i don't think i've ever actually used a headset for gaming
Surround sound is nice in shooters and my TV's speakers are fucked.
Plus, it's nice to have when you want to watch tv and not keep other people awake, or if you want to talk while playing.
My favorite thing about surround sound headphones is being able to hear what direction stuff is coming from, plus a bunch of other really subtle sounds that you wouldn't pick up on otherwise. Makes you really appreciate the work of the audio engineers
while it may work in practice, human hearing is stereo and software modelling the acoustics of the ear works better in most cases; simulated surround sound versus 5.1 or 7.1 smaller drivers, simulated wins
if you have a room where you can set up a speaker system, that's obviously better, but you're still listening to that through two ears
when you have a pair of headphones that just sit on your head, it doesn't matter how many drivers the headphones have, your ears are stereo, and the reason why your brain can tell if something is behind you is because of how the shape of your ears changes that sound - software already does an effective job at this, and it's why there's a "headphones" option separate from "small speakers" option in most games
there are binaural microphones with ear-shaped cups that allow them to mimic that shape, but the thing is, these are still binaural microphones, not 10 individual microphones
https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-binaural-immersive-vr-sound-times-square-new-yorkit doesn't matter what heaphones you use (unless they are particularly shitty), virtual surround works better than cramming 10 smaller, lower-quality sound drivers into a pair of cans than two large and very high-quality drivers
think of it this way, your ears are a pair of binaural microphones with carefully adjusted polar patterns that allow you to sense the direction of sound, you still only have two ears; some humans also have very well shaped ears, I believe they're called superpinna or something, and when you have binaural microphones with cups modeled after those ears, there are tests that have been done to show that they actually improved directional perception of sound for anyone that listened to the audio that was recorded using those microphones
to compare the two:
2 ears which alter sound depending on direction and 2 large high-quality drivers which alter sound using software
as opposed to
2 ears which alter sound depending on direction and 10 small, lower-quality drivers which may also have a layer of virtual surround over it
again, they both work, and i know im being super anal about this but ive worked on a game using VR with 3D audio, and did a short sound production course and this was one of the first things they talked about in regards to sound perception
virtual surround is incredibly effective, and in some cases works better than people's actual hearing
Headset recommendations