Lowyaukee -
Being in the market myself for a time, I did some pretty exhaustive research of the 5.1 headphone market and I have to say that our stateside options are probably nearly as limited as yours.
A quick rundown on the Zalmans:
While they're definitely the most unique in design, they're about the weakest in the bass department. They're also about as clunky as they look to wear. 5.1 reproduction is relatively limited, but not the worst.
The Icemat Siberias aren't 5.1 multi-driver headphones. They're standard 2-channel headsets with excellent sound quality and bass reproduction. You will need to buy the additional USB connector for simulated 5.1 effects.
The Turtle Beach HPA headphones really interested me for quite a while. They've got a detatchable flexible boom mic that reportedly has very nice noise cancellation and sound quality; they also have very nice bass, being one of the only units to use a floating bass driver placed behind the front, center and rear drivers in a shaker mechanism. They have an in-line volume adjuster with a master and channel-specific controls, and are externally powered. They do get some low marks for their rear channel, and are built with shallow ear cups that can result in sore ears as fast as 30 minutes by some people. They are by far the most feature-rich 5.1 headphones that I've found so far, and despite their shortcomings are the ones I would most likely buy another pair of if I truly had to have a 5.1 headset.
What I ended up buying instead are the Thrustmaster T510's. They come with a miniature external Dolby Digital decoder, with both analog and optical-in jacks and are spectacular on both the computer and on the home theater. They do not have multiple drivers in each side, instead relying on hardware-driven HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology and I have to say that in a side-by side comparison with my Audigy 2 ZS and a Inspire T7700 7.1 speaker system they perform incredibly well. While the environment created by my speaker system was superior only by merit that the sound sources were being more accurately interpreted by my ears and not simulated acoustics, the Thrustmaster system brought a depth of detail to the sound that I'd never heard before. It was like trading a 32" TV and VCR for the visual crispness of a 7" portable DVD player. No it's not as big, but is it truly better? Can you wrap up the cords on a 32" TV and put it in your LAN bag? Not me, they're too damn heavy.
Utimately, the best advice I can give you is to try for yourself as many models as you can to see which satisfies your ears the most. Gaming cyber cafe's usually have that stuff for sale, along with your usual computer stores and online retail outlets. I was lucky enough to have friends with two different models, and the computer store I bought the HPA's from were kind enough to let me return them.
Keep an eye out for a company called Jasco. They're developing a pair of 5.1 headphones that took prizes at the 2005 CES convention. They're hard to find online and aren't on the market yet, but try to at least find a picture. They're pretty impressive looking, and I can't wait to see what they're capable of.
-twisted
Last edited by twistedsphere (2005-12-06 23:06:02)
