Audio noob, dont know how to get 5.1 headphones to properly work

[Cjhalomad]

I have a pair of ATH m50x headphones but i cant get the audio coming out of all directions. I noticed this when playing overwatch as when i listen to characters from the front or sides i can hear them fine but from the back not at all. This is afffecting other things like videos, other game etc... i try to fix this by going into realtek hd audio manager and turning things on like subwoofer, rear pair, center but only the side pair work when turned on, the other ones only when i turn them off. I dont know what sound card i have or even if i have one so i dont know if i can get actual 5.1 surround sounds but any help at all helps. i probably made most of you cringe reading this but i dont know a thing about audio.

Thank you

 

[T_larson911]

The surround sound in your headphones, I'm pretty sure, uses simulated surround sound from using binaural effects. You might have to have the proper software for it or a receiver that gives you the binaural effect for games and movies. There is a headset that I know of that truly uses more than 2 drivers in each ear for surround sound, but I can't think of the name from the top of my head. Technically, any pair of headphones can be used because the surround sound is simulated by software and then fed to the sound output. Hope that helps you.

 

[Cjhalomad]

The surround sound in your headphones, I'm pretty sure, uses simulated surround sound from using binaural effects. You might have to have the proper software for it or a receiver that gives you the binaural effect for games and movies. There is a headset that I know of that truly uses more than 2 drivers in each ear for surround sound, but I can't think of the name from the top of my head. Technically, any pair of headphones can be used because the surround sound is simulated by software and then fed to the sound output. Hope that helps you.

My headphones do have surround sound but i can only hear the surround sound on the headphones when i go into realtek audio manager, turn off the center and rear speakers and test them. i can hear the test audio well but as soon as i turn the speakers back on and test it i cant hear anything.

im gonna attach an image link (below) of what im talking about to not cause to much confusion (hopefully and sorry for the bad quality but you can see the problem. as you can see the front two speakers always output audio whereas the other speakers (besides subwoofer but im not bothered about that) only work when the icon is greyed out / turned off

http/s1378.photobucket.com/user/cjhalomad/media/Untitled_zpskrqn5gtg.png.html

 

[ssddx]

no your headphones do not have surround sound.

the m50x is a pair of stereo headphones. it is only good for 2.0 natively.

to get virtual (simulated) surround sound you would need a soundcard/software which supports it. this would most commonly be dolby headphone, sbx/cmss3d or razers free software.

whether or not a soundcard supports 5.1 speakers and whether or not it supports virtual 5.1 for headphones are completely unrelated.

in short:
get a soundcard with dolby headphone like the xonar dg or try using razers free virtual surround software.

i should note that the m50x also has very small soundstaging so even with virtual its not going to be as large sounding as open cans but virtual will improve it for gaming.