hello all

apologies for the long post.

I was at my MCP lesson the other day and one of the guys there was talking about BF2 and hardware and stuff.

He said he uses a 5.1 headset for playing (especially useful in LAN party games). Talking to him convinced me to upgrade my sound card and get some decent headphones for when I join his clan.

Looking at the 2 bits below. (in the UK by the way).

Phones - Sharkoon cosmic 5.1 's
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=332113

Souncard - Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun Soundcard
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] ctID=71368

Willing to spend about £35 - £40 on each item. I am after some over ear headphones preferably with a Mic but I do have one already if not possible.

Both of these are within my price range, found good reviews on the Terratec but none on the Sharkoons.

My questions are.

How do they connect up. I am under the impression that there are 5 x 3.5mm jacks on the headphones that go into 5 holes on the card? According to Scan there are 3 outputs. So how does it do the 5.1, drivers?

2nd Q i have a 5.1 Surround sound board (Asus P5ND2-SLI) do I need an extra card or will on board do.

Thanks for any replies given.

freak1982

Each output carries two signals 3x2 = 6 (5.1 is 6 channels, they call the 6th a ".1" because it's limited to low frequencies). So there are three outputs on the soundcard, and 3 inputs on the headphones.

If you are a gamer, you will appreciate the EAX effects that the add in board will give you. Even if the on-board audio says it supports EAX, it's no where near as good of quality. If you're not a gamer, it will improve quality, but you'll only notice if you're really picky about sound.

I'd strongly recommend the Speedlink Medusa 5.1 headset. It's bang on your price range. The headset comes with a removeable microphone and connects to a separate 5.1 amplifier that sits on top of your box. The amp has a volume control plus a bypass button and connectors so that you can output to your speakers as well.

I have the home edition:
The headphones connect to the amp via a single multi-pin din plug, so you don't have a tangle of wires.

There are four inputs from the back of the amp that go to your soundcard (1xmic, 1xfront speakers 1xback speakers and 1xcentre/woofers).

The build quality is really good, and the package includes loads of extra connectors so that you can use the headset without the amp/connect it to your home theatre setup etc.

It sounds great, but you have to use a surround-sound speaker test program to make sure it is connected properly as different soundcards have different cable colour codings.

Thanks Max

Funnily enough I did order the Speed-Link Medusa Set on wed last week, read some reviews and they were really good. Plus as you said they come with the control box.

Thanks very much.

Freak

What's MCP?

As for 5.1 headsets.. I don't think my headset is 5.1. I just wanted something decent with a nice mic and bought an "Extreme3D" something or other. Basically, it has bass drivers in the ear piece so if you get hit by a bullet or someone walks near you or something explodes, you feel it. Seems close enough to 5.1 in my experience. Really great quality. I thought the "force feedback bass" thing was a freaking gimmick . . . until I tried it. It actually worked.

The cool thing is, when I'm in an FPS I can tell if someone is coming at me from the other side of a wall or door simply by having the feedback/bass thign turned up really high. I can just hear those footsteps a pounding at me.

MCP is Microsoft Certified Professional.

Its a Microsoft Qualification. Got my Windows XP Pro MCP about 3 months ago but got my Server 2003 Environment MCP last week, it was really hard! 2 more to go (Active Directory and Server 2003 Infrastructure) then I will be a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator.

I got the Medusa Set to plug into my soundcard but when they got here I realised they are USB!!

But I will plug my 2.1 Labtecs into them and get better sound that way. I haven't heard anything about bass boosting stuff but the whole footsteps and bullets thing is going to be really cool once I get them installed.

I have Monday and Tuesday off holidays so going to do a full rebuild of my system and reinstall the OS, create an base image etc. I will this updated on how they are!

Freak1982 (Double MCP)

Okay, that makes more sense than everything I was coming up with in my head (Mounted County Police? Military Car Pusher? Myspace Child Predator?) So is MCP the general term you Windows guys use to cover someone who has any sort of a MCSE or whatever? Or is it a very specific certification unto itself?

Just curious, because I come from the Unix world and know jack-all about what Microsoft calls their stuff... just that I'd never come across "MCP" before.

I'm still thinking about buying the Razer Barracuda since the Creative has problems on nvidia chips. If I go with that, I suspect I might get the headset that is specially made for it. But I would still love to hear what you think about the Medusas after you test them.

I remembered the headset that I bought (I don't know where I put it at the moment so I didn't know off hand):

http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/ed_audiofx/

It really is kind of gimmicky at the face of it... but I played Battlefield 2 with them and thought they were really damn cool for $50. I don't think they'd be very good for movies or music, though. If you ever get a chance to listen to them sometime, check them out. It's weird to have your whole head rattle (I mean, LITERALLY RATTLE) from the big drivers in the headset when you're in a tank or shooting or getting shelled or something.

I am hoping the headset will blow my head off! at the moment I have never had my speakers above 10% because I still live with my parents and they love to complain.

On the MCP front, it is the MCP's that you do to work towards the MSCE. At least this is how it works in the UK -

MCP's
MCP (Core Subjects which are XP, Server 2003, Active Directory and 2003 Infrastructure) x 4 make a MCSA
4 x Electives (about 30 to choose from I think, I am going to do Sequel, Security, Exchange and one other) - Makes you an MCSE

Sound really stupid but in the UK these little bits of (Expensive) paper are important to getting a job!

sadly cronjob the pounding footsteps could be on either side of you. Medusas are great .