Digital Trends

Ezonics ESound 5.1

February 25th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Usage and Testing

Testing the ESound was a lot of fun. We watched movies, played games and listened to a lot of music. We compared our ESound headphones to the Koss TD-80s and a set of Logitech Z5300 six-channel speakers.

The Koss TD-80s are a good pair of low-cost, upper-end headphones. They are a bit on the heavy side and feature booming bass that sometimes overpowers the highs, but they are recognized for overall quality and their on-board volume adjustments.

While regular two-speaker headphones can at times simulate a 3D environment, we were very impressed with how much better the ESound was at delivering true surround. Ezonics is marketing the ESound at gamers, so first we tried them with PC games. There are a few games out now with 5.1 channel sound and many more on the way.

Dolby Digital Gaming

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne was the first game we tried. The game features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a lot of deep bass from Payne's deep voice, dark background music and gunshots. We had to make some adjustments at first because the bass was overpowering, but once properly adjusted, the ESound did not disappoint — the audio was full and clear and the experience was decidedly better than the regular stereo headphones. It was easy to pinpoint where a voice or gunshot was coming from. The game doesn't really have too many environmental sounds besides weather effects and items being knocked over to the ground.

One particular scene in the game did a great job of proving that we were indeed listening to six-channel audio. While walking through an apartment complex looking for bad guys, as Payne is constantly doing, there was an open window in a hallway. It was raining out and the rain was coming down hard. Walking near the window, we could hear the rain get louder and louder and the sound was definitely coming from straight ahead. Turning around to go down the hallway, the sound could easily be heard to be behind Payne, and when enemies appeared ahead, there was an obvious distinction between what noises were coming from ahead and what originated behind Payne.

We then tried the demo for the upcoming first-person-shooter Far Cry. The ESound headphones really showed their strength with this game. The environment in Far Cry is like night and day compared to Max Payne 2. In fact, it is night and day. While Max Payne 2 is dark and gloomy and almost every scene takes place at night, the Far Cry demo takes place on a bright day on an island in the South Pacific.

There are ambient sounds to be found everywhere on the island. From birds chirping in the distance to enemies talking up ahead of you, there are subtle and not-so-subtle sounds in every direction. With both the Esound and the Logitech speakers, you could really tell in what direction sounds were coming from.

One of the best examples of this was the ocean waves splashing up on the beaches of the island. With the ESound headphones on, you can easily hear the waves behind you when the ocean is at your back. Turning around, you can hear the difference when the waves crash in front of you or to the sides. The experience was very similar to what we heard with the Logitech Z5300s.

We also tested to see if we were able to tell from what direction sounds were coming from with our eyes closed. While nowhere as clear-cut as when viewing the video, we were definitely able to pick out sounds coming from different directions — much more so than with the stereo headphones. If anything, this test at least confirmed that the combination of 3D graphics and positional audio together is what makes the most immersive environments.