And the Winner Is...
SURROUND-SOUND
HEADPHONES:
Sony MDR-DS8000,
$800, http://www.sony.comhead 2 headTWO TECHNOLOGIES ENTER, ONE TECHNOLOGY LEAVES
I
t should come as no surprise that surround-sound speakers are
capable of delivering a tremendous surround-sound experience.
The fact that they can pull off the trick at a price point as low as
Logitech’s Z-5500s is icing on the cake (although you can spend
much less if you’re willing to sacrifice audio quality, the sky’s the
limit if you crave something even better).
The fact that headphones of AnY stripe would be capable of
pulling off this trick, however, is a whole other matter. Sony’s MDR-
DS8000 system does it with flair: They’re ultra-comfortable, they’re
wireless, they’re outfitted with a head-tracking gyroscope, thetransmitter supports an unlimited number of additional headsets,
and—most important of all—they’re endowed with an almost magi-
cal ability to deliver surround sound with movies and music.
As tempted as we are to call this competition a tie, the fact that
many speaker systems can deliver surround sound, and Sony’s
MDR-DS8000 is the only headphone system we’ve heard that can
do it this effectively—coupled with the fact that they don’t have six-
channel analog inputs—leaves us with little choice but to give sur-
round-sound speakers the win.MOVIES
We chose
Alan Parker’s 1982 trip-flick
Pink Floyd: The Wall for our
movie test. We used the 25th
Anniversary Edition, which fea-
tures a remastered 5.1-channel
soundtrack. The film sounded
absolutely glorious through
Sony’s wireless headphones,
thanks to excellent drivers inside
the earcups. The Z-5500 did a
commendable job, but it was
no match for the Sony’s ability
to absolutely immerse you in
the music. Sony’s engineers
overcame two major drawbacks
to headphones. First, they
placed a gyroscope inside the
headset that tracks your head
movements, so audio events
always occur in the proper loca-
tion even if your head is turned.
Second, they designed the
infrared transmitter inside the
MDR-DS8000 to support an
unlimited number of the special-
ized headphones ($230, Sony
model MDR-IF8000), so you
can share the sonic glory with
friends and loved ones.
WINNER: HEADPHONESround 2 GAMESHeadphones are a major con-
venience with games, but even the mighty
MDR-DS8000 struggled to keep up with the
onslaught of audio in games like Battlefield 2
and FEAR. The problem wasn’t with frequency
response: The headphones delivered lush sound
across the entire spectrum. But when it came
to positioning rapid-fire audio events such as
ricocheting bullets, crashing windows, and
exploding ordnance, headphones clamped over
our ears were simply no match for the Logitech’s
discretely placed speakers. The Sony’s do
offer one significant advantage over speakers:
They’re guaranteed to not disturb anyone else
in the house or in the apartment next door; pro-
vided of course, you don’t scream like a little girl
when an enemy unexpectedly takes you down.
WINNER: SPEAKERSround 3
JANUARY 2006 MA XIMUMPC 17
MUSIC
Sony’s MDR-DS
proves the point that money can
overcome almost any obstacle.
These pricey headphones present a
stunningly accurate surround-sound
environment when paired with a DVD-
Audio disc. (We tested them with Blue
Man Group’s The Complex and Frank
Zappa’s Quaudiophiliac.) The head-
tracking feature in the MDR-DS
is even more important when listening
to surround-sound music, because
there’s no video to keep your head
oriented in a fixed position. Sony’s
accomplishment is rendered even
more impressive by the fact that these
headphones are wireless. The Z-5500s
sound great with DVD-Audio discs,
too, but they don’t leave you with that
same eerie impression that you’re sit-
ting onstage amongst the musicians.
WINNER: HEADPHONESround 4