Legit Reviews

Sharkoon X-Tactic 5.1 Digital Headset Review

The Sharkoon X-Tatic Digital Gaming Headset is made for both PC and console gamers and was deigned to give them great sound quality. The Sharkoon 5.1 Digital headset uses two 40mm drivers and comes with all the cables and accessories that you'll likely ever need. Read on to see if this headset will give you a sound advantage for gaming of if it will leave you wanting more.

Nothing helps us wipe out newb's than a good gaming headset. In the past a good gaming headset was hard to find, but these days it is getting a lot easier as it seems every company and their brother's are manufacturing a "High End" gaming headset. Some of these are good and others are just plain terrible. So today we are going to discuss the Sharkoon X-Tactic 5.1 Digital Headset. As we progress though the article you will see that there is good and bad with this headset. Sharkoon is a company based in Germany and is known for making all kinds of PC and gaming related products ranging from case fans to keyboards, and everything in between.

Article Title: Sharkoon X-Tactic 5.1 Dolby Digital Headset Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1525/1/
PRicing At Time of Print: $139.99 shipped

5.1 surround headphones don't work. They are unable to distinguish between front and rear located sounds. In other words there is no discernible difference if a sound is located in front or behind. This is true for all current surround headphones and so-called 3d positional audio features on soundcards. CMSS-3D is supposed to provide positional audio that lets you accurately locate sounds around you. It doesn't work. It provides a spacious sound but in no way is the sound accurate in terms of spacial positioning. Current surround headphones only project the sound behind you, in between your ears and left and right. I recently sold my second set of surround headphones on ebay: Roccat Kave. I paid about £75 pound for them last year and although they look great and have very nice build quality, the 5.1 positional audio is a gimmick. It just doesn't work. I have finally ditched surround headphones in favour of 5.1 speakers. Logitech X-540 I'm using blow all surround headphones away in terms of positional audio and sound quality. I don't have enough desk space to accommodate the front left/right speakers so I bought a set of surround speaker stands. The rear surround speakers are mounted on my wall.

If anyone here is hoping to get positional audio from surround headphones, forget it! You won't get it even from the latest Psyko 5.1. All of these surround headphones have relatively poor audio quality as well. Generally they are deficient in upper frequencies.

I would like to see someone design surround headphones using the mini speakers used in surround satellites. Mini speakers could thus be placed some distance in front and behind the ear (the conventional headphone drivers used in surround headphones aren't powerful enough to be placed even a few inches from the ear). As I type this I'm looking at the 50mm drivers in my Logitech X-540 and thinking how great it would be to build surround headphones with them! Would probably have to augment with a vibration driver or two.