Best Gaming Headphone--Money no object

You may want to try in this forum. It pretty much covers everything you need to know and if not just ask.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1285726

and the older thread discussing the same things

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=894251

I was in the same situation, looking for the best possible gaming headphones and I ended buying the beyerdynamic 5.1 surround system with headtracking, after trying countless headphones I can say that it's by far the best gaming rig I heard, sound is extremely detailed with accurate localization, if money is really no object then I highly recommend you try this.

http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/at-home/home-theater/headzone-home-ht.htmlI

Money no object you would consider 3000$ headphones as well? 

Otherwise I didn´t like the K701 with either movies or games. It´s soundstage is to faked and it doesn´t handle vocals well.

As for Beyer the general recommendation is 770 for closed and 990 for open. Those are the most popular ones. Mainstream is not always right though of course :)

As for the AD 700 except if you are looking for bass don´t get your expectations up to much. You would probably have to look at much more expensive gear to find something significantly better. So if money is actually a subject I would keep them and perhaps combine them with a sub or buttkicker.

I second that. Headphone gaming depends more on the source or the soundcard rather than the headphones for imaging. Thats cos they only have 2 drivers instead of 6 speakers in a 5.1 setup so the audio must be processed binaurally. Get a better soundcard and a half decent can.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0gwai 

I was in the same situation, looking for the best possible gaming headphones and I ended buying the beyerdynamic 5.1 surround system with headtracking, after trying countless headphones I can say that it's by far the best gaming rig I heard, sound is extremely detailed with accurate localization, if money is really no object then I highly recommend you try this.

 

http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/at-home/home-theater/headzone-home-ht.htmlI

wow a thread i can get my teeth stuck into - yessssssh

right gaming headphones.

First and foremost - you need to let us know what you play and obviously where you play it.

is it an FPS - where hearing crucial sounds are the key?

is it an rpg - where sound is the background?

is this for home use or for Lan - as that will give the destinction between whether you require closed or open.

personally ive been playing games well since i was far too young. and the boys/gals above have eluded to the right facts. that first and foremost you require a good gaming rig.

so my way of working it is thus.....

a high spec pc - which requires a large hz powersupply - good chip and lots of ram (ballistix or similar)

that leads on to your graphics card(S) of which for modern games you need at least dx level 10/11 cards.

then you need an independant sound card - the current winnars atm are the Asus Xonar St (headphone only), xonar D6 -7.1, and the X-Fi fatality range

I have an ST - as it comes with its own headphone amp - however if you get the D6 or fatality you will want to have an AMP/mixeramp.

as for games - i play a mix but my main is Counterstrike - and i go off to lans to play it -and for me a headphone that can pickup the treble is key along with fast response times. and more importantly a closed cup or some form of noise cancelling.

basic gaming headphones are ....

SteelSeries 5hv2s - a closed cup - high treble collapsable headphone

Icemat Siberias v2 - open design - treble headphone.

Roccat Kave - closed design and incredibly faithful to surround sound.

Sennheisers - they do a fair few - all good - with closed and open options.

to name but a few.

now most of these are the sub £200 range -. Above that your heading into audiophile territory and your now no longer really looking at gaming  specific headphones.

but if your going to Lans - and you really have money no object - you can go for something a bit quirky - and ive seen them used by the pros in the World Cyber games finals

and wierdly enough they are not audiophile headphones at all - they are infact Sennheiser PILOT headphones - £600-£800 fully noise canceling - over ear headphones with a mic.

However - First comes a solid soundcard - and having used most of the x-fi range and an auzentech and the xonar s - i would point you toward the Xonar ST .

I would take an HT omega soundcard over an xfi or asus any day.  Most people don't even know this brand exists.  

can i ask why - i have like you said have never heard of that brand - how do they improve upon the x-fi or asus?

the reviews i have read state that for pure audio that its good but for gaming its pretty dire,.

OP never mentioned he was talking about PC gaming, actually if he uses an astro mix amp there's a good chance he might be using a ps3 or xbox 360, so I guess first question to OP is what system do you game on?

They use better opamps.  They would be very similar to the asus cards in terms of gaming performance. They can use dolby headphone which the asus cards do as well.  I personally have an auzentech xfi which uses cmss3d for positional audio, and in my experience cmss3d is completely useless.  I leave my card in audio creation mode and use none of the gaming or entertainment features because they completely destroy audio quality.  

Also as time passes more and more games are not using EAX so xfi cards are becoming less useful for that reason.  I will most likely not buy another soundcard ever again and just start buying external DAC's just to keep the audio out of my computer case where it meets so much interference from the other components in the case.  If you are dead set on getting a card for some sort of HRTF then I suggest going with one that uses dolby headphone because it is my understanding that it works for more people.  CMSS3d does not work for me at all, and a lot of other people have poor results with it.  

I've never tried traditional headphones with my 360, but I'd have to say that TurtleBeach X41's are fantastic. I wore them while playing MW2 and Black Ops and all of a sudden I could hear when people were near me, and with incredible accuracy. The main reason you would want to go with gaming headphones as opposed to headphones used for music audiophiles, is that you need to determine where the sound is coming from. I'm just assuming you're playing an FPS. Hope I helped

If money is no subject, you can get yourself one of those surround headsets. Yes it's extremely weird to have multiple speakers sitting on your head, but it does make positioning incredibly easy to determine.

For the rest of us who don't want just a headset for gaming, Astro mixamp + any audiophile headphone would do just fine. Particularly DT880 would give you the most realistic experience. Actually, what's wrong with your HD650? I know it's a little dark, but it should be fine for positioning.