This is a necro, see bottom, I've purchased some Astro A50s.

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Okay, so I moved into a condo and don't want to bug the neighbors, so I've been thinking of some 7.1 channel headphones, the ones I tried last year at PAX were outstanding. Today I went to get on Vent with a buddy and found my ex had jacked by old mic/headphones. So now my timetable has moved up.

I'm willing to get 2 sets if they really won't mix, but if it does both well 1 set that does mic and 7.1 would be best.

Requirements:
7.1 channel surround
XP and Win 7 compat
USB (if there's a better way to hook these up, optical perhaps, I'd be willing to listen)
Internal sound card (I understand this is the best, maybe not...)

So, insanely picky fellow gamers, what say you?

I'd say price is no object, but I know Wishbone will find some pair that costs 20,000 USD if I do so:)

Let's try and keep it under 200, obvious way cheaper is ideal.

Oh, needs to be sturdy enough to get dropped, the SOB WILL get dropped (I know myself).

No personal experience with decent headphones (I'm running a 5.1 speaker setup), but, if I was in the market I'd probably ask over at Head-Fi. Those guys are serious about headphones.

Hey thanks I was getting depressed reading all the user bitching and serious problems all the big names (even Logitech) seem to be having with their headphones: no noise canceling 64bit drivers (really?), hissing, mic pickup problems, plastic parts breaking with little use, etc.

Maybe I can find something here.

EDIT: Odin's butthole! Those things are expensive!

Razer Megadolon. USB, 7.1, onboard sound card, noise filtering, the works. Under 200 bones, to boot!

For anyone in the same boat, thanks to Nomad_Soul's post I was able to find this guide: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/534479/mad-lust-envy-aka-shin-cz-s-guide-to-headphone-gaming-particularly-with-dolby-headphone

A lot of these are not cheap but the rating scales help as he/she broke them apart by how good the headphones are for competitive gaming vs. for fun gaming (deep bass can be a disadvantage trying to locate your enemy by sound in a FPS).

Downside, a lot of these models still run 150-250 USD and none have a mic (which seems weird, you miss out on teamplay). Upside is not all of them do cost that much, there are some above average rated headphones in the 20-70 USD category. I read about these and there's some serious knocks about the build quality. I immediately was interested as I like Razer mouses, but yeah, it seems as if they suck and break easily with just a couple weeks of use.

Okay, apparently you need this shit:

http://www.astrogaming.com/mixamp-5-8

and then this shit is no longer complete ass:

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-PC-360-Headset-Gaming/dp/B003DA4D2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309839817&sr=8-1
(I think the above can be found for 40-50 less than that)

This is turning out way more expensive than I would have planned, as much as fancy speakers (of the PC variety) nearly...

I own a pair of Logitech G35's. They are the best head phones I have used for gaming and I am very happy with them. On a scale of 1 to 10 i'd rate them about an 8. They do have some quirkyness to them. For instance I need to make sure they are plugged in to the usb BEFORE I start a game otherwise I won't hear anything from the game. One of my friends feels that they are too warm to wear. His ears get a bit warm. They may be a little heavy for some folks but for me they are very comfortable. The build quality is solid. I am a bit rough on equipment also but these have stood up very well. No broken parts. The microphone seems to work well..never any complaints of folks not hearing me well. The software and morphing works well although it did glitch once to where the morphing did not work. I restarted the software and it was fixed...the voice morphing is more of a gimmick in my book thoyugh although some folks liike it. What I am really impressed with is the 7.1 sound....especialy with some of the newer military shooters like Call of Duty series. It is software rendered instead of using a bunch of speakers in the headphones. I really like it and it helps keep the weight down a bit from some of the other brands out there ( I infer).
Logitech also make a cordless version called the G95 ( I think thats the model) A friend owns it and loves it. A bit long winded of a post but I hope it helps ya out.

For me, it's ultimately what's comfortable and works. I could spend hundreds of dollars on a top of the line headset, but what good does it do me if it ends up being uncomfortable or painful after wearing for a while?

I have the Astro A40's and mixamp and I'm very happy with them. I had a few grievances with them originally (weak bass, little difficult to tell locations) but they've released a slightly updated model now which has better bass (thicker muffs *titters*) and a better mike. It only cost me around £15 to upgrade and the difference is impressive. The 2011 version is the one with the updated bits already on. You can usually get the 2 bundled which makes it a bit cheaper.

It's worth mentioning that there are 2 types of surround sound headphones.... true surround sound which feature 6+ drivers (usually 3 in each ear) and emulated which are just 2 big drivers and the surround sound is handled by the amp which pushes the audio through to the relevant parts of the speaker. This is why you need the mixamp for a lot of them as they're not surround sound in themselves, they're stereo with large 40+mm drivers. The difference between true and emulated is fairly minor, though some of the true surround sound ones let you tweak each speaker individually which can be helpful.

You can use headphones with built in usb sound cards but they're usually not as good. I've been using onboard sound (Realtek HD) for a while on my pc and have recently gotten fed up with how bad music sounds on it vs my consoles so I bought a Soundblaster XFI Titanium; the difference is incredible.

This is true, but cheaper headphones tend to be made out of pleather and crap like that, that's not comfortable (it's sweaty). There are some expensive and uncomfortable headphones but most users tend to point that out as a flaw (or headphones that cause fatigue from use). I agree it's on my criteria list but there's nothing guaranteeing either cheap or expensive headphones will be comfy. Well the sound card on my mobo kind of sucks and is already hooked up to my z5500 speakers. With the junk software/drivers I don't think it would be easy to swap devices. Also, something like Mixamp works for an XBox 360 setup as well (I think).

I will probably buy a decent sound card when I build my next rig but that might be a ways off. These have a lot of detractors but a lot of perfectly happy users as well. If I decide to go the cheap route they're probably the pair I'd pick.
I've seen this combo and it's probably the cheapest way to get up and running while getting a Mixamp out of the deal. The A40s have "meh" reviews by the snobs (okay, that's not fair, the audiofiles) but they probably would be a step up for me. If I go this way do you know where the cheapest place to buy might be? Also, you mentioned newer model, can I tell by the part number or something? The A40s have a mic built in, right?

I'd highly recommend the Corsair HS1 USB:

A couple of reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-hs1-headset,2743.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/peripherals/2010/09/11/corsair-hs1-review/1

About the best bang for the buck USB/MIc/Headset combo for the quality/price ratio.

They do have a few shortcomings but they're worthwhile when bundled, also they're designed for competition gaming rather than everything but I use them for movies, games, music (everything really) and find them fine for it. You can always upgrade in the future but I find them to be ample with a good sound card and the latest 2011 modifications.
The 2011 versions are usually advertised as such and visually the difference is the microphone which is fully encased in rubber on the older models and has a skeleton encasing on the newer (so the inner cable is exposed). It's a very good microphone too, very clear and you don't need to eat it to be heard. The difference really is noticeable between the older A40 versions & I couldn't see myself going back.

As far as the audiophile aspect is concerned... it depends just how far you want to go. There will always be better. If you're mostly using them on a pc then the sound card has a lot of importance, the Astro's will run off of usb but it's nothing special and usb sound chips usually aren't great to begin with; likewise hooking it into an onboard sound chip would be disappointing. I find SPDif to be the best option (Optical) and just use the USB connection for power and microphone when on the pc.
It depends on music quality too as you're not likely to see a huge amount of difference between good headphones at say 320kbps, beyond the headphones setup (some designed for more bass, some designed to be clearer throughout the spectrum, I find the A40's balanced.). So to make it worth while you'd either have to listen to all your music straight off the cd or FLAC.

I have a pair of Logitech G35 7.1 headphones. The (simulated) EAX doesn't work too well, but I can still have hardware acceleration and 7.1 surround-sound for movies. If you're not fussy about EAX, then they're a good pair. They are quite heavy though.

The EAX thing causes it to not produce surround-sound in some games (Thief and Rome Total War being a problem for me as they are my 2 favourite games) , which is making me want to move towards something where it just propagates the audio rather than generating it, e.g.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-ZM-RS6F-5-1-Surround-Headphones/dp/B004G4J7EQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3DVXBP9PTQY0H&colid=27YAFNRQUXXLQ
That way I can then make use of my X-Fi soundcard and have surround-sound with EAX.

Ninja necro!

18 months later I have purchased a pair of Astro A50s (wireless). I love them so much I now want a second pair!

I just wanted to thank everyone who tossed some advice my way, even if I himmed and hawed for a year and a half;)