Building a new system here soon and have been back and forth trying to decide between a Headset with True 5.1 surround sound or high quality headphones.

These are a few of the headsets/headphones I have been considering. I game alot and am not an audiophile or anything like that so I was wondering how much better quality headphones would sound compared to headsets. 5.1 is most likely more important to me but it really depends on how much more sound quality headphones offer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826402012 <-- Audio Technica A700

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826153002 <-- Razer Barracuda

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826235001 <-- Tritton AX360

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, was considering a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional series sound card.

Thanks in advance, I hope

well, i do not have much experience with this but recently was in the same boat and decided that going for a headset limited my scope too much so bought a separate mic. also i don't trust 5.1 through head phones so went with something that would be good for music as well as games, my choice were sennheiser 595's. nice pair of phones really although have only just got them so they may get better and better.

JMO of course my needs might not be the same as your's.

Thanks you, though I am still asking friends and the like about their experiences with 5.1 headsets so I not done yet. Any more advice or opinions on this would be very helpful!

5.1 headphones do give you more of a "surround" feel to the music, but you may be disappointed with the results, as they don't emulate a true surround sound setup. Personally, I'd just get a good quality pair of headphones (sens?), and listen to the music accurately rather than hearing a sort of nicer sounding mish mash.

The soundstage on those Audio-Technicas is about the best you can get for gaming. They are great all-purpose 'phones. I wouldn't even consider wither of those others. Try posting this on head-fi.org - they will probably know more there than here.

I used my roommates Steel Series Headset, Icemat Headset, and his Razer Headset, yes, he's an idiot, and has all three. They might be ok for something like CS:S but like, I couldn't even enjoy music on them. They distort certain frequencies, which makes anything that isn't a game, annoying.

It'd make more sense to get a good set of headphones, and a stand-alone microphone for communicating with your friends. I use a clip-on icemat one I found on accessoryseek for like $13 bucks. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD555, and I'm very pleased with them. You can get fine spacial awareness without surround sound I think. Though it's insanely hard in CoD4, so many different sounds x_x

I would go with a good high quality pair of headphones. I have Sennheiser EH350s, as well as an old pair of HD497s, and I'm quite happy with them.