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Search Tech-Forums - link takes you to our Forum's search page. Note: The following is only a text archive! To view the actual forum discussion, please visit our website at http://www.tech-forums.net Pages:1 Good - Gaming Headphones(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)Posted by: K M A N Hi does anyone know some good gaming headphones/headsets for upto £110 ? as i need the rest of the money (Around £90) For a goos sound car, which would be also nice if you could reccomend one. Features i would like are Comfort, Fairly Large Earmuffs (Unlike Seinnheisers which appear small !) and a Mic would be nice.And of course the most important.... Excellent/Good Sound quality. I had a look at Reviews of Razers Barracude headphones and sound card. Professional reviews of websites say they are excellent, but customer reviews seem to sujest otherwise of poor manufacturing quality so im unsure. Thanks Posted by: 003 Audio-Technica A700, they are on audiocubes.com and will ship worldwide. If the A700 is to much, then the A500. They don't have a mic but you really aren't going to find any decent headphones with a mic built in. Zalman makes a great clip on mic though. The Beyerdynamic DT770/80 is also very good, especially if you are looking for a lot of bass. It is probably to expensive though, however check this out: [url]http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=226672[/url] Posted by: K M A N High thanks for that, Them Audio Technia loooook very nice Thanks, however they appear to be single driver, Do they still perform well in games , and can they reproduce 3d Surround sound like most FPS games support. Thanks. Posted by: 003 Yes they can. You don't surround sound to recreate a soundstage. The same applies to speakers, however, room acoustics play a huge role in the soundstage with speakers, and unless you have a proper listening room, the soundstage will not be properly portrayed, which is why it's a lot easier to have "surround sound", or speakers placed in front and behind you. Room acoustics don't play a role at all in headphones. Posted by: K M A N So there good for games :), Thats a main priority ticked , Thanks. Also this may sound a bit 'Noobish' but i like loud music, currently using Lohitech Z5500's, and they certainly do a fine job at it, So are these loud ? (When being listened to on your ears). Just as example i like Ipod's at full volume, if they can play this loud with as good quality that would be perfect. Thanks again. Posted by: 003 The A500, A700 and A500 are all low impedance headphones. So in short, yes, you can turn them up loud. Posted by: K M A N Ok Thanks. Sorry for all these questions, Speakers are my strong point, im totally new to headphones but i know headphones have better audio reproduction beause of the sound being enclosed strate to the ear, and volumes are actually low in comparioson to desktop speakers, eliminating crackling and distortion. Well im guessing anyway :p. But on my Z5500's i have a Control Hub with all the settings on it ect ect Theres your standard analogue imput and a coax, along with a 3.5mm Jack for Headphones. This control hub connects directly up to the Subwoofer ( a monster by the way) Which i beleive to my knowledge contains an Amplifier. Ive herd in the small amount of time ive looked at these that they sound better with an amp. I no its not much of an amp at all, but would it sound better than plugging it strate into the 3.5mm jack at the front of my PC Case ?. ot are they best plugged in to a dedicated soundcard ?. Im confusing my self... now so 'll stop :). Posted by: 003 For your uses either place should be fine to plug them in. The woofer does have an amp but that is only for the speakers. The headphone socket will also have an amp for the headphones, just a really cheap one. Technically it would be better to plug the headphones directly into the sound card, but then again, the headphone amp circuit probably isn't exactly excellent. Don't worry yourself with those things, it will be fine. Posted by: Crysalis amazing Posted by: K M A N Thanks 003. If i was to also buy a dedicated sound card for the Audio-technica A700's, what would you reccomend (up to about £80) Thanks. Eh ? Whats Amazing ? Posted by: 003 For gaming? Probably an x-fi. Posted by: K M A N Ok Thanks. Posted by: K M A N Ok ive chosen a Sound Card which i want its this one > [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119557[/url] First i must quote something because it says this - ''powering X-Fi CMSS-3D to give ultra-realistic surround sound over stereo headphones''. The headphones you reccomended 003 are stereo from what i gather, so does that CMSS-3D Feature work well, or is it a bit gimicky ?. And also, just in general is it a good card, or would i be better off sticking with my seriously Ageing ''SoundBlaster Live 24-Bit'' Soundcard, or would the Audio and CMSS-3D Sound processing be of a notecibaly better quality through the X-Fi, through both my speakers and headphones. Thanks Again. Posted by: 003 Ebuyer doesn't seem to have them for sale, but I would look for the XtremeMusic model. It supports everything the Elite pro does, except the onboard RAM, which does nothing, and it's cheap. I don't know much about the newer revisions of the X-fi (xtreme gamer, xtreme audio, etc...) other than the fact that they are not as good as the first generation ones. CMSS 3d is VERY good at making the audio in games very positional on headphones, but it sucks on speakers. Posted by: K M A N Thanks, you say it makes audio in games very positional on headphones ... Even if there stereo like the one you reccomend ?. I have surround sound speakers anyway, so can i just disable it for speakers and let it run normally in directional audio mode like it does on my SB Live card ? ExtremeMusic model, and your shore this is as good for gaming as there extremegamer one, i beleive you - but its Just highly ilogical :) Posted by: K M A N Ive been reading reviews on the X-Fi XtremeMusic card and it seems very good. Obvious asphetic points alone back up that this card is betetr than later gen X-Fi, for example other X-Fi sound cards do not have the gold connector which i think it has, and it scores higher in reviews. So because im now spending less on the card.... It now means i can spend £50 more on my Headphones. Anything up to about £150 now will be fine, but of course i only want to spend this money if the sound improvment will be noticaeble on that sound card. Do Audio-Technica do any better headphones ?. And can someone please explain the advantages and disadvantages of Open Air headphones over closed ones as im unasure of the differences. Can people here what your listening to because there 'open' ? Do they sound better ? ect ect. Thanks Again 003, Youve been a great help. Posted by: Crysalis gold connections are a gimmick. Yes, gold is a better conductor, but creative just uses them as covers for the plastic jacks to make you think its awesome, but its really not. As for the rest of this thread, no comment. Posted by: K M A N I had a feeling that was the truth :). Ive been haveing a look at ATH A900 Headphones, Are these a good imporvment over the A700. They seem to have a higher frequency response which is good, but also have a higher maximum input power and Sensitivety. What do these two specs mean ?, is higher figures better?. Very Sorry about all the questions, but im warey of spending £150+ on headphones, when i know very little about them :p. Posted by: 003 Gold connectors are a gimmick other than the fact that they won't oxidize as fast as nickel or whatever else they use. But that is a moot point because I doubt you will be using the sound card long enough for it to oxidize. The XtremeMusic is better than the newer ones because the new ones have done things to cut back production costs, using smaller pcb, lower quality opamps and dac, pretty much doing anything that won't affect the "features" of the card. Audio Technica does make better headphones, namely the A900, and from there headphones that are much, much more expensive. The open versions (ADx00) of the headphones probably would not be as good for gaming because they let sound in. They might be slightly better for music but the A700 (which sounds identical to the A900, imo) will still be much better than other headphones you probably have now. The only real advantage to the A900 is that it uses metal earcups. I think you can have seperate settings on cmss for headphones and speakers, having it enabled for one but not the other. It works much better with stereo headphones because that is what it is designed for. Even without it, they will position fine, cmss just makes it much much more evident. I don't recommend it for music though. Also if you are getting an x-fi you will want this: [url]http://www.freewebs.com/spectra9/xfmc.html[/url] Posted by: Crysalis [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by K M A N [/i] [B]What do these two specs mean ?[/B][/QUOTE] Speakers and headphones 101! [url]http://techonvent.net/tovforums/viewtopic.php?t=616[/url] Posted by: K M A N OK i dont think i'll be gettin them right now, probably in a few months time. But i like to read up on things thats why i started looking now. And them headphones are bound to sound better than the one's i have simply becaus i dont have anny !. They best sound better than the little earphones ive got that came with my Ipod because they sound really good... an dits hard for my Z5500's to get the same quality, but im guessing theres a reason for that :). Posted by: Wildside [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by K M A N [/i] [B]Thanks, you say it makes audio in games very positional on headphones ... Even if there stereo like the one you reccomend ?. I have surround sound speakers anyway, so can i just disable it for speakers and let it run normally in directional audio mode like it does on my SB Live card ? ExtremeMusic model, and your shore this is as good for gaming as there extremegamer one, i beleive you - but its Just highly ilogical :) [/B][/QUOTE] get these headphones, they work very well, hardly any stress or pain to the ears, trust me: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106346[/url] EDIT: comes with a black fuss thingy *sry dont know what it's called* to put over the microphone to capture better sound. Posted by: K M A N I do trust you. BUT !, There half the money of the Audio Technica A700's and im an audioholic or you could call me an audiophile, if its sounds remotely worse than Good, i'll put it on ebay ;) Dont get me wrong, sennheisers are good for the majority of users. But its sound quality is not that of the A700's. I would only really be interested in Sennheisers more expensive models, but i still would prefer a more dedicated brand. Thanks anyway. Posted by: 003 Sennheiser is a dedicated brand. They make a LOT of high end headphones, including the HD580, HD600 and HD650. Some might also say the HD555 or HD595 but I don't think so. They are not bad but I don't consider them high end. Also used to make what many consider the best headphone ever made, the HE90, and it's little brother the HE60. They are no longer in production though. Don't even consider the HD580, 600 or 650 for gaming, their soundstage is kind of strange and does not sound right at all for games, plus they NEED some kind of amplification to sound their best because of the 300ohm impedance. Sennheiser makes a lot of good headphones, and also a lot of cheap ones. The PC150 falls into the cheap category. Audio Technica also makes a lot of cheap headphones. All companies do, no headphone maker would survive only selling the flagship models. Posted by: Crysalis +1 with 003. Sennheiser is one of my favorite audio companies, and their headphones (most) are of awesome quality. A good pair that I like to recommend is the HD280's. They are going to be a more flat response, so may not be the greatest for gaming. I'm also an audio technica customer. I have 3 pairs of headphones from them and I'm in love with all 3. (1x) ATH-m40fs (2x) ATH-m30 Posted by: Crysalis [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Wildside [/i] [B]comes with a black fuss thingy *sry dont know what it's called* to put over the microphone to capture better sound. [/B][/QUOTE] LOL... if there is one term in the audio industry that i'll never forget, its the word "furbis". Fancy name for a windscreen/pop filter. Furbis' are mainly used for outdoor recordings or windy environments, but serve the same purpose as a windscreen/pop filter. Posted by: K M A N lol, when i said dedicated brand i actually meant Very high quality. Senns...There a bit like Bose, they do make very good speakers. But that no match for companies like Acoustic Enerygy, or most of the unknown british makes who make 'outstanding speakers', and ofcourse, i own some :P ! :). So crysalis, who would you rate better in sound quality in general, Senn's or Audio-Technica ? Posted by: Crysalis Sennheiser only because of their microphones. Posted by: K M A N So if they didnt have microphones, Audio-Technica would win on an audio quality basis ?, i hope so. Posted by: Crysalis would be a tie breaker for me Posted by: 003 Properly amped an HD580/600/650 would in most people's opinion (since all audio information is just opinions) easily outperform the A500, 700 and 900 in terms of music. Not with gaming again because of the soundstage. However, audio-technica still has high end headphones than the ones I just mentioned, the most used and talked about would be the W5000 and AD2000. Whether or not they are better than the sennheisers is a matter of opinion. Some people think so, some don't. They are at least in line with them. There is also the L3000, but it is discontinued. Some people believe it to be the king of dynamic headphones. But then lets not forget the HE90 from sennheiser ($8,000-$15,000), which is considered by many people to be the best headphone ever made. But these are not the only high end brands. There is also AKG, beyerdynamic, stax and of course Grado. Ultrasone maybe as well. Shure and Ultimate Ears make the top of the line in ear monitors. Posted by: K M A N So is there any other headphones that i should consider? , ruling out senn's unforunately, because im a gamer. But arnt the Senns you just mentioned 'Open', which gives them an unfair advantage anyway ? over the A700 and A900. Posted by: 003 Generally for gaming you want closed phones so outside noises don't come in. And the Ax00 line isolate pretty darn well considering they don't have active noise canceling, which makes the sound bad. Posted by: K M A N What company makes them ? :p Posted by: 003 Makes what? Ax00? Audio technica. x substitutes either 5, 7 or 9. Posted by: K M A N o, sorry . vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2003, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. PPC Management vB Easy Archive Final - Created by Xenon |