Whenit comes to surround sound in headphoens you've got two options.
- Simulated surround sound (usually Doby Pro Logic, DTS, but there are various solutions from different vendors). This takes a multi-channel source and renders it through 2 channels while applying processing to the various signals so as to make it sound like they are coming from various locations around you. Scientist have studied the way sound is processed by our ears and know how acoustic effects created by the structures of the ear, the distance of the sound, the lcoation of the sound, etc, etc, eventually get interpreted by us. For msot people (over 90% I believe) this creates a convincing sound stage. It won't compare to actually having 7 speakers around you, but it's fairly close.
- Simulated surround via seperate drivers in each ear cup. Instead of processing the sound into 2 channels and applying simulated surround effects, each ear cup holds several drivers (speakers) which each receive a particular sound channel.
In my opinion, option number 1 is almost always best. The issue with multiple drivers in a single ear cup, is that each driver, by necessity, needs to be pretty small. The small size translates to poor audio quality and weak sounding audio. It also oesn't render that surround sound stage any better than simulated sound. If the difference was huge, then maybe I'd opt for that type of solution, but the difference is negligeable, and on some setups the simulated surround is actually BETTER than on headphones with seperate drivers.
A good pair of analog headphones + a good soundcard = exquisite stereo audio, and simulated surround that has oomph and doesn't lack audio clarity. This is definitely the way to go.
The second best option is analog headphones and integrated audio, which now a days is pretty decent, and will include simulated surroudn options most fo the time.
After that I'd consider a USB driven audio solution like the Logitech G35's. Powered by a single USB though, they tend to lack that audio oomph that I personally, appreciate. The sound quality is also not up to par vs a good set of cans + sound card.
I really wouldn't even consider a headset with various drivers. I've tried probably the best such headset currently out (the Tiamat 7.1) and it just couldn't hold a candle to my Asus Essense sound card + Sennheiser headphones.
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