LAN goers rejoice! There’s finally a way to get around that “no speakers allowed” clause that heckles us all at our monthly fix. It’s just not natural to limit our ears to the confines of the average headphones. We need channels, 6 of them, fast; and finally we’ve got them! That’s right, 5.1 surround sound goodness packed into a stylin’ little cranium topper. Its name is the Zalman ZM-RS6F Theatre 6 and its here to show us what it can do.

If you haven’t already figured it out, the Theatre 6’s mainstay is to deliver the 5.1 capabilities of your high end soundcard directly to you ears and not to your walls, floor, and ultimately your neighbors or roommates. If you’re a little fuzzy on the 5.1 concept let me explain it briefly. As the name cryptically suggests, it consists of six total speakers. The first five being the front right and left, a center, and the rear right and left. The sixth speaker is the sub-woofer. This is included to provide the low frequency effects that are necessary for realism. The sub-woofer is non directional and therefore sits on the right side of the “point” in 5.1.

These aren’t the first set of headphones to promise “surround sound”; there are actually a good number of high end headphones out there that tout the ability. Unfortunately, up until now, the surround effect has been “virtual”. Real surround sound requires the use of 4 or more separate speakers to be able to produce the directional and special effects. So how do these other manufacturers get away with advertising surround sound with only 2? They take advantage of DSP or Digital Signal Processing to produce the virtual sound field that does a pretty good job at simulating the real thing. Simulations however leave much to be desired and usually come with a hefty price tag.