Yo, so how does everyone handle audio in this game? Headset, headphones? Hardward accel, software sound? Earmuffs? Earrings?

I like to have both of my earrings in b4 I play so that way the sound vibrates off of them and the waves sent to my brain allow me to see through walls.

I wear this headset

Set my windows volume levels to my preferences

Set in-game audio to two speakers. I've tried the headset option, but myself and others who have tried it feel like the directional sound is kinda messed up.

Logitech G35 7.1 virtual surround sound headset.

Too bad source games only support a max of 5.1 on virtual sound systems

Two crappy speakers hooked up to a subwoofer. It suffices *Shrug*

Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset MK II

feels weird playing games without a headset especially if i'm using mumble/ventrilo

I had that one but it broke on me after about 5 months.


There's not a lot of good reviews for headsets around, but I found this review that compares 3 Sub-$100 2.0 gaming headsets (along with some other random headsets):
www.tomsguide.com/us/pc-gaming-headset,review-1471.html
Razer Carcharias, Creative Fatal1ty MK II, and Steelseries Siberia v2.

I went with the Siberia v2 because of build quality. It's like $75 on newegg/amazon, compared to like $50-60 for the Creative.

Hardware vs Software audio makes little difference afaict (although I would avoid USB sound for latency and quality issues).
Also headsets that gives you pseudo-surround ("Surround Sound" through stereo headsets) are basically a ripoff, as setting your game to a 2.0 sound setting will do exactly the same thing as their magical downsampling app--and maybe even do it better.

Edit: Also the Steelseries 5H is comparable to the Siberia, with a slightly different design, and I believe the 5H comes apart to make travel with your headset easy and safe.

im interested in getting better positional audio with my stereo headphones and my xfi.

HT Omega Claro in 7.1 => Harman/Kardon hk490i => Sennheiser HD280Pro, and a $10 Logitech headset around my neck to use as my mic.

Between 7.1 downsampled to 2.0 in L4D versus my soundcard there is no difference in positioning but a definite boost in sound quality.

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