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Gaming Headset

post #1 of 10
11/20/09 at 8:10am
Thread Starter 
So,I got a pair of Logitech G35's a few months ago, and I have never owned a pair of higher end head phones before this, so the sound blew me away. I was extremely impressed with the positional audio that it offered me. Alas,
there was a problem, (that was apparently well known to logitech) with the mic making a high pitched hum.They said that it would be fixed without a few weeks, but its been about a month since they said that, so i'm kind of getting disgusted with logitech (previous "fanboy" of them) Now I have been on the never ending quest to find the best possible gaming headset available to me (without paying stupid amounts of money, lol).

I have been mulling around these forums for a bit. I found out that most people will agree that the audio quality of the headphones that offer "5.1 or 7.1" isn't as good as it should be for the price. However, I really enjoyed the surround sound experience that the logitech g35's offered me. So I tried looking in the higher end surround sound headsets, and ended up finding the Astro a40's, and the Pysko 5.1's.

The Psyko 5.1's didn't really suit me from what I can tell, but I read some good and bad reviews about the A40's. Eventually I figured, the A40 headset is probably not the best that it could be for the price you are paying for it, but the mixamp will be worth it for dolby encoder.

So, I decided heck, why not get the best of both worlds,ill mix the mixamp with some other type of high quality stereo headphone, and probably a zalman mic or something of the sort. I have a few questions about this however.

I need a good quality closed stereo pair(I need them for late night gaming sessions) of headphones that is good for gaming, I have been looking at the HD448, and the Denon Ah-D1001. I was wondering if these would be good for any gaming, and if not, what should I be looking at? If either of these do need an amp, will the mixamp cover it? I will be connecting this to my onboard sound on my laptop, or I will be using the TOSlink option from my HDTV through an HDMI setup.

Also, my last question is, if anyone has any experience with the astro a40 mixamp, how well does it do surround, and what will it sound like with a nice high quality pair of headphones? Will it be a significant improvement from the g35 headset?

Thanks for the help!
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post #2 of 10
11/20/09 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 
hump de bump
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post #3 of 10
11/20/09 at 4:26pm
Thread Starter 
^
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post #4 of 10
11/21/09 at 2:25pm
I can't offer much advice, I'm fairly new to this as well, but I recently pulled the trigger on a pair of Denon AH-D2000's for my gaming (w/ occasional movie watching and music). Dunno what you have in mind for budget (I got mine for $250, is that "stupid"?), but reviews and comments indicate they are great mid-range audiophile headphone with excellent bass. The Denon's are low impedance, only 25 ohm, so they don't need an amp (but definitely benefit from one, I'm told). The only real downside: Be gentle with them, the "single bolt in the can" design is a tad suspect. The Zalman clip-on mic will do in a pinch, but I dropped a few more dollars on an Olympus. My buddy uses the Zalman and while he's easy to understand, there's often a lot of noise on the line when he's crying about a Hunter clawing his eyes out (Left4Dead).
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post #5 of 10
11/21/09 at 2:32pm
HD555, nuff said, good sound staging and the detail in them is superior for the price
(I use them for CSS on the PC and COD:MW2 on the 360)
being a competitive gamer myself, these cans proved quite crucial to my playing providing accurate detail in positioning the other players.
downside they are open ended, but that's what gives the soundstage. the sound leakage isn't that bad. Why do you need a closed end?
do you got people near you sleeping?

they are $83 @ amazon atm
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post #6 of 10
11/21/09 at 3:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gnoW View Post
HD555, nuff said, good sound staging and the detail in them is superior for the price
(I use them for CSS on the PC and COD:MW2 on the 360)
being a competitive gamer myself, these cans proved quite crucial to my playing providing accurate detail in positioning the other players.
downside they are open ended, but that's what gives the soundstage. the sound leakage isn't that bad. Why do you need a closed end?
do you got people near you sleeping?

they are $83 @ amazon atm
You didn't read the "closed" part of his post did you?

To the OP, what is your budget for headphones? It's hard to recommend a pair without a budget.

The A40 mixamp isn't BAD persay, but an AuzenTech Forte is going to be a much, MUCH larger improvement than an A40. The Auzentech Forte is a $150 sound card that has a dedicated headphone amp and VERY good overall equipment. You can run pretty much any headphones directly out of it with nice sound. It uses an X-Fi chip so you get EAX and CMSS-3D. The CMSS-3D from it will far outperform what you get for virtual surround with the A40 mixamp.

As for a mic, the Zalman ZM-Mic 1 is a good mic, but I'm not a fan of clipping it on to the cables of high end headphones as it isn't a clip-on so much as a slide-on and it's quite a tight fit on some cables. I would recommend a desktop standing mic from any local electronics store (hell, I use a Dynex desktop microphone from Best Buy that was $10, works like a charm albeit not the greatest output, but not static filled).
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post #7 of 10
11/21/09 at 3:48pm
I've also heard nothing but good things about this Logitech desktop mic. It's widely available at big box stores.

If your budget is a tad lowish, based on the product research I wrapped up last week prior to my own purchase, I'd suggest the HD555s or the Denons you've already listed. If you can spend a little more, the HD595s are well regarded as a decent pair of gaming cans, as well as the step-up Denon AH-D2000s I mentioned earlier. I went with the D2000s for the bass, which my current headphones sorely lack. Mind you, this is based purely on my own research (including more than a little help from the fine folks here at Head-Fi). Google can only do so much; I may well have missed a more appropriate or attractive option elsewhere. Good luck!
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post #8 of 10
11/21/09 at 11:03pm
Hmmm. I'd be quite inclined to say wait for the G35's to be repaired, hassling them as necessary. Personally I find them superb bang for the buck over here, offering genuine isolation and excellent gaming sound with titles which do surround properly. Most HRTF in an affordable headset (or an external DSP) is still 'in your head' in any case, so you could end up dropping a lot more for not a huge improvement as a package.
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post #9 of 10
11/23/09 at 12:23am
Thread Starter 
Yes, I will end up having people sleeping near me when I'm gaming at night, so Open backed are not an option. I cant get a dedicated sound card because I game on a laptop, and my budget will be around < 100$ for the closed headphones.
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post #10 of 10
11/23/09 at 12:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bangraman View Post
Hmmm. I'd be quite inclined to say wait for the G35's to be repaired, hassling them as necessary. Personally I find them superb bang for the buck over here, offering genuine isolation and excellent gaming sound with titles which do surround properly. Most HRTF in an affordable headset (or an external DSP) is still 'in your head' in any case, so you could end up dropping a lot more for not a huge improvement as a package.
Yeah, well, I don't know if I trust Logitech anymore, their customer service is godawful now, and they seem to not care about quality anymore though, the page looking for help with that product went on for 20+ pages over a span of 5-6 months, and they only fixed it a little while ago... I have to admit though, the g35 does sound very nice.
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