We should all be pretty familiar with the THX audio droning sound you get when you are sitting in the movie theater and the tricks it plays on your ears to position the audio all around you.
Getting that spatial effect in headphones while you ware watching movies or playing games isn’t possible out of the box because the speakers are obviously pressed up against the side of your head.
There have been a couple of companies that have previously released spacial audio apps for headset since the arrival of Windows 10 – these include Microsoft itself, whose Windows Sonic can be turned on and off through a control panel. Dolby also released their Atmos Plugin for a small fee to give any headset the benefit of that particular technology and to be fair it worked great.
Slightly late to the party comes Razer who has just released THX Spatial for $20 on their website.
Razer said: “What separates good sound from phenomenal audio is the ability to transport you right into the action. Whether it’s knowing the precise location of enemy gunfire or embracing the moment as you stand in the center of an arena, the THX Spatial Audio App delivers advanced 7.1 surround sound with pinpoint positional accuracy to make your game come alive.”You can test it out yourself before deciding that $20 is a good investment – have a play with the Youtube video below (using your own headphones obviously). I’m, always skeptical of demos videos because obviously everything is heightened to sell the product, but you can also download a trial of the software at Razer’s website so you can put it through its paces yourself.
The other companies generally offer demos of their products too so it is as well to try all of them out before committing but one advantage the THX spacial seems to have is it allows you to reposition it’s virtual speakers so you can tweak it to whats suits you. You can also set it to activate on a per-app/game basis which could certainly come in handy.#
Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments below.
