Asus ROG Strix 7.1 Headset Boasts Ten Drivers

[fimbulvinter]

Man thanks for everyone mentioning ModMic. I had no idea those existed and now I can slam these crappy gamer cans in the can and put a ModMic on my Audio Technicas.

 

[UVB076]

Independent of movies, surround sound really helps especially for FPS-type games. If you already have a headset with 10 drivers in it and have also used a two-speaker virtual surround setup, you know the difference between virtual surround and real 7.1 surround. Virtual surround is just that. There's nothing good about fooling yourself into thinking two channels can simulate real surround.
There is absolutely no beating the positional sound using a true 7.1 headset with 10 drivers in it.

One of the things that makes the Asus better than my Tiamat 7.1 headset is the USB connection rather than having to rely on the analog connections plus, I'm guessing Asus is throwing premium processing in the included USB sound. Also, 40mm drivers is standard for most virtual surround headsets with only 2 total physical speakers. With the Tiamat 7.1 you get great positional audio, but going to 30mm front drivers makes you sacrifice sound quality a bit if you're used to a 40 or 50mm driver on your two-speaker setup. The 10mm greater size of the front drivers of the Strix (uses 40mm for both sub and front!) compared to those on the Tiamat 7.1 (uses 40mm for sub and 30mm for front) will make listening to stereo sources and any overall sounds on-par with the best two-speaker headsets. I also like being able to throw a switch to change sound output modes (including different pre-set equalization settings... ie footsteps mode). You can't do this kind of thing over analog even with the bypass on the Tiamat. Also, my guess is the sound quality is really good using Asus sound processing. I'll definitely have to try these out.

One thing though... I wish these headsets were more color neutral. All black would be appreciated. I don't need only green or only red. If you want to stick colored lights on these things give us the options like on modern keyboards with the selectable backlighting.

That actually is not how your ears work. With speakers, yes, surround sound makes a difference, but that's because you can actually hear the sound coming out of speakers with both ears. Each ear, on its own, can't tell where sound is coming from , and you can tell where sound is coming from by the difference in time between hearing something in your left and right ears, as well as the difference between how loud a sound is.

 

[ubercake]

...
That actually is not how your ears work. With speakers, yes, surround sound makes a difference, but that's because you can actually hear the sound coming out of speakers with both ears. Each ear, on its own, can't tell where sound is coming from , and you can tell where sound is coming from by the difference in time between hearing something in your left and right ears, as well as the difference between how loud a sound is.

By no means was I try to describe how your ears work in my post.

If you're alluding to the fact that you don't need more than two speakers speakers to get accurate positional information, I don't agree. Actually, in the real world, you can consider we have an infinite number of sound sources with sounds coming from infinite directions. The more speakers (sound sources) you have to work with, the more accurately you can create the positional information. This is why people buy home theater systems with 5.1 and 7.1 configurations to match their surround content.

There is no two-speaker headset or two-speaker configuration that can equate to producing positional sound information equivalent to these 7.1 headsets no matter what the virtual technology is being employed. The speakers in these 7.1 headsets are arranged in such a way that you have front/center/side/surround all coming from different (7) directions within the ear cups. The combination of the sound information across this spread of speakers can allow far more positionally accurate information to be conveyed.

In a two-speaker headset, you have sounds coming from two physical directions. There's only so much you can do with sounds coming from two physical directions.

But I do see what you mean about how the ears working together is how we get positional information.

 

[Johan Kryger Haglert]

ubercake (quote button do nothing):

You're of course free to have your opinion. But reality is even if you have 1000 speakers you've only got two ears.

 

[ubercake]

This is true. My opinion is no virtual surround out there can provide better positional audio than an actual surround setup with 7.1 speakers in a room or in a headset. And yes most of us do have two ears, but they receive information coming in from many directions (not just two physical directions as with a 2-speaker stereo setup unless we're wearing stereo headphones) and your brain processes the mix of information received by each ear and makes sense of it with regard to direction.

With only two speakers, even though it could be different information you have sound coming at each ear from only one physical direction. With 4 speakers positioned differently within each ear cup pointing at the ear from different directions along with actual 7.1 surround processing delivering the information to each speaker (as with this Strix and the Tiamat 7.1 headsets), accuracy of positional audio information can be conveyed by the headset and perceived by the brain.

 

[UVB076]

This is true. My opinion is no virtual surround out there can provide better positional audio than an actual surround setup with 7.1 speakers in a room or in a headset. And yes most of us do have two ears, but they receive information coming in from many directions (not just two physical directions as with a 2-speaker stereo setup unless we're wearing stereo headphones) and your brain processes the mix of information received by each ear and makes sense of it with regard to direction.

With only two speakers, even though it could be different information you have sound coming at each ear from only one physical direction. With 4 speakers positioned differently within each ear cup pointing at the ear from different directions along with actual 7.1 surround processing delivering the information to each speaker (as with this Strix and the Tiamat 7.1 headsets), accuracy of positional audio information can be conveyed by the headset and perceived by the brain.

You're wrong. Positional audio functions through the difference in when and how loud you hear a sound in both ears. So surround speakers make sense, hardware surround headphones don't.

 

[ubercake]

This is true. My opinion is no virtual surround out there can provide better positional audio than an actual surround setup with 7.1 speakers in a room or in a headset. And yes most of us do have two ears, but they receive information coming in from many directions (not just two physical directions as with a 2-speaker stereo setup unless we're wearing stereo headphones) and your brain processes the mix of information received by each ear and makes sense of it with regard to direction.

With only two speakers, even though it could be different information you have sound coming at each ear from only one physical direction. With 4 speakers positioned differently within each ear cup pointing at the ear from different directions along with actual 7.1 surround processing delivering the information to each speaker (as with this Strix and the Tiamat 7.1 headsets), accuracy of positional audio information can be conveyed by the headset and perceived by the brain.

You're wrong. Positional audio functions through the difference in when and how loud you hear a sound in both ears. So surround speakers make sense, hardware surround headphones don't.

Sound is delivered by the speakers in different positions in a 7.1 speaker or headphone setup. There's no difference but the distance of the speakers to the ear.

It's like taking the surround speakers, reducing their size and bringing them closer to your ears with these true 7.1 headsets. That's all they are doing. I'm not sure why that's so hard to understand?

 

[Johan Kryger Haglert]

Ears get sound from all directions but it's collected by the drum so .. Still sound likely get modified on it's way to it. On the other hand I assume the virtual surround software try to mimic that effect.

I personally don't have experience with the systems. I just know from reading on head-fi quite a few years ago by now how people there seemed to think virtual surround solutions with a good stereo headset was better than the "surround" ones. (Also I guess the driver placement isn't perfect in this headset either neither are the diaphragms actually put behind or in front of your ear for instance.)

Virtual surround can of course bring left channel sound over to the right channel or do it with a delay or whatever too.

Personally in the case of gaming I wouldn't even mind exaggerated location input because it would be perceived as "better" / make you play better.

 

[Johan Kryger Haglert]

UVB076: So the location part of it happen in the listening of the room around you using two ears rather than how the audio travels in the ears?

 

[UVB076]

UVB076: So the location part of it happen in the listening of the room around you using two ears rather than how the audio travels in the ears?

Yes