Can anyone give me some advise on a good gaming headset? I'm looking for it to play game, obviously....surround is the most important feature and a mic would be a very nice touch, other features like rumble or inline control are not as important to me. It an be USB, optical, coax or use anumber of 3.5mm jacks, i have all the option available.

One question i have about the USB is does it really work, and i so is the drain on the CPU noticable...im gonna guess it isn't...thanks alot

Medusa gaming 5.1 headset...very comfortable and the mike is totally adjustable..well worth the money..uses it for 12 hour lands and my ears don't hurt unlike others.

I also have a Medusa 5.1. It is nice, and the mike is very comfortable.

However I doubt whether you really need a 5.1 setup (meaning more than one speaker per ear) for a headset to get a good surround effect. That depends how the 5.1 signal is converted to a 2 channel signal, appropriate for a headset. With just one speaker for each ear it is possible to create the best surround experience possible, but it depends whether the conversion is done right, and I guess that depends on either the game software, the soundcard you use, or whether the headset takes care of that (feed in 5.1 but only use 2 speakers in the headset).

The advantage of a 5.1 headset is that you're not depending on the software or the soundcard to do it right, you just feed the 5.1 signal directly into the headset and it works.

I found the medusa HORRIBLE. It broke twice, they sent a replacement and that broke too. AFAIK it has its own onbaord sound 'card'. this caused all manor of problems.

I now use Sennheiser 165s and have had no problems at all. I am not sure if they are full 5.1 or 2.1 made to replicate 5.1 sounds. I would highly reccamend them tho.

I got a cheapo (40$ CDN) Philips that broke (taped it up on one end), but it's great, comfy, bought at walmart or something, I always know where sounds are coming from (bf2, cs:s), I also use X-fi..

there's a headset with the "razer" branding on it that you might wanna look into. I recommend a thorough evaluation quickly after purchase. I personally use Sennheiser HD590s on an X-Fi platinum, and the quality is superior, staging is excellent (i can tell if the shots are coming from the side/front/behind) and the comfort is unparalleled. I find myself putting them on for no reason other than they just FEEL right to wear.

Don't get the medusa with the onboard sound..all these headphones are crap..
the Medusa I'm on about plugs into your existing soundcard and that does the 5.1..way better

get the SRS Sandbox for a good surround sound and a decent set of headphones

They say that what ever you spend on your sound card (or sound "output device" ) will require speakers / headset that cost 10x more than the card. (if you want to receive the full quality of the sound)

For the record: I use cheap-o headphones.

I am getting a set of Technica ATH-A700's and an X-fi card for Christmas though...

The Turtle Beach AK-R8 headset is a good one -- very durable, great surround sound, plenty of setting options, comes with a seperate sound card -- but it's pretty expensive.

Check it out: http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2007/1 [...] page6.html