by Abbas Jaffar Ali on February 7, 2004
Zalman Theatre 6
We’ve tried headphones that claim to provide you with a surround sound experience in the past, however, their surround capabilities are more often just an adjustment of sound levels than anything else. Thus we weren’t that excited when the Zalman Theatre 6 Real Surround Sound Headphones came our way and were expecting a similar experience we’ve had with older surround sound headphones- boy were we wrong!
The Zalman Real Surround Sound Headphones impress you right from the start- their packaging is awesome in a clear dome shaped box letting you view the product completely. We knew we were in for a treat right away and our belief was further confirmed when we saw three gold-plated headphone jacks- a separate one for each of the front, rear and center connections. We were also provided with a DVD with scenes from different movies like The Bourne Identity, Behind Enemy Lines, Fast and Furious and Minority Report for testing the unit.
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The headphones look small inside the package, but once you take them out, you realize that they’re a bit big in size and have a pretty good folding mechanism that makes them take less space for storing. Although the headphones look bulky, they’re not very heavy and quite comfortable to wear. The length of the cord is decent at about 10 feet however, a volume control switch is lacking.
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We decided to unveil the secret behind Zalman’s true 5.1 sound production by slicing the unit open and well- what we found was really no secret. Zalman actually uses six speakers- three on each side of the unit to produce true 5.1 audio. The rear speakers correspond to the rear connection while the center speakers correspond to the front connection and the front speakers to the center connection. This configuration makes sure that the sound produced by the front connection is the primary one and closest to your ears.
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For testing purposes, we used Creative’s 5.1 sound card with separate jacks for front, rear and center connections. The first test we did was with Unreal Tournament 2003 and it sure was plenty of fun. You could easily make out the difference between noises coming from the front or back which will certainly help you find the location of other players.
The next thing we tried out was a DVD Audio Sampler disc that comes with Creative’s latest sound cards. Again, we were quite impressed by the quality of the sound although we felt the bass lacking a bit.
Last, we tried the demonstration DVD provided to us and boy did we have fun- definitely the best movie experience with a headphone. The Zalman Theatre 6 managed to create an atmosphere similar to a 5.1 speaker setup.
Overall, we think the Zalman Surround Sound Headphones are amazing and would be perfect for Network Gaming Cafes. While the bass lacked a bit, the overall quality was quite impressive and the Surround Sound effects very noticeable. Priced around AED 225/- (roughly US$ 60), the headphones are a bit on the pricier side, but definitely worth the money. We hope that Zalman includes a volume control in the next revision.
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