Quote:
Originally Posted by Codex
Well just spent the good part of an hour at JB-HiFi testing the Sennheiser 555, 515 and 215s on their iPad display, listening to the virtual barber shop on YouTube and also listening to Music. Yes I can hear the difference in quality from my Medusa 5.1s, Music is much better on the stereo headsets. But in terms of positional audio my Medusa is much better. I've just been listening to the virtual barber shop again at home with my 5.1 headset and there's no comparison. Music quality is better with stereo but in all honesty, nothing that I would would notice or even care about.
My view is if you want quality sounds and listen to other things than games with your headset then go for stereo, but for gaming and picking up positional audio 5.1 headsets, even with poorer sound quality are way better.
|
I don't doubt you heard what you heard and, based on what you experienced, I'd tend to agree with your conclusions. There's a bit more to it than that though when you look at all the possible variations and options there are available more generally.
For example, different stereo headphones give a different sense of three-dimensional 'spaciousness' to the sound you play through them. The ones you listened to in-store aren't the best choice for positional audio. Also, I'm not sure how the iPad's audio was set up internally either, or how it would compare to the setup you use your Medusa's on, but that could easily influence impressions too. And speaking purely in terms of positional audio, ie. being able to hear and locate sounds in a game, there are actually several variable factors involved with that as well which can make a blanket recommendation of 5.1 headsets a bit deceptive.
Anyway, I'll leave it at that, people can research things for themselves depending on their level of interest. I've been finding out quite a bit about all this myself lately, about the products and the science and technology involved, but I don't want to use this thread as a 'hey, guess what I found out today' clearing-house for that, soo...