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Be very careful when pulling the jack out of your soundcard

Headphones are a commodity item today which most of us pay little attention to since we’re usually happy with whatever comes free with our personal hi-fi. However, when it comes to PC audio most of us use cumbersome speakers that take up a lot of space in order to get the best audio experience. Zalman has tried to address this issue with its ZM-RS6F headphones.

What is so special with these headphones is that they feature six separate speakers and three audio connectors. Each of the 3.5mm connectors are labelled front, rear and centre/subwoofer, which indicate the corresponding connectors on a soundcard.

The headphones are simple to connect as there’s only a single cable running from the PC to the headphones which removes all the clutter you get with 5.1-channel speakers. Zalman’s packaging proudly boasts words such as “Real surround sound headphones” but how does it work in reality? Well, I tried the ZM-RS6F headphones on a few different platforms as well as using them for games and DVD playback.

The headphones feel solid and the sound quality is more than acceptable, but they are no Sennheiser’s. They are also one of the largest pair of headphones I have ever come across. You can also expect a few funny looks while you’re wearing them too since the design is, how should I say it, different. They aren’t uncomfortable to wear, but you get quite sweaty around the ears after a couple of hours.

In stereo mode the headphones are not that remarkable, but if you’re in to music with a lot of bass you’ll be pleased with the sound. But this isn’t the main purpose of these headphones, so lets move on to how they sound in games.

I tested the ZM-RS6F with a few different games such as Battle Field 1942, Call of Duty and Rail Road Tycoon 3 and yes, the sound is definitely a lot better than with a set of normal stereo headphones, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling it true 5.1-channel sound. In first person shooter games you can make out more of what is going on than with a standard headphones. You do get more of an idea where the enemy is coming from and I can see the ZM-RS6F as a popular set of headphones for people who attend LAN parties as they’re easy to carry with you.

Using the speaker setup software supplied with a couple of different soundcards it seemed to be impossible to get the bass or the centre speaker to work, although it sounded fine in games. Using the headphones while watching a DVD provided a similar experience to games, a wide sound field was achieved but nowhere near as convincing as with surround speakers.

The reason for this is the short range that the sound has to travel which means that the front and rear sounds arrive out of sync and as there isn’t a separate subwoofer the bass sound gets mixed up with the rest of the sounds.