Wow, I had no idea how intense gaming is with headphones

[Arkitech]

Just got done playing a fps (Crossfire) with headphones on, oddly enough this is my first ever using them playing any video game. It's incredible, I'm hearing details that I never knew were there. Explosions in the distance, footsteps running ahead of me, bullet cases clinking on a metal floor.

I think it might be time to look into surround sound headphones next

 

[arcenite]

No, it's time to look into better speakers

 

[z1ggy]

* High five..?

 

[yhelothar]

Check out some good quality live music with it too, you'll swear you were just sonically teleported to the front stage.

But if you want to check out the holy grail of headphone 3D immersion, check out binaural recordings. It's recorded with two mics in each ear of a dummy head, so you hear exactly what the dummy heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...feature=video_response

BTW, don't bother with the surround sound headphones, what you want is a high quality set that has good soundstage.

 

[Tiamat]

wait til you play an FPS with a multi channel hifi system on a projector screen in a quite room. You hear everything and have almost perfect directionality.

Headphones are a good 3rd choice because the sound is very close to your ears and bipasses much of the background noise in your room.

2nd choice is a good hifi stereo system. You still can get quite a good wraparound directionality for FPS games.

 

[coldmeat]

Yup I love using my headphones for gaming, especially multiplayer. Playing COD4 online, I can hear footsteps from a mile away, which gives a huge advantage when playing with a low # of players.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: arcenite
No, it's time to look into better speakers

even with 5.1 its probably not going to match headphones, the cues are subtle and can be lost, in home theater setups you don't tend to notice surrounds until it gets quite loud. maybe later when 7.1 with the height speakers becomes a standard...course theres always the room/accoustics and all that. most computer rooms are hardly optimally setup for surround.

 

[Fayd]

for computer FPS's i use headphones.

when i play things like bad company on my xbox, i turn on the sound system.

gotta love a subwoofer. 5.1 setup with 10" subwoofer.

 

[videogames101]

God no, please don't by surround headphones. A good pair of stereo headphones will always have better quality than the gimmicky 5.1 headphones you see.

Otherwise, headphones + gaming = win


Also, to people who say get speakers, you can always get better sound quality from headphones compared to a speaker system of the same price.


What you need next is a headphone amp with a pair of HD595s.

 

[lxskllr]

I prefer 5.1 speakers. I get better directional sound, and I find headphones uncomfortable.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: videogames101
God no, please don't by surround headphones. A good pair of stereo headphones will always have better quality than the gimmicky 5.1 headphones you see.

I dunno, my old zalman 5.1 headphones seem to work pretty well. As long as the game is set to use surround and not stereo, that is (oops).

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: arcenite
No, it's time to look into better speakers

even with 5.1 its probably not going to match headphones, the cues are subtle and can be lost, in home theater setups you don't tend to notice surrounds until it gets quite loud. maybe later when 7.1 with the height speakers becomes a standard...course theres always the room/accoustics and all that. most computer rooms are hardly optimally setup for surround.

This. In order for a good surround speaker system to even come close to headphones in terms of directionality, you'd need a really optimal speaker placement and good room acoustics.
That, and your speakers need to be well tweaked so that the volume and the sound delay to compensate for distance is balanced.

 

[Udgnim]

Originally posted by: astroidea
Check out some good quality live music with it too, you'll swear you were just sonically teleported to the front stage.

But if you want to check out the holy grail of headphone 3D immersion, check out binaural recordings. It's recorded with two mics in each ear of a dummy head, so you hear exactly what the dummy heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...feature=video_response

BTW, don't bother with the surround sound headphones, what you want is a high quality set that has good soundstage.

thanks for link

pretty cool what they were able to do

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I prefer 5.1 speakers. I get better directional sound, and I find headphones uncomfortable.

You need better headphones. Price/value ratio of headphones is unmatchable by speakers.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I game on my shitty $10 Logitech speakers. Sounds fine to me

 

[TridenT]

I use HD555s, but I want speakers because I freaking hate having to take on, take off, those things all the time. It would be nice to watch a movie without having to wear headphones... I need speakers, but I is 2 pour.

 

[uhohs]

surround sound headphones suck.

a headphone that's recommended often on head-fi for gaming is the audio technica ad700. it's light on the bass, but the positioning/soundstage and detail are suppose to be great for the <$100 price.