need some great 7.1, 5.1 wireless headphones for pc gaming

any suggestions??? around $!00, with built in mic and would be great if i could use them on my ps3/360 but not necessary! thanks in advance for any help!!

I'm in the process of editing the sticky (read it if you haven't already). The following - unedited - is from a forthcoming supplement:

Headphones marketed as "Dolby Headphones" are - except in very rare cases - nothing more than Dolby-licensed two-channel headphones. The use of 5.1 or 7.1 to describe these headphones is more than a little misleading. Dolby Headphone processing is not native to the headphone, but to its processor, which is included in most modern sound cards. But don't take it from me, take it from Dolby, who licenses the technology (and its logo):

"All of this information is combined by the Dolby Headphone processor into two encoded channels that deliver the spatial properties of the original audio, with more natural sounds that actually seem to be 'out-of-head.'"

"...with Dolby Headphone no special headphones are required. The process works well with wired or wireless headphones ranging from inexpensive airline headsets to high-end electrostatic sets, although higher-quality headphones deliver a higher-quality listener experience."

(Source)

To truly reproduce 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound your headphones need to have discrete drivers for each channel and native digital surround content. In a 7.1 setup this means four speakers in each ear (since the center channel is matrixed), three left for rear, side, and front, and three right for the same. You'll have a fourth driver on both sides for your subwoofer channel. The headphones would require separate analog signals from your sound card or have their own digital DAC (digital to analog converter), DSP (digital signal processor), and decoder.

Dolby Headphones do not necessarily reproduce 5.1 or 7.1 discrete channels. From their own site, "Delivers realistic 5.1-channel sound from any set of headphones...Dolby Headphone accurately creates the sensation of up to five loudspeakers in a room using powerful digital signal processing (DSP) technology." The Dolby Headphone Turtle Beach PX5, for example, only has two speakers, two 50mm drivers. Same with the Astro A40's: two 40mm drivers.

Dolby Headphones is just a manner of processing audio to simulate surround sound, not to accurately reproduce the effect. Discrete headphones are rare, expensive, and not necessarily any better than their 2-channel counterparts. The Tritton AX Pros are one of the only "real" surround sound headphones of which I am aware (I'm in the process of researching surround sound headphones). Regardless, surround sound is really meant to be experienced in an open room, not attached to your head.

I hope this helps. You can read more marketing doctrine from Dolby at their web site, if you'd like.

Happy gaming,

Boz

awsome so I might as well just buy 2ch headphones. Thanks for the info.

thanks for the info... dang didnt even see the sticky till you mentioned it:o

Boz is dead right, the encoding is done by the sound processor, not the headphones (ie Astro Mixamp, TB DSS or Tritton/Sharkoon SDU). Oh and Boz, one you should add for the sticky for the multi driver headphones, Psyko Carbon.

Why do you need wireless headphones anyway for the PC?

It is not true that dolby headphone works well on cheap headphones not from my experience anyways. I have the sony MDR-XD100 and dolby headphone just destroys the already mediocre sound quality. I also tried it on my samsung in-ear phones of pretty decent quality and it just doesnt work right. On my bose headphones it really makes the sound quality from good to excellent.

But you dont have to buy a headphone with dolby, you can get hardware dolby headphone processing for as low as $30 with the ASUS Xonar DG. Some people like dolby some dont so best to give it a try yourself and then see, I am sure the particular headphones used would effect whether someone likes dolby or not. But even without dolby the ASUS sound card is well worth the money because of the headphone amplifier.