QuestionHy Jerry,
My name is Felipe and I need to buy a headphone to use with my receiver to hear 5.1 or even better 7.1 channels movies, I also would like that this headphone could conect directly to the receiver and also if possible have excelent noise canceling feature, last but not least it would be nice if I could also use it with any portable device for example to hear in the plane or car.
Can you help me with that? Perhpas giving some personal opinion, pointing me to some reviews, showing me the latest 2010 releases, Can you guide me?
Thank you a lot
Felipe
AnswerI would be happy to, Felipe.
It sounds like you want these for movies only but I will point out a few observations about music first since you may intended to listen to some with them.
I do a lot of auditioning, reviews and comparisons and and I can tell you that the entire goal of speakers (from a purely musical standpoint) is to emulate the sound of good stereo headphones.
That said, anything other than 'stereo' is going to be moving away from 'musical accuracy'. That is; getting a music track to sound as close as possible to the way the studio engineer intended it to be heard.
There are quite a few headphones out there that will color the sound with (what is called) post processing (electronic processing which the recording engineer never intended to be inserted).
It may be 'neat' and interesting to listen to but it will never be accurate from a musical standpoint. There should also be NO need for any type of noise canceling from a musical standpoint.
To be sure, the noise canceling 'feature' you hear about in ads for 5.1 headphones is mostly there to reduce the noise from the post processors. This is due to the fact that you cannot add processing without adding noise. I will also point out that none of the renowned manufacturers sell any such headphones. A good, sealed-edge over-the-ear design will provide you with all of the 'ambient noise canceling' that most any person would ever need.
If you decide to have a pair of 5.1 or 7.1 types of headphones (realizing that the technology in them is clumsy at best) a few designs are using multiple, discrete speakers in each ear cup, but their target clients are gamers and are NOT well suited for anything high quality like movies or music.
You can spend well over $1000.00 USD on a pair of noise canceling headphones and they do nothing but deliver two channel stereo: http://www.sennheiserusa.com/private_headphones_audiophile-headphones_500319
What I would do in your situation:
I would get a comfy, quality set of headphones like these:
http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^fs^PRO4AAAT $149.00
or the Pro4AAT's if you prefer not to use titanium speakers:
http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^fs^PRO4AA^Y $99.00
*Frequency response for both models is 10-25Khz
And then run them through a ~$40.00 Surround Sound Receiver device like this which supports all of your wants:
http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^ac^SSR1
20-20KHz
I hope this helps you out and do not hesitate to come back if you need more assistance.
Sincerely,
Jerry Mael
