Sennheiser PC360 7.1 surround sound?

[Snowlynx]

I' m thinking about purchasing the pc 360's, i have an asus xonar dx 7.1 sound card and i' m wonderng if i will get 7.1 surround sound when i combien these.
Any thoughts?

 

[hannibal]

Not really. The PC360 is stereo headphone... You would get so called down-mixed version. I supose that there are only usb-based headphones with 7.1 support.
Real 7.1 reguire 4 independent drivers in the headphones. Better go to better quality stereo phones, or to buy 7 + 1 active speakers like Genelec... But that is a costly solution. A good one though! The sound quality would be in reference level.

 

[justcallmetom13]

I'm sorry to say but sound cards are a waste of money.

Most so called "improvements" are placebos and a sound card usually only provides an EQ profile.

"Surround sound" is a total gimic and anything can simulate 2.1, 5.1, and 7.1 (look up virtual barbershop on YouTube).

You have 2 ears, you only need 2 speakers, or drivers if its headphones.

If you want surround sound for games, go into the in-game audio settings and change it to something along the lines of "headphones".
For music, you cannot force a song to be surround sound because the way the song sounds all depends on how it was recorded.

Hope this helps.

 

[thee_prisoner]

Tom, in terms of simulated surround(using two speakers) it is a gimmick, using multiple speakers is not a trick. Analog, HDMI and display port can offer true/discrete surround if the media allows it.

Sound cards can be useful in a number of ways: for example your on board sound chip isn't good or you need the best sound quality,most won't notice the difference between good on board and sound card except for audio work.

What a sound card can do for you is offer the various surround sound codecs to simulate 5.1/7.1.
So you are paying for some hardware and paying for the Dolby/DTS type software to run simulated surround. Sound cards do offer better setup and software compared to the mobo sound chip. All(most) games are simulated surround because they have to send hearing cues to the PC on the fly. It isn't like a movie or music that has specific discrete channels of sound that direct the sound to a certain speaker in a 2.1/5.1/7.1 and etc setup.

I'm not anti or pro sound cards. Sound cards need to step up and get rid of the soon to worthless S/PDIF/Optical and go more to the HDMI and display port connections. At least they do offer analog for surround which works well. And if this is possible to allow PCs to use more than one digital signal at a time.

My rant for the day. be seeing you, the Prisoner...

 

[intramorph]

see the thing is I'm very curious if the game one's are the same headphones as the PC 363D cause the only difference seems to be the USB sound card. Can anyone tell me if the game ones will give you the same 7.1 surround with the same usb card as the 363D

 

[thee_prisoner]

see the thing is I'm very curious if the game one's are the same headphones as the PC 363D cause the only difference seems to be the USB sound card. Can anyone tell me if the game ones will give you the same 7.1 surround with the same usb card as the 363D

The headphones include a sound card built in. So that it is acting like a soundcard but with a lower quality. Not bad quality just a little lower.

I can't tell you if there is a difference between the actual headsets because I haven't listened to either, but spec wise they look the same. The PC360 is slightly heavier. Which might may mean that the drivers are heavier or they just lightened up the 363Ds.

Personally I believe like the Astros, these are way over priced and offer limits compared to a true soundcard/headphone setup.

As I mentioned above and why this hasen't happened yet, sound cards just need to add the HDMI and display port connections. Since optical can't do true discreet surround. I would take analog over S/PDIF anyday for true discreet surround sound.

As stated above once again, gaming is different. The audio files would be huge to have true discrete surround.

For a souncard, if you need one. I prefer the Soundblaster Z series for gaming because their surround sound codes feel more natural to me while gaming, sound good for music, movies and have a good amp for high end headphones.

It runs between 70.00-100.00 depending on sales( or less expensive). [ur]http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102048[/url]

Happy listening, the Prisoner...