In the world of gaming, every advantage you can get counts. That’s why I decided to buy the Zalman 5.1 surround sound headphones. The 5.1 surround sound gave me a big advantage in gaming, and so far have lasted more than two years.

I bought the headphones in March of 2005 for my gaming rig. Back then I used them to play Call of Duty: United Offensive. After going from regular headphones to the Zalman 5.1 headphones, I would never go back. The headphones acted almost like a second pair of eyes in the back of my head. Using them I could easily identify a person’s location. I could hear when someone was walking up to me, or if someone was walking to my right or left. This was especially useful to me as when I play FPS games, I’m always afraid the enemy will sneak up from behind and kill me.

Even without a surround sound video card these things still sound good. I use them with my laptop’s single channel integrated sound card to play Sid Meier’s Pirates, and also to watch movies. It’s important to note that in order to get surround sound from these things, your sound card must support EAX. Otherwise they will simply act like regular headphones, though good headphones nonetheless.

The headphones are very comfortable to wear, and fold up nice and easy, making them great for LANs. I personally like being able to fold them up because my desk is very small and I need as much room as I can get when I’m not gaming.

Today, I play Battlefield 2, Unreal Tournament, and Oblivion. I have dropped the headphones numerous times and they are still in great shape. The 10-foot cord is really handy, allowing me to reach the refrigerator without taking them off. The only issue I’ve had with them is the leather covering around the ear phone cups has torn on one side and frayed in a few places, but it isn’t a big deal. The Zalmans still work fine and the tear is relatively insignificant. The leather or clothe cup coverings are usually the first things to break on a pair of headphones, and considering it took roughly two years for the first tear to occur means the headphones were built well.

Like everything else I buy, I got the Zalman 5.1 headphones from Amazon.com, and you can too for $50 plus free shipping. If you don’t have a 5.1 channel sound card, Zalman also makes one that costs roughly the same as the headphones. An optional mic attachment is also available.

On another note, Mashable has a cool post on the possibility that the RIAA might die in 2008.