Zalman 5.1 Headphones.

[lil layzie]

http://www.xoxide.com/za51suulgahe.html

Does anyone have this product? Is it any good? Just want to see what you think about it from your experience with them.

If I get positive feedback, I might go purchase some. I'm going to use it with the Audigy2 ZS and it's also mainly for gaming and mp3 music listening.

[E4g1e]

I've personally never listened to any surround-sound headphones. But based on those specs, I'd say fuhgeddaboudit. There is simply no room whatsoever for multiple full-sized headphone drivers inside any pair of headphones. I'm guessing that the largest driver that's installed inside those Zalmans is smaller than even the driver that's inside freebie stock Walkman headphones! :eek: And most of its multiple drivers are as small as earbud drivers, to boot! :eek: :eek: :eek:

In other words, all of those cheap surround-sound headphones are sheep in wolves' clothing. :(

Furthermore, none of the current surround sound headphones are even recommended, let alone ideal, for any music listening whatsoever - all music recordings on MP3 had been produced for only two channels, and thus cannot take any advantage whatsoever of the surround-sound feature. Expect incoherent, messy, honky sound from them.

[infiniti029]

dont buy into the bs.

[jpmkm]

It is just a heap of shit. Think about it - how the fuck are you going to get 5.1(including subwoofer and center channel) out of headphones? It is marketing bullshit and that is it. I'm not going to get into it, but two ears, only two channels are needed. Think of it like those little 3d viewscope whatever things. A picture for each eye results in 3d. Same with sound(only it is more complicated because of head shape and sound waves bouncing around and stuff). A good set of regular headphones will sound much better than those stupid "5.1" headphones. Not to mention those look hideous.

[matt fury]

Novelty.

[zachary80]

Not worth it at all (I have not heard them)

From a quick google, they seem to have favorable reviews. But, these reviews are horrible. For example, check out this (http://reviews.pimprig.com/audio_hardware/zalman_5.1_surround_headphones.php) one.

For good conductivity Zalman had the plugs gold plated. At this point you should notice something missing. A good set of headphones would have a volume control on the cord somewhere right? Unfortunately, there is no volume control on this set.

See anything(s) wrong with that?

Also, how can one even begin to respect a review that attempts to describe the poor "base" of the headphones.

Just think about it. How can there be a center channel? Oh they must have two speakers, one on each side. But there are six speakers. For a 5.1 system that has two front speakers. That leaves the subwoofer (.1) where exactly?

[NightRaven]

Actually, more to the point, how do you fit a subwoofer into a headphone in the first place? Not that good headphones actually need them for good bass reproduction.

[Paragon]

If you play games enough with headphones on and your speakers setting to 4 sepaker [certain games work better than others .. some games will not allow faint rear in the fronts..] you will get used to placement.

Keep headphones at 2 drivers. No more is needed. Chances are those are shit drivers they use anyway and will start to crackle on you after a while. 16 Omh.. E4g1e may be right about being worse than stock headphones.

I have a pair of Grado SR325.. even tho they do cost around $300, the sound quality is better than my $300 Klipsch speakers. Would almost say they are better than my Bro's $1600 front speakers if ya go through his equipment. I want to get these things on his $1700 turntable which sounds better than CDs.

Anyhoo.. my point is, the old ways are sometimes the best. Get a pair of $50 or $80 Grados or even Senns or somthing.
Whatever you do.. do NOT buy headphones for people who make heatsinks and powersupplies!

[lil layzie]

I get the point. Zalman 5.1 Headphones aren't the way to go. :(

Ahh well, thanks for the all the replies. Now I know not to waste $60 on it. I think I'm going to get a part of Sennheiser headphones, but dang, so many to choice from I don't know which one to get. I might look into the Grado brand (Thanks Paragon) but anyone else have experience with that particular brand?

[Mister X]

I might look into the Grado brand (Thanks Paragon) but anyone else have experience with that particular brand?
Carefull what you ask.... you may get 15 more of those "I never heard it but" propigations of ignorance. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Do yourself a favor: Pick up the phone book and use it to locate a dealer in your area that will allow you to audition some cans. ;)

[zachary80]

see sig



:D

[oqvist]

Originally posted by zachary80
see sig



:D

I was amazed of that too. 100 % of the replies in here seem to be from people that never have used it yet know everything about them :rolleyes:

[jpmkm]

Regardless of if I have actually heard them, I am inclined to not trust a product that is described as something it is not. There is not a 5.1 surround sound setup in those headphones. I don't have to listen to them to tell you that. I am not an audiophile but I do have common sense. I think that the fact that nobody has replied who uses these says something about the kind of people who use them. In other words, most of the people here are pretty intelligent and would not even touch those headphones.

[matt fury]

Originally posted by oqvist
I was amazed of that too. 100 % of the replies in here seem to be from people that never have used it yet know everything about them :rolleyes:

Have you been shot in the belly? Do you know it sucks? Thanks.

Oh, and because if you have one of these in your post, you obviously must be right. :rolleyes:

[oqvist]

Originally posted by matt fury
Have you been shot in the belly? Do you know it sucks? Thanks.

Oh, and because if you have one of these in your post, you obviously must be right. :rolleyes:

No but how can you know the surround phones sucks if you never heard them.

The second sentence I didn´t follow?

Oh, and because if you have one of these in your post, you obviously must be right. :rolleyes:

what does that mean?

I can in my imagination believe that the surround audio though not true 5.1 surround of course is better than those stereo speakers.

And why do audiophiles think that everyone else don´t have brains. Don´t you think that a customer seeing this phones can see for themself that there isn´t a center speaker in fron´t of them and not even true satellites behind them :rolleyes:

they market it as 5.1 headphones because that is what they try to simulate by using more drivers.

I have no idea how good/bad they are but then I don´t state how good bad they are either because I haven´t used them.

[matt fury]

Originally posted by oqvist
No but how can you know the surround phones sucks if you never heard them.

The second sentence I didn´t follow?

Oh, and because if you have one of these in your post, you obviously must be right. :rolleyes:

what does that mean?

I can in my imagination believe that the surround audio though not true 5.1 surround of course is better than those stereo speakers.

And why do audiophiles think that everyone else don´t have brains. Don´t you think that a customer seeing this phones can see for themself that there isn´t a center speaker in fron´t of them and not even true satellites behind them :rolleyes:

they market it as 5.1 headphones because that is what they try to simulate by using more drivers.

I have no idea how good/bad they are but then I don´t state how good bad they are either because I haven´t used them.



Wow..I barely know where to begin. I can say with confidence that Zalman's headphones suck because I have no compulsive evidence to the contrary. The same way one can assume that being shot in the belly will hurt, or that the sun will rise tomorrow, I can assume Zalman's headphones suck. It's called "inductive reasoning." Mills has quite a few fine pieces on it, you should check him out. Inductive logic is used in many every day situations, why people like to throw a fit when people use it on shitty headphones, I'll never know. Can you guess that the $.50 headphones bundled with a $15 no-name Walkman will suck? Can you guess that the Quarter Pounder you order from McDonalds today will be extremely similar to the one you had last week? It's possible that the sun won't rise tomorrow, McDonalds will swap the beef in Quarter Pounders with fish filets, gunshot wounds won't hurt, and Zalman's headphones won't suck. However, I have seen no convincing evidence that those situations will happen, so I say that the sun will rise, Quarter Pounders have beef, a shot in the stomach would hurt like a bitch, and Zalman's cans are garbage.

Sure, you can "imagine" that "5.1" headphones would sound better than stereo cans, but that doesn't make it so. I can imagine that the $.22 headphones distributed by Jet Blue Airlines sound better than Grado RS-1's, but that don't make it true, either. Adding extra, shitty, drivers to headphones will not produce a positive change in SQ, not by the virtrue of extra drivers alone. If perhaps Sennheiser figured out a way to fit 2 speakers per side into a pair of cans, and they got positive reviews from sources that I respect, I'd be willing to entertain that possibility. The fact of the matter is, Zalman has released what boils down to a novelty product. It's sold to people who don't know what a real quality headphone sounds like, and assume that since they're "5.1" they must sound better. And those are precisely the people who are buying them. The same way that 100 shitty speakers will still sound shitty. If, by some chance, sources I consider to be reputable said otherwise in this situation, I might not be able to say this with such confidence. But the fact of the matter is, no one with an opinion I respect has said that these headphones sound good. This allows me to live life without listening to them. The same way I don't have to listen all the garbage headphones out there. We're not discussing the merits of Senn 580s vs 600s, or SR-80s vs SR-60s. Those are the types of situations that one really should have experience with the product to make a reasonable statement. If some other company were making shitty headphones and calling them 5.1, I probably wouldn't be able to say with any authority which headphones were better, but I can be fairly confident they both will suck. The kind of people who are buying "5.1" cans and saying they are good are the kind of people who think that $100 Best Buy Sony DJ headphones are the best available, and must sound good because they are "so expensive." It's like an person who never used a compuer before buying a $3,000 HP and thinking it's hot shit. The latter may be right, but that's it.

"And why do audiophiles think that everyone else don´t have brains." I think that you answered your own question right there, but I will answer anyway. It's not that audiophiles think that everyone else "don't have brains", but it's that they tend to value the opinions of uninformed masses less than those with knowledge of the field. Yeah, an average consumer can probably figure out that there isn't literally a center channel, but the same average consumer thinks that the Zalman's are probably superior in the first place, so it's pretty clear that they can use all the help that they can get.


If you want to get on me for taking the word of some reviewers, then fine. However, it is not something I do impetuously. There are certain people, or groups, whose opinion I find to be mostly compatabile with my own. If I find that someone else's reviews have proven to be accurate according to my experiences, I can inductively assume with reasonable acuity that future reviews from that person will also be accurate. I suppose that is what seperates some of us. Certain people are more credible than others in certain matters. I don't go to Head-Fi to find out which P4 I should pick for overclocking, I don't go to Corvette Forum to ask about what fountain pen to buy, and I don't post on Cigar Weekly about setting up a mail server. However, there are people whom's opinion on each of these matters I would put faith in. There is no way for one person to personally experience EVERYTHING before they can put reasonable faith in something. I cannot try EVERY PAIR OF HEADPHONES, nor am I required to before I can speak confidently about them in certain cases. I have not gone to space and monitored the movements of the planets, yet I can say that the Earth orbits the Sun and not vice versa. Etc.

There you go with the " :rolleyes: " again. That was what I was talking about. SO many people on this board think that if they say something they believe to be witty, sarcastic, or correct, that they should add a " :rolleyes: ". As if it somehow strengthens or validates their otherwise faulty rhetoric. If you have something to say that you believe to be of value, fucking let it stand on it's own merit. If you think you need a little face with an aire of superiority rolling it's eyes to make your point, you need to reconsider your post. If you don't think you need the face, then don't bother...it's totally superflous. I consider "smiley faces" to be a different matter, because one usually uses them to be light of heart, whereas it's hard to take a serious post seriously when they have to use a godamn emoticon.

I'm done.

[oqvist]

I understand you are done since you where caught speculating and not helping the original poster a bit.

It sucks because it oughta suck great logic :rolleyes::rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D

[matt fury]

Fucking pearls before swine. And what exactly did you catch me speculating about? My only prior contribution to this thread was "Novelty."

You know, perhaps you should write a book. If only more logicians could point out so many flaws utilizing a mere 8 words.

I would be happy to type another 1,044 words, but there is little more that I can say without breaking more than enough rules to get banned, and it's clear it would be a wasted effort.

[Paragon]

Hmm ho. google'd and read one review.. they said they loved it for gaming.. but ya had to set them to dolby surround instead of 5.1 in order to get the center and fronts to work. Of course.. this is probably the same persone who reviewed zalmans heatsinks or powersupplies. I'm sure they perform as a headphone just fine at least for a while out of the box. They are cheap for all that is in them. They are bulky and look fugly but might perform as a headphone just fine. If you are looking for something that will blow your head off with sound accuracy, I personally wouldn't get them but that is just me.

I'm not about to get in the middle of another f'n stoopid internet argument so if you trust that the people who review your computer hardware know what a good headphone is, then by all means google your heart out. But I will say this. If anyone came to me and showed me a regular stereo can from a known company, I would say I do not know about the can even when looking at the specs. However, if you came to me with a pair of cans from a company that made plumbing fittings, I'd be very skeptical. You get my point. That last statement is 10 fold when those cans are opening a titally new area in personal audio.

ps.. I'm not one to preach but you guy's should know when to quit.

[jpmkm]

Originally posted by oqvist
I understand you are done since you where caught speculating and not helping the original poster a bit.

It sucks because it oughta suck great logic :rolleyes::rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D
What the fuck are you talking about? Have you helped the original poster once in this thread?

[oqvist]

Originally posted by jpmkm
What the fuck are you talking about? Have you helped the original poster once in this thread?

I haven´t tried to delude him. The point is everyone here knows the ins and out of these headphones and have given their personal reviews made directly from their head whereas noone has actually used them.

And I wasn´t the first in this thread to notice this.

[lil layzie]

:(

Sorry I started some kind of war in this thread. I just ask if anyone had experience with them. It's ok if you throw in your 2 cents and tell me what you think about them even if you don't have these sets of headphones. Can't we all just get along. :)

Anyways, thanks for all your comments/suggestions and please, no more arguing? :D

[zachary80]

Perhaps we should all chip-in a couple of dollars to buy the Zalmans and pass them around to see what they really sound like? It seems like someone asks about them nearly every week, and no one I trust has had a first-hand opinion on them.

Originally posted by oqvist
Don´t you think that a customer seeing this phones can see for themself that there isn´t a center speaker in fron´t of them and not even true satellites behind them :rolleyes:

they market it as 5.1 headphones because that is what they try to simulate by using more drivers
The average consumer is likely to be able to figure out that there is no center channel. But you can't tell me that every person that has looked at purchasing these phones has realized that there is no way they have an actual sub in them. 50hz is just rediculous, I can't believe they don't go any lower than that, even without a subwoofer.


What is the need for a 5.1 headphone exactly? Last time I checked most computer games were encoded in 4.1, music in 2.0 (not including SACD/DVD-A), and DVD's in 5.1. Sound quality is more important for the formats that actually utilize 5.1. There are not many (if at all) 4.0 headphones, so might as well buy 5.1 for games. But, if you ask around, you are likely to find that many people who have good $50+ headphones prefer them to their computer surround sound speakers for games, and definitely for music.

[oqvist]

Well I don´t know how useful it is since I haven´t tried them but a lot of games are true 5.1 these days. Like Far Cry and many more.

But I really can´t comment on these headphones for obvious reasons. But then can you buy any headphone and be sure they suite you without actually listen to them be it stereo or "5.1" or similar?

But for games the sound quality are just about never up to par with the DVD for natural causes however games like Far Cry have awesome 5.1 audio. So people could argue that for gaming surround sound is more important than sound quality.

I have some cheap Plantronics A90 and they are just fine but then I just never listen to music. I got the speakers in my sig too but where I live now I wouldn´t be very popular using them :(

So I too would be interested to know how these actually works