Zalman Theater 6 Surround Sound Headphones Review - Looks and Feel
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Most headphones, no matter how advanced, have something in common:they allot one speaker per ear. Zalman knew that this wouldn't bepossible and still offer true surround sound. (After all, virtual 5.1surround sound has been tried in the past, only to come out as aconstant disappointment.) In response, they stepped outside theproverbial box and decided to add wings to each earphone, in order tofit 3 speakers per ear, as well as 3 channel connectors. (The channelconnectors make this an awkward fit for anything other than a 5.1 soundsystem.)
Whether this design affects what we hear is yet to be determined(yes, that question is answered by the end of the review). However, onething it does right off the bat is make you look like a cast member ofthe movie Starship Troopers. (You know, that movie where abunch of 16 year old teen models are put in charge of fighting giantbugs and brine shrimp in order to save the Earth.) If you're planningon wearing these on your daily jog, you might want to think again; theyrun a bit on the bulky side. In fact, if you're planning to wear theseanywhere other than in the privacy of your own home, expect a few funkylooks. Then again, who cares about what you look when you have surroundsound, right?
Now, don't mistake bulky for heavy. These things have a pretty goodsize to them, but they're much lighter than they look, which makes thempretty comfortable to wear for an extended period of time. After about4-5 hours of wearing them, however, my jaw would start feeling a bituncomfortable. (This is in stark contrast to the similarly sized Sennheizer HD-500s we reviewed a while back.) This, of course, would be about the length of time needed for a decent all-night gaming session.
Another note on looks is how they pack up. They're bulky, yes, butfold up quite nicely into a more portable shape. Not something seen inmost closed-ear design headphones, although I wish it would be. Thiswas an extremely good design choice from the Theater 6's design team.
Although these headphones are pretty well built - you're not likelyto break them on a drop from your head to the floor - the one weaknessto watch out for is the cord construction used. The cord, because ofits length, is susceptible to being stepped on and yanked. With thisconstruction, it wouldn't take much to find that your left speakerdoesn't work as well as it did before - if at all (it happened to me).
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