Looking for a decent headset

[alarson82]

I was looking at a turtle beach hpa2 headset, is that a decent one?

I'm looking to spend less than $100.

Any suggestions

 

[NanoStuff]

5.1? It's not 1986 anymore, don't bother with anything less than 10.1

 

[jkresh]

I have heard that the turtle beach is ok, I have a triton ax360 which is ok, none of them (and anything in the $100 or even $200 range) is comparable in terms of audio quality to a good Sennheiser $100 set (for music, or anything sterio), and none are comparable to a good 5.1 system, but they do a descent job for gaming and movies.

 

[nova2]

you might want to test this first

http://digg.com/videos/educati..._1_Surround_Headphones

 

[Jeff7181]

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you get 5.1 headphones? Is it like a halo type apparatus that sits on your head, has a center channel, front right, front left, rear right, rear left, and... where would the subwoofer go?

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181and... where would the subwoofer go?

You don't want to know.

 

[jkresh]

Jef7181, it looks like regular headphones but each piece has several speakers in it (4 for 5.1, 5 for 7.1) center, front, rear and sub, or center, front, rear, rear1, sub. You definitely get a better positional effect then with stereo headphones but its not hte same as a good speaker setup.

 

[AVAFREAK182]

zalman

 

[j0j081]

a lot of people at the hi-def audio board seem to think 5.1 headphones aren't very good at all and you are better off with something like Sennheiser HD555s or 595s for positional sound. they say it's a good soundstage that matters not gimmicky stuff.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: j0j081
a lot of people at the hi-def audio board seem to think 5.1 headphones aren't very good at all and you are better off with something like Sennheiser HD555s or 595s for positional sound. they say it's a good soundstage that matters not gimmicky stuff.

I would be one such person. "5.1" headphones generally use multiple lower-quality drivers in place of the better drivers found in traditional headphones, and the 5.1 aspect doesn't do a good job presenting a surround sound source correctly. The Correct Way? is to use a good set of normal headphones, and then some sort of processor that uses HRTFs to compute transformations, such as an X-Fi or a Dolby Digital Headphone processor.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: j0j081
a lot of people at the hi-def audio board seem to think 5.1 headphones aren't very good at all and you are better off with something like Sennheiser HD555s or 595s for positional sound. they say it's a good soundstage that matters not gimmicky stuff.

I would be one such person. "5.1" headphones generally use multiple lower-quality drivers in place of the better drivers found in traditional headphones, and the 5.1 aspect doesn't do a good job presenting a surround sound source correctly. The Correct Way? is to use a good set of normal headphones, and then some sort of processor that uses HRTFs to compute transformations, such as an X-Fi or a Dolby Digital Headphone processor.

Yeah, HRTFs isnt supposed to be worse than EAX/5.1 for positioning. It is ambients that 5.1s are supposed to be good at (though I personally value satisfying music listening expereince over 5.1 submediocrity)

I never used so-called 5.1 headphones myself, but no one I trust has had a single positive thing to say about those gizmos.