I've had some '5.1' headsets in the past which I've had mixed results with. Some of the very early ones weren't very high on build quality or sound quality. But these these days they aren't bad.
Of the ones I've tried recently I'll mention:
Razor Megalodon 7.1 (Virtual surround created by Single driver in each ear):
I borrowed these from a friend when I was coming to the point of wanting to purchase some headphones for gaming, they don't require a surround sound card, instead they install their own drivers and it's all powered/done by USB. While this might seem convenient, if you already have an X-Fi all that nice audio processing is gone, I found it interfered with the installed sound card ALOT and even after removal of them completely, I still noticed sound glitches here and there. Mostly when loading battlefield games...
These headphones create a really strange soundfield, like you're wearing an enclosed helmet, especially in Battlefield 3 which has an excellent sound-stage already. It felt like it was interfering and over-riding it to create the 7.1 feeling and tbh I didn't really like it, some of the sounds lost their 'pop' and it felt really artificial. However positional audio queues were spot on, and it was easy to locate stuff based on sound alone...
The mic on these is 'okay' as in I hadn't done an awful lot of recording with it, but I heard the output from it from other players and it seemed ok..
Personally I don't like the soundfield these create, they are comfy enough but I didn't like how the drivers completely screwed up my Discreet sound card and it was never the same..
Tritton 510 5.1 ('True' Surround, individual drivers for 5.1):
This is my current headset, these use individual drivers for each area, front, back and centre, and have fairly nice bass, all controlled from an inline remote.
Plus points, the sound field isn't changed, the bass is easy to manage (make sure you tell your sound card to redirect the bass otherwise they sound AWFUL, also ensure your windows sound is setup with front, centre and rear speakers as the 'small' type NOT full range). They are very comfortable, the mic seems good, I've done some minor recording and it sounded good, I do know of someone else with the headset however and they sound bloody awful, I dunno if that's user error (he eats his mic a lot, at least that's what it sounds like) or technical. I've never had any complaints and any feedback i hear (from loop-back through other people's setup, doesn't sound bad at all). Volume is good and they are nice and clear, the bass doesn't drown out other sounds when setup as above and they are good quality.
Bad points: Positional audio, really isn't that great tbh, it's difficult to really tell front from back unless you dip the audio for one or the other to make the difference more substantial. The speaker-drivers feel too close together to really make any difference to your overall experience, and they move back and forward on your ears so this can just make all the sound merge.
The inline remote is at a really fucking stupid place in the cable, it always hangs just below your leg, or level with your leg, so you have to kind of trap the cable for it to be comfortable, it's also pretty heavy so when it drops you'll notice it!
Overall, I find the Tritton better because it doesn't change the sound field, but I think if I had tried the megaladon's in battlefield BEFORE i heard it over speakers I think I might have chosen them in the long term. I've been reading reviews for that new Razor 7.1 headset with individual drivers and the mic quality is absolutely shocking... So personally I'd avoid those like the plague for that kind of money.
personally if you have laid out for any kind of half decent sound card (that is X-fi or Xonar, not that Recon3d piece of relabelled horse shit) I'd look into 'true' headsets, if using on board i'd get it uninstalled and try something with usb maybe, that said, even if you fancy just doing a simulated soundfield from an x-fi card, that's pretty good. Then you could go all-out and spend money on quality cans instead of glammed up ones...
That's my 2 cents, hope it helps!
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