Surround Sound Headphones Buying Guide
Types Of Surround Sound Headphones
It actually may come as a surprise that there are different types of surround sound available for your headphones. Dolby in particular has been pushing their Dolby Headphone technology, and offer a number of 5.1 surround sound headphones as well as several of the newly introduced 7.1 surround sound headphones. Lenovo, Turtle Beach, Tritton, Astro, and Logitech are among the featured brands that utilize the Dolby technology.
Dolby has worked to convert stereo music, games, and movies into surround sound. Depending on your equipment, Dolby Pro Logic II and Dolby Pro Logic IIz are used to process 5.1 and 7.1 content to your headphones.
Surround sound headphones also come in two different physical types: wired and wireless.
Purpose and Location Of Your Surround Sound Headphones
The type and quality of surround sound headphone that you purchase will depend quite a bit on how you intend to use the headphones. For more professional studio applications, you are obviously going to have to spend more money. For casual gaming applications, you may be able to get away with a less expensive version. For home theater scenarios, you will likely want something in-between these two extremes. You don't want to skimp on the quality of the sound you have, but you may not need studio quality acoustics (though you may want them).
Where you intend to use your headphones will also determine what type of headphones you should look to purchase. Will you be primarily in one static location (your computer desk) without much movement? Or will you be moving around the room as you listen to your system?
It is no secret that wired surround sound headphones tend to perform better than their wireless counterparts. While this is not as strongly evident in the headphone market as it is in home theater systems, it still applies. Do you care about the sound quality and can make do with a static wire? If so, purchase a wired headphone set. You will get better acoustics for the money (they don't have to spend money on the wireless technology in the headphones).
Now don't take this as us being negative on wireless headphones, because we're not. There are some absolutely amazing wireless packages available, particularly as you move into the more professional equipment. Some of the best surround sound headphones we've seen are wireless. Home theater enthusiasts have also responded quite favorably to different home theater packages. These not only provide a great sound experience, but they allow your theater to keep a low profile (small apartments with neighbors, sleeping children, working spouses/roommates, etc...).
Let's recap:
- Casual gaming: low-end wired/wireless headphones
- Serious gaming to casual home theater: mid-range wired/wireless headphones
- Serious home theater to professional studio: high-end wired/wireless headphones
- Wireless versus wired: comes down to whether or not you can tolerate the cable. If you can, buy wired. If not, go wireless.
What Will It Cost?
Cost is obviously going to have a lot to do with the type of surround sound headphones that you end up purchasing. Expect wireless headphones to cost more than their wired equivalents. Low-end models can be found for as little as $20-30. Some very reasonable mid-range models can be found for $200-300. And the high-end models used for professional applications will be upwards of $1000+. Check out some of our buying suggestions below for each price break.
Trying to find what we are talking about? Here are a couple of wireless surround sound headphones from Amazon.com:
