5.1 / 7.1 Surround Headphones... Wireless or not...

[admin_exported]

Hello,

I'm quite new here (Signed up like 5 minutes ago...) but have being buying WhatHiFi severall times already... Just great!!!! But as up to now this last advice was not yet dealt with... by the way ALL my

other buyings where done using this magazine, and I'm just soooooooooooo happy!!!!

OK, straight to the point... I've been looking for some VERY GOOD 5.1 or even 7.1 Headphones, wireless or not.

Here are my needs :
- Very good sound quality
- Surround sound (5.1 or 7.1)
- Possibility to have many Headphones
- Independant volume for each Headphone
- If not wireless, a 4 meter wire at least
(- Of course money is a concern, but let's make believe it's almost not a problem)

Here is what I don't care about :
- 4 meter wire will reduce sound quality... Yeah yeah... but still I tried to hear the difference in a demo... and honestly, I heard just NO difference... between a good quality headphone and a bad one : YES... but for both of these, between a 1m and 7m : NO (or just tinny)!
- Having to buy any extra Amplifyer or so... as long as the cost really makes the difference...

My today Amp : Denon 2310, can I connect directly to it?

From here the general question would be : What choice among which Brands and which config could I buy? But before answering such a general question... I did a deep reading of different forums, and advertisment...
On my research among this site, this magazine, and others, I've seen some names coming back quite often... Here are the results of my search (order is not relevant) :

1. Sennheiser RS-180 (but of what I've read, these are not TRUELY 5.1 or 7.1... They only "simulate" surround sound... This probably means that you don't really get where the sound is coming from, but where the "simulation" consider the sound should be coming from... Right?)
2. Pioneer SE-DIR800C
3. Sony MDR-DS6000
4. LTB Q-HOME-FX
5. Acoustic Research AWD510
6. ULTRASONE HFI-2400 (those are alos only simulating Surround sound? What is their "S-Logic™ Natural Surround Sound"?)

As you can see, I did try to find out a little on the subject, but I'm lost with all the info/intox about this type of headphones... Thanks for your help!!!!

Best Regards,

Daric

 

[Cookie Monster]

Hi Daric,

Take at look at Dolby Digital headphones from Sharkoon. Haven't tried these myself but good review on www.Trustedreviews.com Search 'Sharkoon' and you should see it. About £120 ish.

You get a little Dolby Digital decoder and headphones with 4 speakers per ear piece. The mini decoder can also be used with 5.1 PC speakers as an alternative. Wanted some for gaming but my 3rd PS3 in 3 years has just died.

Hope it helps,

Kind Regards,

Cookie Monster

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Cokkie...

Thanks a lot for your answer... unfortunatly, after looking a while, it looks like these will not be able to transmit the audio from my Blue-Rays... correct? Because they only go up to Dolby Pro Logic and not TrueHD...

But it did help me to understand that, in order to make it work, I must go through an optical/HDMI connection to a decoder... this last one sending the audio to the Headset reciever... As I understand it, the Headset can be of good or bad quality, as the decoder, but that decoder MUST decode the TrueHD or else : no sound at all!!! It doesn't just downscale it to Prologic does it?

Thanks again,

Daric

 

[Anonymous]

in my opinion most multi channel headphones are of poor quality . i looked into this a little while back and ended up buying a good pair of headphones and using thhe surround option on my old sony reciecer other manufacturers have this yamaha have silent cinema. the denon 2310 doesnt have a surround headphone option im affraid as i have this amp. i would have a listen to the sennheisers with the decoder. you cant really acheive true surround sound with headphones im affraid as speakers are sat against the ear.

 

[SnowyJohn]

I agree with pauladamss...

Having researched this option as a late-night alternative to my cinema setup, I concluded that large sums of money would be needed to produce a decent 'surround' experience using headphones - especially headphones that could be used for gaming/movies as well as music. I felt it pointless spending money on a headphone setup that was a good alternative to my 5.1 speakers but poor with standard music.

For smaller sums of cash a standard stereo pair of headphones with a wide soundstage prove great for gaming and music. I have a pair of open-back and closed-back headphones (Audio Technica AD700 & AKG 272HD, respectively) which do the job nicely when plugged into my standard AV receiver or Macbook Pro.

 

[SnowyJohn]

for those who are interested, and aren't aware, the Astro Mixamp is essentially a headphone amplifier specifically designed for gaming use. It was at the top of my list at the time of research...

 

[Anonymous]

id imagine if you have a denon 2310 with good speakers you will be disapointed with multi speaker headphones. how much do you want to spend??