Sound Advice: Headphones or Speakers?

[CogNative]

Sound Ideas from the virtually hearing impaired;)

Santa brought us some Sennheiser PX 200 mini headphones. Work great for the i-doodads and such. Bunged this bad boy into the laptop, fired up CMSF and WOW! I can now hear the fire-fights, footsteps, guttural French slang (just kidding guys, Eh?) and all the sounds I have missed as a result of my years of use & abuse of my hearing.

How many of you use head phones or speakers?

What sound equipment do you use?

Any tips or advice on sonic enhancement or SW settings?

Thanks,

[Stirling]

I use a pair of Koss studio type headphones. Don't even have speakers.

Until the latest patch I couldn't hear but about 20% of the gunfire in the game. Now I can hear everything and it's glorious. I'm really glad Charles finally got it to work with my High Definition Audio. I have the equalizer set to Powerful. Between this game (with Oddball's sound mod) and my music, I'm afraid my headphones will need replacing soon.

[CogNative]

Thanks Stirling. I did use some mini speakers before. I did not know if it was the patch or headphones but it sure sounded like items I did not hear before I could clearly now. Maybe it is both? I also use parts of Oddball's sound mod and often iTunes background music playing simultaneously. Would be a nice feature to allow easy in game play list / shuffle and sound mod selection.

[Other Means]

I use headphones. The PC is in the same room as the telly otherwise Mrs Means and I wouldn't see each other.

Besides, headphones are much the better option - why have sound pass through more air than it needs to?

However my headphones are Sony £15 ones - great value and reasonable quality but nothing special. I seem to go through quality ones quite quickly though. These have lasted ~2 years so I can't fault them for that. I've bought £70 ones in the past that last 6 months.

[CogNative]

Another reason I am enjoying the headphones in Mrs Native enjoys not hearing the explosions from my office.

[purpheart23]

I'm in the other room with 650 watts of Mrs. Heart23 hates my computer power. God I love electronics.

[cmfan]

Earphones + Oddballs soundmod because the girlfriend doesn't like it when it sounds like WWIII is going on in the living room.

[Sivodsi]

I have a 5.1 system but with no centre speaker. Can anyone tell me if the centre channel is used by CMSF?

[purpheart23]

Interesting question Sivodsi. I'll give it a go, never really thought about it.

[afreu]

I'm using UE Inear headphones but not to spare my girlfriend but for purely hedonistic reasons.

[VonWebb]

Another reason I am enjoying the headphones in Mrs Native enjoys not hearing the explosions from my office.

...on that!

[CogNative]

Thanks to all.

From the Heart..."God I love electronics."

How I fell your pain;)

Any tips or advice on sonic enhancement or SW settings? I really like parts of Oddball's sound mod but I often use iTunes background music playing simultaneously. I don't want to over punch the OB sounds and the music sounds. I know I could external iPod my way around this or use speakers but then I am back to Mrs Native hearing the explosions from my office. Peace in the house is one factor for the Sennheiser PX 200 mini headphones. The bonus has been the extra aural fidelity. I can not say v.1.11 did the trick because I did not test before the patch from v1.10. Maybe BFC can step in on this issue?

"Can anyone tell me if the centre channel is used by CMSF?"

Siv.. Do you have a 5.1 DVD / Audio test source? Make certain your 5.1 system is physically connected correctly and set to operating in Dolby Digital 5.1. I have made the audio mis-connection mistake more than once with mixers and modules, etc. If you are hearing center channel in other games then you should hear center in CMSF if it supports center. Maybe BFC can step in on this issue?

[Sivodsi]

Siv.. Do you have a 5.1 DVD / Audio test source? Make certain your 5.1 system is physically connected correctly and set to operating in Dolby Digital 5.1. I have made the audio mis-connection mistake more than once with mixers and modules, etc. If you are hearing center channel in other games then you should hear center in CMSF if it supports center. Maybe BFC can step in on this issue?

Ach! I got myself an external soundcard (creative 24bit), then went crazy buying speakers for each plug, and once I got my subwoofer I was so pleased with the sound coming from the two front, two back and sub. . Didn't notice that I was missing out on the centre speaker until I played a movie file and wondered why there were no voices.

To get the centre I have to switch back to 4.1, but when I do this the sub turns off. It seems the only way out of this predicament is by selling the nice speakers and going for a 5.1 system entire. :mad:

Oh well.