16 replies to this topic

[Rageaholic]

I did have the G35 headset and they broke so i am looking for a decent headset that can block out most to all of the noise and are decently comfortable with good sound.

Budget: $200-$250

[Viral]

I recommend these to everyone :
Sennheiser PC-350 with Xonar Xense soundcard bundle. You just can't beat 'em.

[Challenger]

If you liked the G35s then I'd say think about the G930s. Without going to active noise cancellation I don't think you'll get much better than those. I find myself shouting down the mic due to not being able to hear my own voice properly! Another good gaming headset is the astro A40 system. Slightly less bass than the G930s but actually this makes them better for games. All the game sounds are very well distinguished which is something you'll struggle with if you go for headphones designed not specifically for gaming.

If you're really into your music however but not too worried about the gaming then a decent sennheiser setup would be good. They perform good in games but I find music headphones tend to create a more confusing overall sound so makes footsteps and things like ammo pouch jiggling noises less obvious which is a game changer for me!

I personally have HD650s for listening to music but would use my far cheaper G930s or A40s anyday to game as the advantage of proper gaming audio is huge.

(null)

[slixx]

If im honest with you any pair you buy for the price your willing to pay are going to be really really good i mean who listens to an ammo pouch ? honestly just shoot the guy!

[dirtylarryuk]

slixx, on 04 January 2012 - 03:34 AM, said:

If im honest with you any pair you buy for the price your willing to pay are going to be really really good i mean who listens to an ammo pouch ? honestly just shoot the guy!

Different headphones 'accent' different parts of the sound spectrum.

For instance my Monster headphones sound amazing for music (especially compressed formats) AWEFUL for games the bass is so over the top it's insane. My G930 are great all rounders not the best at music-films-games but good at all 3. My Sharkoon real 5.1 Xtatics are awesome for films-dvd-blueray terrible for music!

The best all round system i own is Logitech speakers I have the older version of Z906 5.1 good for games music and film and do brilliant DTS Dolby and upscale features (that beat most soundcards!). Otherwise it's very hard to get headphones to be good for all three main areas. So for games do go for gaming headphones and perhaps add music heaphones to use on PC and ipod etc. As good for music is generally naff for games!

[Nofear]

Rageaholic, on 04 January 2012 - 12:20 AM, said:

Budget: $200-$250

Do you want a headset with a mic on it, or are you fine with regular headphones?

[Rageaholic]

Nofear, on 09 January 2012 - 04:12 AM, said:

Do you want a headset with a mic on it, or are you fine with regular headphones?

One with a mic, But i've already fixed up my old plantronic gamecon 367 headset by soldering it back up since it was in pieces.

[Nofear]

Personally with your price range I would recommend a pair of closed back audiophile headphones from a company like Audio Technica, Denon, Beyerdynamics, etc. and just buy a separate mic you can rest on your desk or clip on your shirt.

[dirtylarryuk]

Nofear, on 09 January 2012 - 09:38 PM, said:

Personally with your price range I would recommend a pair of closed back audiophile headphones from a company like Audio Technica, Denon, Beyerdynamics, etc. and just buy a separate mic you can rest on your desk or clip on your shirt.

Problem with 2.0 is it can suck for games for competative advantage or the experience. So it's nice for music not for games. And most of the high end music headphones are a waste this days as 99% of us listen to pretty aweful compressed formats on Spotify etc so for music you don't have to spend much now for a headset as the headset can only ever be as good as the sound format you listen to and for music most people use 30-50k per second 2.0 very compressed audio.

Music in film and Games can demand a better headset as they may often offer CD or better sound quality but then 2.0 is going to miss the 5.1 off DVD 7.1 of Blueray and often now 7.1 of most games. And fake surround powered by soundcards using decent 2.0 headphones isn't as good as good for surround as even some of the cheap 5.1 - 7.1 USB solutions as the fake surrounds often never work right with the decent 2.0 headsets. Not to mention desk mics often have huge issues with fan noise vs headset mics.

if you a massive music lover and listen to music on CD-Super Audio CD and new Blueray Formats then 2.0 is great. if not avoid like the plague as they are a complete waste of cash for gaming.

[Nofear]

dirtylarryuk, on 10 January 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

Problem with 2.0 is it can suck for games for competative advantage or the experience. So it's nice for music not for games.

Music in film and Games can demand a better headset as they may often offer CD or better sound quality but then 2.0 is going to miss the 5.1 off DVD 7.1 of Blueray and often now 7.1 of most games. And fake surround powered by soundcards using decent 2.0 headphones isn't as good as good for surround as even some of the cheap 5.1 - 7.1 USB solutions as the fake surrounds often never work right with the decent 2.0 headsets. Not to mention desk mics often have huge issues with fan noise vs headset mics.

if you a massive music lover and listen to music on CD-Super Audio CD and new Blueray Formats then 2.0 is great. if not avoid like the plague as they are a complete waste of cash for gaming.

I'd have to disagree since I game with stereo audiophile headphones (Sennheiser HD555), when playing competitive fps games such as Counter Strike I can hear everything around me... My k/d doesn't lie. It seems like you haven't even tried a good pair of audiophile stereo headphones for gaming/movies, they replicate surround sound extremely well (especially with a sound card) while at the same time sounding much better than surround headsets. I sold my surround headset because it was just so pointless to me after getting my HD555s

Again, with the mic 'problem' I have no idea what you are talking about, because my desktop mic (Blue Snowball USB) has no problems with fan noise, I sound like I'm in a recording studio. Even if you have a crap desktop mic, if fan noise is a problem then move it to the opposite side of your desk away from your pc case.

dirtylarryuk, on 10 January 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

And most of the high end music headphones are a waste this days as 99% of us listen to pretty aweful compressed formats on Spotify etc so for music you don't have to spend much now for a headset as the headset can only ever be as good as the sound format you listen to and for music most people use 30-50k per second 2.0 very compressed audio.

The only reason why I listen to music streaming online is to see if it's worth downloading the song/album. I can't believe anyone actually listens to all the music they like on free streaming sites, cause most of us have portable mp3 players which also means we have our music library on our hard drive.

Edited by Nofear, 10 January 2012 - 10:32 PM.

[Challenger]

Nofear, on 10 January 2012 - 10:22 PM, said:

I'd have to disagree since I game with stereo audiophile headphones (Sennheiser HD555), when playing competitive fps games such as Counter Strike I can hear everything around me... My k/d doesn't lie. It seems like you haven't even tried a good pair of audiophile stereo headphones for gaming/movies, they replicate surround sound extremely well (especially with a sound card) while at the same time sounding much better than surround headsets. I sold my surround headset because it was just so pointless to me after getting my HD555s

Again, with the mic 'problem' I have no idea what you are talking about, because my desktop mic (Blue Snowball USB) has no problems with fan noise, I sound like I'm in a recording studio. Even if you have a crap desktop mic, if fan noise is a problem then move it to the opposite side of your desk away from your pc case.

I guess it must be different for different people then. I struggled with the lack of surround depth when I used my HD650s along with my razer AC-1 in games. Hence why I went out and got the A40s.

You also can't even compare a mid range mic like the snowball to a cheap desktop mic... heck even with my Blue Snowflake I wouldn't even dream of using it for ingame voip as the room noise on it is just too great. Yes if you have the money for a better mic then it may be as good / better than a mic on a headset but its far greater expense especially on Rage's set budget. IMHO a decent gaming headset will be the best setup for the budget.

Quote

The only reason why I listen to music streaming online is to see if it's worth downloading the song/album. I can't believe anyone actually listens to all the music they like on free streaming sites, cause most of us have portable mp3 players which also means we have our music library on our hard drive.

LOL audiophile and mp3 are not two words that should ever be put together. Spotify @ 320kbps is a far higher bitrate than most mp3 download sites in any case. The DACs on pretty much all portable media devices are not even worthy of decent quality music in any case.

I'd call spotify a great compromise between quality and ease of use. Hence you won't find a single music file on any of my computers anymore. If I want to have a proper sit down and listen I use my HD650's and stick on some vinyl.

[Nofear]

Challenger, on 10 January 2012 - 11:35 PM, said:

LOL audiophile and mp3 are not two words that should ever be put together. Spotify @ 320kbps is a far higher bitrate than most mp3 download sites in any case. The DACs on pretty much all portable media devices are not even worthy of decent quality music in any case.

I hate to tell you, but you don't have magical ears... You are not going to notice the difference between FLAC vs 320kbps if you are just enjoying your music, and you might only hear a slight difference if you are NOT enjoying your music, only trying to scrutinize every second of it wearing extremely high quality headphones.

Edited by Nofear, 11 January 2012 - 04:40 AM.

[Challenger]

Nofear, on 11 January 2012 - 04:40 AM, said:

I hate to tell you, but you don't have magical ears... You are not going to notice the difference between FLAC vs 320kbps if you are just enjoying your music, and you might only hear a slight difference if you are NOT enjoying your music, only trying to scrutinize every second of it wearing extremely high quality headphones.

Actually it really depends on your audio gear and what type of music your listening to. If you have poor quality audio gear then your not really going to be able to tell the difference at all. If your also listening to lots of rock and stuff like that then there won't be much benefit in a high end audio system but if your listening to proper music like decent classical recordings then you get a much richer formation of the notes with a very high end setup and with a lossless track.

320kbps however is perfectly fine for listening to and the difference to lossless is not that great and for everyday listening certainly not worth the extra storage space. There is however a difference between most downloaded music that is around the 96-128kbps and a 320kbps track. The majority of tracks online are now 128kbps and I much prefer 320kbps tracks. Hence why spotify is good as it's 320kbps if you pay for premium and you can switch between the two quite easily and really notice the difference.

[Nofear]

It all depends on how it was compressed, there are awful 128kbps songs and there are also good ones

Post your results from this site http://mp3ornot.com/ lets see how good your ears really are

[Challenger]

Nofear, on 12 January 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

It all depends on how it was compressed, there are awful 128kbps songs and there are also good ones

Post your results from this site http://mp3ornot.com/ lets see how good your ears really are

Meh don't have my high end audio setup here so had to use my g930s so it was harder to tell... got one wrong.



As I said there is a noticeable difference between 120kbps and 320kbps... was actually expecting to not be able to tell on the g930s as they are quite low end for music but the difference was obviously significant enough to notice.

[dirtylarryuk]

Nofear, on 10 January 2012 - 10:22 PM, said:

I'd have to disagree since I game with stereo audiophile headphones (Sennheiser HD555), when playing competitive fps games such as Counter Strike I can hear everything around me... My k/d doesn't lie. It seems like you haven't even tried a good pair of audiophile stereo headphones for gaming/movies, they replicate surround sound extremely well (especially with a sound card) while at the same time sounding much better than surround headsets. I sold my surround headset because it was just so pointless to me after getting my HD555s

Again, with the mic 'problem' I have no idea what you are talking about, because my desktop mic (Blue Snowball USB) has no problems with fan noise, I sound like I'm in a recording studio. Even if you have a crap desktop mic, if fan noise is a problem then move it to the opposite side of your desk away from your pc case.



The only reason why I listen to music streaming online is to see if it's worth downloading the song/album. I can't believe anyone actually listens to all the music they like on free streaming sites, cause most of us have portable mp3 players which also means we have our music library on our hard drive.

Nor does mine and my KD drops radically in BC2 BF3 COD 4-MW3 soon as I use quality 2.0 or switch 7.1-5.1 - 2.0. Many of the 5.1-7.1 are just 2.0 and the surround IS fake, so decent audiofile can do 5.1-7.1 from the soundcard but as most games only offer directsound surround not dolby -DTS etc most of the audiophile soundcard suck hard at this and the USB solutions don't. Then getting a decent audiophile HS and MIc is a issue and the frequencies the soundcards and headsets that are good for music are programmed for and games are very different.

Plus your having to place in a soundcard and losing space for extra GPU's and or PCIE SSDS inside the case.

I have Denon and Siens on my hifi they rock for CD and Albums, I have monster for MP3-compressed formats (they dominate the audiophile 2.0 for compressed in the same way the Audiophile pow'n the Monsters for Classical-opera from Non compressed formats and analougue).

Their are so many surround formats on soundcards and heaphones the best position sound can vary by games the razer maelstrom engine sucks In BF3 Bc2, but owns all Dolby and DTS based solutions in COD.

Some games even hate 7.1 still and turn audio off. So USB soundcards like the corsair headsets that do 5.1 and 7.1 vs many that only do 7.1 now can be useful and never underate the real 5.1 headphones with 5+ speakers in they can be awesome for films in the way NO 2.0 can EVER match as they basically have speakers for certain frequencies no 2.0 can match no much how much cash you throw at them. A very common noob mistake as well. People have been doing that with speaker systems for years.

The most used headset I own is G930's as they are wireless mic is ok and surround average to good and works on almost anything well. I still use the razers for COD only and 2 games that hate the 2.0 or 7.1 on the G930's (logitech are all dolby based).

But for gaming unless the surround sound on your soundcard matches perfectly the game, and you only play one or two games the more modern 5.1-7.1 somewhat cheap USB solutions for Corsair and logitech offer BETTER positional sound in more games that trying to match pricey 2.0 and a Asus-creative soundcard up.

But no single headphone can do it all well, if you want the best sound you do need 2-3 sets of headphones for tasks. A semi decent 5.1 7.1 USB 2 can be as little as £40 (last years corsair series) Deecent 2.0 start from £50-100 these days (you pretty much choose 2.0 for compressed or non compressed tasks now). So it isn't expensive to do.

Edited by dirtylarryuk, 12 January 2012 - 07:52 PM.

[dirtylarryuk]

Challenger, on 11 January 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

Actually it really depends on your audio gear and what type of music your listening to. If you have poor quality audio gear then your not really going to be able to tell the difference at all. If your also listening to lots of rock and stuff like that then there won't be much benefit in a high end audio system but if your listening to proper music like decent classical recordings then you get a much richer formation of the notes with a very high end setup and with a lossless track.

320kbps however is perfectly fine for listening to and the difference to lossless is not that great and for everyday listening certainly not worth the extra storage space. There is however a difference between most downloaded music that is around the 96-128kbps and a 320kbps track. The majority of tracks online are now 128kbps and I much prefer 320kbps tracks. Hence why spotify is good as it's 320kbps if you pay for premium and you can switch between the two quite easily and really notice the difference.

The moment you put an orchestra in then you spot MP3 vs CD in 1 sec. But it was the same with tape vs LP as tape would use dolby to get rid of his and that was basically compresing the soundspectrum to remove the high end.