Is there a noticable difference between virtual surround sound & true surround sound?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

So while I do know somethings about the surround sound system, I never honestly experienced it myself, I dunno if I'm missing out on something. Anyway I was looking for a headset with some surround sound just to try it myself, but then I kept getting some items that was way more expensive than I was willing to spend. It looks neat and fancy, but then I saw cheaper ones also offering surround sound. Then something about virtual and true surround sound was brought to my attention.

Now I guess it is important to know the difference. So could someone make it easy for me to understand? Do I need to spend over $100 for the super surround sound fancy headset or is the low cost ones just as good for super surround sound?

Another few things I wanted to ask along side the main question.

1. Has anyone ever tried Super Nintendo Surround sound and were you impressed? (I noticed some games like Super Turrican has it but again never tried surround sound, not sure if SNES emulators can actually reproduce it)
2. Do you like using it, and how do you use it? (With headphones or with real speakers)
3. Is surround sound worth the effort & cost? Is used in many things, music, games, videos, so is not just for one thing.

So if anyone can answer some of these questions for me to help enlighten me on this, it would be nice.

 

[Issac]

Oh there's a lot of questions here to answer.
First, there's often a reason cheap headphones are cheap. I don't have any surround headphones, nor have I ever tried any so I can't give any more thoughts on that. That's because I want surround sound to be "real" with different speakers set up at different positions to really give the right feeling. Using headphones, I want to have clear stereo sound instead.

I have a relatively cheap 5.1 surround system for my computer though, and I think it's good enough for most things. Gaming with 5.1 surround sound is fun, and watching movies with 5.1 sound brings more depth to it.
In my music player I have a surround mixer, that fakes surround sound of my music (if the music files aren't already 5.1). It works really great with the settings I have, and makes it all sound very rich and nice!

I didn't even know the Super Nintendo had support for surround sound, so I haven't tried that.

I think surround sound is worth the cost. And I mean speakers. It doesn't have to be that expensive, and it's useful for movies, music and games.
If I were to spend a lot of money on headphones, I rather get really good stereo headphones.

 

[migles]

i bought some headphones years ago which stated 7.1 surround in the box, reviews where saying it was virtual but it was good blablabla.. (platornics or whatever brand model 777 IIRC)

that is just a bullshit and lie, the 7.1 is just an effect that makes it look comming from far away.. it is just a built in equalizer bullshit
the thing come with a usb dongle, it just receives normal 2 channels (stereo) sound, and in games you can't hear where stuff comes from like you would do with a true 5-7 channel thing..

i felt really scammed...

 

[Tomobobo]

With any kind of stereo upmix, where they take a 2 channel source and spread it across more channels, you're only ever going to lose stereo separation effects. The upmix will mix the left and right channels into the center, sub and rear channels, so what you'll end up with is actually more spatially confusing if you're trying to locate an enemy position by sound.