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Are Gainward SoundXplosion 5.1 headphones still produced?

E

eclavatar

Member
Everywhere that is suppose to carry them are either out of them or no longer have them on their website (newegg). Anyone know a US website that still carries them?
 
Froogle turns up a hit at "Space Center Systems", but it's out of stock there. eBay?

The more important question: Why would you want to buy them?
 
Originally posted by: svi
Froogle turns up a hit at "Space Center Systems", but it's out of stock there. eBay?

The more important question: Why would you want to buy them?
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None on ebay.

Because they have gotten the best reviews out of all 5.1 surround sound headphones?
 
Note that all of the reviews are at computer hardware sites that rarely if ever review actual audio equipment, and that none of these headphones actually HAVE that many reviews. If you want a good pair of headphones, get conventional boring stereo ones; "surround sound" headphones are gimmicks.

If you need information to back that up, just try a pair of 5.1 headphones and a comparably priced pair of stereo headphones. I have yet to see ANYONE do that and say that the 5.1 headphones might still be worth it. Alternatively, do a forum search for headphones and see what people recommend. Or, if you're feeling gutsy, go over to Head-Fi (www.head-fi.org) and see the kind of things they go on about.
 
I have 5.1 surround sound headphones, Kinyos and they work very good. They don't have a microphone which I need. 5.1 surround sound headphones are gimmicks as I know from experience.
 
what do you have to say to reviews like those?
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People will always like the things they've bought unless they have actually owned something better OR there is something horribly wrong with them (they break repeatedly, for example). Find me one person who prefers these to decent stereo headphones (having tried both, obviously).

I could also find you reviews saying Willamette processors are fast, reviews saying Bose speakers are the best they've ever heard, and so on. They do not constitute evidence that Willamettes are actually fast or that Bose speakers are actually any good.

To quote Dan of Dan's Data, who has actually tried a considerable number of stereo and "surround sound" headphones:

I don't know whether any multi-driver headphones sound very good. The cheap ones, like those ones Zalman have been selling for a while, certainly don't. The Turtle Beach ones are also pretty suspiciously inexpensive (though they have considerable fiddle-toy value!); it's not easy to cram multiple drivers into a headphone that sells for $US100, and comes with a mic and a control box, and still make the result sound good.

Since at least 90% of the market don't seem to be able to tell the difference, sound quality isn't often a priority (which is a shame, of course, because Turtle Beach audio adapters are generally very good).

Oh, and that "subwoofer" bass shaker thing is unlikely to be more than amusing - to my knowledge, all of the "buzzy" headphones on the market are gimmicky, like the ones I reviewed back in 2001. They're certainly fun, but you're kidding yourself if you think they'll give you The Cinema Experience, or actually add to the realism of games.

I recommend you spend the same money on a decent pair of regular stereo headphones, if you don't already have some.

You could afford Sennheiser HD 280 Pros or HD 515s, for instance (depending on whether you want sealed or open). Save up a bit more and a set of HD 555s could be yours. Or you could save some money, go for old-school looks, and get a set of Grado SR 60s. All good options.

Then, if you feel your surround sound experience is lacking (it won't be, in computer games; plain stereo headphones are the best way to listen to synthesised positional audio), you could start pricing surround processors for stereo headphones. All you need for great headphone surround is two drivers, because you've only got two ears; it's all in the signal delay and phase response, which multiple little drivers in the headphones are not actually very good at reproducing.
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so stereo headphones can produce positional sound? ive never heard something coming from "behind" me wearing normal stereo headphones but maybe i just wasnt paying attention

it seems to me that the basis for positional interpretation in the ear must have something to do with the direction of where the sound is coming from (or else why do we have 5.1 speaker setups, as an extreme and probably faulty example), and that multiple speakers would create that effect better than just 2

also, your reviews seems to be meshing sound quality and sound direction into one. certainly i dunno anything about the quality of headphone sound, im only interested in the directional portion, and i find it difficult to believe that 2 speakers would be better at faking direction that multiple speakers would be at actually creating positional sound
 
so stereo headphones can produce positional sound? ive never heard something coming from "behind" me wearing normal stereo headphones but maybe i just wasnt paying attention
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The issue is the source. Only REALLY awful stereo headphones can fail to produce good positional sound. Do a forum search for "binaural" and listen to one of the recordings you find.




it seems to me that the basis for positional interpretation in the ear must have something to do with the direction of where the sound is coming from (or else why do we have 5.1 speaker setups, as an extreme and probably faulty example), and that multiple speakers would create that effect better than just 2

also, your reviews seems to be meshing sound quality and sound direction into one. certainly i dunno anything about the quality of headphone sound, im only interested in the directional portion, and i find it difficult to believe that 2 speakers would be better at faking direction that multiple speakers would be at actually creating positional sound
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Sound quality is kind of important, unless you're using your headphones for something other than sound production.

That aside, you're not dealing with two "speakers", you're dealing with two transducers sitting directly on your ears. You don't need more than one transducer per ear to produce excellent positional sound. You only have two ears, mind. It isn't like with speakers, where you're dealing with x sources of noise placed in the room-- here, there's nothing between the drivers and your ears.

As I said, find binaural recordings if you don't believe me.
 
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