Gainward Hollywood@Home SoundXplosion 5.1 Headset
Positional audio works well with speakers because you can place them correctly in relation to you, the audio observer, with the software sending the right audio signals to the right speakers. Positional audio in a set of headphones, even with discrete drivers for each positional audio component, is a lot harder to pull off however. Their distance from your ears is crucial and the closer they are, the harder it is to angle the driver correctly to pull off the effect. So in a set of headphones, that's pretty close. The upshot of the distance means that positional audio headphones tend to be quite large to offset the issue. Gainward's are no exception.
Despite being large, they are very comfortable with the top band adjustable and the ear coverage big and full of soft foam. I've worn more comfortable Grado and Sennheiser cans, but the SoundXplosion 'phones are very comfortable for their size. For example, I've had them on all day today, since about 9am, and it's now 5.45pm and there's no sign of a sore ear lobe or earache that usually accompanies a poor-fitting set of 'phones for me.
Being 5.1 'phones you've got three audio jacks to attach to your soundcard, be that Music2Go or otherwise. One each for front, rear and centre⊂, and for that Gainward also provide an extension cable for the jacks, allowing you to sit a good five or six feet from your audio source.
Inside the 'phones ear sections are two 'planes'. The inner plane holds the three drivers for positional audio with the outer plane carrying the 'subwoofer' driver. I say subwoofer, but that really implies a speaker driver that you can't hear in terms of noise, only feel. With a frequency response of around 60-500Hz, the sub driver in the SoundXplosions is audible. However, since the driver is close to your head and there's one for each ear, the bass effect is actually quite excellent in some scenarios. You shouldn't be able to tell what direction bass is coming from and the 'phones give that sort of illusion at times, with a driver per ear, fooling your brain. You can physically feel the 'phones move too, when the bass driver is active, a cool touch in bass-heavy games and DVDs.
Performance wise, Doom3 is the game to really try and kick the SoundXplosion's ass, in terms of highlighting any foibles in how it works. And for the most part the 'phones kick back, hard. Doom3 has a fully positional audio engine and the effects are quite bass-heavy in places. I sat down with the SoundXplosions attached to my melon and set forth to kick some monster bootay, hell-bound, in iD's newest game. After a couple of hours of play with the SoundXplosions, play that I have to admit I ended up utterly engrossed in due to the audio, I swapped to my usual Creative T7700s with the subwoofer generating as much bass as possible without clipping and the volume up to moderate levels.
Truthfully, the closeness of the sub driver in the 'Xplosions to your head and the active movement it makes as force feedback make the headphones win out quite easily, over the Creatives. For the price, that's a little embarassing for Creative's speakers. It's not always going to be the case. Music reproduction is poorer than the Creatives and you really really need positional audio in your games to make the best of the 'phones. In DVDs, things tend to be bass heavy or not bassy at all, making it hard to settle on that middle ground, whereas my speakers do a fine job of that task.
I'll quote the mighty Digitalwander over at Elite Bastards, in his review of the same 'phones. He gets the superlatives right.
"The bass is strong, the mids are clear, and the highs are clean; I love these headphones!" and "I could freaking taste the atmosphere in Doom3, it was just incredible! The ambient sounds were all coming from somewhere, they weren't just background noises anymore. I spent the first few minutes just spinning in a circle identifying the locations all the little hisses and machinery noise were coming from, it was that intense."
Out of the three Hollywood@Home components featured in this article, the 'Xplosions are what I'll miss most.
Play Doom3 in the dark with the 'Xplosions and you too can look like me.
