So basically, I recently got these new Steelseries Siberia headphones and apparently they allow 'virtual surround sound' although I need to purchase their USB sound card which outputs in virtual surround sound for it to work (apparently).
My current [on-board] sound card outputs virtual surround sound, will this work the same as using the USB sound card they want me to buy?
[i]But the most important question for me is:[/i] What [b]is[/b] 'Virtual surround sound'?
It'll work exactly the same. It basically puts virtual speakers in a virtual surround and makes it sound like it's coming from a specific direction with virtual binaureal simulation. AKA HRTF.
[QUOTE=BmB;19096223]It'll work exactly the same. It basically puts virtual speakers in a virtual surround and makes it sound like it's coming from a specific direction with virtual binaureal simulation. AKA HRTF.[/QUOTE]
Well you seem to know what you're talking about but for some reason i doubt this is really done via binaural simulation since that would require a lot of precise calculations. From what i've experienced, Virtual Surround is in most cases just some added hall, delay and stereo width.
Well I'm not sure on the specifics but I'm fairly certain that a generalized mathemathical model has been established for that particular implementation that is representative of some average distortion introduced by a human head for an audio source from some X direction. One that is significantly easier to compute than a full simulation.
Ho boy a whole lot of big words there. Now I'm confused myself.
Maybe it's a placebo type thing, but my Siberias with the USB soundcard seem to have pretty good directional sound in games like Counter-Strike. Maybe not so much great surround sound, but i can definitely pick out front, back left and right.
IIRC, Virtual surround makes stereo speakers sound like they are surround by adding delays and other stuff to the sound output... It isn't as good as having more speakers... But it sure is better than having normal stereo.
[QUOTE=TheGuru;19099256]Maybe it's a placebo type thing, but my Siberias with the USB soundcard seem to have pretty good directional sound in games like Counter-Strike. Maybe not so much great surround sound, but i can definitely pick out front, back left and right.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA[/url]
It all comes down to the fact that you have two ears.
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