Surround Headphones – Should I Get Them?
You’ve probably worn a set of headphones before. You know that the effect of listening to sound coming from the center of your head is not nearly as good as listening to music coming from two high quality loudspeakers. Bad headphones will separate the sound coming from each ear making for artificial sounding music. You want a good set of headphones that provide a sense of depth from your music. Surround sound headphones are the answer.
Built into these headphones are amplifiers and sound processors. These sound processors recreate the missing cues that give the ears a sense of space. If you have a good pair, you should be surrounded by sound. They are perfect for watching movies early in the morning when you don’t want to wake the neighbors or wife. Movie soundtracks will be amazing and you’ll be able to hear things coming in from all directions. I laugh at it now but I’ve actually ducked before wearing these headphones while watching the movie.
I’m sure you want to know how much will these headphones cost me? The good news is there is inexpensive units that work very good. If you have the cash just laying around, go ahead and spend a couple of hundred dollars. You can go to a Best Buy or similar store and ask to try out the headphones while watching a movie in the theatre they have.
More expensive units even come with Dolby decoder boxes and coaxial/digital inputs. These decoders work by decoding the Dolby surround sound and mixing it into two channel for the headset that come with the decoder. Cheaper unit have all components built into the headphones but are also heavier than other units. Some people don’t like having the extra weight in the headsets due to the extra electronics inside the unit.
The best way is to try them out at a retail store and then search online for the best price. No matter what type of surround headphones you get, you will be amazed at the difference in sound quality and depth compared to regular headphones.