JVC SU-DH1[5.1 -> Headphones]

Sounds kinda gimmicky (not sure how good a regular headphone could replicate surround sound).

You could look into the tritton AX360. Dolby digital headphones that actually do surround sound (with a bunch of little speakers positioned in each ear cup).

I used to have em when I lived in an apartment. They do the job pretty well.

It's no gimmick, what it does is convert surround sound to 3d sound. Which is potentially better because it isn't real surround sound from 6 or whatever cheap tiny speakers in 5.1 headphones vs quality stereo speakers. It basically salves the problem of trying to fit 5.1 into headphones and bypasses it with clever software.

It's also great for me, who has great stereo headphones.

Here put on headphones and test out this demo of how this should work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

What's GAF???

we're CAGs.

[quote name='gamer602']What's GAF???

we're CAGs.[/quote]

the letters are pretty close

[quote name='gamer602']What's GAF???

we're CAGs.[/quote]
He just needs to learn to change his copy paste =p

[quote name='MatiasB']It's no gimmick, what it does is convert surround sound to 3d sound. Which is potentially better because its real surround sound from 6 cheap tiny speakers in 5.1 headphones vs quality stereo speakers. It basically salves the problem of trying to fit 5.1 into headphones and bypasses it with clever software.

It's also great for me, who has great stereo headphones.

Here put on headphones and test out this demo of how this should work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA[/QUOTE]

Whoa, that was crazy, lol. Any more things audio things like that? That was surprisingly entertaining.

[quote name='gamer602']What's GAF???

we're CAGs.[/quote]

Wooops !! >.> I don't even have an account at Gaf, I must read it too often.

[quote name='MatiasB']
Here put on headphones and test out this demo of how this should work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA[/quote]
That was so cool. I want one but that price is too much. I haven't been able to buy surround speakers because my cats would chew the wires.

I found a review that says this product is no good. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2112020,00.asp

I happen to have the little SU-DH1 and I must say it is quite enjoyable and works as advertised. There aren't too many places to get it from at a reasonable price, though. I ordered mine from jr.com, but at this moment, they don't quite seem to have it. You might wanna check back there some time later.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/428459-REG/JVC_SUDH1_SU_DH1_5_1_Surround.html

That looks like the most price-effective place to get it at right now. I believe they do ship to Canada.

With all that said, there are a few things to note:

• The AC adapter only works with the Japanese model of this product (made by Victor). If the SU-DH1 you will get says JVC on it, it doesn't have the appropriate plug. If you end up going with the JVC SU-DH1, I would highly recommend getting a pack of these: http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8449/dsc04529smallxi7.jpg
• The quality you experience is based almost solely on your headphones. If you use $20 headphones this won't blow your mind. This really meant for quality headphones. In terms of quality, I'd say starting at the Bose Triports and up. Mind you, the Triports are terribly overpriced for their quality, so in terms of price, I'd recommend starting in the Grado SR60 (60 or 70 bucks depending where ya go) range and up.
• Make sure yo have the appropriate cabling. The SU-DH1 doesn't have a standard TOSLINK port, you need a TOSLINK -> MiniTOSLINK adaptor.
• Finally, the with Dolby Headphone enabled, you will end up getting a little bit of lag. Nothing noticable in a game like GTAIV, but in something like Rock Band, you might just wanna hit the "Dolby Headphone" button a few times to disengage it as well as turning Dolby Digital OFF in the game.

In reponse to this:

"I found a review that says this product is no good. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2112020,00.asp"

Skimming through the review it seems like he mostly had a problem with using the Dolby Pro Logic 2 on things he shouldn't have been. I myself frankly don't have DPL2 enabled on my DH1 since I think it sounds kinda lame. With that said though, I think overall DPL2 sounds kinda lame. I'm currently using it with just my PS3 and that's almost always (and I'll get to that in a second) using Dolby Digital.

Now, for that "almost" part. This can be rather important if you had dreams of porting over all your music to your PS3 and enjoying it to its fullest through your SU-DH1. The PS3's XMB DOES NOT output in Dolby Digital. The XMB only outputs in STEREO. Currently, there's no way around it. It is also theorized that part of the reasoning for this is perhaps anti-piracy. Only trusted Blu-Ray content DVD Movies, and of course, Games get the full DD experience.

What does one do in this situation? DO NOT TURN ON DOLBY PRO LOGIC 2.

Seriously, it sounds like crap and it's just not meant for it. I mean, I could understand where the reviewer was coming from if he was listening to a stereo source and decided to turn on DPL2 on the SU-DH1. What I do is simply turn DPL2 off and have Dolby Headphone set to DH1. DH2 and DH3 generally sound too....artificially spacious. With Dolby Headphone set to off, it sounds...okay, but DH1 really gives it a good sense of space and instrument seperation. Without it (at least on my Triports) everything sounds a little too close up and focused in my skull.

So, as for listening to music outputted digitally to and through the SU-DH1, I plan on somehow outputting my PCs sound through optical and just plugging that in the DH1. I'm pretty sure my sound card (X-Fi Xtrememusic) has some kind of Dolby Digital output. I hope my posts have been helpful and informative. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask.