Looking to buy a 5.1 surround sound gaming headset.

Hi,
I currently have a Razer Piranha gaming headset and looking for an upgrade to 5.1 surround sound headset which will be used for gaming purpose (mostly FPS). After checking with the local shops I have the following options to buy: 1) Razer Barracuda HP-1 and 2) Tritton Audio Xtreme 51. I use Xonar Dx 7.1 sound card.
Which one from the above two should I buy? My preference will be the headset with the better clarity and directional audio cues.
TIA.Looking to buy a 5.1 surround sound gaming headset.
Any suggestions?Looking to buy a 5.1 surround sound gaming headset.
Just get a good pair of stereo headphones. They produce excellent positioning and higher sound quality. 5.1 surround sound headset is a marketing gimic. It uses multiple drivers, which cause degdredation in the quality of the sound instead of just 2 drivers.Generally a good pair of Sennheisser would do the job. An example would be the HD 212 and the Zalman clip on mic. You can also go for the HD 202 if you prefer open back.That's my opinion, you can get one of those headsets if you want though.
[QUOTE=''Luminouslight'']Just get a good pair of stereo headphones. They produce excellent positioning and higher sound quality. 5.1 surround sound headset is a marketing gimic. It uses multiple drivers, which cause degdredation in the quality of the sound instead of just 2 drivers.Generally a good pair of Sennheisser would do the job. An example would be the HD 212 and the Zalman clip on mic. You can also go for the HD 202 if you prefer open back.That's my opinion, you can get one of those headsets if you want though.[/QUOTE]

Audio Technicas are better for positional but they start at a higher price. Also Goldrings are a very similar but cheaper options to the bottom end of Senn's HD range.



I've got Audio Technica A900s and they make it feel like your whole head has been inflated, when listening to Classical it's sort of like your head has expanded so that the auditorium fits inside it.
Thanks for the suggestions. Apart from the HD 212 which other Sennheiser Headphones should I consider?
[QUOTE=''shandude90'']Thanks for the suggestions. Apart from the HD 212 which other Sennheiser Headphones should I consider?[/QUOTE]

I personally use the HD 555, but they are little pricey. You can also listen to markop for some other suggestions. I haven't been around the headphone/headset scene around that long, so I don't have the most complete picture.
The ATH-AD-700s are within your budget. Commonly thought to be one of the best pair of gaming headphones around, there's also the A700 closed back version. They're easy to power and have great sound stage but they lack bass.

Also worth a look are the Sennheiser 555 and Goldring DR150. Both have a great rep pretty much everywhere. Sennheiser has the more established name but the Goldrings are cheaper and are supposedly on par with the Senn 580s (now succeeded by the 595) but for a fraction of a price.



Really it depends what you want.

Do you want open or closed back? Closed prevents sound leakage and offers isolation from background noise but open have better sound quality.

What will you be using them for? For just gaming it's quite an obvious choice as only sound stage really matters but if you want to listen to a lot of music it becomes more complicated.
If you're in the market for excellent headsets in general and money isn't that big a deal, consider BOSE. Then just clip a wireless mike to your headphones or to your shirt.
[QUOTE=''markop2003'']The ATH-AD-700s are within your budget. Commonly thought to be one of the best pair of gaming headphones around, there's also the A700 closed back version. They're easy to power and have great sound stage but they lack bass. Also worth a look are the Sennheiser 555 and Goldring DR150. Both have a great rep pretty much everywhere. Sennheiser has the more established name but the Goldrings are cheaper and are supposedly on par with the Senn 580s (now succeeded by the 595) but for a fraction of a price. Really it depends what you want. Do you want open or closed back? Closed prevents sound leakage and offers isolation from background noise but open have better sound quality. What will you be using them for? For just gaming it's quite an obvious choice as only sound stage really matters but if you want to listen to a lot of music it becomes more complicated.[/QUOTE]My room generally is quiet so no problem of background noise or leakage.. so I guess closed or open does'nt matter much to me. My headphone should be for gaming purpose. I'm not an audiophile by any means and only listen to songs about 20% of the total time spent on computer any day.EDIT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After googling around and reading similar threads around, one question that comes to my mind is that how can a headphone with 2 speaker (HD 555 or AD700), reproduce the direction of the sound of a footstep as accurately as a 5.1 gaming headphone with 8 speakers ?There should'nt be much difference between the direction of sound produced by a HD555 and a 5.1 headset, when the sound is coming from front, left or right. But when the sound is coming from FR (Front right), BR (Back Right), FL, BL directions, would'nt the 5.1 surround headphone reproduce the direction of the sound better than the HD 555?
[QUOTE=''shandude90''][QUOTE=''markop2003'']The ATH-AD-700s are within your budget. Commonly thought to be one of the best pair of gaming headphones around, there's also the A700 closed back version. They're easy to power and have great sound stage but they lack bass. Also worth a look are the Sennheiser 555 and Goldring DR150. Both have a great rep pretty much everywhere. Sennheiser has the more established name but the Goldrings are cheaper and are supposedly on par with the Senn 580s (now succeeded by the 595) but for a fraction of a price. Really it depends what you want. Do you want open or closed back? Closed prevents sound leakage and offers isolation from background noise but open have better sound quality. What will you be using them for? For just gaming it's quite an obvious choice as only sound stage really matters but if you want to listen to a lot of music it becomes more complicated.[/QUOTE]My room generally is quiet so no problem of background noise or leakage.. so I guess closed or open does'nt matter much to me. My headphone should be for gaming purpose. I'm not an audiophile by any means and only listen to songs about 20% of the total time spent on computer any day.EDIT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After googling around and reading similar threads around, one question that comes to my mind is that how can a headphone with 2 speaker (HD 555 or AD700), reproduce the direction of the sound of a footstep as accurately as a 5.1 gaming headphone with 8 speakers ?There should'nt be much difference between the direction of sound produced by a HD555 and a 5.1 headset, when the sound is coming from front, left or right. But when the sound is coming from FR (Front right), BR (Back Right), FL, BL directions, would'nt the 5.1 surround headphone reproduce the direction of the sound better than the HD 555?[/QUOTE] No. Headphones (ones that aren't crap) have been capable of accurate positioning for decades. 5.1 Gaming headphones are a complete gimmick. Let me convince you.When you spend $100 on headphones, you're getting two drivers (or speakers). Higher quality drivers will give you higher quality sound. So let's just give it a ''quality rating'' based on money. Since you're using using $50 drivers on each ear - let's say the quality rating is 50 for these headphones. Now, 5.1 headsets (made differently depending on the brand), some have 2 drivers in each headphone, some 3, and some 4. So, if you spend $100 on headset with 3 drivers per headphone, you're getting roughly $16 drivers. The quality rating thus would be 16.Now, things aren't this black and white since not all headphones are worth their price, and some are worth even more than their price tag. But 5.1 headsets are a complete gimmick. Do you have any headphones? Put them on and listen to this. With a decent X-Fi soundcard, you can get the illusion of surround sound in any game you want, with much higher sound quality.
[QUOTE=''shandude90'']After googling around and reading similar threads around, one question that comes to my mind is that how can a headphone with 2 speaker (HD 555 or AD700), reproduce the direction of the sound of a footstep as accurately as a 5.1 gaming headphone with 8 speakers ?[/QUOTE]

You only have 2 ears though and these can only measure the tone of the sound not the direction. Due to you basing direction purely on the tone it is logical that the greater the tone accuracy the more accurate your sound stage and so spatial awareness will be.

Then with the cost of the headphones split between the drivers you'd logically have to pay 5x as much for a pair of 5.1 headphones that equal the accuracy of stereo headphones. Often though it's actually worse than this as they have to use smaller drivers which are primarily designed to be small not to be good quality also they're aimed at gamers not audiophiles and so the quality dosn't need to be so good to impress their market.
[QUOTE=''KHAndAnime''][QUOTE=''shandude90''][QUOTE=''markop2003'']The ATH-AD-700s are within your budget. Commonly thought to be one of the best pair of gaming headphones around, there's also the A700 closed back version. They're easy to power and have great sound stage but they lack bass. Also worth a look are the Sennheiser 555 and Goldring DR150. Both have a great rep pretty much everywhere. Sennheiser has the more established name but the Goldrings are cheaper and are supposedly on par with the Senn 580s (now succeeded by the 595) but for a fraction of a price. Really it depends what you want. Do you want open or closed back? Closed prevents sound leakage and offers isolation from background noise but open have better sound quality. What will you be using them for? For just gaming it's quite an obvious choice as only sound stage really matters but if you want to listen to a lot of music it becomes more complicated.[/QUOTE]My room generally is quiet so no problem of background noise or leakage.. so I guess closed or open does'nt matter much to me. My headphone should be for gaming purpose. I'm not an audiophile by any means and only listen to songs about 20% of the total time spent on computer any day.EDIT-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After googling around and reading similar threads around, one question that comes to my mind is that how can a headphone with 2 speaker (HD 555 or AD700), reproduce the direction of the sound of a footstep as accurately as a 5.1 gaming headphone with 8 speakers ?There should'nt be much difference between the direction of sound produced by a HD555 and a 5.1 headset, when the sound is coming from front, left or right. But when the sound is coming from FR (Front right), BR (Back Right), FL, BL directions, would'nt the 5.1 surround headphone reproduce the direction of the sound better than the HD 555?[/QUOTE] No. Headphones (ones that aren't crap) have been capable of accurate positioning for decades. 5.1 Gaming headphones are a complete gimmick. Let me convince you.When you spend $100 on headphones, you're getting two drivers (or speakers). Higher quality drivers will give you higher quality sound. So let's just give it a ''quality rating'' based on money. Since you're using using $50 drivers on each ear - let's say the quality rating is 50 for these headphones. Now, 5.1 headsets (made differently depending on the brand), some have 2 drivers in each headphone, some 3, and some 4. So, if you spend $100 on headset with 3 drivers per headphone, you're getting roughly $16 drivers. The quality rating thus would be 16.Now, things aren't this black and white since not all headphones are worth their price, and some are worth even more than their price tag. But 5.1 headsets are a complete gimmick. Do you have any headphones? Put them on and listen to this. With a decent X-Fi soundcard, you can get the illusion of surround sound in any game you want, with much higher sound quality.[/QUOTE]Thanks for clearing the doubt.. I think I'll go with either AD700 or HD555. I currently use Razer Piranha with Xonar Dx 7.1 and felt that 'electric shaver' almost shoved my both ears!
so what about 7.1?
[QUOTE=''HawX_'']so what about 7.1?[/QUOTE]

Doesn't matter, a good set of stereo headphones have excellent positioning + better quality.
[QUOTE=''HawX_'']so what about 7.1?[/QUOTE]

Has the same problems as the 5.1 headsets but they're more pronounced