Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide: (Updated: 5/23/2013. MrSpeakers Mad Dog v.3.2 Reviewed) - Page 519

Quote:

Originally Posted by widdyjudas 

DT 770 pro, being outperformed by 990 pro, so its out. Denon D400 same sq with dt770, more bass but twice the price, out. Ultrasone900pro, hard clamping, out.

So here I am, 650 and 990 pro 250ohm.

I'm satisfied with 650 sq for music, but don't know for gaming. 990 might satisfy my gaming need, but don't know for music.

2 months time for choosing between these 2.

Are you suuuure you haven't overlooked anything?

Ok but in all seriousness, I'm questioning the logic behind focusing on HD 650, which is an unknown for gaming, instead of the known quantities. 

D7000 is out of production, so I'd understand not going for that.

Q701? If you're ok with possibly lighter bass than the 650 (based on hearsay, no firsthand experience)

DT 880 can be decent all-rounders. I'll test tracks out for you if you send them my way. Have the 250 ohm model.

PC 360? Built-in mic and I've never heard of it being picky about amps.

Not a single ultrasone headphone I own ever had a clamping issues. My head is big, to the point where I have to extend every headphone to the max to be able to fit my ginormous head. The headphones that I did have a problem with clamp were the Sennheiser 201 and 280.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

I don't find the Ultrasones to clamp horribly. I honestly don't understand why people have an issue with clamp. You wanna loosen up clamp? Over extend your headphones a little. I found that it works on almost every single headphone I have owned. The HD280 Pro was... well, that thing is unnaturally clamping, even when worn loosely. The M50s also can be clampy, but with the post manhandling stretch (not book stretch), they were like pillows.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/493838/stretching-your-m50s-for-less-clamp-and-much-more-comfort
I should probably add to the guide.

I already did your guide since last year I bought the M50. I even put it on this stand

Still, no help. I'm using glasses and I think my head is pretty big. I got unbearable discomfort after using it around 30-45 mins. The 650 clamp is already on my comfort border. I still can feel it, but acceptable. Strange that an open cans has harder clamp than the 770 and denon, which is a closed cans...

The soundstage is none in M50, just like you said. I can't hear my surrounding on CS go, so I use the IE8. I avoided being back stabbed few times with IE8. But the M50 is more comfortable sounding when playing sc2 and l4d2.

Ultrasone clamp is not as tight as the M50, but after I tried the beyer and 650, it become a no to me. Also, the ultrasone price in Hongkong is quite expensive. The 900 pro is like 400usd, 40 more than the 650.

CORRECTION: actually for the M50, its not the clamp, rather the pad size. Its supposed to be over the ear, but for me its on my ear. I think my ear size is to big, the pad pressed it. Adding the clamp force, it becomes painful after 30-45 mins of use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric_C 

 

Are you suuuure you haven't overlooked anything?

 

 

 

 

Ok but in all seriousness, I'm questioning the logic behind focusing on HD 650, which is an unknown for gaming, instead of the known quantities. 

D7000 is out of production, so I'd understand not going for that.

Q701? If you're ok with possibly lighter bass than the 650 (based on hearsay, no firsthand experience)

DT 880 can be decent all-rounders. I'll test tracks out for you if you send them my way. Have the 250 ohm model.

PC 360? Built-in mic and I've never heard of it being picky about amps.

I still need to hear music beside gaming, so no pc headset. I still need bass, no to AKG. The 650 bass already in border of my min bass need.

I found D7k yesterday, but at usd 900...no. D5k also at 650 usd, no. D400 with similar SQ and bass with 770 pro but 400usd price, no.

Ok, you said that Hifiman ships from China. To my and maybe your surprise, I can't find a single hifiman cans on the market. I spent 2 hours looking the entire 2 floors of the building, but no store sells a hifiman. Even on the HKprice web, there are no Hifiman brand on the cans list.

So now, I left with beyer 990 pro 250 ohm and 650. I found from the headfonia reviewer that Fiio E17 can power the 650 and help with the soundstage.

I will test the 990 when I have the time. Envy said that its good for gaming, I trust you. Thanks very much for this useful thread.If I find the comfort is like 770 pro and music SQ maybe close to 650, then I'm sold. For now, its still 50-50 between those 2.

Envy, maybe you should do review for the 650 for gaming use. I think there are lots of confused people like me...

Quote:

Originally Posted by widdyjudas 

Envy, maybe you should do review for the 650 for gaming use. I think there are lots of confused people like me...

+1 Seconded

I'm a newbie in headphones.  Have been using speakers for most cases, and has only just recently going into cans because of complaints of other family members. :P

Been reading this thread and I'm also one of the people interested in the comparison tests between higher end cans (HD650, T1, HD800, LCD-2, LCD-3) for the purposes of 3D sound.

There has been a lot of comparisons between the cans for music listening, but I couldn't find anything on testing for 3D sound on em.

While I have no doubt that those people that have these kind of high end cans should just look for Realizer A8 for 3D sound, I just find it very lacking in connectivity.

No matter how amazing I've kept reading the reviews for Realizer, I can't get over the fact that I can't really output most digital audio into the Realizer without putting some kind of converter in between.  Considering the cost of one of those unit.... I really can't bring myself to even consider getting one.

Headzone is somewhat much more flexible in this regard, although it doesn't calibrate the sound output to the shape of your ear/head like Realizer does.

The calibration part seems to be the key point here on recreating the most realistic 3d spatial effect.

If we just need a Dolby Headphone processor, we can buy a Yamaha home theater receiver for that and use the Silent Cinema feature.  It's far more flexible in terms of connections and costs far less than a Headzone, the only problem is that it's a lot bigger and heavier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by washu9 

+1 Seconded

 

I'm a newbie in headphones.  Have been using speakers for most cases, and has only just recently going into cans because of complaints of other family members. :P

Been reading this thread and I'm also one of the people interested in the comparison tests between higher end cans (HD650, T1, HD800, LCD-2, LCD-3) for the purposes of 3D sound.

There has been a lot of comparisons between the cans for music listening, but I couldn't find anything on testing for 3D sound on em.

 

While I have no doubt that those people that have these kind of high end cans should just look for Realizer A8 for 3D sound, I just find it very lacking in connectivity.

No matter how amazing I've kept reading the reviews for Realizer, I can't get over the fact that I can't really output most digital audio into the Realizer without putting some kind of converter in between.  Considering the cost of one of those unit.... I really can't bring myself to even consider getting one.

 

Headzone is somewhat much more flexible in this regard, although it doesn't calibrate the sound output to the shape of your ear/head like Realizer does.

The calibration part seems to be the key point here on recreating the most realistic 3d spatial effect.

If we just need a Dolby Headphone processor, we can buy a Yamaha home theater receiver for that and use the Silent Cinema feature.  It's far more flexible in terms of connections and costs far less than a Headzone, the only problem is that it's a lot bigger and heavier.

I think its too much for t1, hd800 and audeze to be used on gaming. Although based on review I can guess. Audeze being bassy, is good for fun use while the hd800 and t1 is for competitive use with its soundstage and detail imaging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NamelessPFG 

 

Dolby Home Theater is a suite of Dolby features, one of which happens to be Dolby Headphone.

 

Well, the issue with using sound cards with S/PDIF inputs to act as headphone surround processors for consoles is that they generally can't decode Dolby Digital or DTS signals coming through the inputs. People have tried and run into all sorts of issues. They can encode those formats for output to an A/V receiver, though; that's what Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect do.

 

Neither the Xbox nor the Wii have any headphone modes. The "surround" mode probably just enables Dolby Pro Logic II encoding on the RCA outputs. You'll still hear stereo with PL2-matrixed signals, but if you want to hear the surround cues, you need a PL2 decoder-something that the Recon3D USB is incapable of.

 

For that matter, it's not even capable of using the analog aux-in and outputting it without being connected to a PC. I just tried it, and all I got was silence.

 

It will take stereo PCM signals over S/PDIF, but again, it won't decode Dolby Pro Logic II by itself. This forum thread may suggest a means to use it as a Pro Logic II decoder when used in PC mode, though.

I give up :( I will get the DSS v1 new for $75 w/ shipping and a CAL for $109 w/ shipping. With this i will have Dolby Headphone on:

5.1 movies on laptop by codecs;

5.1 games on Xbox by optical;

5.1 games on Wii by 3.5mm jacket;

5.1 games and movies on HTPC by X-Fi DDL -> optical;

All of this with less than $200.

Good choice?

Quote:

Originally Posted by I95North 

Also to add and just throwing this out there because i sure everyone knows this anyway. It's all about card manufacturers paying Dolby Digital masive amounts of money to be able to use their Technologies in their products. "License fees" No pay No play in DDL lol..

 

There are old creative cards that will decode on optical input DDL but are hard to find now oh and some old avr's also that will do it too..

Yep. I bought these codecs from my X-Fi... 

Quote:

Originally Posted by widdyjudas 

I think its too much for t1, hd800 and audeze to be used on gaming. Although based on review I can guess. Audeze being bassy, is good for fun use while the hd800 and t1 is for competitive use with its soundstage and detail imaging.

Too much to be used 'exclusively' for gaming, yes I agree.  Personally I'll be using my cans more than 90% of the time for music (albeit not in an optimal condition >> while working).

I'm just wondering how does the high end stuff compares to the mid level stuff when it comes to gaming.

Because as we know, game SFX and recordings are not up in the same standard as audiophile.

Most of the higher end cans are so sensitive, any imperfection in the recording is said to be highlighted.

Would it give us better/worse/same experience?

Or could you just generalize and say higher level stuff always sounds better?

... I'm making little sense am I??

Let me make it into a concise question here.

For those of you who already have a high end headphone (HD650, HD800, LCD2, LCD3, T1, etc), do you/ would you use em for gaming?

If not, could you enlighten us as to why?

Quote:

Originally Posted by I95North 


Is that card an x-fi elite pro or extreme music??

X-Fi Xtreme Gamer - PCI. I bought the Dolby Live + DTS Connect for it, as my home theater has only one toslink input.