Headphone Query

[rocknroll0237]

Hi guys

I'm thinking about purchasing the Shure 840 headphones as they look awesome and have incredible sound quality for their price (around £130).

At the moment, I have a Creative X-fi Soundblaster Xtreme soundcard and I was wondering, will buying 5.1/7.1 headphones for the same price give me much better surround sound, when I can just plug the Shure headphones into the soundcard and get surround sound via that method? Will the Shure headphone be able to reproduce good enough surround for gaming (I have no worries about treble or bass, etc).

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Cam

PS On my current headphones (really old Sony MDR-V50 headphones), I get quite abrupt panning in games, where looking slightly to the left or right would cause the sound to jump from the left/right speakers suddenly. Is this normal? Will buying better quality headphones eliminate this?

 

[rocknroll0237]

Bump

 

[tsnor]

Creative X-fi Soundblaster Xtreme = very good $40 sound card.

re "will buying 5.1/7.1 headphones for the same price give me much better surround sound, when I can just plug the Shure headphones into the soundcard and get surround sound via that method? " Doubt it. You'd be discarding the soundblaster card and using the sound card in the headphone. Unless the headphone costs a lot more than the sound blaster it won't have a lot better sound.

Better headphones give better sound fidelity. "Will the Shure headphone be able to reproduce good enough surround for gaming" The surround part comes from the game and the sound card, not the headphone. What you should get is better sound quality and more ability to hear nuances. If the game has good sound it will sound better on better headphones. Sometimes with music you can hear instruments you couldn't hear before. Sometimes on drums you can hear which drum, not just thump thump thump.

re: "I get quite abrupt panning in games, where looking slightly to the left or right would cause the sound to jump from the left/right speakers suddenly. Is this normal? "
This depends on the game and the soundcard, not the headphone. Have you looked at the creative application to see if you can blend more of the sound from the left channel into the right, and visa versa? There are web pages that let you demo the effects. Visit one and see if it seems to work.

 

[rocknroll0237]

Thanks for the detailed reply

I think I'll stick with the Shure headphones as the reviews are very good, and seeing as a lot of the more expensive Headsets are either open-back (my PC is VERY noisy and I NEED closed-back 'phones) or aren't very good value for money and have flaws.

Could you list some links to the various websites that demo the panning settings? I do have a Creative audio control panel which I could experiment with

Thanks,

Cam

 

[rocknroll0237]

Bump