SteelSeries Arctis 5 or Audio Technica ATH PDG1?

[dinin70]

Hello,

I'm hesitating between taking the Arctis 5 or the AudioTechnica PDG1

Arctis 5 pros:
- Surround Sound
- cheaper (130EUR instead of 175EUR for the ATH)

ATH-PDG1 pros:
- Open back
- supposedly better for Music

I have already an HiFi installation and I mainly, but not exclusively, listen music through speakers (I have a DAC, separate Amp, and HiFi speakers). So a good fidelity is still welcome, I still would like the Headset to provide a good fidelity.

I have the impression everything summarizes in two questions:

- is Surround Sound that immersive for gaming compared to a good open back headset? Or is surround sound a scam and I'd be better off with a good open-back headset?

- is Artic 5 providing a good music fidelity or are they that bad I'd exclusively listen through speakers?



Oh, and obviously both should be comfortable enough for like 1 or 2 hours wearing in a row. If one is not that comfortable it would be discarded immediately.

Thank you to share your thoughts!

 

[Lutfij]

The SteelSeries headset is usb driven and it does not have more than one driver in each of it's cups/cans meaning that any and or all surround sound that you're getting is through virtual upmixing of a stereo source. The AudioTechnica is actually driven via the analog connection and is merely a pure representation of an analog/stereo output from your sound source(no fancy upmixing here). So for the headsets that are advertised as surround capable, outside of the Razer Tiamat, it's all a gimmick and not true surround.

One more thing to note, is if you're planning on buying a sound card for a USB driven headset, don't bother since all the sound processing takes place at the USB port and not the physical sound card on your system or even your external DAC for that matter.