Logitech G35

The Logitech G35 is a gaming headset. It supports Dolby Headphone 7.1 technology, three fully programmable (with latest Logitech Gaming Software) buttons on the outside of the left speaker cup, a switch that toggles Dolby headphone technology on or off, and a USB headset that uses Dolby Pro Logic II.
Features
USB compliant
The headset is USB 2.0 compliant. It plugs directly into the USB port on a PC's motherboard, or into a USB HUB and does not need a sound card.
Technology
The Logitech G35 does not support Environmental audio extensions but is capable of supporting OpenAL and DirectSound3D.
The processing speed for surround sound of the Logitech G35 is almost instantaneous, somewhere around 1 millisecond. Many people can only begin to notice delays when it is greater than 125 milliseconds. This is crucial when it comes to online gaming as the user needs to not only react visually with what's on the screen, but through sound as well, such as foot steps, distant gun fire, and such.
The frequency response of the Logitech G35 headset is 20hz - 20Khz.
The Logitech G35 does not support 24-bit audio including DTS 96/24 however it does support Dolby Digital Live when playing Dolby Digital AC-3 audio through Windows Media Player such as a Dolby Digital DVD. Almost all DVDs are encoded in AC-3 Digital Audio giving the user a great movie playing experience. When playing an AC-3 encoded DVD through PowerDVD, PowerDVD uses Linear PCM audio output. Keep in mind that the Logitech G35 can play any audio codec as long as the software decodes the audio and do not pass-through the still encoded audio to the G35.
7.1 surround sound
The Logitech G35 uses what is called "Dolby Headphone" to create a virtual surround sound environment naturally, specifically designed for headphones with two speakers. The amount of channels the Logitech G35 is designed to sound is 7.1. That is a front left and right, rear left and right, an independent center channel, and a sub-woofer which is used to output the deep bass. 7.1 means 7 speakers and 1 woofer. To get the most out of the 7.1 surround sound feature, it is ideal to set your game settings, music soundtrack, movie, or whatever your sound source is, to 7.1 or 5.1, although this is not required. Logitech released a new update which disguises the video game's audio detection setup to output surround sound by default. Before this update, there was a major problem for Call Of Duty World at War players. In the game, you could not change the amount of output channels in the game so you could only listen to it in stereo. Now this headset does not only support surround sound for your games, but for movies as well. Even though the Logitech G35 cannot necessarily decode Dolby Digital AC-3, it can still play the sound if however the DVD playing software decodes Dolby Digital in software. Hardware decoding of AC-3, DTS, and such are never necessary if the software can do it, however most players such as VLC, smplayer and such only send AC-3 and DTS encoded data through an S/PDIF (Digital Out / Optical) port which is only available through certain PCI / PCI Express sound cards, and receivers.
The Logitech G35 uses a splitter on the speakers that covers up certain parts of the speaker to redirect sound to only one part of the 40mm driver to deliver an even more thorough PC gaming experience. This takes the sound from one part of the speaker and moves it to the other part making the sound redirect to a very specific part of the ear. This redirect method shares the same technology as the Psyko 5.1 Gaming Headset however the G35 does not have speakers on the bridge nor multiple speakers.
While the G35 uses "Dolby Headphone" which is a simulated surround sound for headphones, in contrast to this, the Psyko 5.1 Gaming Headset creates the surround sound effect by delivering the 3 audio cues required to detect direction: 1) inter-ear timing difference, 2) inter-ear volume difference and 3) the pinna effect for natural front/rear direction detection. In the Psyko 5.1 the sounds are played on the correct speaker in the headband and delivered to the correct location at both ears.
2-channel to 7.1
The Logitech G35 can take Youtube videos, 2-channel game audio, and other stereo sources such as certain music, and convert it naturally to 7.1 using what is called Dolby Pro Logic II. This allows the user to experience a surround sound environment while listening to only stereo sound. Obviously, this does not actually create a real surround sound environment. It basically tricks the brain into thinking that there are multiple locations of where the speakers are. Certain individuals who usually don't go by sound, or rarely use headphones in games from time to time, will have trouble with getting the most of the Logitech G35. It is however possible to train your mind to be much more sensitive to such sound, therefore making it easier for the person to hear the differences in direction of sound.
Adjustable bridge
The Logitech G35 uses a metal plate within the soft plastic bridge with numbers engraved on the metal so you can remember your settings to the length of the bridge, making it easier to use and more comfortable. The bridge of the headset is the top part of the headset that goes over the top of your skull and you can easily adjust it to fit both small heads and larger heads. The bridge is fully adjustable and very durable. It uses a thick, firm, yet bendable plastic material that flexes. The metal within the plastic is silver.
leather-padded ear cups
The Logitech G35 uses an over-the-ear design provide comfort to the user as well as providing exceptional noise cancellation when sound is being out putted to them.
Noise-canceling microphone
actually there is no noise cancellation available - only if you using the voice morphing function.
UPDATE 17-Aug-2011: According to Screaming Bee, whose technology is used in the G35, a driver update has been released for x86 (32-bit) approximately June 2011 that does incorporate noise-cancelling without requiring voice morphing. The issue is that as of August 2011 an updated driver for x64 (64-bit) that incorporates this fix has not been released.
The G35 uses a noise-canceling microphone to only capture your voice and not environmental sounds along with a red mute light to let you know when the headset is muted. The technology that powers the microphone has been designed to be used with families talking in the background, making others easy to hear only your voice. The microphone is also made out of a durable flexible material that bends. The microphone also automatically mutes itself so others can't hear you, when the microphone is folded all the way up. Unfortunately, the microphone is not removable but it still stays far out of the way when folded up. The reason Logitech decided to make the microphone non-removable is because it can reduce capture quality due to oxidation of the connector.
VoiceFX
The Logitech G35 shares the same technology as the Sound Blaster sound cards called VoiceFX. You can select from six voices between a Troll, Mutant, Alien, Giant, Cyborg, and Space Squirrel, or you can leave it off and let others hear your real voice.
Changeable headband
The Logitech G35 consists of three different headbands to not only provide extra comfort to fit the contours of your skull, but it changes the angle of how the speakers are positioned, and since this is very critical, each headband is designed completely differently. The top of each headband is Velcro so it sticks on the top of the headset nicely. It is best to pick the headband that sounds the best to your liking, and is the most comfortable fit. The actual headbands themselves are leather as well providing long lasting extreme comfort.
Drawbacks
The issue with fully USB complaint audio such as the Logitech G35 is that the USB device does not decode nor act as a pass-through for Dolby Digital AC-3 or DTS encoded audio. The audio must be decoded within software for the Logitech G35 to output any sound. PowerDVD supports several popular codecs such as DTS, Dolby Digital AC-3, Linear PCM, and many, many others meaning that if the user of the Logitech G35 uses PowerDVD for DVD playback, the G35 user would have no problem at all playing any DVD, including Blu-ray discs. Even though the Logitech supports Dolby Headphone, that is different from Dolby Digital, as Dolby Digital can only be passed through an HDMI or a Fibre-optic cable. PC Games are usually not encoded in Dolby Digital so this is less of an issue for gamers, but more so for movie watchers. Since the Tritton AXPRO ships with a Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II decoder box, this is not an issue if the headset is connected to any 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound card that does or does not decode Dolby Digital or Dolby Pro Logic II, since any sound card can act as a pass-through for any type of encoded audio including Linear PCM and AC-3 over Optical Digital Out as long as the sound card supports Dolby Digital Live and if the playback software supports such codecs via pass-through.
Another drawback about the Logitech G35 and most USB headsets, is that there needs to be a software driver installed. The driver installation process is fairly simple and easy to download but the amount of frames per second may drop during gaming on certain old PCs since the driver has to run in the background.
A further drawback is that the "G-Keys", the three keys on the left hand of the set, are not actually fully programmable, they support a small number of predefined functions and cannot be used as action keys within games (Unlike other Logitech peripherals in the Logitech G range that have programmable G-Keys). Update August 2011 - Logitech now allows full use of the G-Keys by installing the latest Logitech Gaming Software. Macros, etc, all exactly the same as G15, G19, G13, etc.
Also there has been numerous manufacturing errors that cause the right headcup to make irritating high pitched sounds whenever the software which uses the microphone is on. This only applies to older models, Logitech has since fixed this fault.

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