Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Surround Sound Headset for Windows and Mac

Finally, just like loading up some stellar material after finishing any good home theater, we come to the sound quality. Hours and hours of AAA PC games and Blu-rays over the course of a few days helped me reach my verdict.

Stereo quality is good to great and close to the point where the clarity reveals flaws and fine detail alike. The amplified main channels work well, but won't wow any audiophiles. As for surround content, the headset just cannot replicate the distance that a good surround set-up manages easily. Sounds that pan from front to back have nowhere near that startling "did I just hear that" sensation.

Thunderous bass is likewise difficult to achieve. Bass redirection was a must for me, but attempts to further increase bass to try to replicate the strong resonance of a subwoofer risked muddying all sounds.

And yet, even with these issues, I was blown away by the Tritton's. My experience with surround simulating headphones always involved a muddled soundstage and what may be worse, processed sound. Taking a single driver and trying to play sound effects, dialogue, ambient sound, and a soundtrack can be very problematic, especially when those things have already been separated into several channels and then recombined. In comparison, playing four channels through four drivers for a single ear without having to reprocess makes for clear, consistent and immersive sound. While a single driver can somewhat handle the multiple sounds of a soundstage, the ear is already expert at listening to multiple sounds at once.

Games like 'BioShock Infinite' and 'Far Cry 2' pair with the headset perfectly. Multiplayer 'Call of Duty' matches also sound precise and engaging, with several sfx making up for the lack of distance in same side front to back panning sounds.

At times though, I had to feel like this headset missed its true calling, Blu-rays. The soundstage of in-game AAA games is constantly in flux due to user input, which at times reduces the headphones to feeling like a clearer sounding matrixed headset. In contrast, the fixed viewpoint per moment of a Hollywood Blockbuster with its indulgent mix of music dialog and sound effects makes the headset's flaws seem irrelevant.

At $130, the Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Surround Sound Headset for Windows and Mac delivers some of the best headset surround sound, at least if you appreciate a pure signal and clear sound. It won't replace a nice receiver and six speaker combination, but it is a great option for times when that kind of set-up is impractical. For the headset to prove its worth though, it needs a dedicated computer set-up. Anyone needing to enjoy surround sound without disturbing the rest of the household, say late at night, owes it to themselves to give the Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Surround Sound Headset for Windows and Mac a shot.