Best positional audio headphones available?

[steeldesade]

I recently built my dream PC but have used my old sound gear on this build. I'm using a Soundblaster ZX sound card with 5.1 analog outputs that I bought many years ago. I have also been using a CM Storm 5.1 headset for many years that has multiple drivers and thought it sounded pretty good. After reading these forums I realize that the multiple drivers in headphones is a gimick and I probably don't know what good sound is. One of my ear cups is starting to cut out so I am in search of some kick ass headphones. I do have a set of speakers with subwoofer that I run from splitting the center channel output from my sound card and control the speaker volume from the desktop puck included with the Soundblaster ZX. Looking for recommendations for the best positional audio headphones in competitive games like COD warzone. I don't really watch movies or listen to music on my PC. Gaming is my focus for sound. I want to hear the grass shifting behind me when someone is sneaking up on me. I need every advantage I can get as a gamer pushing 60 years old. Budget is not really an issue for me but i'd like to keep it reasonable. (under $500 for everything). I am not opposed to ditching the sound card if there are better options for the most realistic positional audio available. Sorry if this post is redundant, but it seems most people in this forum are asking about best cheap thing they can get. I want amazing and an edge.

 

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[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, steeldesade said:

Looking for recommendations for the best positional audio headphones in competitive games like COD warzone. I don't really watch movies or listen to music on my PC. Gaming is my focus for sound. I want to hear the grass shifting behind me when someone is sneaking up on me.

Have you tried the software-based solutions? For some people they don't work that well, for some people they do, like e.g. I could totally hear the difference in Battlefield V when I bought and enabled "Dolby Atmos for Headphones" in Windows 10 with my stereo-headset. It's free for a 7-day trial or something, so you won't actually lose much, if you try and see how it works for you.

[steeldesade]

Just now, WereCatf said:

Have you tried the software-based solutions? For some people they don't work that well, for some people they do, like e.g. I could totally hear the difference in Battlefield V when I bought and enabled "Dolby Atmos for Headphones" in Windows 10 with my stereo-headset. It's free for a 7-day trial or something, so you won't actually lose much, if you try and see how it works for you.

No I have not as my current headphones are true 5.1 with multiple drivers. I will explore that option with the right stereo headphones.

 

[The Flying Sloth]

21 minutes ago, steeldesade said:

No I have not as my current headphones are true 5.1 with multiple drivers. I will explore that option with the right stereo headphones.

 

Just went and copied this from some of my previous answers,

"We tend to not recommend 'true' 7.1 headsets here because in real life humans only hear in stereo, two ears creating a binaural 3D image using the minuscule delay between ears (due to the speed of sound) and spectral pinnae cues to localise the audio. The much smaller, multiple, drivers in true surround headphones are each less accurate than the two single drivers in stereo headphones while driving up cost for no benefit in applications with binaural stereo (and given Windows sonic can turn any 7.1 source into binaural audio, many applications don't even need that)."

In short 'virtual surround' is actually more true to life (at least as far as headphones go) than 'true' surround sound. You can use audiophile headphones to hear virtual surround sound.

If you're just looking for the best possible stereo headphones well that's easy, Sennheiser Orpheus (I don't actually know how good Orpheus is, only that it's hella expensive)

Edited July 23, 2020 by The Flying Sloth

[WereCatf]

4 minutes ago, The Flying Sloth said:

The much smaller, multiple, drivers in true surround headphones are each less accurate than the two single drivers in stereo headphones while driving up cost for no benefit in applications with binaural stereo

This echoes my experiences. I have tried two different multi-driver surround-headsets, but when I bought my Steelseries Elite Prism stereo-headset, I actually got both better surround-experience and better audio-quality in general. Obviously, YMMV and, given the fact that I've only experience two different surround-headsets, the amount of anecdotal data isn't a lot to go on with.

[an actual squirrel]

I think people place too much emphasis on headphone choice, as I think they feel it is the only thing they have control over. However, I think you should mainly just look for something with a good frequency response. The inconvenient truth is that good positional audio comes from the processing used to create binaural audio from the game audio, as well as the quality of the game assets.

 

So for example, that COD game support windows 10 spatial sound. If you get a pair of high end sennheiser hd800 headphones, it will still be objectively worse with plain stereo in terms of positional audio than an average headphone using dolby atmos for headphone or windows sonic for headphone or those type of technologies.

 

This is the type of insight not usually found in gaming headphone discussions on internet forums, as they usually just devolve into circlejerks about how great audiophile headphones are.

[steeldesade]

4 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

So for example, that COD game support windows 10 spatial sound. If you get a pair of high end sennheiser hd800 headphones, it will still be objectively worse with plain stereo in terms of positional audio than an average headphone using dolby atmos for headphone or windows sonic for headphone or those type of technologies.

Looks like I need to read up on dolby atmos and windows sonic. I know absolutely nothing about them,