What is PR like with 5.1 speakers?

Lowe · Post by **Lowe** » 2007-07-24 08:53

Directionality.

I have a pair of Razer HP1 5.1 headphones and they help me pick out the direction of incoming vehicles etc. They're good, but not as good as dedicated speakers. Your situation awareness and immersion will be increased significantly, making it a worthy purchase if you've got an EAX card

Burning Mustache · Post by **Burning Mustache** » 2007-07-24 09:19

Lowe wrote:if you've got an EAX card

To be fair though, even most on-board sound chips support EAX these days.

Raynizzle1691 · Post by **Raynizzle1691** » 2007-07-24 10:10

i hav logitech 6.1 speakers, and its pretty fun. You can hear sum1 walk behind u when ur sniping in the bushes, so it's easy to find out if sum1 will stick a knife up your bum.

Burning Mustache · Post by **Burning Mustache** » 2007-07-24 10:25

Raynizzle1691 wrote:i hav logitech 6.1 speakers, and its pretty fun. You can hear sum1 walk behind u when ur sniping in the bushes, so it's easy to find out if sum1 will stick a knife up your bum.

rly ?
wow!!

Post by **Dunehunter** » 2007-07-24 11:19

I have an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card, which manages to give me surround sound through my headset, which is damn handy becaus a) less background noise when I use my mic and b) I don't wake up my parents when I'm up late gaming.

WorfoSAUR · Post by **WorfoSAUR** » 2007-07-24 14:30

It's great to have surround sound. And with EAX turned on, the sound quality increases exponentially.

Post by **Jaymz** » 2007-07-24 15:03

Yeah, PR audio relies a lot on EAX effects such as air absorption and sound obstruction so ensuring you have that little box checked helps a lot.

Taffy · Post by **Taffy** » 2007-07-24 15:20

I'd say get a good quality pair of 5.1 headphones. Seems to be more immersing than speakers IMO.

::Major_Baker:: · Post by **::Major_Baker::** » 2007-07-24 15:23

yeah headphones arer way better than speaks.

The_motivator · Post by **The_motivator** » 2007-07-24 17:42

only complaint i have about the XtremeGamer is that i can't get a mic to work with my 5.1 speaker set up, though it's advertised to work. Creative was absolutely no help in figuring out how to fix it.

And with 5.1 headphones, you can't /feel/ that a-10 come in danger close

Expendable Grunt · Post by **Expendable Grunt** » 2007-07-24 17:45

Sound is really important to me but I'm not too educated on sound systems (lack of experience due to money). My current set up is a 2.1, which is two speakers that connect to one 3.5mm jack into my sound card, and a sub which has an analog thing connected from one of the speakers. What is the difference between the 5.1 version of these (logitech) speakers, all of which (to my knowlege) come down to a single jack, and a 5.1 setup with seperate jacks?

The_motivator · Post by **The_motivator** » 2007-07-24 17:48

5.1 runs on 3 channels. so it has 6 directions sound can go.
Front Center / Subwoofer
Front Left / Front Right
Rear Left / Rear Right

it offers you a lot more information in regards to incoming and outgoing noises as to where they are coming from. Also, with 5.1 speakers instead of 2.1, the sound system can get quite a bit louder. 3 "bars" on the digital readout of my speaker volume is enough to make cans on my computer desk skitter around due to the bass when i drive in a tank.

It's simply amazing.

Long Bow · Post by **Long Bow** » 2007-07-24 18:09

I currently have both a 5.1 speaker setup and a quality set of headphones. I use the headphones exclusively. I enjoy the speakers but for clarity and sound position I prefer the headphones.

Some people suggest getting 5.1 headphones and from the research I did before buying mine the 5.1 headphones are a gimick. There is no true 5.1 headphones. A good quality set of headphones will give just as good sound position but better sound quality. I grabbed a set of Sony (XD300 I think?)ear muff style headphones - comfortable, great sound, lots of bass if you turn up the bass Eq.

The bonus is that I don't send game noise back through my mic over voip. I would seriously look at getting a good quality set of headphones from a reputable company. There are better companies out there then Sony but the ones I bought were reasonably priced but not cheap and I listend to them instore vs. a few others.

Last thing, I had a cheap pair of ear muff style headphones prior to this and noticed a nice boost when I bought the Sony's.

DavidP · Post by **DavidP** » 2007-07-24 18:12

I have a 4.1 system which i rarely use and a gamin headset which is my mine speaker/mic combo. It was nice but i got yelled at to shut it down.

Kahuna · Post by **Kahuna** » 2007-07-24 18:41

I use a Creative X-Fi Extreme Music [One of the original line up, with the chip] with cheap 5.1 creative speakers, or through a pair of Sennheiser PC160 headphones [these are ace, really good frequency response across the band, with a decent mic attached to boot].
With the X-fi, the CMSS-3d allows for really accurate surround sound through stereo headphones - I'd be as far as to say that it's more accurate then a pair of 5.1 cans.
I find using the speakers allows for more ambiance, and it's incredibly immersive [it's a word now, ok?] when turned up loud enough as for the bass to shake the floor.
I prefer using the speakers to the headphones, simply because of the sound waves physically hitting you, although with the X-Fi, I can barely tell the difference.
It's nice being able to hear when your squads being outflanked, or someone creeping up behind you with a knife when you're covering squad mates from the shadows.
~Kahuna

TheAmazingYant · Post by **TheAmazingYant** » 2007-07-24 19:47

I love my 5.1 set-up, and I've never had any complaints about sound coming through VOIP (even though I tend to have the speakers cranked). I don't know if headphones offer better clarity or sound direction, but I do know that with the 5.1 setup my subwoofer has the ability to shake picture frames off the wall of my room, which is nice.

vanity · Post by **vanity** » 2007-07-25 13:51

REALTEK vs EAX

I had to replace my motherboard about 2 months ago and I replaced it with an ABIT that has 7.1 REALTEK surround sound built in. I've been using it for a few months and it's alright. But I've noticed I cannot utilize EAX with it and in some research, found that REALTEK doesn't support EAX.

So last night I opened up my box and put my Audigy 2 card back in. This card has EAX support. After the mandatory monkeying around with drivers I fired up Project Reality.

From the opening BSS logo I knew this was different already. Once the game actually started, HOLY CATS it's an entirely new world. It's not just that it sounds louder, fuller, and better...it's like there's more sounds to be heard. And everything is crystal clear as far as directional support. You can hear tanks coming behind you from a long way out.

There's EAX and there's everything else. I think the Audigy cards are going for like $35 on NewEgg. I'd definitely suggest picking one up.