Well friends,
It's now my time to get those great headphones that will forever change my audio experience. I did have a peak on 300$ sennh 'phones a few years ago and I know what's coming my way... audio ectasy!
I need a little help to pin-point the right pair... don't wanna waste da money!
It's time I put the 200-400$ in and get great quality, great confort (for full day uses), the best soundstage for surround movies and games.
I want near-perfect sound, notting exagerated. I want huge/great bass, but bass which was intended to be, nothing boosted. Great bass because the HEADPHONES are great!
1st, my main use for it: Games, movies and music from my PC:
- I TV-out my divx movies on my big screen (movie audio is AC3 5.1 or 6.1)
- I play games a lot (online FPS, GTA-SA, Doom3, etc) so EAX/etc
- I listen to streaming internet music while playing online FPS (160/192k/320kbps streams quality, I want great electronic music experience
- Of course I would like to easily be able to bring the headphones elsewhere...
My soundcard is a SB Audigy2 ZS (EAX/THX/7.1/dig out/etc)
A digital solution would be nice (see #2), as my soundcards offers it.
I want closed, light and comfortable headphones.
I don't need a mic for games I like to play.
Here are my unresolved issues:
(1) I am getting convainced that I should go for Dolby Headphones (binaural, and not 5.1 surround headphones (those with 3/4 drivers per side).
Well if I get better sound with Dolby Headphones, why not... please debate if I sould still consider the 5.1 headphones with multi-drivers.
I don't want to lack in quality, comfort, precision of the soundstage, and risk that the fits-all concept of 5.1 headphones doesn't fit me.
2- Going Dolby Headphones, should I go for a dolby decoder paired with great headphones?
(like the Trustmaster T510 or others not bundled with cheap headphones)
I know that with the Trustmaster T510 you get the Dolby Digital experience! I doubt I can plug Dolby Headphones directly on my soundcard's digital output... or can I?
Maybe other Dolby decoders are digital too and can be bough separately from headphones?
3- If I don't need a Dolby decoder, will my soundcard do the job?
Will it fell the surround experience when plugged elsewhere then on the soundcard? into another amp with surround?
4- I need to know if I should go for cans required to be pluged on an amplifier to perform great (volume/bass wise).
For this I need to determine where I should plug my headphones directly on my PC's soundcard, or if I can plug the PC to my amplified receiver/tuner and use it's headphone jack... see #5
5- I usually plug my soundcard front left/front right output to my amplified receiver/tuner and listen to my PC from the amp's headphone jack.
I don't know if the mentioned simulated surround positionning emulated by my SB Audigy2ZS during games (EAX) and movies (AC3) is lost if I don't plug the headphones directly on the soundcard (I have cheap headphones, I can't figure it out).
Any hints on this? Anyone could confirm this with their experience?
I would rather plug-in on the amp jack then on the soundcard...
6- So many possibilities in models, and I havan't seen them all yet.
Audio Technica ATH-A500 / A700 / A900
Sennheiser HD 580 / 600 / 650
Beyerdynamic DT 770 / 880 / 990
AKG 240S / 271
Shure E5
V6/7506
Ultrasone HFI700
...and for digital solutions:
- TrustMaster T510 but am I wasting money on the bundled headphones as mentioned in some reviews?
...for the following Dolby Digital Headphones, I'd like a non-wireless solution:
and in addition, they are too epensive for my budget, I could affort the DS3000 but would it be a waste of money over the other models?
+ Pioneer SE-DIR800C Dolby Digital Surround Headphone - 400$
- Pioneer SE-DIR1000C Dolby Digital Surround Headphone - 440$
+ Sony MDR-DS3000 Digital Surround Headphones - 200$
- Sony MDR-DS4000 Digital Surround Headphones - 340$
- Sony MDR-DS8000 Digital Surround Headphone - 600$
Also I don't want to lose even a .05% of quality because of an infrared solution!
...and so many others I don't know yet... please just point me the ONE!
So many questions, so many possible solutions.
At least I got started!
Maybe one of you Gurus will help me in the right direction...
...CYA...
KarmAbe