For some background, I game and i am an massive sound stage simp. I can’t live without decent soundstage and while most virtual surround sound settings sound worse than any other headset, a few can be made to sound decent with very nice sound stage IMO.

BUT, everywhere I look I hear to get a nice stereo headset and not to bother with virtual surround sound, but I have an issue. Every stereo headset I’ve tried makes spatial audio sound like dogshit to me. I can feel the sound more on one side (not just hear) and I think it’s because 90%+ of the bass is going to one ear and it totally breaks immersion and also just feels really uncomfortable. A sound loud enough to create base in real life should be heard through both ears without some special case.

What’s worse is the headset I liked was discontinued and is manufactured terribly so it breaks fairly often, I got the corsair HS70 PRO, but it’s what I’d call… serviceable. The highs peak like crazy and if you equalize it much at all everything gets muffled and warbly.

So my questions are:

1. If this happens with a few stereo headphones, why wouldn’t it happen with them all? they’re all receiving the same input right? and without some sort of virtual surround why would it bleed the bass over nicely like Virtual surround sound does?
2. Where/how could I try nice stereo headphones without spending a crap ton of money? even shipping there and back gets pricey if i try just a few.

Thank you for reading through and for any comments left to help me!

^(PS: Idk if this counts as “purchase and shopping” as I’m not looking for specific recommendations, but I assume many will be used as examples)