Headphone Virtual Surround?

[Rocky]

Are the virtual surround headphone settings available on certain amps (e.g. Headphone Theatre on Sony and Silent Cinema on Yamaha) worth bothering with? Being able to have a bearable cinema experience without disturbing the household would be handy.

Any views?

[MikeK]

They are OK (well the Sony one anyway), but don't expect a full surround experience like with your normal speakers.

(EDIT - on rereading, this sounds like a dig at Yamaha - it isn't, it's just that I've only heard the Sony one)

If you don't yet have an amp/receiver, and this is an important feature for you, then it may be worth waiting until Dolby Headphone processing trickles it's way into HC amps/recvrs, hopefully some time later this year.
That said, I've never actually heard Dolby Headphone in action, (so it may be pants - but early reports from the US are very promising) but if you have a PC with a DVD drive, there are several S/W DVD players/decoders which feature this technology.

Check out Dolby's site if you any any further info.