1. See poll

2. Vote

3. Specify your audio hardware in a post along with a mini review of your experiences with it, recommendation, etc.


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I currently have nothing, which is why I'm making this thread.

I take it you managed to sell you headset then?

Anyways:

I primeraly use headphones; Steelseries Siberia 5H V2. Best Headphones I've ever had. Very comfortable. Sound is great. Microphone seems to work loud and clearly on most voice comms. The most expensive headphones I ever bought though

For the times when I'm not gaming, and I dont have to worry about waking people up or something, I use some funky cheap 2.1 Logitech speakers. (Music, films, etc).

I voted "I'm a gay fella"


































for lulz.

sorry to disappoint, shaun.

GOD DAMN.

Sennheiser HD555. Asus Xonar Essence STX.
Doing me well so far. Sounds delicious.

Using some Bose headphones that are meant for music listening so it has no mic. The sound quality from them is amazing for what I paid ($375 headphones, but I got them for $125 on sale).

Icemat Siberias and their USB soundcard, which i've had for almost 4 years now.

Need new headphones. :<

I use a logitech x530 5.1 surround sound set and am quite pleased with them. they were around 90$ a year ago and can still make my ears bleed and digest my food for me if required. the sub woofer can make my house shake and other speakers are crystal clear. i love them

however ive spotted a 503watt system and might switch to that soon as these are only around 70watts

for my mic i am using a bluetooth headset (platronics 222) POS. i would not recommend it under any circumstances

This. 5hV2's are amazing. Great sound quality, mic is crystal clear on everything I play. Sits comfortably on my head (even with my glasses), mic slides in and out of the body of the left headphone for easy storage/carrying, and it's just an all around great headset. I wear them everyday for at least 6-8 hours so they've gone through some hard times. Still going strong since December 25.

Out of curiosity, where have the 3 virtual surround headphone votes come from? I'm guessing the Siberia USBs and two 5HV2 USBs?

Hmm. Virtual surround is more popular than I thought.

That'd be it. I don't actually use it though, I just put that down since they're are virtual surround capable.

Yes. I like it.

I voted "stereo headphones", lol.

I didnt know the 5hv2 were "virtual surround capable".

And tbh I dont even know what exactly virtual surround is >.<

edit:

googled it

do want.

Primarly use my creative 5.1 speakers for ease of use. Although i occasionally use my Medusa 5.1 headphones when im playing a game like dead space for greater immersion.

Jamo, how are the medusas? I was considering them a while back... But I'm not sure if they fall into the usual pifall of true surround headphones where the surround drivers are noticeably less bassy.


The USB versions are, same with most 'gaming headphones'.

You're not missing much though, virtual surround isn't that great compared to the real thing, and it's even less convincing coming from a USB dongle than an actual sound card.

They're acceptable, although the amplifier is a bit weak the sound is well balanced, but im not one for having mega bass levels. The amp also has a repeater so you can have speakers connected aswell, which is quite usefull.

If you do get one, dont expect anything amazing. But im not really much of a audiophile so i cant compare them to much.

I mainly use headphones for audio. But once i get my Stereo Equipment back ill hook it back up.

For my mic i use a headset.

creative 5.1 surround speakers. do you think you'd really be able to notice the difference between 5.1 and 7.1? doesn't seem like there's too much to improve upon when it comes to 5.1, 7.1 can't be all that different.

Adding the 2 side speakers in 7.1 does noticeably improve the sound stage, it's certainly a more significant upgrade than the similar 2-channel hop-up from 4.1 to 6.1.

But naturally the downside is 7.1 is more of a home theatre setup, so it starts to get a bit impractical to have around the PC, personally I even think 5.1 is a bit too much (and I own a damn set). The other downsides are you'd need a fairly modern 7.1 sound card to handle it (not necessarily a bad thing), and something to play that can actually make use of it. High-definition films (Blu-ray / HD-DVD) generally do, but a lot of these are just half-arsed transpositions into the HD format and subsequently use a lazy 5.1 up-mix rather than actually being reproduced with 8 discrete channels. As for games, very rarely do I see any that support 7.1, and again when they do, it's usually not as well as they could. Arguably games, although almost all support it, still haven't even quite mastered 5.1 yet.

As time goes on support will improve, infact it already has significantly since the HD craze, but for now it's not quite enough to make me consider it worth investing in. Maybe another year or two.