Question about surround sound

[saadsolaiman]

Guys my alienware m17x came with a "creative sound blaster recon3di with thx trustudio pro software"

Im very confused when it comes to audio

Do I need a 5.1 or any surround sound headphone to experience the surround sound ? Whenever i plug in my audio technica m50 to the laptop it gives me options 5.1, stereo etc

So do i need a surround sound headphone to get the surround sound experience or does the above mentioned sound card basically emulate the surround sound through software and so a stereo headphone will do.

???
Thanks

 

[Commy1]

Hardware is only capable of how it was designed. Stereo will be stereo. I'm pretty sure only the highest tiers of hardware can downgrade themselves (e.g. 7.1 could become 5.1 by turning off some of the speakers)

 

[saadsolaiman]

Thanks guys. Please tell me this. Which would be better and why

1. Getting a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound headphone like the Logitech G930
Or
2. Getting an external processor like say "turtle beach ear force DSS" and using my stereo headphones with that?

 

[Sleepy]

I personally , found that going for the USB ( 7.1 or 5.1 ) is thebest option and the easiest , I use the gamecom 780 , cost only £40 ish and they have 7.1 and 5.1 , but soon I will upgrade to the sennihier 363d cost about £200 ( spelling not corret lol)
Both run off a USB plug in , so no need for 5 ish plugs and cables running every where lol

Hope this helps ( I spent loads of time researching this to get the best option for gaming ) and this was my conclusion

 

[saadsolaiman]

Thanks a lot man. Is the plantronics good? Also I was thinking the Turtle beach DSS because then i can use it with my alienware and also my ps3. Anyone has one? Is it any good?