Will/Do 5.1 headphones help situational awareness in BOP?

[elneilios]

Originally Posted by Mr_V

Have you seen the lengths of the flamewars on the average A/V forum? ;-} You'll probably find more opinions than you'll find people.

That said, if I had to pick just one name out of a hat… A lot of gamers go for the Sennheiser HD555. This is a nice middle-of-the-road set that's not too expensive, and gives a very nice soundstage straight out of the box.

(I personally have the model below it, the HD515. Been using it for years, and am still constantly amazed at what a terrific piece of kit it is.)

As for a surround-capable pre-amp, there are a couple of options on the market, but the only one that is roundly recommended by just about everyone (or at least was, when I last researched this) is the JVC/Victor SU-DH1. Note that it's branded "JVC" in the US and "Victor" in Japan. I don't believe it's officially available in any other territories (though it's trivial to import from Hong Kong). The "JVC" version lacks a power socket and can only run off batteries, hence the Victor unit is generally preferred.

Of course, if you want to spend vast amounts of money (which, by the sound of things, you don't , you can opt for Astro Gaming's A40 setup, which includes a specialised set of headphones and a Dolby Headphone pre-amp, and has nifty features like the ability to mix voice comms and game sound in analogue fashion.

Thanks for the information. I'll definately be investigating those products further. The other thing I would like to consider is that I currently have a set of PC 5.1 speakers without a built in decoder so it would be quite nice to find a pre-amp that can decode the optical signal and push it to either a set of headphones or my 5.1 speakers. Dolby Pro Logic would also be an advantage for any non-5.1 signals that get sent to it. Any ideas on that one? I've been considering the Tritton AXPro set of 5.1 headphones since they do exactly what I just described (I think... )

[Mr_V]

Originally Posted by elneilios

The other thing I would like to consider is that I currently have a set of PC 5.1 speakers without a built in decoder so it would be quite nice to find a pre-amp that can decode the optical signal and push it to either a set of headphones or my 5.1 speakers.

The SU-DH1 won't do for that. It's purely a headphone pre-amp; it mixes the decoded and virtualised output into two channels to play back on headphones, so there's no way to drive 5.1 speakers of it.

You do of course get desktop 5.1 amps, but I don't personally know of any which also implement Dolby Headphone. You might want to ask around on A/V forums, though…

Dolby Pro Logic would also be an advantage for any non-5.1 signals that get sent to it. Any ideas on that one?

The SU-DH1 does support the so-called "music" mode of Pro Logic II in order to widen the soundstage for 2.0 inputs (though arguably this is "fake surround"). I've tried it, and it's… interesting.

I've been considering the Tritton AXPro set of 5.1 headphones since they do exactly what I just described

No, that's exactly where you don't want to go.

[BadByte]

After playing the ps3 demo I can't say there is a noticeable difference.

[Kamak86]

Im going to rock the 7.1 surround sound.... nah jk..i wish