If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(Engadget) Cool Plantronics accidentally outs surround sound headset   (engadget.com) divider line 31
More: Cool, PLANTRONICS, headsets, PC gamers, LAN, sound headset  
•       •       •

4944 clicks; posted to Geek » on 05 Jan 2012 at 10:37 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



31 Comments   (+0 »)
   
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
Because People in power are Stupid [TotalFark]
2012-01-05 09:31:02 AM
Want.
 
zulius
2012-01-05 10:43:38 AM
so it'll be fabulous?
 
LDM90
2012-01-05 10:44:52 AM
The whole thing?
 
Oysterman
2012-01-05 10:46:27 AM
Didn't even know it was in the closet.
 
poot_rootbeer
2012-01-05 10:49:04 AM
How is this "virtual surround" technology different than the Qsound algorithms that were available in DOS games and arcade cabinets 20 years ago?
 
animal900
2012-01-05 10:49:59 AM
FTFA: Each can features a sizable 40mm driver

How does it do surround sound from one driver? Some Dolby software nonsense? Pass...
 
Lando Lincoln [TotalFark]
2012-01-05 11:15:48 AM
which features a 6.5 foot (2 meter) USB cable.

You lost me. Real headphones hook up to a quality sound card. Hooking it up USB means that the headphones become their own sound card. That usually causes loads of problems in games.
 
TNel
2012-01-05 11:17:33 AM
Wow so this is just a major piece of garbage wrapped up in a shiny package with fancy words describing it.... pass
 
SFSailor
2012-01-05 11:39:31 AM
animal900: How does it do surround sound from one driver? Some Dolby software nonsense? Pass...

THIS is what brought me into the thread -- anyone care to take a shot at explaining how you get "surround sound" from *two* speakers? Even if "explaining" takes the form of "marketing gobbledegook nonsense"? I mean, I just don't get how that claim can be made.
 
bhcompy
2012-01-05 11:44:34 AM
I've had surround sound headphones for 15 years, and they're much better quality all around than anything Plantronics is even capable of putting out

www.hometheaterinfo.com
(Sennheiser HD580+Sennheiser DSP)

As far as the surround itself, it works pretty well, but I usually just use it as an amp because my receiver and my soundcard will do the sound processing for me. And no shiatty USB.
 
whenIsayGO
2012-01-05 12:13:02 PM
I've had both real surround headphones that plug into a sound card (Medusa), and fake surround headphones running from USB (Razer Megalodon), and while the "fake" surround was good enough not to get me killed while gaming, and was easier to set up because there's just less to configure, it never sounded as good or worked as reliably as the real surround once properly calibrated.

I can see where the simpler USB setup has its place (I was able to tour with it, which I couldn't with the other one), but I never quite figured out how two speakers can become 8 either.
 
TheManWho
2012-01-05 12:15:08 PM
I've had a Logitech headset with the same features (apart from folding flat) for over a year. The surround sound isn't too bad on movies, never really used it on games. I just wanted a decent full sized headset.
 
acronym
2012-01-05 12:23:11 PM
wow.. so innovative

www.stereotimes.com
 
mongbiohazard
2012-01-05 12:50:21 PM
Lando Lincoln: which features a 6.5 foot (2 meter) USB cable.

You lost me. Real headphones hook up to a quality sound card. Hooking it up USB means that the headphones become their own sound card. That usually causes loads of problems in games.


Yeah, the headphones seem nice, but USB connection is a deal-breaker for me for a gaming PC. I still like having a dedicated sound card in there, when I built my current rig I tested it with the onboard sound and then with a dedicated sound card and there was a measurable increase in FPS with the dedicated card. It was actually a significantly bigger difference than I had expected. Something like 7 FPS.

A USB sound card MIGHT work better than a sound card built into the motherboard... but I doubt it, and I am even more skeptical that it would be better than a dedicated sound card.
 
robbiex0r
2012-01-05 12:54:04 PM
I had these seven years ago for playing CS:S...
Link (new window)
 
pasketti
2012-01-05 03:22:30 PM
mongbiohazard:A USB sound card MIGHT work better than a sound card built into the motherboard... but I doubt it, and I am even more skeptical that it would be better than a dedicated sound card.

It's even worse than that. It's not a "USB sound card". You plug it into one of the USB ports on the motherboard (or wherever), and the CPU is in charge of all the audio processing, instead of passing it off to a dedicated sound card.

At work, they gave us these USB softphone headsets. It was actually a smart move, because they could get rid of all that dedicated PBX phone hardware. But if you're on a call and do something like open a spreadsheet, the audio skips a bit. I got a regular analog audio headset, and the problem went away.

Never, ever, use USB for audio.
 
bhcompy
2012-01-05 03:30:39 PM
pasketti: mongbiohazard:A USB sound card MIGHT work better than a sound card built into the motherboard... but I doubt it, and I am even more skeptical that it would be better than a dedicated sound card.

It's even worse than that. It's not a "USB sound card". You plug it into one of the USB ports on the motherboard (or wherever), and the CPU is in charge of all the audio processing, instead of passing it off to a dedicated sound card.

At work, they gave us these USB softphone headsets. It was actually a smart move, because they could get rid of all that dedicated PBX phone hardware. But if you're on a call and do something like open a spreadsheet, the audio skips a bit. I got a regular analog audio headset, and the problem went away.

Never, ever, use USB for audio.

It's the same thing they did for modems(Winmodems). Worst idea ever.
 
Lt. Cheese Weasel
2012-01-05 04:02:09 PM
I just broke my Turtle Beach gaming rig. Wasn't going to invest any more in headphones. But now this.....a must have turnip twaddler if I ever saw one. Want.
 
TV's Vinnie
2012-01-05 04:28:43 PM
Plantronics is an awesome company. They were the ones who got the contract to make the headsets and mics for the Apollo program.

www.nasm.si.edu
 
Lando Lincoln [TotalFark]
2012-01-05 04:33:01 PM
Plantronics make great microphones for gaming. You can always tell when someone is using one. Their voices are always crisper, not muffled at all. As far as the sound quality of the headphones go...eh. I don't have any complaints. They do the job.
 
Lorithad
2012-01-05 07:33:33 PM
I've been using plantronics headsets for a while now. They just seem better built than other things I've tried.

I especially like the gamecom 777. It's nice having the USB sound card as an option, but not required like some of the other stuff out there. If you're going to invest in a fancy sound card, you might as well be able to use it.
 
Jamdug! [TotalFark]
2012-01-05 10:30:49 PM
In all honesty, that is a pretty gay-looking headset.
 
Somaticasual
2012-01-05 10:37:15 PM
Wait a minute. I remember seeing 5.1 surround sound settings in headphones in the late 90s. Is this actually new, or this is a paid PR release?
 
profplump [TotalFark]
2012-01-06 04:54:41 AM
pasketti: It's even worse than that. It's not a "USB sound card". You plug it into one of the USB ports on the motherboard (or wherever), and the CPU is in charge of all the audio processing, instead of passing it off to a dedicated sound card.

Exactly how much work do you think your sound card is doing? Virtually all "sound cards" do nothing more than mux or demux a few LCPM audio streams. At most they offer resampling so they can advertise arbitrary sample rates and depths to the OS. Which means that the CPU, even with a fancy sound card, still does all of the actual audio processing and puts those streams into buffers for the sound card to pick up.

The only reason sound cards ever existed was that old-school computers simply didn't have the memory throughput to play high-rate audio. It wasn't an issue of processing the data in the CPU, it was just that they couldn't copy the data from disk to memory to the sound card fast enough. But in modern terms it's a trivial amount of data -- 2 channels of LCPM 16/48kHz audio is under 200 kBps. If your system can't reliably send that much data across your USB channel you should seriously consider updating to a Pentium chip; those 486s are getting a little long in the tooth.
 
Doctor Jan Itor
2012-01-06 08:03:45 AM
Nice ad.
 
bhcompy
2012-01-06 11:49:37 AM
profplump: pasketti: It's even worse than that. It's not a "USB sound card". You plug it into one of the USB ports on the motherboard (or wherever), and the CPU is in charge of all the audio processing, instead of passing it off to a dedicated sound card.

Exactly how much work do you think your sound card is doing? Virtually all "sound cards" do nothing more than mux or demux a few LCPM audio streams. At most they offer resampling so they can advertise arbitrary sample rates and depths to the OS. Which means that the CPU, even with a fancy sound card, still does all of the actual audio processing and puts those streams into buffers for the sound card to pick up.

The only reason sound cards ever existed was that old-school computers simply didn't have the memory throughput to play high-rate audio. It wasn't an issue of processing the data in the CPU, it was just that they couldn't copy the data from disk to memory to the sound card fast enough. But in modern terms it's a trivial amount of data -- 2 channels of LCPM 16/48kHz audio is under 200 kBps. If your system can't reliably send that much data across your USB channel you should seriously consider updating to a Pentium chip; those 486s are getting a little long in the tooth.

Onboard soundcards use 3-10% of the processing capability of the system on average. Yes, a faster processor is nice, but they're inefficient units and they take away from power that would otherwise be available for other applications. Since the primary purpose is gaming, this is important, since multithreaded games are going to dominate all available cores. Singlethreaded games won't be a problem at all, though.
 
Lando Lincoln [TotalFark]
2012-01-06 01:38:49 PM
profplump: pasketti: It's even worse than that. It's not a "USB sound card". You plug it into one of the USB ports on the motherboard (or wherever), and the CPU is in charge of all the audio processing, instead of passing it off to a dedicated sound card.

Exactly how much work do you think your sound card is doing? Virtually all "sound cards" do nothing more than mux or demux a few LCPM audio streams. At most they offer resampling so they can advertise arbitrary sample rates and depths to the OS. Which means that the CPU, even with a fancy sound card, still does all of the actual audio processing and puts those streams into buffers for the sound card to pick up.

The only reason sound cards ever existed was that old-school computers simply didn't have the memory throughput to play high-rate audio. It wasn't an issue of processing the data in the CPU, it was just that they couldn't copy the data from disk to memory to the sound card fast enough. But in modern terms it's a trivial amount of data -- 2 channels of LCPM 16/48kHz audio is under 200 kBps. If your system can't reliably send that much data across your USB channel you should seriously consider updating to a Pentium chip; those 486s are getting a little long in the tooth.

That's all fine and good, but in real gaming applications, USB audio devices are poor quality in comparison to sound cards. I can't tell you how many complaints I've got from my gaming friends about their "shiatty headphones not working right," their microphones not working at all or intermittently. I always ask them, "how do your headphones / mic hook up to the computer?" and they always say, "By USB. Why?" and then I tell them to go out and get a non-USB set and then their problems go away.
 
TheFlannelAvenger
2012-01-06 09:18:36 PM
I love over the ear headphones. But, well, I'm sorta Vulcan. I need a very large set of cans to accommodate my taller and wider ears. I have a great Plantronics headset, with a mic, for raids, but it's seriously uncomfortable to wear. So far, the squishy rubber jacketed Samsung in ear buds that came with my phone are the best in terms of comfort and audio quality, but no mic. I'd love a huge pair of phones, with a mic, but they seem to have gone out of fashion.
 
bhcompy
2012-01-06 10:50:32 PM
TheFlannelAvenger: I love over the ear headphones. But, well, I'm sorta Vulcan. I need a very large set of cans to accommodate my taller and wider ears. I have a great Plantronics headset, with a mic, for raids, but it's seriously uncomfortable to wear. So far, the squishy rubber jacketed Samsung in ear buds that came with my phone are the best in terms of comfort and audio quality, but no mic. I'd love a huge pair of phones, with a mic, but they seem to have gone out of fashion.

I believe Sennheiser makes a pair of over the ear headphones with a mic(hd201 or something). I'm not sure how large they are, though. They're huge on my HD580s, but no mic on that model. My son has a pair of Turtle Beach over the ear headphones, but they aren't real large.
 
profplump [TotalFark]
2012-01-07 02:51:00 AM
Lando Lincoln: then I tell them to go out and get a non-USB set and then their problems go away.

I agree, $4 audio systems are terrible. But you're confusing the quality of the device with the connection protocol it uses. (Or maybe the quality of the drivers, if the device uses non-standard drivers) Yes, there are cheap USB audio devices. But 10 years ago, when sound cards still existed, there were also cheap sound cards.

And in any case the CPU offloading claim is ridiculous.
 
Lando Lincoln [TotalFark]
2012-01-08 06:52:05 PM
profplump: But 10 years ago, when sound cards still existed

They still exist. One is sitting in my computer as we speak. And they still sell them.
 
Displayed 31 of 31 comments

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh comments

This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking
Submit a Link »
 


Link here