Silly headset/headphone question...

[Hungrypilot]

Hi all. Wanted to say hello (new member, long-time nerd). If I get a soundcard that supports 5.1/7.1 decoding, but plug in...say... a Corsair HS1A headset with an analog plug, will I still be able to listen to 5.1/7.1 decoded sound? Will it be positional if I play games like FPSs that support it? Or do I need to look for a USB headset that does it's own decoding? Thanks, hello again all, and sorry for the silly question

 

[silverphoenix]

I'm no expert but I think it depends on the Card, not sure what 5.1/7.1 decoding is exactly. I know some cards have multiple outputs for multiple channels

My card only has stereo output but has this:

"Dolby Headphone: Dolby Headphone technology allows users to listen to music, watch movies, or play games with the dramatic 5.1-channel surround or realistic 3D spacious effects through any set of stereo headphones. "

my card is the Asus Xonar STX, my headphones are akg702's which are not surround sound headphones but with the Dolby headphone turned on you get a full surround sound effect, for me anyways. Not sure how it would do with the Corsair HS1A's though

 

[Hungrypilot]

It is starting to sound like the HS1NA with the built-in USB decoding is nice too... Apparently, as long as the sound card does the surround processing, you get positional audio even with a stereo connection (like headphones). The question now is which to buy...

 

[Hungrypilot]

So I went with the HS1 USB. I like that it does its own decoding, plus the chipset it uses is the same one in the Xonar cards, which I was thinking of buying anyways.

 

[rotarud]

every single USB headphone out there has its own decoding ( wich am sorry to say is overall crapy compared to any 5.1 sound card ( atleast anything beyond 50 $ )

 

[Impulse]

With Creative cards you set the games/Windows to output 5.1 channels and you select headphone output on Creative's console, the card then mixes the sound in such a way that surround effects can be perceived out of two channel headphones... I imagine most cards and even integrated audio chips in usb headsets all work in a similar way even if they're not necessarily set up the same way.

There are so-called surround headphones out there with multiple drivers, but they're often regarded as a gimmick, a good pair of stereo headphones can handle surround sound with the proper source.