What do you guys think about surround sound headphones?

[JOD]

One of my friends insists that his headphones are as good as my 7.1 surround sound system. He claims it has just as good directional imaging(interpreting where the sound is coming from). His head set has 4 speakers in each ear. I still dont get how the hell this works, how can you hear sound behind you if you dont have a speaker behind you? Also his headphones state that they have a freq. response of 20hz-20khz. How do those tinny 40mm drivers produce such low bass that you can hear???? it is my understanding that any speaker can move 20hz or lower , but you cant necessarily hear it because it has to displace enough air for you to hear it, right?

 

[Haoleb]

Well you can tell your friend that his headphones sure as hell wont make you FEEL like your in the movie. A good theater is about feeling earthquakes and explosions and having the sound envelop you. His headphones may be able to trick him into thinking its surround sound but its certainly by no means a replacement for the real thing.

Also with regards to bass, Keep in mind that with headphones the space your trying to fill is very small compared to driver size. Therefore you dont need a huge subwoofer to produce good bass in headphones.

 

[JOD]

Also with regards to bass, Keep in mind that with headphones the space your trying to fill is very small compared to driver size. Therefore you dont need a huge subwoofer to produce good bass in headphones.

I agree about the feeling affect! So your saying that his 40mm driver can indeed sound just like my 10" SVS sub?

 

[Haoleb]

I agree about the feeling affect! So your saying that his 40mm driver can indeed sound just like my 10" SVS sub?

Yes and No. Of course they wont produce bass like your sub, Just like they dont produce music like a good set of speakers. But if the manufacturer says they will do 20hz which I think is rather optomistic myself, Then yes they will produce 20hz. The measurement thats more important in Frequency response figures, is the decibel range they are talking about. Usually its +/- 3db but if they want to be deceptive they could do something like +5db -30. (That would be some serious deception too!)