Head phones for gaming?

[waynedance]

Vortex III on order and will need some headphones.

The Vortex has a 5.1 sound card (I think) dies that mean I can get surround headphones? new to me!!

SPDIF, what is this for?

 

[NMEBowen]

spdif is optical theres not many headphones on the market that use this, the ones that do are very high end.if you want true 5.1 surround id recommend the cooler master storm sirus but they are about £90 but worth every penny though most ppl will say just get a normal set of stereo headphones.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

The vortex also wont give you true 5.1 surround sound through the soundcard as it doesn't have Dolby Digital Live, it will for the likes of DVD's Blu Rays etc. To get full 5.1 you need to put an external sound card between them or a set of headphones that can do it. That or Pro Logic headphones would mimic the 5.1 and be cheaper.

 

[waynedance]

So those head phones would just plug into the normal 3.5mm jack and be 5.1?

The laptop will give out 5.1 via the standard jack?

Learning going on here.

 

[NMEBowen]

I agree with smoke, but personal preferance says to me dont get virtual surround sound its quite low quality. The cooler master storm sirus is true 5.1 and has its own built in sound card all you need is 2 free usb 2.0 ports.

Edit: the only way you will get 5.1 from your onboard sound card would be through the spdif port as far as im aware.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Agreed, virtual surround sound is ok if your new to it but if you have heard proper digital 5.1 etc nothing beats it.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

The laptop will give out 5.1 via the standard jack?

Through the optical output you will only get 5.1 with DVDs and Blu Rays only not when gaming.

Not through the headphone socket either unless you have a device where you can separate all the the jacks for the individual channels don't think that's commonly used anymore. eg, headphones left, mic right, line in center etc

Any headphone with 5.1 or higher that connect via USB i think you would be safe.

 

[NMEBowen]

you can get jack lead headphones that run 5.1 but most have gone over to usb which is great if you havent got the best soundcard.

 

[NilSatis]

+1 for the Plantronics GameCom 780 7.1 surround sound USB headset. It is actually one of the best sounding headsets I have tried. Although it does keep reverting back to 5.1 (which is created as virtual 5.1 through clever drivers. Actually works really well) I have also got some Roccat Kaves here new in the box, which are true 5.1 surround sound, but require both usb and jack connection; if you are interested shoot me a pm. I have had a set of the Kaves before and they are also great sounding; but a bit heavy for me as they have 5 miniature speakers within each earpiece along with a subwoofer. For the price the Plantronics are really very good, and require only a usb connection and the drivers installing; just read some reviews. Be aware if you get them that there are some later drivers than on the cd they come with available from their website. They would be perfect for laptop gaming; and are nice and loud; and crisp.
I actually have a Soundblaster card with true 5.1 and although using this with the Roccat Kaves was very, very good, there really is not much in it at all between them and the Plantronics which uses its own modified drivers and doesnt use the sound card. I would recommend both of these. No experience with any others apart from some creative ones, which were terrible to be honest.

 

[waynedance]

Plantronics Gamecom 780 PC, thank you good suggestion.

These look like really good for the money, do not want anything to expensive. Get great reviews on Amazon.

 

[waynedance]

Going for the Plantronics GameCom 780, normally I would spend hours looking at reviews but I will go with your recommendations.

Too busy hitting refresh on my order screen to see if it's gone to build.

 

[NilSatis]

Nice one, hope they work out well for you

Let us know how you find them, and be sure to visit the forum at Plantronics and download the latest driver for them; which may fix any issues you might have. To set them up for 7.1, right click the speaker icon in the bottom right corner, then click playback devices. Once that brings up a menu of the playback devices on your system find the Plantronics; click and select, then click configure from the little button below. Your gaming/music/dolby mode will be on the icon that loads up in the taskbar (bottom right).
For some reason you have to do this every time you boot up if you want the 7.1, but I believe that this is because most applications including Windows sound modules default to only being played on 5.1 due to the drivers they use; this is the only problem I have found with them, but 5.1 is great anyway so just leave it on that. Oh and that you look a bit like an Easyjet airline pilot when gaming. "Er....fasten seatbelts before takeoff" and all that. Maybe the Easyjet bit is just me due to my hungover, grizzled tramp look.