I need a decent headset!

I saw a piece on some documentary a long time ago that was very interesting - basically they recorded the sound of a passing train at a New York subway station, played it back as is, and then played it back again but after removing the frequencies that are most commonly "lost" by the time you reach old age. The difference was massive - but of course you'll never notice it in real life since the "loss" is spread out over 60+ years.

But yeah, agreed, we're derailing. :P

One thing I've found it very interesting to look at when shopping for headsets is that there is often a good bit of difference in the frequency spectrum the speakers can play, and the spectrum that the microphone will capture. Possible pitfall there.

It's not clear now, if this is a general phenomenon, or simply because the ear concentrates on supporting the bandwidths normal life (communication) uses.

It's pretty commonly acknowledged that this happens due to the hairs that stimulate the hearing-nerve cells breaking off(among other things), which happens far more often in the high frequency range, thus the highs are the first thing to go. [1]

The thing about learning was a long term test(or it was randomised over persons of differing age, i would have to take a look to be sure). Till the age of about 20, the persons tested had increasing spatial hearing resolution, from there on it basically stayed the same (decreasing slightly at old age).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyacusis

It's pretty commonly acknowledged that this happens due to the hairs that stimulate the hearing-nerve cells breaking off(among other things), which happens far more often in the high frequency range, thus the highs are the first thing to go. [1]

 

The thing about learning was a long term test(or it was randomised over persons of differing age, i would have to take a look to be sure). Till the age of about 20, the persons tested had increasing spatial hearing resolution, from there on it basically stayed the same (decreasing slightly at old age).

 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyacusis

I was aware of that. But I wasn't refering to the general aging of the ear, but to the shrinking of the audible frequency band during babies first 1-2 years on earth. (never quote a single sentence ;) )

I was aware of that. But I wasn't refering to the general aging of the ear, but to the shrinking of the audible frequency band during babies first 1-2 years on earth. (never quote a single sentence ;) )

That is nothing that i am aware of. All i know about is the continuous loss of the high frequency band. Do you have any sources that describe this phenomenon?

That is nothing that i am aware of. All i know about is the continuous loss of the high frequency band. Do you have any sources that describe this phenomenon?

There's only physiology-tests that indicate this loss. Given the test-persons are not the best in communicate cause and effect, I guess that's why there's so little data on this phenomenon?

Childhood medicine and psychology has even shortly arrived under the scope of science anyway. Most studies are settled around ages from 10-20 years, just because it's better for headlines against loud music. ;)

I heard about this a while ago, but just recently a friend of mine, who's working in the "cave-exploration-business" (that's what he calls himself, being a doctor of gynecology ;) ) mentioned this again, so I remembered that. Apparently newborn girls have the best hearing range, btw. I remember a number of 23kHz, but I'm not sure about it.

This explains also why you are profoundly influenced by the music which you hear in your youth and then when older find the contemporary music sh:music_whistling:ty.

This explains also why you are profoundly influenced by the music which you hear in your youth and then when older find the contemporary music sh:music_whistling:ty.

:lol:

I use the Turtle Beach Earforce HPA 5.1 Surround headphones.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/efhpa2/home.aspx

I haven't found a set of non-USB 5.1 surround headphones that can compare to what you get for the price. Each earpiece has four speakers in it and the inline amplifier has seperate volume controls for front, center, surround, and sub. It also has a master volume control. The mic works extremely well too.

Just make sure that if you have cats, to keep the headsets out of reach of them. Mine like to take the foam windsreen off of the mic and bat it around the house.

I have a first generation set of HPA's, but am going to replace them shortly. I've had these since they were released (late 2004 or early 2005). They've been thru hell. They've been through several hundred matches in America's Army, crap tons of pub play in AA2, ArmA, and Arma2.... and cubic ton of flight hours in IL-2, LO, Falcon, & DCS. When I was competing in America's Army, I wore them at least 4-5 hours a night almost every night of the week.

They show it too lol!

I also have a recording studio and have $500 headphones int here that couldn't have stood up to the abuse that these HPA's have.

Another plus is that TrackIR's Track Clip fits very nicely on them.

Hope this helps.

I use the Turtle Beach Earforce HPA 5.1 Surround headphones.

 

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/efhpa2/home.aspx

While this may be sturdy headphones, IMHO the concept of selling these as 5.1 earphones is mystification, as with that speaker setup it is not possible to produce a better binaural surround than with a 1-speaker per ear setup. What may be apealing to consumers is that with a sub, it can reach to lower frequencies than the usual headset, however, frequency response in upper registers will be porked through that non-coincidental speaker setup. The delay between the single speakers is much too low (due to the little space between speakers) for the ear to notice, and the HRTFs generated miss the occlusion through the head itself (if it even works that well with an earpiece on).

Again IMHO (for what little that's worth), this concept does not work and is intended to mislead customers.

I don't know sobek. I'm not an audio engineer. Perhaps they are doing some wizardry in them similar to the 2 speaker headphone systems. What I do know, is that they work for me, and I didn't exerience any need to get used to them... It just worked immediately. (At least, that is how it seemed to me.) And yes, I would say the bass on these is *very* good.

I don't know sobek. I'm not an audio engineer. Perhaps they are doing some wizardry in them similar to the 2 speaker headphone systems. What I do know, is that they work for me, and I didn't exerience any need to get used to them... It just worked immediately. (At least, that is how it seemed to me.) And yes, I would say the bass on these is *very* good.

I don't want to smash the product, i'm just saying that in my opinion, it can not work as advertised. I will however question my collegues if they have experience with such a setup.

You also have to realise that the sense of hearing can adapt very strongly to audio sources, for example, if i play guitar with the same set of strings for a long time, i'm always astounded at how good it sounds with a new set of strings, even though i was satisfied with the sound before i restringed. Same thing goes for speakers. If a pair is not able to transfer the spectrum faithfully, after a while you get used to it and they will sound less like crap. :D Only way to be sure is to do a lot of on the spot comparisons.

Ok I have some suggestions:

I've never understood the surround sound headphones they sell... But I'm rocking a Plantronics headset. Sound quality is excellent with my X-fi. My only complaint is their base volume is MUCH MUCH louder than most headsets I have. Before my windows volume was set to 70% and the volume on the old headset was pretty low. With the Plantronics headset I had to set windows volume to 30% and lower the equalizer using Creative software in order to get similar volume levels as my old headset.

http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/products/computer/multi-use-headsets/audio-355

While this may be sturdy headphones, IMHO the concept of selling these as 5.1 earphones is mystification, as with that speaker setup it is not possible to produce a better binaural surround than with a 1-speaker per ear setup. What may be apealing to consumers is that with a sub, it can reach to lower frequencies than the usual headset, however, frequency response in upper registers will be porked through that non-coincidental speaker setup. The delay between the single speakers is much too low (due to the little space between speakers) for the ear to notice, and the HRTFs generated miss the occlusion through the head itself (if it even works that well with an earpiece on).

 

Again IMHO (for what little that's worth), this concept does not work and is intended to mislead customers.

Those are the headphones I have Turtle Beach Earforce HPA 5.1 Surround headphones. I was trying to say earlier that in my experience the surround does work. I agree with your technical theory, but in my ears when in Crysis and COD4MW2 you can hear the sound move all around 360 degrees (for example the sound of someone walking behind you and the to the side and then to the front).

Of course it is not as good as surround speakers, but somehow the surround does seem to work in these headphones (game and likely soundcard dependent). I think the subwoofer is an artificial sub, but I find it better than no sub at all when you get used to the vibration.

I don't know how they do it or if it is artificially produced, but for me it is far superior to any stereo headphones I have used ( I should qualify that this is only for gaming purposes and not music).

Audiphiles are actually few and far between. To correctly "tune" a 5.1 system, one must correlate the actual geometry of the room that the system is being placed in.

Those who actually do that are a scant few. Alot of people put their 5.1 PC systems close to where they sit simply because of space.

5.1 headsets actually do work. Are there any delays? Looking at the components in the inline amplifier (I'm an engineering tech by day), there's no delay buffers. What they do have though is defined angles on the drivers.

My old roommate used my PC for a bit and he plays with his sound turned extremely loud. The SPL on his ears is well over 107db as I could normally hear his headphones through his closed door. In that instance, any positional audio is pretty much useless.

If we are playing ArmA2 and someone is walking up to me from 145 relative, then I know which direction they are coming without even having to turn my head to isolate the direction. It even works for "up and down"

I worked on the Commanche program for a while and was working with the engineer who was programming the positional audio for the warning unit. 360 degree audio envelope using only one driver in each earpiece. It's a trick of replicating the audio into the two channels independently and then adjusting their individual pan and amplitude.

In short - you can get simulated surround or true surround and not be able to tell the difference.

The one thing I enjoy about the Turtle Beach HPA's is that they are not designed to be very heavy on the bass. I find that most modern gaming headsets are very bass heavy. I still have an RTA and the manequin head I modified to test headphone frequency response curves and SPL levels. The Plantronics 777's and the Fatality headsets were ungodly bass heavy even with a flat EQ. While many may enjoy that, I kinda like to hear things as they really are. And the world just doesn't have a sub rumble like that on a regular basis :D

I finally got around to deciding and went for Plantronics Gamecom 367 (closed cup design).

Have only used them for like an hour and a half but so far so good. The cups are nice and isolate external sounds a bit (but nowhere near real muffs), but the main thing are the nice big size of the muffs, fully encapsulates your ears and they're soft as well with crushed velvet padding (not like that horrible-looking mesh thing on their promo pictures). They are light-weight but still very sturdy in their design - I'm hoping these will last me a long time.

Audio quality is what you can expect in this price range, but not at all focused on bass response (which is good imo). It's in my opinion perfect for gaming and voip but lacks a bit for music playback (can be somewhat fixed with a good equalizer setting).

The cords is a tad short in my opinion and the in-line volume control is quite nice (better than my last two anyway), unfortunately it doesn't completely shut off when set to 0 volume (like it should) but instead there is a very light sound heard in the headphones even when turned down. No big deal, but still... The cord feels like some kind of striped, rather thick, plastic and it's probably ok. No nice textile-sheath here.

The microphone's quality (physical) seems ok, sturdy attaching point with a flexible, rubber-coated, endpoint. The noise-canceling feature seems to be working very well I might add, and the voice quality during recording is really nice. I haven't had a chance to try it out in voip with any friends yet but I think it'll work out just fine.

All-in-all. From a guy who's only used them for 1.5h I would place these as a strong candidate in the sub $50 USD category.