headphones for gaming recommendations?

[Cocki]

Yes this is another thread asking for recommendations. I searched the site and read a few recent threads with the same quandary. Most of them recommend the hd650 form sennheiser. I already have them, they sound great and can fit my head but the connectors that attach to the headphones wack my over-sized shoulders. the mod mic I currently use also adds to the discomfort, I'm also replacing the mod mic with a mic on a bandstand.

*Do any of you have any recommendations that will suit my big head and big-ish ears?

I have treied the beyerdynamic dt990's and they didnt fit my head. I think I needed about 1/2 inch more and they would have fit over my ears.
I also tried out the Audio-Technica ATH-ADG1X they fit comfortably but the high's where obnoxiously tinny.

The amp i use while gaming is my O2 from jds labs. I also have a bottlehead crack speedball, I would rather use my sold state amp for gaming.

 

[YJX94]

The Beyers and Audio-Technicas are top when it comes to gaming but since you don't prefer them why don't you look into the AKG K712 Pro?

AKG and Audio-Technica especially are legendary in the gaming scene because of their wide soundstages and pinpoint imaging. I have the K712 Pro and I use it for gaming and it's spectacular and they're also super comfy, they have a thin flexible leather headband at the top which adjusts to the size of your head automatically without you having the click the headband into place and etc and they have huge memory foam velour earpads, did I mention they were comfy as crap?

 

[KopaneDePooj]

HD 598 SE / SR - light, comfortable, good for gaming.

 

[ManiaxMax]

HD 598 SE / SR - light, comfortable, good for gaming.

+1 on HD 598's. The Audio Technica ATH-AD700/x's are fantastic as well. I own both and use them interchangeably.

 

[banco-sg]

+1 on AD700X.

 

[cossix]

Don't listen to people who say the 650 is a good gaming headphone 598/Fidelio X2/Audio Technica/Beyerdynamic are all great choices

 

[FumblingFoo]

+1 on the 598's / K712's

I think the 598's will be a bit more pleasing for music than the K712's, as the K712's are studio monitors / mastering headphones, but the K712's may have even better soundstage and positioning for gaming than the already great 598's. They're both great for gaming.

 

[Malfunkt]

Don't listen to people who say the 650 is a good gaming headphone 598/Fidelio X2/Audio Technica/Beyerdynamic are all great choices

HD650 is a good gaming headphone. Not the greatest for FPS, but for more atmospheric games it is very good. HD700 on the other hand is an exceptional gaming headphone.

 

[YJX94]

I would stay away from the HD 600 series entirely for gaming whether it's for cinematic immersion or competitive gaming, they are however beautiful for music. For gaming you want soundstage. In a game like GTA 5, if you simply walk through the park you want to hear all the atmospheric sounds of the city around you, it makes it feel alive. Listening to the leaves rustling in the wind, insects buzzing around, pedestrians talking, the sound of motorbike engines in the distant city centre and the planes flying overhead. In a competitive game you want to hear footsteps around you and you want to be able to pinpoint where everything is with great detail. Soundstage and imaging give you this and the HD 600/HD 650 whilst they have good imaging, they literally have no soundstage. HD 700 is much better for it and HD 800 has stupid good imaging and an absurdly massive soundstage.

 

[cossix]

HD650 is a good gaming headphone. Not the greatest for FPS, but for more atmospheric games it is very good. HD700 on the other hand is an exceptional gaming headphone.

They have no depth to the soundstage, it's exactly the opposite of immersion. The only strength they have for gaming is their imaging, but distance cues are hard to read due to the intimate soundstage. My 598 are more immersive

 

[Malfunkt]

TL;DR - HD650 has better resolution and dynamics than the hd598. 650 is more realistic sounding and does a better reproduction of natural timbre. 650 also renders binaural audio better ; doesn’t matter if it is for music or gaming it is a more realistic and thus more immersive sounding headphone. However, I think it is also what you get used to.


In my experience I have found that the HD650 can be excellent for recreating natural spatial imaging. Particularly with properly binaural recorded audio. For example, a recording of thunder done with binaural mics, with the HD650 the thunder can be pinpointed precisely above you. You’ll hear a cloud layer above you head and be able to fully image the ground floor around you - hearing every drop of rain.

Most people aren’t listening to these types of recording. Stereo recordings played back on headphones have incorrect soundstage or imaging as you don’t have proper cross feed, as well as the mix was created to be heard in a room. As a result, music can sound hard panned left and right - the soundstage has huge width but no ‘Center channel’. Imaging or placement of instruments, then is thrown off.

For modern music, some of it very electronic, this can matter less as imaging can be less important.

Getting back to gaming - increasingly games are being developed with binaural spatial engines. The drive behind this will be for VR. As this occurs, headphones like the HD600/650 will have greater merit.

The 598 is excellent, but for game audio whose quality is approaching the finest quality music and whose sound design the best in binaural sound reproduction - I’m choosing the hd650/600. But if you want to ‘sound whore’ a bit, the extra treble tilt of the 598 might help you.

Hd700 is less realistic in timbre but it has an engineered psychoacoustic thanks to enclosure and driver tuning that makes it sound very spacious. It’s driver, is not much different than the 650 in some respects but trounces both 598 and 650 for gaming - and that is the general consensus, even among hd700 haters!

HD250 is actually awesome for gaming. It’s a rare Sennheiser that is natural in timbre, linear but not as dark as the 650. Better bass too. And it’s closed! Sennheiser experiment with diffuse-field DF tuning for this headphone and I think they succeeded.

Anyhow, just my perspective. Each of us will likely experience something a bit different. Gaming is one of my favourite uses for headphones mostly HD700/D2000/HD250

 

[cossix]

TL;DR - HD650 has better resolution and dynamics than the hd598. 650 is more realistic sounding and does a better reproduction of natural timbre. 650 also renders binaural audio better ; doesn’t matter if it is for music or gaming it is a more realistic and thus more immersive sounding headphone. However, I think it is also what you get used to.


In my experience I have found that the HD650 can be excellent for recreating natural spatial imaging. Particularly with properly binaural recorded audio. For example, a recording of thunder done with binaural mics, with the HD650 the thunder can be pinpointed precisely above you. You’ll hear a cloud layer above you head and be able to fully image the ground floor around you - hearing every drop of rain.

Most people aren’t listening to these types of recording. Stereo recordings played back on headphones have incorrect soundstage or imaging as you don’t have proper cross feed, as well as the mix was created to be heard in a room. As a result, music can sound hard panned left and right - the soundstage has huge width but no ‘Center channel’. Imaging or placement of instruments, then is thrown off.

For modern music, some of it very electronic, this can matter less as imaging can be less important.

Getting back to gaming - increasingly games are being developed with binaural spatial engines. The drive behind this will be for VR. As this occurs, headphones like the HD600/650 will have greater merit.

The 598 is excellent, but for game audio whose quality is approaching the finest quality music and whose sound design the best in binaural sound reproduction - I’m choosing the hd650/600. But if you want to ‘sound whore’ a bit, the extra treble tilt of the 598 might help you.

Hd700 is less realistic in timbre but it has an engineered psychoacoustic thanks to enclosure and driver tuning that makes it sound very spacious. It’s driver, is not much different than the 650 in some respects but trounces both 598 and 650 for gaming - and that is the general consensus, even among hd700 haters!

HD250 is actually awesome for gaming. It’s a rare Sennheiser that is natural in timbre, linear but not as dark as the 650. Better bass too. And it’s closed! Sennheiser experiment with diffuse-field DF tuning for this headphone and I think they succeeded.

Anyhow, just my perspective. Each of us will likely experience something a bit different. Gaming is one of my favourite uses for headphones mostly HD700/D2000/HD250

I would agree on your points! When I say the 650 isn't good for gaming, I refer to the current competitive fps and immersive single player games that are popular at this point in time. I can see the 650 becoming a better choice for gaming when developers use better quality music and binaural audio, but for now it's not that great.
As for the binaural music argument, I do prefer the 650. Amber Rubarth sounds amazing on the 650 and is much more accurate and natural than the 598 hands down.
For the 700, I'll agree it's good for gaming because of the soundstage but for music I can't stand it haha. The soundstage is artificial to my ears and seems to add reverb to tracks that shouldn't have any. It sounds hollow and thin for just about every genre and it lacks the naturalness that the 800 and 800S provide to me. I also discovered the 800/S are the best headphones for gaming out of everything I've tried. If I could only have 1 headphone for life, it would be the 800S hands down. It does everything. Sounds stupid but it's the only headphone I'd replace my 598 with

 

[coolhandlukeboy]

I have owned Audio Technicas and love them for gaming. I owned the AD700x and the AD900x. I think the 900x clearly outperformed the 700s, but I felt I need to modify the 900s via the equalizer in my DAC sound card to get it to really shine. The 900x had much more oomph to the bass... mind you I'm not even a bass-head. The 700x was tight for bass, but had very little presence. The 700x did not fatigue me either, even though it had a much more present mid and sparklier highs than the 900x.

Just my two cents. I question the build quality of the newer Audio Technicas as mine literally fell apart after two years. They did not even move from my computer and rested on a stand... Just saying. The 700xs I had before were that purple gold combo and the fit was a bit looser than it is now with the all black model. But now they are all built about the same and I feel I cannot buy them again because I expect to get more than two years out of a pair of headphones.

Both of those models have a great soundstage, which is perfect for gaming and watching movies. I had a few settings for listening to music on my sound card to help them sound subjectively better when listening to certain music genres.

I have a big head and there was a bit more pressure from the AD900xs than the older style of the AD700xs. I think they are all about the same now. They break in fine enough after a few weeks. Slight pressure at first though.

 

[banco-sg]

I have owned Audio Technicas and love them for gaming. I owned the AD700x and the AD900x. I think the 900x clearly outperformed the 700s, but I felt I need to modify the 900s via the equalizer in my DAC sound card to get it to really shine. The 900x had much more oomph to the bass... mind you I'm not even a bass-head. The 700x was tight for bass, but had very little presence. The 700x did not fatigue me either, even though it had a much more present mid and sparklier highs than the 900x.

Just my two cents. I question the build quality of the newer Audio Technicas as mine literally fell apart after two years. They did not even move from my computer and rested on a stand... Just saying. The 700xs I had before were that purple gold combo and the fit was a bit looser than it is now with the all black model. But now they are all built about the same and I feel I cannot buy them again because I expect to get more than two years out of a pair of headphones.

Both of those models have a great soundstage, which is perfect for gaming and watching movies. I had a few settings for listening to music on my sound card to help them sound subjectively better when listening to certain music genres.

I have a big head and there was a bit more pressure from the AD900xs than the older style of the AD700xs. I think they are all about the same now. They break in fine enough after a few weeks. Slight pressure at first though.

Well, it depends, AD700x is better for competitive FPS gaming where mid and high are important. Bass is not so much for competitive gaming.

 

[coolhandlukeboy]

Well, it depends, AD700x is better for competitive FPS gaming where mid and high are important. Bass is not so much for competitive gaming.

Which is why headphones are a very subjective thing. I didn't mind switching at all from a 700 to a 900. The quality of soundstage is just as much hampered by the source as it is by the headphones. I never felt a decrease in locating enemies with my 900x than with my 700x. I did turn bass down a bit on my equalizer for some things, but honestly I am very seldom happy with headphones that aren't tailored to my preferences via using a DAC and an equalizer. I have multiple settings for every headphone I have, usually one for gaming, one for competitive, one for movies, one each for my favorite genres of music, etc.