How Can You Effectively Test The Surround Sound Of A Headphone?

How Can You Effectively Test The Surround Sound Of A Headphone

Are you looking to find how you can have surround sound headphones test? We’ll guide you what it is and how you can perform the test.

For several years, people have used advanced equipment for viewing films, listening to music and so on. A particular product that revolutionized the audio device industry was the launch of wearable speakers called the headphones. These headphones revolutionized the way we listened to music altogether. And ever since the late 20th century, audio engineers have been working relentlessly to enhance the experience of the listener. And in this venture, several new techniques of audio amplification and sound projection have been developed.

Of these, the most popular is undoubtedly the “surround sound” technology. This technique allows users to listen to a more enhanced version of the sound with high fidelity of sound reproduction using separate audio channels for different snippets or layers of sound. This makes the user feel as if they are surrounded by the sound source rather than listening to the source from a particular device.  

There is several surround sound headphones test which can be performed on a pair of headphones to figure out whether they are surround sound or not and whether they have different qualities or not.

Can Headphones Have Surround-Sound Qualities?

Gamers, cinephiles, and video enthusiasts will tell you that for a good quality setup, you need to have at least a great looking screen with at least 1080p resolution. However, one thing which they would normally recommend as well as the use of surround-sound quality headphones or speakers. There is a stark difference between the normal headphones which you got with your mobile phone box and the separate headphones which you buy from the market.

And even in the headphones, you have a variety of types to choose from. Generally, the most popular kind of headphones is the surround sound headphones and the stereo headphones. While they look and sound almost similar and you may not notice any difference at first, there is one.

The major difference is in the way they both work. True surround sound is basically several speakers or audio sources placed at different angles to the listener in order to induce the illusion of virtual reality. The surround sound makes all the sound coming from the source sound almost lifelike. This technique is also incorporated in the headphones by several other brands and companies.

The headphone variant usually uses a few headphones with different operating audio channels in order to produce that surround sound effect. These smaller and discrete headphones are placed in a larger headphone cup in order to integrate them. The smaller speakers generate a sound which feels lifelike.

The other kind of headphones called the stereo headphones does not produce a true surround sound quality audio. A lot of the headphones which show that they are surround sound headphones are usually just stereo headphones whose sound quality does not feel up to the same standard as the surround sound quality headphones.

What Should I Consider For Performance While Testing My Headphones?

While evaluating the headphones and running tests, it is important to keep in mind a few things. It is imperative that you should check the quality of the headphones while keeping some important parameters related to the device and audio quality.

These quality parameters will help you figure out whether the pair of headphones is indeed a true or virtual surround sound. And it also helps to determine how good the sound quality is in terms of pitch variation, sound quality, and timbre.

For your convenience, we are listing down all the quality parameters and performance metrics which you should look out for when testing your pair of headphones.

#1 - Frequency Response

The frequency response measures the ability of the headphones to produce the sounds of different frequencies. Optimally, the graph which shows the frequency response of any pair of headphones should be a straight line near the origin.

But you will see that the line might be a bit favorable at one end and not so distinct on the other end. If the frequency response graph is more leaning towards the left side of the graph, this means the pair is basically a high bass pair of headphones. If the frequency response graph is more favorable on the right side, this implies high treble quality.

The left-leaning graph shows that those headphones are really effective in producing great bass sounds from heavy metal and EDM tracks. Whereas the right-leaning graph indicates that the pair is very efficient in producing a bright sound which should be suitable for modern pop songs.

In order to test the frequency response, make sure to play around 250 tunes of the same voltage. However, these tunes need to ascend from a lower frequency to a higher frequency in a linear fashion. This varying loudness and frequency should plot a graph which can later be analyzed. Remember that all audio devices produce a jagged line on the graph with random ups and downs. So do not worry if the line is not consistent.

#2 - Isolation Measurement

Isolation measurement means the ability of the headphones to be able to isolate the user’s ears from the surrounding ambient noise. This is the real test of the surround sound experience as well because it allows you to analyze how well the headphones are able to make it a life-like experience.

For the isolation measurement, we take a speaker and connect it to a device playing pink noise or white noise. Generally, it is preferred if it is pink noise. We then put on the pair of headphones and figure out how much of the sound can be heard by the headphones. Most surround sound headphones provide a lot of attenuation for the noise down to 100Hz as well.

#3 - Impedance Measurement

The impedance literally means the dynamic resistance which the headphones offer when producing sound. This impedance greatly affects the quality of the headphones. The impedance measurement taking process is fairly simple and requires you to just measure the voltage drop before and after the sound has been played in the surround sound headphones. Generally, modern headphones have low impedance. The low impedance makes it easier to achieve a higher volume.

7.1 Surround Sound Test

The 7.1 Surround Sound Test is a great way to test out the capabilities of your home theatre. A 7.1 surround sound test helps to see whether all the 8 channels are functioning properly or not. Testing out the system is a great idea since many configurations tend to be faulty or misplaced.

A 7.1 surround sound system consists of the left, right, and center front, the subwoofer, the left, and right rear, and the side left and right speakers. All of these come together to give you the most technologically advanced surround sound configuration.

Surround sound tests for 7.1 configurations can be done through your very own PC or laptop. If using Windows 8 or 10, all you have to do is open the Control Panel from the Start Menu. From there, select “Sound Control Panel” and choose the “Playback” option.

Once there, right click on your favorite surround sound device and select “Properties”. For the 7.1 system, select the 7.1 surround sound tab. And then just hit the “Test Sound” button. You will instantly hear the sound test playing through all of your speakers.

For those of you on Windows 7, the process is about the same. Select “Hardware and Sound” from the Control Panel, hit the Playback tab, then right-click on your surround sound device and choose Properties. After that, select the 7.1 sound options and hit the “Test Sound” option. The same process will be repeated. If the configuration seems off, adjust accordingly.

Stereo Surround Sound Test

Stereo surround sound is the most basic type of surround sound. It uses a bare minimum of just two channels. The right and left channels are a far cry from the intricate setup of the 7.1 surround sound. But nevertheless, some people are just happier in less.

As for stereo surround sound testing, a simple test of the speakers can be done just like with the 7.1 sound! Go to the Sound tab in the Control Panel. And select your stereo sound device. Then hit the “Test Sound” option. Most computers and laptops are already equipped with stereo sound. The built-in speakers of most laptops are already stereo sound. PCs may need a separate input.

Apart from the Windows surround sound test, there are numerous online tests for surround sound as well. The simplest ones involve a YouTube video where the speaker stimulates the two speakers. Other online tests can be found on various tech websites. Be careful though. Some laptops and PCs may actually have a 3 or 4 channels surround sound system.

Dolby Digital Surround Headphones Test

Dolby Digital is one of the best companies that produce high-quality headphones with each release. Their headphones are reliable and provide a lifelike a scenario to the audio. If you wish to test your newly purchased Dolby Digital Surround Headphones, here’s how you can do it.

One of the easiest ways to test a pair of Dolby Digital Surround Headphones is to connect it to a computer and do the testing. One of the major hurdles you might face while doing this is figuring out how to exactly configure the headphones using the operating system. However, once that is done, it is fairly easy to test out. You should go to your speaker properties, right click on your headphones and click Configure. Then choose the settings you want with the headphones. Once you are done with the configuration wizard, it is time to move on to the testing.

You can do this by right clicking your audio device and clicking the “test” option. The test option will play a short clip giving you a good idea of the kind of headphones you have purchased. You can look further down the article for the different songs and videos you can play to have a good idea of the tests further.

3D Surround Headphones Test

The 3D surround headphones are very innovative because of their unique discrete number of speakers in the larger cup. The 3D surround headphones currently feature the most immersive experience.

While these headphones are relatively difficult to figure out, their result and output audio are one of the finest that the industry has to offer. These headphones produce the best result when watching action movies and sci-fi games. In order to test these headphones, you should download or stream an action movie which features a lot of action sequences such as bomb blasts, car crashes, and hushed conversational tones.

However, in the case that you do not wish to download other videos or movies for this purpose, you can also pick out a song or short video from our list below for testing purposes. However, we do highly recommend that you should watch this video here in order to see the difference between the normal stereo and in-ear headphones to the 3D surround headphones.

Songs And Videos To Test Your Headphones On

We have also compiled a list of headphones test songs on which you can do a surround sound test to figure out the quality of your pair. The best songs to test headphones are:

Conclusion

The surround sound headphones truly do produce some of the best quality of sounds produced by any audio device. Their sound is top tier and produces a perception which is almost lifelike. The tests which we provided are foolproof and they will help you in determining how good your headphones are in terms of frequency, quality, pitch, and dynamic variation.

These tests will help you to understand how the surround sound headphones are the ones that produce the best kind of audio no matter what you compare it with. We have also provided a list of songs which you can test them on.


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