[Cartmaizm]

Hey all,

As part of my personal Christmas shopping spree, I've decided to get a decent pair of gaming headphones. The only problem is that I don't know which ones are the best.

Currently I've got a pair of Audio Vector K1 Super/Citypulse 7.2x/Cambridge Audio 640A for my music and also a X-Fi Fatality Pro Gamer sound card (currently unused). Games will primarily be FPS like MW2 which means I need positional surround sound to go along.

Budget wise I've listed $300, but I could go more or less, depending on which gives the best value for money and if the differences between 2 given headphones are major or minor. I do need however comfortable headphones with bigger sized earpieces to cover the whole ear and not just tiny little things.

So what would you guys recommend?

Thanks.

 

[joomongj]

There're some good ones that I see that get mentioned a lot here:

Audio Technica ATH-AD900 ~ 270 - 280 USD
AKG k701/702 ~ 250
Beyerdynamic DT990 ~ 260
Sennheiser HD600 ~ 300

and others. I only own ad900, so can't provide feedback on others but as far as ad900 alone is concerned it's definitely a good one not to be dismissed. Massive soundstage, good mid/highs, good comfort will matter foremost when competitively gaming. HD600 and DT990 have 300 and 250 input resistances respectively, so these are relatively harder to drive compared to other ones I mentioned. As for sound qualities and alike, others gonna have to fill you in on them or a search will yield a few hundred hits in the least so that's something worth mentioning as well.

 

[Jodiuh]

I would avoid anything open. Closed headphones have always been better for me to pinpoint noises...like footsteps.

I've the HD580's and the DT770-250 Ohms. For gaming I prefer the Beyer in every way possible. They're superbly comfortable, isolate pretty well, and have lots of bass for EXPLOSIONS!

A friend of mine recently got some Ultrasone HFI-680/780? I can't remember, but they had a much better sound than my Beyer's w/ plenty of bass. The only disappointment was that the muff wouldn't go all the way around my ears, well, and they're pleather, hi quality pleather, but nonetheless not velour. The Beyer's go all the way around my dumbo ears and provide great comfort because of it.

 

[Cartmaizm]

Thanks for that, I'll do some research on those products which you mentioned. How about the BEYERDYNAMIC MMX300? They any good?

 

[Jodiuh]

No idea. They look like some 770's w/ a mic attached. I use a cheap $7 Zalman mic. There's a cool mod here on the forum where someone mounted a boom mic to the 770.

The 770's an old phone and honestly, I don't do much PC Gaming anymore. Hopefully, they're be someone around to set you up straight. I'm sure there's a bunch of posts to search too. Go get you some 400MB firefox love on!

 

[Acix]

Try the GMP 435 S.

 

[Jodiuh]

Those look open.

 

[gorb]

Nothing wrong with open headphones for gaming.

 

[jp_zer0]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gorb /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nothing wrong with open headphones for gaming.

They bleed into your mic pretty bad. My Charcarias pissed me off to no end.

but I'd recommend that AKG headset built from a K271. Not sure what it's called.

 

[Cartmaizm]

Btw the MMX 300 is a closed headphones with noise cancelling mic. I've done a bit more research into it and it looks likes its one of the best gaming headphones around...

 

[gorb]

Maybe you should remove the mic from the earpad then

I play with ad700s and use the zalman clip mic like a million other people and it doesn't pick up anything from the headphones

 

[paulb09]

Are you just getting the headphones on the basis that you'll use them for gaming, or do you want something that'll do well for music too? If so there may be more things to consider. Usually, however, most of the recommendations here tend to be open headphones (just pair them with a desktop mic) with good "soundstage" and a fairly clear sound.

joomongj listed some of the more popular ones, though to that list I'd add the AKG K601 and Beyerdynamic DT880 too which often come up. It really depends on how you want your music to sound too if that is also a consideration here. Sometimes you have to make a trade off because you may not like the sound of headphones that people recommend as being "good" (though that's subjective in itself) for gaming.

 

[Feather225]

gets some Denons or DT770/880/990 if you like bass ^ ^

 

[SiRuI]

DT880

 

[Cartmaizm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiRuI /img/forum/go_quote.gif DT880

Yeah this one looks good. I've been looking at both Headroom and Headphone Solutions to buy it, which shop is better (or which others shops are?). I am in Australia so they must be able to ship overseas.

Also, whats the deal with the different pricing and OHMS rating thing and which should I get? I need stereo imaging for positional audio in gaming so I would be putting this through my sound card (unless it works through my amp?).

Finally, how would the selected headphones compare with my current speakers? Would it be on the same playing field or not as good?