Good headphones with a built in amp?

[Parkstool]

I am looking for a good pair of headphones for gaming/listening to music but don't want to have to buy an amp seperatly.

Anyone know some good ones?

 

[Julz]

SR60's. About $70.

Although these don't have a built in amp, they don't necessarily need an amp.

 

[bangraman]

As Julz said, you're better off picking an efficient phone which doesn't need an amp. You can gauge this by looking at both the impedance (should be low) and the efficiency / sensitivity (should be high, >=100db/mw as a rough guide). If you reword / repost under 'efficient headphone best with X' where X is your source, then you should get plenty of helpful replies.

 

[Parkstool]

Ok thanks a lot! I don't know much about this stuff so that info helps a lot.

 

[kramer5150]

whats your budget?

 

[Parkstool]

Anything up to $150 (can spend more but don't really want to)

 

[Gluegun]

What's your source and music preference?

 

[Parkstool]

Music? I really listen to everything, rock, rap, you name it.


I also want them for gaming (games like Counterstrike)

 

[XxATOLxX]

I think you might like the Senn HD555 or the Beyer DT770-80 Pro.

 

[Gluegun]

Yes, yes, but what is your SOURCE? Sound card? Which? Portable cd player? Which? Mp3 player? which one? Mp3's? Downloaded or ripped yourself? If you ripped them, how did you rip them? CD's? Component CD player? etc. etc.

 

[Parkstool]

Source? I listen to it on my laptop both downloaded/off cd's.


Not sure what I have for a sound card, how exactly do I check?

 

[12thgear]

Consider the Alessandro Music Series One also. I have a pair and they're quite nice unamped.

 

[Gluegun]

Okay. so you are using a laptop, ripping mp3's from CD's, and downloading mp3's from the internet, and then listening to the songs directly from the laptop in mp3 format, correct?

You do realize that laptops vary significantly in sound quality, right?

Here's my "pipe dream" suggestion... this is a long term solution, probably well above your current budget, but you can do parts of this without spending lots of money.

begin ripping your CD's (using the original CD's) with Exact Audio Copy, and using FLAC to encode them, and Foobar to play them. Then, buy a Headroom Bithead or Total Bithead, or one of the other USB DAC/Amp combos suggested here. Then, if you need isolation or have other people near you when you are listening, get a set of closed headphones. Otherwise, get a set of open headphones. Listen to them through the Bithead with the headphones.

 

[sethk]

Laptop soundchips (onboard audio) often have horrendously bad sound quality - I have a real ear-bleeder in my new Dell. Large amounts of noise, hiss and poor resolution.
ANY aftermarket sound-device will be a big improvement, whether its a combined amp/usb-dac such as the headroom bithead, or a plugin card such as the Indigo or even an Audigy2 ZS (not the best choice for 44.1 playback.)
Of course keeping this in mind may blow your $150 budget.