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I have a really dumb question..

B

Boostage

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 25, 2008
Messages
327
How in the world are headsets 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 Surround? I get that fundamentally it's software trying to simulate a physical arrangement. But how can anyone claim that 7.1 vs 5.1 or 6.1? when ALL headsets have two speakers?
 
Not all of them are two speakers. Majority of them are, and they're using Dolby digital 7.1 which is simulated.

There are true 7.1 and 5.1 headsets. The tiamat 7.1 is true 7.1, same goes for the new asus strix 7.1 headset. There have been a bunch of true 5.1 headsets over the years.
 
My turtle beach actually have 4 speakers in each cup, so there are several that have actual surround out there.
 
Boostage said:
How in the world are headsets 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 Surround? I get that fundamentally it's software trying to simulate a physical arrangement. But how can anyone claim that 7.1 vs 5.1 or 6.1? when ALL headsets have two speakers?
Click to expand...

Because you only have 2 ears.

You only need 2 speakers.

Your ears can't physically tell where sound comes from. Your brain does all that work based on things like when the sounds hits each ear and how the sound sounds like quieter in one ear than the other or distorted from passing through your ear flesh from behind vs less distorted from the front and things like that.

The algorithms that take surround sound data and translate it into stereo are called HRTF (head related transfer function). Various headset manufacturers have their own implementations of this algorithm that work better or worse than one another.

The best way to get surround sound effects captured in stereo is to use the Cetera algorithm and to record the sound in a real room with 2 microphones inside fake ears connected to a dummy's head that has a true head shape and bone structure. The microphones pick up the sound like your real ears would so when this stereo signal is played back through stereo headphones and the sounds go straight into your ear, they trick the brain into hearing how the ear would have heard it as if it was happening in the room around you.

Search YouTube for binaural recordings to hear examples of this in action.
 
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For majority of headsets: gimmik. They have software which tweaks the volume levels of a sound based on the supposed speaker it would be going through in a x.1 system. It works... meh okay but really isn't that spectacular.
 
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