I don't really have the room for a surround sound system.

So, I've looked at other options.

I'm currently using a 5.1 surround soundbar. With the way its been positioned its only really 5.1 channels of sound coming at me from the front.

If I was to get some surround sound headphones, will I need to get a new amp to use them (bear in mind I want wireless headphones) with my ps3 and 360 via optical or are there any on the market that can connect directly to the consoles and stream the sound to me?

I've got a set of Sony wireless surround headphones. They can take the optical output from any device - no need for a surround amp.

What are they called and how well do they perform?

MDR-IF3000. They use IR, rather than RF, so there's no interference, but they need line-of-sight to the base.

I was happy with the sound quality, and they are pretty comfy. IIRC, I paid about £100 secondhand from eBay. The new price was around £200.

I had some Beyer RF headphones before the Sonys. They suffered badly from interference, and had a continual hissing noise in the background.

Well, I've been looking at these badboys:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharkoon-X-T...d_sbs_ce_img_1

They're wired which I can live with, what it doesnt say though is if they can connect directly to the ps3/360 rather than headphones to amp to console

Also: as they are dolby surround headphones, does this mean my films with 5.1 dts only will only be able to use 2.1 stereo?

You obviously didn't scroll down the page to the first review.

Whoops Wonder if theres anyway of getting the mic to work with the ps3

As these are dolby headphones, will the little decoder box decode only dolby or will it decode dts as well? It'd be lame to only have surround sound for some movies

mine do 5.1 dolby and dts and no home cinema amp is required ,like one of the other posters i paid a lot for my headphones,£250- ,but if they last 10 years it's a reasonable amount,mine are 5 years old at the moment and still working fine.

Mine are pioneer, the same as those pictured
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ures/763399911
,you may be able to get them for under £200 nowadays,they generally get 5 out of 5 in all the reviews,sound quality is excellent.

The Pioneer 'phones were the other model that I considered, but the Sony ones came up first on eBay at a reasonable price.

I've never heard of "Sharkoon" - I'd take secondhand Sony or Pioneer 'phones any day.

Sharkoon are german and do gaming headsets, this particular headset that I've ordered has very good reviews in the xbox magazines as well as numerous sites

I did look at the pioneer headset mentioned above but its IR and plasmas apparently dont work too well with them

Well the sharkoon cans arrived and they are pretty good for what I paid, vibration function is great. Have only tested music at the moment which isnt its strong point. Looking forward to the films and games now

EDIT: Well after testing different kinds of music, I can state they suck for music lol, will move onto testing what they were made for: Gaming

Seeing as you found the Achilles heel of the gaming headphones I thought it was worth coming back to the soundbar.

There are a few companies making these now, but IMO Yamaha is still in the lead - and particularly so with their YSP1xxx series. To get a reasonably convincing surround effect though you've got to spend a bit of time setting them up. The rear sound beams have to be aimed at a hard reflective surface so that the sound bounces off towards the listening position. The Yam's have an ability to focus and direct the rear beaming. It's spooky but very cool.

YSP1000s and 1100s come up s/h from time to time over at AV Forums classifieds section. Well worth hunting one down.

Tested the cans for gaming last night, namely saints row 2 5.1 and it sounded very good, the ingame music also sounds great, weird how the music on the hdd sounds distorted

I take it the 1100s are better?