What are the other channels outside of the classic 5(.1)? Above? Below?

ummm... try this: THEY'RE HEADPHONES AND THEREFORE 2-CHANNELS. DOY!

#1- a 7.1 set just has an additional 2 surrounds, I assume by 8 channels they are taking the subwoofer (.1) and describing it as a full channel.

Ok, so I have a pair of these (and only paid $50). They pair up digitally with Razer's audio card but do come with an adapter to plug them into standard 3 jack output for multiple channels.

They have 3 internal speakers per ear piece and a system to simulate a sub (really it just rattles your head). The result is the ability to generate sounds in a more 3-d like space, the same way you would with a multichannel theater setup.

Honestly though, you're generating sound directly next to your ear, it still sounds mostly stereo regardless of anything they do to try to massage the sound. And compared to my hd595 Sennheisers which have a much larger frequency range and an awesome soundstage, which is good enough for establishing positional sound, these suck. The Senns also work with any setup because it only requires one stereo jack where the Razer's sound horrible if you can't connect all jacks.

The microphone on these suck, lots of static and it sounds like you're at the back of a tunnel. And the control unit feels like a cheap piece of crap with a lot of places for sound distortion to seep in.

If these were $30 I'd say they would be worth playing around with.

Good review #4.

These don't sound too great... I have the TRITTON AX51 Headphones which actually have 4 speakers in EACH earpiece. These also don't use USB, analog. 5.1 sound cards required.

Although I agree with #4 and would generally say stick with a pair of Sennheisers or Grados, I believe the Tritton 5.1 experience is something to check out.