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How does Virtual Surround work and is it worse than True Surround?

Philipp Rüegg
10.10.2017
Translation: machine translated

Real surround sound requires at least five speakers. Virtual surround headphones do the whole thing with two. How does it actually work? How do we cheat our ears and can you even hear the difference?

I needed two years. Two years until I realised that my Astro A50 headset doesn't produce real surround sound at all, but only virtual sound. "Rubbish", said my mate when I told him about it. He owns the same model. Deep down in the specifications, it's written in black and white: virtual surround. I was flabbergasted. Although I didn't use the device regularly, I never even suspected that it couldn't deliver real surround sound.

Since then, my prejudice against virtual surround sound has eased noticeably. But now I want to know how it actually works and whether you really can't tell the difference. Let's start with a brief overview of the different systems.

Stereo

Stereo sound works very simply. You have two speakers. To recognise the direction from which a sound is coming, the level and delay are adjusted. If there is a bang from the left, the left ear will receive louder sound than the right.

Virtual Surround

Real surround

You can often see the individual drivers thanks to the transparent ear cups.

Real surround headphones have several separate drivers in each ear cup. For space reasons, they are usually smaller than stereo headphones. Instead of a full 50mm driver, there are several small ones between 20mm and 40mm. A 5.1 headset therefore consists of ten drivers. This is intended to better simulate the sound from different directions.

And which is better?

The case is clear for headphones

How do you see it? Do you use Virtual Surround Sound? Do you have true surround sound headphones? Or do you prefer good old stereo sound?

A selection of virtual surround headphones

If you're still convinced of true surround

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Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles. 

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