[tortie]

Im looking for a good set of headphones for my computer. My priorities are: 1. WEIGHT & COMFORT (im going to use this for long hours at a time) 2. SOUND QUALITY (Even though I will use this for games 80% of the time, I sometimes play MP3's and watch DVD's on my computer)

My soundcard is a an SB Live. Im currently leaning towards the Senn 590 (due to its light weight). But the Senn 600 and the Grado SR225 are close behind. What do you guys think?

 

[Guyferd]

upgrade your soundcard before you come back to us

sblive just doesn't cut it. If you want to have good music playback, at least an audigy.

Now onto headphone, beyer dt250-80 is great because it sorta rolls of the highs and so those mp3s will sound smooth and bearable. Really nice.

 

[Hiker]

Hello and welcome to Head-Fi, and sorry about your wallet.

First off, comfortwise, the Senns you mentioned (590 and 600) are the most comfortable ones you mentioned. The only issue here is the fact that the 600 at 300 ohms will definately NEED an amp in order to sound good. You might be able to get away with using the 590 since it is only 120 ohms (i think). The Grado 225 at 32 ohms could be driven to loud enough levels with no problem. The only thing here is that most people recommend that you use an amp with the Grado line from the SR80 and above. It isn't necessary to use one as I said before, but im not so sure that the quality will be that much better than if you bought a lower level Grado and used it ampless. However, this does leave room for upgrades. If you get the 225 it would work out of your sound card and in the future you could get an amp to make it sound truely great. I would recommend you get the 225 from a place where you know you could return it if you don't like them, though since comfort seems to be an issue with many people. Have you thought of any other cans for gaming such as the Ultrasone 650? or the Sony V6? Beyer 250-80? Research all of these. One of them might interest you.

Edit: Get a M-Audio Revo while you are at it. Guyferd is right about the SB Live.

 

[tortie]

Thanks for the suggestions. Do I really need to upgrade my soundcard to an Audigy or M-Audio? Im thinking of buying a decent <$400 headphone amp to power my headphones. Like the Grado RA-1 or the Headroom little. I figured that instead of buying a new card, I'll just spend a little more for a decent amp, or is this foolish?

 

[Guyferd]

No..
it's better if you spend more on source.
Say get m-audio revo , around 100 dollar.
then another 100 for amp, get meta42 or something.
the rest 200 dollar is get beyer dt250-80 or even other cans,
The amp and can section you can divide the amt of money to be put in, as deemed necessary.

But what's most impt is the source. If it sucks, the amp will only reveal the truth of it.
The harshness, etc

 

[MD1032]

M-audio revolution as always gets my vote for soundcards.

BTW, what's your budget? The reference line of grados has mahogany chanbers, which is pretty light. You'd probably get better sound. Up to you.

BTW everyone, this site:

http://www.goodcans.com/HeadphoneReviews/

has EXCELLENT reviews and comparisons of the grado line of products, especially the high end. Just ignore the fact that the site looks cheesy. I found the reviews very helpful!

 

[tortie]

My budget for the whole thing (phones, card and amp) is <$700

 

[Guyferd]

if you have <700 budget, my recommendation would be:

1.m-audio revo
x-can and hd600 . good match. just nice below you budget, if you get 2ndhand x-can

Alternatively, you can also look for beyer dt880. Not laid-back like the hd600 and the soundstage is very wide. SOme might like it.

 

[soupy]

be aware tho, the biggest flaw with the revolution is that there's usually a framerate drop (compared to say an audigy2, not sure how it performs in games with the live), not a riduculous drop tho...i'd say 3-10fps roughly. But sound quality-wise, it will spank the living hell out of out of the live!, i did the same exact upgrade. Since your budget is pretty hefty, I'm gonna recommend this as an all around rig:

M-Audio REVO: ~$100 shipped from newegg (out of stock, try other popular retailers like googlegear, or hell, just buy it from your local comp store)
Sony CD3000's: ~$400 (you could find these on ebay retailers easily at lower prices, otherwise audiocubes.com or this other store lou recommended when he bought his second)
META42: ~$200 (price varies depending on options. if you want a good performing meta at a low price, check out tigger's headsave.com).

Makes $700 nicely there, even shipped. If you play alot of games and 3D positioning counts (fps games, etc.), don't even bother with Grados. I personally feel they're strictly for music. The cd3k's however...oh my...huuuge soundstage, easy to pick out things left right back above below. It's built with extremely light materials and it's soooo comfortable (just get's your ears hot after a few hours).

edit: oh forgot to add, if you're completely new to this (ie. you weren't a lurker around here before) and are skeptical about the sony's (too many sony haters that think everything they make suck...well, everything they make TODAY sucks), do a search, plenty of posts. There's also PLENTY of threads on computer headphone recommendations as well.

 

[tortie]

Another flaw i found in M-Audio is that EAX is only available in 1.0 and 2.0 versions, no EAX Advanced HD!

This is a major beef for me cause I play games way more than I play music and DVD's. Any comments on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Soupy, I was a lurker here and I am skeptical about the sonys .

 

[soupy]

Quote:

Another flaw i found in M-Audio is that EAX is only available in 1.0 and 2.0 versions, no EAX Advanced HD! This is a major beef for me cause I play games way more than I play music and DVD's. Any comments on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Then I'm going to recommend the audigy2 here, tho you'd lose the 7.1 options (but seriously...how many PC users out there havea 7.1 rig around them??!). It's still the best gaming card out there and you can get OEM ones for pretty cheap these days. It sounds pretty good on its own as well since it's 24bit, 192khz just like the revo (just not AS good, but still beats the crap out of the live).

I'm also still gonna stand behind my Sony recommendation, the CD3k's are well-known here and reviews have generally been positive over it. Unless of course you want alot of bass, then I'll tell you to look at the beyers and senns (with a cable upgrade).

 

[MD1032]

The M-audio doesn't have its own processor so it does drain CPU and can cause framerate drops in games, especially high-end. However, I've heard that for the best "audiophile" quality through your PC, the M-audio beats all. Just ask any Klipscher.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I use my M-Audio Sonica/AT A100Ti combination all the time, and it's quite good. However, since the seal is really tight, the room has to be adequately ventilated. Otherwise I would recommend some combination of something someone recommended that had fur on it, such as the HD600 or one of the Beyers.

 

[AIM9x]

i just have ksc-35s on my computer... only complaint is the rather short cable.


as for the others you mentioned, I think the sr225 would be a bad idea with the sb-live. You're going to want a better sound card for these cans (although a better sound card is probably a good idea for any cans). The HD580/600 is going to need an amp, but I am not a big fan of the cans in the first place. Many people here seem to like them and they're really good if you haven't heard anything else. HD590s need an amp less than the 600s, but they should still run off one. They sound just like the 580s, except that they have a slightly more emphasized high-end. Some people actually prefer the HD590 sound over the HD580.

Overall, i'd say the sr225s are the best phones in the bunch. you can go ahead and try them out, but i'd say buy some ksc-35s too in case you don't like the sr225s. They're only 30 bucks (not counting shipping) and they're hard to not like.

 

[D-EJ915]

I use my ATH-A500's amplified through my Z560's headphone output, from my C-Media chip