5.1 Headphones

[MrMiyagi]

Personally I've been thinking about the Zalmans for a while. I've got a stupid question though (for anyone).
I've got some old SB 5.1 vaule card, how am I gonna hook up those headphones (w/ the three cables)? I need an amp or something?

 

[0roo0roo]

if you do get them, they have al the cables u require

 

[Borge]

You can get several headphones for 5.1, you dont need to choose Zalman. The all (most) have 6 speakers ( 2 for front, 2 for rear and 2 for sub.) I think u can get 5 different types today.

I have a pair from Trust and they are great. I also got a souncard from Trust (511. 5.1) And the price was the same as for the zalmans. (booth souncard and headphones together) My headphones has not a microhone.

But you can also get a pair that have microphone they are called Speedlink MedUSA 5.1 Headphones
and in some test i have read they sounds great, theý says. One of the sites are from norway so i dont give u a link.

In games my headphones are great (trust 5.1), many games have 5.1 sounds. One of them is FarCry, but also a game as black hawk down has 5.1 sound. In that game i can very clearly hear the soldiers behind me i some missions. And the woofer sounds are rely great and give something special to the games. FarCry gets a new dimention. I can very clearly hear where every enemy is in that game.

But you must have a good soundcard, because my headphones have a very clear sound and you can hear if it is not so good. I have also a soundblaster live 5.1 card, but i dont use that. Trust 511 5.1 is much better, I think.

Not so easy to set up because of all theese speakers, but dont give up if u get a pair. If all is ok you will get something that you cant get from a pair of stereo headphones.

(I am not english, we speak Danish in my country. lol )

 

[stultus]

Thanks for registering to post that, Borge. How do your headphones sound for movies? I'd say I want to use headphones for 50% games and 50% movies...

 

[mundane]

I apologize ahead of time for this attempted thread hijaking, but it's not an entirely unrelated topic ....

I moved into a new appartment not even a week ago, and already someone has complained about my speakers (they were at the lowest volume with the sub turned down, I swear). I just purchased my first 4.1 sound system =(. Looks like I need to find a pair of headphones, I'll take the best I can get for $50 US. Ideally they'd be equally good at games, music, and movies. I don't know if 5.1 would really benefit me.

I'm begging for recommendations.

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Borge]

If you choose a headphone for 5.1 surround i think you must chose a type with a headphoneamplifer, because many souncard cant give you the needed power. And maybe this is the reason for some of the critic on the zalman. (no bas)

My headphones have a headphoneamplifier (trust) and there is another one out there with a headphoneamplifer. (with microphone)

You must also have a souncard with output for 5.1 (must have a working analog output for the sub cannel.)

How did my headphone plays in DVD film? I have a DVD player with 5.1 outputs, it has 3 set of phoneplugs for front, rear and sub. I have a very good surround with a very good bas. And i play also very loud as I like it. But the soundpicture never break down for me. Many headphones do that also the best.

Sound from a headphone is not the same thing as the sounds from speakers, it is different. The sound is "in your head" and thats not good. But with theese headphones you will not have the same feeling, your are surronded by the sounds in another way. It sounds more real, as if it was speakers.

The deep sounds in a film is very important, if you dont have the right volume of that you will feel that something missing. But this is not the case in my headphones. Not in films and not in games. I have a very powerfull and deep bas.

My headphones tells you everything, all details. So a bad sounding movie sounds as that and bad music sounds as bad music. Same thing in a game. But most game have great sound and the same is the case with films from DVDs. (newer films that is)

(Sorry i was away from this forum.)

I think some of theese headphones with 6 elements must have a better place, because you can newer get the same out of a pair of stereo headphones. I know it is plastic (have also some others with steel and aluminium) but to this price? By one who has a headamp so yuo can play high ad loud. Zalman has a headamp now for 2 headphones, maybe that was something. (if you alredy have a zalman.)

But remember, if you dont have a soundcard for 5.1 or 5.1 from the DVD or surroundamplifer you cant use them.

Easy to do something wrong with 6 speakers, not so simple as 2. There are a volumen for front, rear and sub and it is more complicated. And from a souncard you can also set the different cannels, easy to do it in the wrong way. On the other hand, simpel if you read about it and understand it. So if it dont sounds good in the first place, maybe it is you. Do it right and it will be great. Dont listen to the guys that say its not good, they have done something wrong or they dont have listen to the right pair of headphones.

Borge

 

[Nebor]

Of course, getting a headphone amp for 5.1 headphones would require 3 headphone amps... And getting an amp for 5.1 headphones would be the stupidest thing in the world, since they're all crap to begin with.

 

[Jaxidian]

I just ordered a pair of these. The only thing I plan on using these for is gaming. Plus, having the amp/splitter there for my speakers and headphones is what really sold me on it. I'm not an audiophile or anything, I just want to be able to tell where people are in FarCry (and other games) while my gf sleeps. I won't be watching DVDs or listening to music (well, maybe some background music while I game, depending on what I'm playing). I just wanted these for gaming and I thought this was a good deal. Tons of good reviews on Newegg about these.

Seems that the biggest drawback about this set is the noise that the amp introduces when you have it turned on. Everybody claims that once you get gaming that you never notice it, and that's good enough for me! 🙂

 

[stultus]

Those appear to be the ones that Wired gave a 2/5. Please post your impressions when you receive them.

Edit: nevermind, the manufacturer names are similar (Ninyo/Kinyo).

 

[Oyeve]

I have the Zalmans and they suck for everything IMO. I believe all surround sound headphones basically stink, even the Sony MDR-DS5000 and up dont do the trick and they cost hundreds of dollars more than the zalmans. Maybe one day they will make a decent sounding true surround sound headphone but until then I am very happy with my Sony MDR-v700DJ headphones. They have kickbuttbass and have a nice tight fit. For surround sound for games and movies on my PC (when no one is home that is) I just have my Denon 6.1 receiver with Infinity and JBL speakers for a real surround system. I was thinking of modifying the main/center speakers of the Zalmans with the driver from a beatup old pair of Sony MDR-V6 drivers so at least I can maybe get some decent bass from the Zalmans but I dont know if the drivers are the same size and I dont want to screw up 2 pairs of headphones to make one better.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: stultus
Those appear to be the ones that Wired gave a 2/5. Please post your impressions when you receive them.

Edit: nevermind, the manufacturer names are similar (Ninyo/Kinyo).

I'll probably get them Wednesday. I'll post towards the end of the week on my thoughts with this pair with FarCry. I'll give them a little music test/review too for you guys, although that won't really matter to me. The convenience of the amp that it came with was what really bought me on this, plus the fact that there are like 40 reviews on Newegg for this pair.

I'll post later this week with a mini-review.

-Jax

 

[Wag]

If you guys are willing to spend a little more, I got these a few weeks ago and they're awesome! It truly sounds better than my apartment mid-range 5.0 (no sub in apartment) speaker setup:

Pioneer SE-DIR800C

They are my main way of watching a movie and playing my X-Box now.

 

[1sikbITCH]

I have the Kinyo's.

For gaming or watching movies or tv that my wife doesn't want to watch, they are fantastic.
For music, they are still ok but I think they sound a little hollow like you're in an auditorium. The bass has a booming effect I'd like to be able to tone down more, but can't. I'm sure I could fool around with the Audigy 2 ZS and tweak the sound, but it's not bad enough to spend time fixing. It still sounds very nice, and I rarely listen to music thru them.

I can only compare them to my Z-5300's, which sound great to me. I've never had other "decent" headphones to compare them too. Bottom line, if you listen to music extensively thru your headphones, you'll probably want something else. But for gamers, they are worth the $50.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: 1sikbITCH
I have the Kinyo's.

[...]

Bottom line, if you listen to music extensively thru your headphones, you'll probably want something else. But for gamers, they are worth the $50.

That was my understanding and expectations on these headphones. Over 95% of their usage for me will be with gaming. The other 5% usage will probably be watching Star Trek episodes late at nite (which the GF hates) so I don't wake the GF up. So I hope they live up to these expectations! 🙂

 

[Jaxidian]

Just got these in this morning. I'll give them a thorough workout tonite and post back either tonite or tomorrow.

-Jax

 

[stultus]

Cool. Watch an (action) movie with them if you can. 😀

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: stultus
Cool. Watch an (action) movie with them if you can. 😀

I'll watch the Matrix tonite as well as play FarCry all nite. 😀

I'll let ya' know in the morning! 🙂

Update:
By the way, here are my initial impressions:

? The headphones are very comfortable. The padding pushes against your head and not your ears, so hopefully they won't cause ear strain.
? There is only 1 cord with the headphones that provides inputs to all speakers (it looks kinda like a PS-2 mouse/keyboard connector).
? The amp seems pretty heavy for its size - I was expecting a really light-weight amp. This doesn't say it's good quality but it at least appears that it is (and appearances are a lot sometimes)
? TONS of cables for inputs/speakers!
? Well packaged.

 

[Jaxidian]

Here is my review of the KINYO KY-100 5.1 Channel Headphones from Newegg after a night's use:

The very first thing I wanted to check out was the "whining" sound that the amp is supposed to cause. I'm VERY glad to say that as you turn the gain on the amp WAY up, there is the whining noise added. However, I had to turn it up much too loud to be comfortable before I could hear it. Even when I have it pretty loud while gaming, during silent times, I cannot hear any noise added at all (at least nothing over my computer's case 35dB CPU fan). I guess I got lucky here. 🙂

The next thing I checked out was the 3D-ness of the 5.1. To do this, I used my sound card's utility that allows you to manually move a sound source around the center. I'm pleased to say that I could easily tell whether something was in front of me or behind me (and left/right of course too). Compared to a set of 5.1 speakers, it's not the same. But by not the same, I don't mean worse. It's just different. I think I prefer these to a set of 5.1 speakers but I'm sure others would think otherwise. Either way, I think they're both close to equally as good for the 3D-ness, just a judgement call on which one you think is more preferable.

The next thing I did was played FarCry for about 5 hours. Enjoyed every minute of it and the surround sound saved me many times from those damned mutant things (the ones that 2-shot you when you have full life and armor). There's not much to say here other than it was perfect as far as it could be, in my opinion.

Up to this point in time, I hadn't really seen any significant flaws at all in the set. However, I was quite disappointed at the quality of basses when listening to music. There's really not much bass at all. Also, it sounded pretty bad. I didn't notice this at all when playing FarCry - everything sounded wonderful there. So I started playing around with EQ settings. I managed to make it sound pretty good after some tweaking. Still, the bass was pretty weak. However, for a non-audiophile, it sounded pretty good (not really good but pretty good). Overall, I'd say that I wish the quality here was better and this is probably the biggest downfall of these headphones.

After testing it out with some music, I then put it to the test of Matrix: Revolutions. I planned on just watching the coat check scene in the beginning. I was enjoying it so much with the headphones that I ended up watching the entire thing. It was wonderful, in my opinion. There was no rumbling bass, but I really don't care about that when watching a movie (listening to music, yes, but not in movies). I thought they performed really well for DVD watching. 🙂


Sorry this isn't very well structured. I just wanted to let people know my thoughts on these headphones since it's really hard to find any info at all on 5.1 headphones. Enjoy! 🙂