I don't use any of that stuff, if a game has good sound design you don't need it. CS is testament to that.

I had a set of turtle beach headsets for the 360 and felt like they added a lot to the experience actually. I never had the best sound set up before but directionally speaking the way TB's could project audio added a whole lot to the experience. If I can find the time to play video games regularly again I would want a similar headset for one of the new generation consoles because I am convinced it is a worthwhile investment.

I do need a better headset, but the one I have now I got on sale and works alright. The only annoying things are that the mic is usually far too quiet, the sound coming through the headphones is usually far too quiet, and there isn't a large enough range with the volume control. Works fine until voice chat or streaming where you need something louder.

Maybe I should get a preamp for this :P

I used to have an external USB Dolby surround sound thing included with my headset, but I got new headphones and stopped using it. It's just a matter of preference depending on the headphones to me. I don't think it ever gave me an edge or anything (most games are designed with stereo in mind anyway). It was useful in keeping out the static noise from the onboard sound plug on my laptop though.

I was using the virtual surround sound on my Logitech's, but they broke. Now I use that Sony Gold headset, which is pretty nice, and it has virtual surround sound. I hate the idea of having an entire device to plug into all my systems and TV. I can deal with just this headset. Also it works perfectly find on the PC too.

As a rule of thumb software sound 'enhancements' are detriment to the quality of the audio you're getting.

Almost every piece of virtual surround sound gear I've owned has sounded weird and imbalanced with the option turned on and I don't like it.

I tried the razor thingy, but I ended up just going back to surround.

I can't remember whether it was because of quality issues, or software issues - that tend to plague razor stuff.

These are really nice headphones so it's possible it just sounded better without it.

I use the built in dolby headphone functionality on my xonar STX essence, sounds great with a few tweaks, also I installed an application called Xonarwitch that is awesome, you can set several profiles of settings and change easily between them, so changing to a dolby headphone setup when going to game and changing it back up when I've finished is hassle free.

It really improves the surround feeling imo, plus it's great cause you can use it with any pair of headphones you got.

Sounds like a load of crap to be honest. Every human with fully functioning hearing already uses surround virtualisation software. It is in your brain.

The fact that this stuff comes out of companies like Razer and is only ever marketed at gamers and never at, say, cinephiles only serves to make me more suspicious.

Been thinking about picking up a decent mixamp, but mainly so I can use my good headset with the PS4 and so I can finally buy some nice high impedance headsets. Been having my eyes on the beyerdynamic dt990 pros for a while now.