Setting up surround sound on stereo headphones

[fallout man]

I'd like to know whether it's possible for me to set up surround sound (for gaming) on my Win 7 64 bit machine using my stereo headphones.

I only have the onboard Realtek HD sound from my MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX. Do I need to buy a separate soundcard, or is there some software adjustments I can make to get simulated 5.1 surround?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ViviTheMage]

This thread might help :

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/best-method-simulate-surround-sound-headphones-365775/

I wouldn't do it though...why would you want to?

 

[corkyg]

Actually it is pretty simple. You unite the rear channels with the front channels. Since your headphones are stereo - that's all they can do - left and right.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function
many games like valve source games have it built in, software. as long as you select headphones, it will be in surround.

 

[corkyg]

On the other hand, you can invest in a pair of surround sound headphones.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/understand/enhancement/dolby-headphone.html

 

[zerocool84]

Here's a review of some headets:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/peripherals/2010/01/03/the-best-gaming-headset/comments

 

[fallout man]

Thank you all for the feedback.

What I initially hoped for was to use my current cans, and I don't think that I'll be buying a set of "surround" headphones (I'm even speculative as to whether it works). I was under the impression that there was a driver/software adaptation to create faux 5.1 sound using stereo headphones, but it seems like way to much effort for me to implement at this point.

 

[43st]

Thank you all for the feedback.

What I initially hoped for was to use my current cans, and I don't think that I'll be buying a set of "surround" headphones (I'm even speculative as to whether it works). I was under the impression that there was a driver/software adaptation to create faux 5.1 sound using stereo headphones, but it seems like way to much effort for me to implement at this point.

You need a combination of software and hardware to use HRTF, depending on what you want to do.

For gaming you can either use an X-fi card and CMSS-3d Headphone. Or you can use Dolby Headphone and a decoder. CMSS-3d seems to be better suited to gaming than Dolby, but some may argue that point.

If it's for music then you can use Foobar and some plugins. See Head-fi for more on this.