Writing this review after 2 days of purchasing two other, more expensive and highly reviewed headphones that I KNEW would not be like the ones I purchased here. That's the difference between listening to others advice and simply reading the technical specifications of the manufacturer and knowing EXACTLY how the product is going to perform based on those specs. For $49.99 (plus tax) this is probably one of THE BEST purchases I've made in terms of value-to-quality I've made in a quite some time (this entire computer in 2012 as well as the longevity and outpacing of 95% of what's out there with 5-6 years ahead of it was probably THE best).
Prior to today, I was using the Corsair Vengeance 1500 V2 for some 10 years and they finally broke for good. If you try to find them now, they've gone up in price, from between 2-3 time and even 10 times what I paid for them, no lie.
They had the best processor for Dolby II, DTS & 2.0/5.1/7.1 Surround and the sound was clean, not muddy, not brash or too bright, and the frequency response was good enough to drop some bass through. For video games, you were hearing people in any direction, 360 degrees around horizontally, 360 degrees around vertical (above and under) as well as panning at any direction. Guy walking in brush and you could pop your head up and know exactly where to aim. Sounds in the distance and oncoming planes, tanks, whatever... and again, you knew at what distance and it only enhanced the visual experience even greater.
So I salvaged them for a very long time, even using duct tape to keep them together... but like all good things, they come to a final end. Now the problem was, where was I going to find something that rivaled them and not pay an arm and a leg to do so.
First things first and I knew I had to start with at least a 50mm speaker so as to induce the proper bass tones I needed. A frequency response of 20-20,000, (with companies like Sennheiser always advertising 12-44,000Hz, ranges that most studios neither use at either end as they are both inaudible, unusable and could damage 95-99% of the rest of speakers out there). But SNR is important and so at a sensitivity of107 +/-3dB and you're talking a very clean sound coming out of them.
Before I even installed their G-Hub software (which enables all of the DTS surround features, as well as graphic equalizers and more) I tested these plugged directly into Windows 7 to listen to the flat response with no EQ. SMILES FROM EAR TO EAR as I didn't hear some muddy, hollow or low level sound that needed to be boosted (with an impedance of 39 Ohms (passive), 5k Ohms (active) why would I?) and then tried it with some EQ shaping and it was brilliant on both passes. At no time did I hear any distortion, crackling, feedback, hum or clashing of frequencies and the EQ I tested on could be configured for 15 or 31 band, with customizable settings on the Hz of each band.
Installing the G-Hub software was easy, intuitive and worked without any conflicts (which is usually a finger crossing experience on a Windows 7 for most people... but my machine is lean and clean and free of bloatware or Microsoft's mitts on it). The testing panel for surround sound and with it's own EQ system were again, straightforward and the demo for the surround was excellent in that it lets you shape the sound that sounds best for your ears, per speaker, delay, distance and +/-db levels per individual 7.1 channel.
Now, if this sounds like overkill to you, you should know something about me first... I have SUPER sensitive hearing and perfect pitch. So much so that I can pick out and identify sounds that are often inaudible to others. In fact, I had a 7.1 home theater system back some 20 years ago and I noticed that with some DVD Blu-Ray titles, there was a terrible popping sound, sounding more like the sound of "Ffffffttt" and only when the scenes were loud, action packed and kicking in the DTS surround or similar. It wasn't on every title, but enough that I noticed it throughout many titles. I brought the main unit to a local dealer as it was under warranty yet and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. I hooked it up and sure enough, it was still there. They tried listening again, this time with high quality speakers in a special soundproof room and with equipment that picks up electrical hum and other sound phenomena. The guy calls me up from the shop and says, "Sir, you must have ears like a dog because we hooked this thing up and every, single scene you said you noticed the problem, our ears in the shop couldn't hear it, but our equipment probes picked it up exactly." (I had written down scenes with times at where I heard the problem and was correct on all of them). He then laughed and said, "Would you like a job? Not for nothing, but I'd hate to have your sense of hearing, it must be annoying". Like you have no idea.
Anyway, all I can say is, if you are looking for gaming headphones that can also handle sound AND, ones that aren't made for tiny heads or for teenagers and kids the same, these things expand quite a bit and don't make you feel like a vice clamp is on the sides of your head. The sound quality is superb and the value again, is what we all need in a product like this. Good luck on your future purchases!