bit-tech Shopping: Zalman Theatre 6 Real Surround Sound Headphones

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1+ Year

Strengths: Truly a surround sound experience...created by 6 speakers and not by cheap software. I noticed my efficiency in BF2 go up significantly after these. I knew exactly where helicopters and jets were, even though I could not see them.

Weaknesses: Padding on top of headphones could be more comfortable and takes a while to get used to. These are not designed for listening to music. Microphone is has good pick up, annoying positioning, broke fast.

Summary: I will never go back. I've owned my pair for about 18 months now and am more impressed all the time. The surround sound is hardware based, not software based, and thus it is high-quality and real. Works even with old games like Deus Ex. I would recommend these to anyone who has a 5.1 sound card. I don't even own a pair of speakers anymore because of these. For what you get, I believe the price is well worth it. I've dropped them a number of times and they've never failed me yet. I've used them in Battlefield 2 for more than a year and have the ability to hear a grenade clink behind me and run for cover instead of having to look around only to find that it's sitting at my feet and wasted 2 seconds trying to find it...or worse, running towards it trying to get away. Definite Buy

Rating: 4

Time with product: 1 Months

Strengths: None I can find.

Weaknesses: Audio quality is 'peaky' in the mid range. No volume control. Rather fragile.

Summary: I purchased the Zalman to replace an old set of Awia headphones that were physically breaking down but the sound quality was still good. I was disappointed with the sound quality of the Zalman compared to my old Awia's. Using the Awia with Dolby Headphone produced better spacial and tonal quality than using the Zalman in 5.1 mode. The Zalman was less comfortable to wear and produced a poor ear seal. Listening to the poor sound quality proved to be annoying after a few minutes of use. I have abandoned the Zalman phones and returned to my venerable Awia's.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Day

Strengths: Great sound quality and price

Weaknesses: Little flimsy

Summary: Great pair of headphones id recommend them to any one. Play Css and Team fortress classic love these havent tryed a dvd yet but im def going to. Go Get them

Rating: 6

Time with product: 14 Days

Strengths: size and comfort. good sound. good price.

Weaknesses: none so far.

Summary: Althoug major manufacturers like bose, creative and logitech have not introduced the 5.1 headphones, smaller compannies like zalman and kinyo have som "ok" product. still hope that more competing product will come soon.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Weeks

Strengths: Real 3D sound (none of this immatation surround sound :-). Fold's up well (great for taking to LAN parties or a friends hosue). Very comfortable. Long cord (not confined to a 3' area).

Weaknesses: Speakers can pop/crackel alittle when the bass is heavy (though bass still sounds good). Not the lightest headphones (though not as heavy as you'd expect).

Summary: All in all, these are some great headphones (considering the price tag), and they're definitely an attention grabber (I get more comments on my headphones sometimes than my computer). Wish they had a better mic (instead of the clip on you can buy from Zalman), but then again, these are first generation (can't wait to see the next gen.) Haven't used them yet to watch movies, but from what I've read, you can really hear the bullets wizzing buy your head. I can say that they sound pretty cool in games (unfortunately I've been playing WoW a lot, so I haven't really been maximizing them to their fullest potential, but I can say that you can really tell where sounds are comming from in the game, which is pretty cool.) I don't know if I'd recommend paying $50 for them, but I got mine for $32 and never regretted it.