I'm looking for an external sound card for my iMac that will simulate surround sound in my headphones for the purpose of watching DVDs. If I'm able to use it for gaming on my PC (also in simulated surround) that'd be an added bonus. I don't need it for music at all, as I'm building a high quality 2 channel setup for that purpose.

The only external card I can find is the Creative Xmod, which, for the price, would probably do the job. It uses CMSS-3D Headphone, which I've read does a decent job for movies, though it kind of kills the high frequencies a little and won't sound the best with high quality headphones, or so I've read.

The other option would be to buy an AV receiver that utilises some sort of headphone surround technology. However, this would likely be much more expensive. But if anyone knows of a low cost receiver that will do headphone surround, I'll definitely check that out too.

I'm looking for a low cost solution, so I don't expect anything of excellent quality. Just something to allow me to experience surround sound with a headphone setup as I don't have surround speakers.

Cheers.

Hi,

It won't cost you much (< $10), and is probably worth trying:

Found: OS X cheap-ass $9 tiny USB sound card (audio in/out)

... these USB sound dongles feature "virtual surround" which to be honest doesn't seem to do much, but for $9 you can't go wrong. You could also try a software surround plug-in for iTunes.

JB

*Cringe* Yeahhhh, I dunno. Looks cheap and nasty lol. But thanks for the heads up.

As for the software plugin for iTunes, I don't particularly want to have to rip my DVDs each time I want to watch them. But a software plugin for DVD player or VLC would be nice. Know of any? Apparently Dolby Headphone only has a plugin for Music Match Jukebox, so that's no good. I don't know of any others, and if they're out there, they're hard to find.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the Griffin Firewave but it's meant for surround speakers, and I don't know if it has any virtual surround technology for headphones or stereo speakers. Anyone know?

Also found the M-Audio Sonica Theater 7.1 Surround Sound USB Interface. It's been out a while now though, and I don't know where I'd get it from or if it's any good.

Have a look in the in the VLC audio plugins (check "advanced" to get many more options). I do recall a setting for enabling dolby/surround.

The only other option as you've noted is to not bother about surround sound on the Mac side, but to have an amp/headphones that support this feature. Unless you have specific surround sound headphones and sound card support for this, neither software nor headphones will be very flash.

JB

Okay, just had a look in the VLC preferences, there's an option to check "No decoding of Dolby Surround" which is under Audio > Filters > Headphone effect.

Does that mean it's on by default?

I'll check it out. Thanks Byrd

I don't have a Mac on me right now I'll check and test out my version of VLC tonite for you.

I'm assuming that if Dolby Surround is checked you might need a Dolby decoder, but could be wrong - try it and see reemixx

JB

Pretty sure you need a hardware decoder for it. Haven't played around with it too much, but there's no difference in sound at all.

Annoying thing is that I tried PowerDVD on my PC just for kicks, and the inbuilt surround headphone technology (Cyberlink Headphone) ain't too shabby. Wish there was something like this for Apple's DVD Player. This is all I'm after. Nothing fancy. Just nice and simple and decent sounding.

There's no possibility they put it in Leopard with the DVD Player improvements, is there? :P

Surround sound in headphones, no matter what, is a major joke -- merely a marketing gimmick.

Surround sound is meant for open spaces, you only have two ears so stick with stereo for headphone use.

Nah, gotta disagree with that one.

Watching movies wearing headphones details the stereo field far too much. Sounds either come from left, right, or centre (both). There's no detailed forward and back positioning. The realism completely disappears. Surround sound emulation in headphones opens up the sound stage quite a bit to add more realism. Yes, it can be done rather badly, but can also be done very well, and is a great and cheap alternative to people who can't or don't want to use a multiple speaker setup.

That said, multiple drivers in each ear of a set of headphones is a joke, as there's not enough space between the drivers and your ear to truly create the surround effect. As you said, you only have two ears - therefore two headphone drivers are all that we need.

It's fine if you think it's a joke, but please don't comment here if you don't plan on helping me with my initial questions.

I get a pretty good 3D effect with good stereo headphones, amp & DAC.

cloughie: Yeah, well I have a decent amp+DAC and AD700 headphones, but like i said, the sound field is too 'stereo', ie: sounds are too far left and right, as opposed to all around and centre-front and back. And there's too much of the 'inside your head' effect. I thought it sounded pretty good as well, until I watched a movie with surround headphone technology. Sure, the sound placement is probably nowhere near as accurate as a surround speaker setup. But at least it adds more realism. It doesn't feel like I'm watching a movie with headphones.

I'm well aware of some people's thoughts on surround sound in headphones, and that's fine. But what I'm looking for here is a hardware or software solution.

I thought you may not have tried with a good stereo system yet.

The AD700s would do as good a job as any (stereo) headphones I'd think. Never heard a pair but I will have too one day.

Yeah, they're awesome for music, so I can only assume they're more than adequate for watching movies, unless you want an insane amount of rumbling bass :P

Well, at this rate, it looks like the Xmod is my only option, and I'm not very convinced the sound quality will be any good. A software solution would be much better, and waaay cheaper, but it seems the only way to go about that is to watch DVDs on PowerDVD (or another app) in Windows via bootcamp or VMware Fusion - not exactly something I wanted to resort to.

I'm all ears if anyone else has any other suggestions.

Have you asked on Head-fi?

Yup. Sorta. I asked the same question in ANOTHER question, but got pretty crappy replies, I didn't think I'd bother asking about the headphone surround stuff specifically. And I got the impression that most of them would reply with "surround sound in headphones is a joke" :P