Chickenz]

I know a few 5punkers run proper audio setups.

Decent audio is one thing I've always aimed to have since I first got into pc gaming. I've used it a number of times to make people see sense especially those that were gaming with shonky speakers.

[buzzmong]

I think it's probably for the same reason people tolerate horribly compressed 128 kbit mp3's, they simply don't know better.

I know from my own experience from when I used to get files off the p2p networks at low rate that at the time I found that acceptable, go back now after hearing better quality stuff and I've no idea how I could put up with some of the truely terrible recordings I had.

I know now when I use rubbish speakers I can hear the tinnyness more from them and I often miss the lovely rumble of a sub. The proper positional sounds awarded by 4/5/+ speakers you learn to miss as well.

I think it also helps that I use my PC for music as well as games, so I'm probably more concious of it. That and my actual stereo at home has got my brothers old Sony speakers on them, being from the early 90's meant they are of pretty good quality and I've grown up listening to decent audio.

I've also started every paragraph with I.

[Dog Pants]

I've a Creative Audigy something which I bought for the 5.1 sound to go with the £300 Logitech 5.1 home cinema setup I bought when I was single. Unfortunately PCs have front and rear outputs, and cinema apparently has left and right inputs. I bought some half decent new speakers, but I've had the sound card for about 11 years or so now and it's doing fine.
I once had a pair of 5.1 Medusas, the analogue ones with the breakout box. I wrecked them when leaping up to answer the door and wrenching the inline volume controls apart. I tried the Medusa USBs to prevent me having to fanny about with breakout boxes, but hated them. Now I've PCI 161s, but they're flimsy and cheap compared to the Speedlinks. Next change I get I'm going back to my original Medisa 5.1s, if they still sell them.

Not sure where that puts me in the grand audiophile scheme though.

[Grimmie]

I got the Creative X-fi Gamers sound card, the lovely <a href="http://it.store.creative.com/products/p ... ">Creative Gigaworks T40 II's</a>, and some <a href="http://www.steelseries.com/int/products ... on">Icemat Siberias</a>

I don't think it's overboard, but when I'm not gaming I'm listening to music, so an all-purpose sound system that sounds nice is important to me, and one that doesn't take up my entire desk more's the case.

[Dog Pants]

I believe, possibly unfoundedly, that having onboard sound is additional strain on your CPU. Makes sense to me, enough that I've always found a slot for my ancient Audigy.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I believe, possibly unfoundedly, that having onboard sound is additional strain on your CPU. Makes sense to me, enough that I've always found a slot for my ancient Audigy.

There's probably not much in it any more, Fista and 7 don't really do hardware audio, that and CPUs are much better than they used to be, so can probably afford the extra cycles for sound.

[Dog Pants]

Conversely, I found Fista and 7 to have much better USB sound control. In the scale of an F-16 being much better than a Spad. Still, why ditch my lovely gold plated outputs for some shitty Asus thing.

[Joose]

Why is it gamers place so little value in audio?

Personally, ive never been that interested in pimping out the sound side of my machine because my hearing is shit. It would be like a partially sighted guy getting a high def telly.

I can tell the difference between "really shit" and "ok", but I totally cant tell the difference with anything above that. If I cant tell the difference, whats the point? Whereas I can easily tell the difference between a tiny monitor/ shitty graphics card and a massive monitor/top end graphics card.

Obviously, I cant speak for all gamers, but I imagine its a similar reason for most people. Humans put a lot more stock in what we see than what we hear.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Conversely, I found Fista and 7 to have much better USB sound control. In the scale of an F-16 being much better than a Spad. Still, why ditch my lovely gold plated outputs for some shitty Asus thing.

Exactly, only thing I use onboard for is my microphone, and that's mostly just because I can't be arsed to set my amp up with my xfi.

I also find I can hear bus noise from onboard sound quite often, which is bloody annoying.

[Mr. Johnson]

Why is it gamers place so little value in audio?

Personally, ive never been that interested in pimping out the sound side of my machine because my hearing is shit. It would be like a partially sighted guy getting a high def telly.

I can tell the difference between "really shit" and "ok", but I totally cant tell the difference with anything above that. If I cant tell the difference, whats the point? Whereas I can easily tell the difference between a tiny monitor/ shitty graphics card and a massive monitor/top end graphics card.

Obviously, I cant speak for all gamers, but I imagine its a similar reason for most people. Humans put a lot more stock in what we see than what we hear.

Although I have to admit that if I could afford it I'd probably see for my self if it makes a difference. By buying it.