The Software

I first tested them out on my laptop. After installing, the drivers additional audio and microphone output devises appear in the Control Panel.

Installation is very straight forward. You just put the CD in, it will ask you to plug in the headphones, click OK and away you go. The software automatically selects the Cyber Snipa SONAR 5.1 headset as the default audio device for headphones and audio after the computer restarts.

If you have a sound card or onboard sound and want to be able to use speakers, you have to unplug the headphones and it will default back to the other solution. Or you can manually switch between speakers and the headphones if you want to leave them plugged in but not in use.

If you use an application like Ventrillo and you have the Cyber Snipa headphones unplugged, you do need to plug them in and restart the computer before Ventrillo can detect and use the headphones again.

The installation of the driver also adds a control panel which is easily accessible via the toolbar.

The Main Settings tab provides the ability to position and select the amount of speakers that are used, as well as a utility for checking out the surround sound features of the headphones. Although the control panel shows full sized speakers, all of them are actually inside the headset and not physically available to move around. It's a representation of the positioning of the sound playback which simulates surround sound speakers.

When I first ran the demo I was almost disorientated. The positioning of the sound was almost freaky! It had me looking around the room instinctively to see where the sound was coming from.

The Mixer tab provides full control of Wave, SW Synth, CD Player. It also provides some control over the line in volumes. It's all pretty basic.

Environmental audio is for people who like playing around with how their audio sounds. It can emulate scenarios like being in a toilet, a stadium, a forest etc. I have always found these tools to be a novelty, but people mixing or creating music use these tools to reproduce what their audio may sound like in certain environments. It also has a whole set of pre-set frequency settings, designed to benefit all of the different genres of music, for those of us who don't know any better.