Manhattan Personal Cinema 5.1 USB - How about some testing?
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Now that the software is hooked up, let's take a closer look at the components. The headphones themselves are actually quite small, considering that they hold 8 speakers. They easily adjust and fit comfortably.
Moving down the cable, we next encounter an in-line volume control. This control allows you to adjust the volume of the front, rear, center, and subwoofer individually. This is a nice touch, and allows you to easily fine-tune your listening experience.
Continuing along we soon come to the actual brain of the operation, the Personal Cinema sound controller. This device acts as a 5.1 sound card, and sends the five distinct channels to the eight speakers in your headphones. The controller also has it's own set of controls, for power, mute, and master volume. Here's a pic.
Now that we are all hooked up, how about a test? Going back into the Manhattan Station icon on the app tray, I found a TEST option.
As you can see, there are three test modes offered. The first, Auto, goes in a circle, individually testing each of the speakers shown one at a time. The Manual test allows you to click on the speakers you would like to test, one at a time. My favorite is the third test, the surround. It's similar to the first, but it rotates seamlessly through them, as though the sound source was rotating in a circle around you.
In the above pic, you can see a small red dot showing you where the sound should be coming from. As the sound rotates around you, you can watch the dot to see where the sound should be coming from. Was this really needed? No, but it's still cool to play with.
Next: Real world usage and conclusion >>
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