[Two Ton Ted]

Hello,
 
I'm currently in the process of looking to buy a whole new audio set-up but I've reached a point where I'm not sure which direction to go in. I would appreciate the expert advice from you guys. Any guidance would be very helpful.
 
 
First off, I'm currently looking into buying a new set of headphones and I'm quite keen on getting some open-back headphones. I listen to a wide range of music so I suppose a balanced headphone would be ideal(?) however the tunes I primarily listen to are probably EDM, Rock, Jazz and Classical. I'm also a gamer though so I'm looking for headphones for that capability as well.
 
I've spent a long time looking around and the two headphones I'm currently considering are the AKG K712 pro's and the Sennheiser HD650's. Which of these would you consider most suitable for me(?) and please feel free to make new suggestions. My budget is £200 ($299) but I have a £60 Amazon voucher so if I can get it from Amazon UK then I can go up to £260 ($389).
 
On a side note, what will I need to drive these headphones? All I have is the on-board sound card built into my motherboard. Could I buy a relatively affordable sound card or will I need to splash out on a DAC/Amp set-up? I obviously don't want to bottleneck my new headphones but I'm looking for a cost effective solution.
 
 
As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy PC gaming which means I would quite like to get a microphone. My concern is with open-back headphones, will game sound leak into a microphone? I'm not sure which solution to go for.
 
I'm currently considering getting a Antlion ModMic 4.0 (uni-directional or omni-dicrectional???) or getting a completely separate microphone such as the Blue Yeti. Again I am open to new suggestions.
 
 
Sorry for the block of writing and multiple questions but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I'm currently in the process of looking to buy a whole new audio set-up but I've reached a point where I'm not sure which direction to go in. I would appreciate the expert advice from you guys. Any guidance would be very helpful.
First off, I'm currently looking into buying a new set of headphones and I'm quite keen on getting some open-back headphones. I listen to a wide range of music so I suppose a balanced headphone would be ideal(?) however the tunes I primarily listen to are probably EDM, Rock, Jazz and Classical. I'm also a gamer though so I'm looking for headphones for that capability as well.
I've spent a long time looking around and the two headphones I'm currently considering are the AKG K712's and the Sennheiser HD650's. Which of these would you consider most suitable for me(?) and please feel free to make new suggestions. My budget is £200 ($299) but I have a £60 Amazon voucher so if I can get it from Amazon UK then I can go up to £260 ($389).
On a side note, what will I need to drive these headphones? All I have is the on-board sound card built into my motherboard. Could I buy a relatively affordable sound card or will I need to splash out on a DAC/Amp set-up? I obviously don't want to bottleneck my new headphones but I'm looking for a cost effective solution.
As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy PC gaming which means I would quite like to get a microphone. My concern is with open-back headphones, will game sound leak into a microphone? I'm not sure which solution to go for.
I'm currently considering getting a Antlion ModMic 4.0 (uni-directional or omni-dicrectional???) or getting an completely separate microphone such as the Blue Yeti. Again I am open to new suggestions.
Sorry for the block of writing and multiple questions but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 
AKG K612 Pro headphones.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z sound card.

 

[cel4145]

^^

What he said. The K612 Pros are currently £105 on Amazon UK. They will need some kind of amplification, but the Soundblaster Z should be fine and give you virtual surround for gaming that would improve your gaming experience.

The Beyerdynamic DT990 are another headphone you might consider. These have some bass and treble emphasis: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynamic-DT990-PRO-Headset-250/dp/B0011UB9CQ/ The Soundblaster Z would work well with them. For a more neutral sound, the DT880 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynamic-DT880-PRO-Headset-250/dp/B001B1QENY/

 

[Randle81]

I'm currently considering getting a Antlion ModMic 4.0 (uni-directional or omni-dicrectional???) or getting an completely separate microphone such as the Blue Yeti. Again I am open to new suggestions.

I'd personally get an external mic, but this is preference and I don't play games. You shouldn't have significant issues with sound leak from open back headphones in cardoid mode with the Blue Yeti. It has a headphone amplifier built in, but don't count on using it for anything more than monitoring.
With the Antlion ModMic I would go the uni-directional if you are using it in a noisy environment. The omni-directional will give you a better sound, but pick up more background noise.

 

[Two Ton Ted]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Kandiru]

On my Aurora gaming rig I use a Blue Yeti Pro with an AKG 701 (the suspension rails make a great TrackIR mount on the left) plugged into the mic's integrated sound card and TeamSpeak and Discord comms flow smoothly, in addition to great localization (I hear the bogey lining up my 6 in IL2 Sturmovik so I can do a Hartmann and evade in time).

Surprisingly the Blue Yeti's sound card is better than the computer's, sometimes I listen to JBRadio's 2000kbs 192kHz stream with Foobar and although the setup is not asynchronous USB like at my home PC, the results are very good.

 

[Zenvota]

Get this when it comes out

https://www.sxfi.com/amp/

 

[Svenrolic]

Hey there! I see you're looking for recommendations for a lot of things. With some editing, I've gathered the following:

1. Buying a new set of headphones
2. Open-back
3. I listen to a wide range of music
4. a balanced headphone would be ideal
5. EDM, Rock, Jazz and Classical
6. I'm also a gamer though so I'm looking for headphones for that capability as well.
7. the two headphones I'm currently considering are the AKG K712 pro's and the Sennheiser HD650's.
8. My budget is £200 ($299) but I have a £60 Amazon voucher so if I can get it from Amazon UK then I can go up to £260 ($389).
9. On a side note, what will I need to drive these headphones? All I have is the on-board sound card built into my motherboard. Could I buy a relatively affordable sound card or will I need to splash out on a DAC/Amp set-up? I obviously don't want to bottleneck my new headphones but I'm looking for a cost effective solution.
10. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy PC gaming which means I would quite like to get a microphone. My concern is with open-back headphones, will game sound leak into a microphone? I'm not sure which solution to go for.
11. I'm currently considering getting a Antlion ModMic 4.0 (uni-directional or omni-dicrectional???) or getting a completely separate microphone such as the Blue Yeti. Again I am open to new suggestions.
12. Sorry for the block of writing and multiple questions but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

For lines 1-4 and 6 I had AKG in mind, as I use(d) them for the same purpose. The only thing that I believe that both the items on line 7 would struggle with is EDM. I would not recommend gaming with the HD650, and the K712 was my all-rounder for ~2 years thanks to another user here on head-fi, so I'd like to recommend the K712 to you as well. (MadLustEnvy's headphone recommendation thread got me started. Feel free to browse it as well)

For your budget requirements, is that for the headphone + dac/amp (if required) + mic? To answer #9, I used the K712s for a while with a cheap USB amp, as well as the Dragonfly and they did just fine, though I felt desktop amps did a little better, so get whatever your budget allows. On #10 & #11, I never really had much (if any) leakage into any mic I used on my headphones including the Blue Nessy and an Antlion mic. As for 12, don't be sorry at all. More text allows people to be more specific in their responses. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[cel4145]

Hey there! I see you're looking for recommendations for a lot of things.

I doubt he's looking anymore. That post was from 2015

 

[Zenvota]

I doubt he's looking anymore. That post was from 2015

Gah, necrobaited! Gross...