I got a rosewill rhts-8206 the other day. It has native 5.1 channel sound, but also virtual 7.1. How does that work? Does it like convert everything to 7.1 or does it just simulate 7.1 sound if I were to say feed it in 7.1 sound from a game?
Unless you use 5 speakers (or 7) and a subwoofer, you're not really using sourround sound, but a digital play of volume and equalisation that mimics it. Your headset has a USB connector, so you're already dealing with simulated audio spaciality. You're headset drivers (3.1) compile the 5.1 tracks of the game and fake a 5.1 response with volume and eq in 4 drivers.
7.1 source material is rare, so the 7.1 virtual means that you add a level of spacial post processing to 5.1 material to fake a more spacious feel to your listening experience, by adding more volume and eq-ing to the source signal. It might be decent or very bad, depending on the software doing the work.
You're are already comping the source material from 6 tracks to basically 4 to have it played in your headset, a 8 track sound would still be bounced to 4 tracks with evidently more artifacts.
So, in conclusion, your set would be able to accept 7.1 material, meaning it would read 8 tracks, but it would still bounce it down to 4, with more artifacts and probably providing a not very enjoyable audio experience.
I also suspect that it might just drop some audio information to prevent filtering and phase issues.
Unless you are really keen to 5.1, I'd say you try a very good pair of headphones (AKGs or such) with 2.0 material and compare it to your 5.1 headphone. I think you'll be surprised how much better the 2.0 phones reproduce spaciality than a 5.1. Your brain does the spacial compiling and, with high quality audio, it does it much better than any software.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQG9qOr6nw
I think you'll be surprised how much better the 2.0 phones reproduce spaciality than a 5.1. Your brain does the spacial compiling and, with high quality audio, it does it much better than any software.
this
Was just going to post this haha. Funny how this video came out at the same time he asked the question :o