Maybe with something like a palm reader on the controller to identify players, and switching to their HRTF profile. The best solution would be to use a headphone plug in the controller itself. Granted, HRTF only works with headsets, but 5.1 setups don't work that well when there are some people around either. Then I heard about HRTF, and after configuring the required bits in openAL, I found it so much better than the real 5.1 that I completely disabled it, reverting to a 2-channel audio configuration. Then, I completely switched to Linux, configured my headset with ALSA, and everything was working fine with the very few titles that supported surround. I used to configure the surround feature in windows, but it didn't work with every game. About surround : honestly, I have a nice (but aging, and looking to replace it) 5.1 Medusa headset.
