So, as someone spoiled by having a 5.1 and then a 7.1 setup of physical speakers from the late 90's through about 2010 or so where I could easily and accurately tell from which direction I heard an enemy, or gunshots, I have been bitterly disappointed since having to use headphones. The first pair I got around 2010 or so (guessing) were great, and about as accurate as separate physical speakers. But since those wore out (2015 to 17 time frame IIRC) I have gone through probably a dozen more, NOT A ONE which makes it easily distinguishable between front and rear (left and right is easy, obviously since it has left and right physical speakers) despite all of them claiming to be 7.1, One or two was a little better at it than others, but none matched that first set of headphones or the physical 7.1 speaker system.

I mean shouldn't technology be getting better??? It seems absurd that the best 7.1 headphones were made around 2010 and now in 2025 all of them are crap? I have tried several brands, several top rated (and top priced) ones, as well as a couple of cheap ones since.. why not? None of them offer what I want... a true 7.1 sound experience where I can easily and immediately tell whether a sound is in front of or behind me like I could with that first set of headphones I got. So why not just go cheap since, you know, it makes no difference.

And for the record, it's not just me. I wondered this as I age even more and wondered if it was maybe something to do with me and my aging process. Nope. I friend came over not long ago and I had him wear them, then loaded up a save where I knew a gunfight would happen within minutes of that save, and when I experienced it as usual I couldn't tell forward or backward (in this case the fight was obviously to the left of center (as my character was facing) but it was impossible to tell whether it was directly to the left, ahead and to the left, or behind and to the left (and this is how it is with ALL sounds... forward and back is just indistinguishable). And he too couldn't tell. In fact he did what I did in an attempt to join in the action and immediately ran forward to the left (it turns out it was almost directly behind and slightly to the left). And now, since he was here, this set has started having awful static and stuff on the right side... so these are done.

So, dear goggers, is it in fact, POSSIBLE, to get accurate directional sound from headphones in 2025? Do any of you know of any good recommendations? FTR, the Razor headphones that were so good back in 2010 are no longer available and I have tried other Raxor headphones that just don't seem to work as well (again.. isn't technology supposed to be always IMPROVING???) as well as many other brands. My current ones, according to what it says on my sound setup page, are Hyper X Cloud Revolver X, which, again, did NOT distinguish front and back well and are now not working well so it's time for something new.

Just spend 10 bucks and get the cheapest set and game with a disadvantage, or is there out there, somewhere, a set of headphones that will actually help me distinguish the accurate direction of sound when trying to survive a post-apocalyptic hell?

EDIT: I just went into Windows Sound Control Panel and went into "Configure" where you set up the headphones as either Stereo or 7.1 and then it lets you test, and I learned the awful static or noise is when the subwoofer sound plays, so I guess that's the part of these that has worn out. I was wondering why I only heard it sometimes like certain music or sound effects but not others so I guess this explains it as it's the subwoofer part that's gone bad.

See, the funny thing about that is: The Seinhauser 600 HD's are still for sale some 20 years later. I'm pretty sure if there's been any breakthroughs, they're still under patent, which is stupid.

Thing is, microphones are uh, not really changed for nearly a half century, so really there's not much done to do about that. Shure SM58?

But!

I know a guy who's tested various headphones.

More to the point, I'm not sure many games these days do positional audio/directional audio without some fancy sound card business, but I'd love to be surprised.


Edit: What's your budget anyway? We've got some 3D printed headphones from Canada round about 250 fully assembled?

Ah Dankpods first time I seen him mentioned on Gog

Anyway to the op; heh I ain't a headphones guy but I have had some headphones I found to me liking for singelplayer games but I can't say they will be your standerds.. they atleast are way better then the cheapo ones

'' Astro a10 '' they can go for about 40 dollars USD

''SENZER SG500'' they go for about 30 dollars USD

I picked my logitech g phones up about 4 years ago for about 120 euro's, mainly because it was reviewed as the best mid class pickup you could get at that time, delivering almost high tier sound quality you'd expect from the sets going for 2 -300 euros.

And i like logitech stuff for that matter, even have a logitech mousepad.. without leds tho

One of the best surround moments i had with those phones was a shuttle flying in over your head in Andromeda. Of course EA is quite good at their sound quality delivery.

I do remember that hard and software wise it did came with some cavities... For example in the beginning i wanted to connect them directly to my soundcard, a soundblaster ae-5 but that never truly worked..... Also, something that just happenend now is that the Logitech software does not recognize my Phones any more but luckily windows does.

They go for as cheap as 70 euro atm, if i would be in a bind i'd buy those again, still i'm looking for something more expensive the next time around

I guess i would follow this article - https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/best/by-usage/gaming -as starting point for my quest for new headphones ....

As best, the Audeze Maxwell Wireless is mentioned and the Astro A50 X (Logitech)

Prices are insane though, 300 euros for the Audeze and 400 for the A50 X, price minded me would prefer the Audeze but… the label 'Designed for PlayStation' is a bit off-putting, even with them being the bigger part of the market.....

I might be better off with the 200 euro costing Logitech G PRO X 2 Lightspeed

Bottom line is the inner range. All the brands are dog shit, due to the brands using the same range.

Google: headphone driver size

I have the same frustration with earbuds. Except its worse, because I know I have 2 pair of buds from a Sony line from 12 years ago. Now its literally all the same on the inside. Trash components. Even the expensive brands.

The good reviews are from the kids that grew up with trash, having no clue about quality.

My old sony buds can single out whispers and sneaking in fps games. Buds even meant for studio work, sounds like ya got wax in yer ears at any volume. Imagine my anger spending $300 on buds that made me think I had ears like a 90 year old. Those all were returned. Learned how to solder the friggin wires cheaper to fix my old pair.

Another example of how life goes. I spend the better part of 30 mins logging in and creating a new account with Logitech. All failed. For some reason, password resets became invalid in the same minute they saw daylight. Logitech also did not accept my new account request per google account. All because i noticed a spectacular price drop for the A50 gen 5 set. Probably because of the new A50 X commercial aspirations. From 330 to 270.... During all that frantic searching for options i suddenly noticed another vendor offering them for 220!

I got the last one \o/

With 2 years worth of Doly Atmos support... LoL! I didn't realize this was per subscription these days

Let's hope it is not a damaged article!

and let's hope the old chap will find one for his own

Then they have wireless garbage for everything too >_>

Do you actually have any recommendations for the good fellow OFG and us kids who cannot discern proper quality?
Online shopping is an utterly miserable experience: being relentlessly bombarded with flashy (and potentially ai generated) adverts for cheap rubbish pushed to the top of every search result and into directly into one's face by the highest bidder; overwhelming the voice who puts that portion of his budget into improving the product over pushy marketing?
It's exhausting and annoying. So please, if you have insight in this field, please share your personal recommendations; given that the OP sounds like he doesn't know exactly where to begin, it would be nice.

It is not only a matter of the speakers but of the source of the sound.
In fact, the multi speaker headphones have kinda turned out to be some kind of technological dead end.
Even more because you can produce 3D sound with stereo headphones.

For many years I'm using a Creative Xfi soundcard, that will be switched for an AE-7 with the next PC.
And the Xfi got this little feature, that it can emulate 3D sound from stereo headphones and even from stereo speakers (better ones).
Above and below doesn't work that well, but left, right, in front and behind does. The higher the quality of the speakers or headphones is and the more less they fiddle around with frequencies (neutral sound), the better it seems to work.

In other words, the onboard sound of mainboards is "ok" these days for gamers - but it is more like the ok in school, when you passed.



When it comes to headphones on their own, for a long time i used Senheiser. But they killed their replacement parts sales and the quality became less good.
These days I'm using different Beyerdynamic headphones and Edifier (started with Genious) 2.0 box systems for my sound on PC. All of them are Studio line products, means not altering the sound source.

https://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/headphones-headsets

With those and the right sound source, 3D sound isn't much of a problem. Because most 3D headphones these days use 2 speakers instead of multi speaker layouts anyway and do everything by software.

Nice blog about it
https://blog-na.beyerdynamic.com/headphones-headsets-for-3d-sound/

boils down to the better the sound source and the better the headphones, the better 3D sound will work - aka buy us ;)

And that Windows can mix it up...

YT made a nice match for once,

love this audiophile person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqHIOpIXg4s

The best headphones under a 1000 euros

also had one about competitive gaming... not willing to share because of secrets ... I actually had to laugh when they explained how 'footsteps' in game, and probably also in real life, with heels of course having their own little corner, have their specific frequency range. This range is boosted in some gaming minded sets available for purchase.

some of these guys get really serious about their frequencies... i guess in the same way as some feel that over saturated is the way to go in any game, offering mods and settings and who knows what more to the world

Not trolling people when I say everything is trash. 12 to 15 years ago, there was a major push towards standardized drivers....the inner discs in head gear....close nuff anyway to understand it. Companies try to "smooth" the signal. Those years back, some companies didnt. Now everything has the signal so clean, it sounds the same with everything. Like a live concert, but with sound dampening panels everywhere.

Why? Well one reason is to avoid static. The hissing and popping from electronics. The other reason is due to certain tones can be harmful. But then you also miss around 20% of what is actually there, in music, movies and games.

Its why you can see auctions for used buds and headphones.

I will give you my insights briefly on layman's terms.

5.1, 7.1 etc is just smoke and mirrors.

If you are serious or competitive etc., headphones will always be better than speakers.

If a sound is directly in front of you or directly behind you, the human ear will struggle to tell which.

You must move around in order to pinpoint.

There is plenty of cheap rubbish on the market in terms of headphones, speakers and headsets and it is very subjective.

I personally have been using sennheiser pc350's for approx the last 15 years, including in the past for competitive cs:s

They are still going strong, though I have had to replace the felt earpads.

Pick a budget and expect to get what you pay for. Avoid wireless unless you intend to spend serious money. Expensive headphones can be trialled if you buy retail.