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Surround Sound Headphones for Mac
- Thread starter DarkGashX
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I'm not familiar with exactly what "surround sound headphones" are...there are plenty of headphones that try to *simulate* surround sound, but there's still only two audio drivers.
That said, even if they do exist, there shouldn't be anything special about them to make them "for Mac". Macs use the same 3.5mm headphone jack as just about everything else (with the additional option of being optical). I love it when people come in here and ask about speakers for their Mac, or a monitor for their Mac, or whatever. You want to talk about quality of different peripherals, sure, but asking about headphones "for Mac" is like going to Discount Tire and saying "Do you have any tires that will work on my Ford?" "Uh, yeah...they also work on Chevy, Audi, Dodge..." Which doesn't really get you anywhere.
That said, even if they do exist, there shouldn't be anything special about them to make them "for Mac". Macs use the same 3.5mm headphone jack as just about everything else (with the additional option of being optical). I love it when people come in here and ask about speakers for their Mac, or a monitor for their Mac, or whatever. You want to talk about quality of different peripherals, sure, but asking about headphones "for Mac" is like going to Discount Tire and saying "Do you have any tires that will work on my Ford?" "Uh, yeah...they also work on Chevy, Audi, Dodge..." Which doesn't really get you anywhere.
I have Zalman headphones for the PC and they have 3 jacks on them, which, I haven't seen on the Mac.
Those 3 jacks are probably the analog L/R, Rear L/R, and Center channels. With a Mac, if you plug in a normal 3.5mm analog set, then it'll just output two channels. To get "Surround Sound", you would need a digital decoder box that could convert the signal to an analog signal.
Don't suppose you could point out a few decorder boxes that would work on Mac could you?
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Wow, fancy. I haven't seen those before. Those are the details I'm talking about that would have been helpful
It sounds like they operate on the same principle as any analog 5.1 speaker system with the three 3.5mm jacks. On some sound cards, including the ones in Macs, the only way to get more than stereo out is to go digital. If you want to use analog surround, there is some sort of box out there to go from digital to 5.1 analog. It wasn't cheap though. I'll see if I can find the link.
Wow, fancy. I haven't seen those before. Those are the details I'm talking about that would have been helpful
Details here: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=110&code=023
Yes, they have 3 jacks for analog surround.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826235001
They are Optical, and plug in the back of the Mac Pro.
They are Optical, and plug in the back of the Mac Pro.
Those don't look too bad. The spec page doesn't mention Mac again though.
Not even the Maker's website: http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRIGA600.htm.
.Those don't look too bad. The spec page doesn't mention Mac again though.
Not even the Maker's website: http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRIGA600.htm.
Pretty sure it won't matter, do they got drivers for headphones now?
Haha, nice. I'm not sure how the Mac's sound works though so I just want to be safe than sorry. I plan to get an iMac next month.
Oh I don't know about a iMac, but I did hear their built in speakers are really good.
That was the whole point of my topic, haha. I am looking for surround sound headphones that would work on a Mac.
Obviously you've never heard them then
The iMac's built-in speakers are pathetic. Better than a laptop's, but only slightly.DarkGashX, I think the ones from Newegg wouldn't work without an adapter. They two digital connections on it are a TOSlink and digital coaxial. You would need to find a TOSlink to mini-TOSlink (also called 3.5mm optical) adapter. They're pretty cheap. If you get that, they should work fine.
May I ask what you're into that you need 5.1 headphones? That's pretty hardcore.
check out Sennheiser, they have surround sound headphones which are wireless if I recall.
One thing I saw someone post the iMac having sucky internal speakers. True, but the process for the sound is amazing though, I looked it up, its way better than Denon or anything on the market which is insane!!!
One thing I saw someone post the iMac having sucky internal speakers. True, but the process for the sound is amazing though, I looked it up, its way better than Denon or anything on the market which is insane!!!
Obviously you've never heard them then
DarkGashX, I think the ones from Newegg wouldn't work without an adapter. They two digital connections on it are a TOSlink and digital coaxial. You would need to find a TOSlink to mini-TOSlink (also called 3.5mm optical) adapter. They're pretty cheap. If you get that, they should work fine.
May I ask what you're into that you need 5.1 headphones? That's pretty hardcore.
When I play movies I like out of this world-ish audio
. So that pretty much sums up why I want 5.1.
Speed Link make the Medusa, a 5.1 headphone for gaming.
http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?lang=en&sys_id=8&pb_id=8&prod_num=SL-8790
I was mildly amazed to find that the Medusa does kind of work. But I think electronic methods to simulate a 3D soundspace are better. The reason is that with these phones which try and have actual separate drivers for different directions, they don't provide the ear with any significantly better cues than the latest positional audio simulation and there is also a disconnect between the different directions they try to represent - there's a sudden jump in the sound from one driver to another. That, and the sound quality is not so hot although it's perfectly acceptable. So my preference is for positional audio as simulated in the latest soundcards...
...Oh hang on, the Mac can't do proper positional audio in headphones.
Ah right, it's the analog Medusa with a Firewave then.
http://www.speed-link.com/prod.php?lang=en&sys_id=8&pb_id=8&prod_num=SL-8790
I was mildly amazed to find that the Medusa does kind of work. But I think electronic methods to simulate a 3D soundspace are better. The reason is that with these phones which try and have actual separate drivers for different directions, they don't provide the ear with any significantly better cues than the latest positional audio simulation and there is also a disconnect between the different directions they try to represent - there's a sudden jump in the sound from one driver to another. That, and the sound quality is not so hot although it's perfectly acceptable. So my preference is for positional audio as simulated in the latest soundcards...
...Oh hang on, the Mac can't do proper positional audio in headphones.
Ah right, it's the analog Medusa with a Firewave then.
For movies only your best bet is probably the Pioneer DIR-800C. This'll take the optical feed from the Mac and give you 5.1 surround processing (the optical on the Macs have DTS passthrough, so the processing will be done on that signal) on the headphone itself. These are infrared headphones, i.e. they are wireless but line of sight.
For general purpose use - there's really nothing much else. As I said there's no good Mac-based 3D positional audio solution unlike under Windows.
For general purpose use - there's really nothing much else. As I said there's no good Mac-based 3D positional audio solution unlike under Windows.