Your opinions: the Zalman 5.1's or other..

[Grimdeath]

Yes, I know the people either hate or love the ZM-RS6F headphones but here's why I am considering them and need your opinion:

(1) I ONLY play games with headphones, NEVER speakers.
(2) I have an Audigy 2 sound card.
(3) I will NEVER use these headphones to listen to music or tv, just surround games (BF1942, etc).

Given the above, are the Zalman's a good choice over a standard 2-channel headphone like the Sennheiser, etc which will cost significantly more and require CMSS 3D mixing?

I'm currently using a cheapy pair of Radioshack Pro-35 (Koss) headphones with CMSS 3D and would like better seperation, bass, etc.

Thanks.

[pagan hobbit]

I just got a pair of these this past week and so far I'm a little disappointed in them. The sound itself is okay for games, but as far as surround goes, it's been a bit difficult for me to setup. I'm using an Audigy 2ZS card and I can't get it balanced very well for very long. I suppose that's more of a sound card issue than the headphones themselves. The settings seem to reset on me and I have remix the volumes a lot. I've used them so far in Half Life, Counterstrike, UT2003 and UT2004, and Simpsons Hit and Run. In HL and CS, I did have some surround, but things in front don't sound like coming from the front, mostly sound like they're right in your head. Rear sounds were better and did seem to come from the rear. Actually, I now wonder if they would sound better without the center channel connection and the driver set to 4.1. Might try that later.

In the UT's and the Simpsons, I didn't really notice much separation from front to rear (not sure if Simpsons supports it anyway). I have BF1942, but haven't played it since they came.

You said you didn't care about music or movies, and that's good because music sounds very hollow, they do have good base and pretty good highs, but not much in the mid ranges at all I think.

hope this helps if you haven't made up your mind yet.

[Pinky]

Like ph said, they're not the best fidelity wise, but if you're looking for a cheap surround package for gaming they're probably a good match.

[Darth]

A friend of mine did some research on these, it turns out they only go to 50 hz. This is not good if you are listening to DVDs or something because things like explosions go right down to 20 hz so you could be missing out on some sound.

[Pinky]

Originally posted by Darth
A friend of mine did some research on these, it turns out they only go to 50 hz. This is not good if you are listening to DVDs or something because things like explosions go right down to 20 hz so you could be missing out on some sound.

While that's 100% true, it's with the nature of headhones, and the lowest frequencies, that you often don't hear those -- rather you FEEL them. Your ears can't technically 'feel' the sub-frequencies, so while some headphones will list a sub-range of frequencies, your ears aren't capable of hearing/feeling much of it.

[twEEkerAreUs]

your ears aren't capable of hearing/feeling much of it.

Unless you strap Subs to your ears? :beer:

Even on higher end headphones, they aren't going to pound and if they do for some reason then they are sacraficing sound reproduction for it. Friend had a pair of Bose headphones he claimed "Pounds" and I took a listen......Hello MUDDY central. Pretty much ruined all the highs because of it! Back to Grimdeath now, I've heard many negative reviews about those Zalman headphones. I haven't personally tried them, but people claim it throws the sound direction way off and sounds a bit screwy.