5.1 Headphones - genius or a big con trick?

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I am really tempted to buy a pair, just so I can do surround sound without half a dozen speakers as clutter. But do they work, and is the sound any good? I'm sure there are some audiophiles out there who can fill me in.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely you'd need 5.1 ears? Can they do that with cloning?

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

That's why I think they're a big con, and a don't fancy having a final front ear on my back just so I can watch Attack of the Clones in 5.1.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:27 (twenty-two years ago)

.1 refers to a subwoofer in audio-speak, no? How does that work out?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:40 (twenty-two years ago)

These ones I've got my eye on have three seperate speakers in each ear, one of which is a sub. So really it's a 4.2 set-up, I suppose.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, milo is correct, there's no sub in them. The "5.1 headphones" DO have three mini speakers in each ear, with the centre speaker in each functioning as the "centre" channel in a 5.1 setup. The ones in front and back do the surround. There's no easy way to get a real .1 into that kind of a setup without waking the neighbors...which would cancel out the benefits of headphones, really.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, also--they seem to work fine, but the downside is that you generally have to plug them into three different outputs: centre, front and rear. That's the same if you're using your PC (which means you have to disconnect your PC speakers), your receiver (which means you probably have to get adapters to convert from RCA to 1/8-inch, if it would even be loud enough, or whatever. A standard 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch headphone jack all by itself will give you stereo, nothing more.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

These would have to cover *every* orifice!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Suffocate in surround sound!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Dan, are you losing your edge? That post is the ultimate bad mang setup!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I was there...in 1993...when deX! posted his first off-color post...on rec.music.industrial...I WAS THERE!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Was he working on the "organ sounds"?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

When wouldn't he?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 February 2004 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The .1 goes up your ass?

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 12 February 2004 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Suppository Woofer? You put a dog in your ass for bass frequencies?

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 12 February 2004 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

In college, one of my friends wrote the following poem:

I like to sing bass
Because it rhymes with "ass"

Good times.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 13 February 2004 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Ass of Bass?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 13 February 2004 00:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Bass. How low can you go? Bum rush the sound I made a year ago.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 13 February 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

" .. here we go again"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 February 2004 11:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought a lot of surround encoding relied on the head-related transfer function and interference between the channels - i.e. it's an immersive experience because your pinna plays a part in directional hearing, and you're in a midst of a complex soundfield. With headphones you're removing that and just firing sounds from three slightly different places at yr earhole. Maybe it works just fine, I dunno. It does remove the room/speaker setup (which is probably way less than optimal) from the equation.

The .1 aspect is baloney, obv. The physicality of sub-50Hz material is lost totally.

There is/was a Sennheiser headphone system which works with virtual surround - i.e. using DSP to emulate a multi-channel environment - and it seems like that has the potential work better than multiple differently-oriented drivers.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 13 February 2004 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

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