~2 years ago I bought a pair of Rosewill 5.1 vibration headphones (
http://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rhts-8206-usb-connector-5-1-channel-vibrating-gaming-headset.html), and for as "gimmicky" as most people (including myself) would think they are, they actually turned out to be the best headset I've owned in the last ~15 years! For both gaming, movies, & music! (Newegg $30 special)
When they first arrived, 2 of the drivers in the right cup/can didn't even work! Rather than return them, I popped them open.
I saw 1 wire not even soldered to the pad on one of the drivers, and 2 other wires had been soldered together but in a manner that I could easily tell was not intentional. I *fixed* the wiring, all the drivers (speakers) worked properly, and all was right in the void!
Now, I've always preferred 'real' surround sound as opposed to 'virtual', so when I've gamed in the past, I've either used a "stereo" headset w/mic, OR, an actual set of surround sound speakers which I actually took the time to position around my desk in a manner that would suggest some level of OCD on my part.
When I got these and tried them (in Elite), I was amazed at how the positional audio was actually somewhat (perceivably) accurate. Not as good as speakers, but well enough that my stereo headset got set aside for anything other than audio editing.
And that's in addition to the vibration aspect of them! I know that many think 'true surround sound headphones' are garbage, and that even more think 'vibration' or 'force feedback' anything... is even worse. At least that's what I thought.
I was of course wrong, I mean...perhaps it's just the way these headphones are designed & I have nothing to compare them too, but the vibration driver/transducer/speaker whatever is pretty darn nifty! They are 40mm and they double as the "subwoofer" in each can/cup, I'm not entirely sure how the circuitry is laid out inside the inline control unit, but with them turned off, I can still hear decent bass, just nothing noteworthy. Turn them on low (or high) and yes, they begin to vibrate with bass notes, but the bass becomes incredibly more distinct! They don't vibrate like a force-feedback gamepad/controller either it's a subtle enough vibration that if you lay the headphones down on a desk, they aren't going to vibrate themselves onto the floor, nor are they hard hitting enough to make your vision all jelly like. (jelly like, an expression used to describe how some things appear when using a camera attached to something that vibrates horribly, like a bike or a model aircraft & aimed through the prop... like horizontal rolling of an old tv screen).
Their clarity was surprisingly decent as well, good frequency range and low distorting with or without the vibration enabled. I wouldn't use them for anything professional of course... but for how much they cost and how cheaply they are made, they produce good audio in general. (Compared to my other headset, and previously owned headsets in the past).
Inexpensive ($30 usd), defective upon arrival, gimmicky, (oh yeah... based on CMedia chipset USB audio) and failed to install until the 3rd attempt. Not exactly awe inspiring... and yet turned out to be something I will miss dearly. The microphone jack was wired poorly for something that is on a swivel, and it shorted out a few days ago and now that part of the inline control's circuitry no longer works... I had to replace the whole headset, & the Rosewill's are no longer available.
I will miss the bass. Not so much the surround sound, I still got that covered.
Now if only I can figure out a way to cannibalize the two 40mm vibration/sub drivers & install them into my new headset... mwuahahahah.
