Do the 5.1 Stereo Headphones Really Work? 84
Tamor asks: "Zalman, the company behind some extremely high quality PC noise-reducing products are now selling real 5.1 surround sound headphones. The surround effect is achieved by placing 3 drivers in each ear-piece. As a geek-with-young-family this product's pushing all the right buttons for me, it looks cool, and means I can finally achieve surround sound without waking the kids. Or does it? I was sure that to place a sound spatially your brain relies on the delay between hearing the sound in one ear and then the other. If your left ear only hears the left 3 channels, and your right ear only hears the right 3 channels isn't this making it more difficult for spatial placement to happen? Do you know if/how these are achieving surround effect if each ear is only hearing half of the audio field?"
Two Ears (Score:3, Funny)
It's a gimmick, christ. You only have two ears; it doesn't matter where the sound is coming from. Direction is simulated by the recording, not the headphones.
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I'd go for 5.2 (Score:5, Funny)
-- disclaimer: This absolutely the most retarded post I've ever made.
Re:Ask Slashdot? What about Ask the Manufacturer? (Score:3, Funny)
Strap on kidney belt that uses a solenoid to punch you in the gut with every bass thump? (probably not)
I imagine the bass channel is piped in equally to both ears along with the center channel. The reason they still call it "5.1" is probably to indicate that it takes 5.1 audio as input.