Turtle Beach has a long history of making well-made sounds makers (the first sound card to complete with the Soundblaster, for example), so it's no surprise they've gotten into the latest thing in gaming sound: surround sound headphones. Take the Ear Force AK-R8, for example, which features 5.1 surround (including subwoofers) in two large cans, plus software-based digital signal processing for user-modified sound environments. What also makes the AK-R8 interesting, however is the USB interface, which eliminates the need for a sound card. Why is this important? Well, with NVIDIA putting out high-end gaming video cards the size of small novels these days, things are starting to get pretty tight inside computer cases, especially if you've opted for an SLI configuration (and don't lie - I know you've thought about it). Eliminating the need for an internal sound card means that much more room for video power. Good stuff.

Via Crave Online