The main problem is that I don't understand most of the recommendations here. People say the treble for these headphones suck, or the bass is too heavy or there's no sound stage, etc. but I have absolutely no idea what any of that means.
1. "Treble sucks"
a. Not enough treble - Norah Jones has a cold
b. Too much treble - Eveery cymbal crash sounds like scratching a blackboard
2. "Bass is too heavy"
a. Normal bass drum : THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
b. Bass drum when playback system has too much bass: thWUUDthWUUUDthWUUDthWUUDthWUUD
3. "There's no soundstage" - think of echolocation (Batman in Dark Knight, raiding the high rise where The Joker is)
a. Normal soundstage: vocalist in a clearly defined position, with instruments in clear enough, believable positions around vocalist
b. No soundstage: Vocalist and some drums in center, Lead guitar and some drums hard-panned left, rhythm guitar and some drums hard-panned right
More here: http://www.head-fi.org/a/glossary-of-terms
I'm going to use this headphones for gaming and movies, so I think I'm looking for something balanced, not geared towards any kind of sound/music.
Actually for music it has to be balanced, save for some bass boost since there has to be some kind of compensation on headphones vs speakers, since a speaker that measures flat but reaches into low bass tones can still give the sensation of being kicked in the chest on Classic Rock bass drum hits).
For gaming and movies, a little extra bass helps, the same way speaker systems have subwoofers.
The headphones will be used on an Asus ROG laptop which has a single audio jack (mic + audio combined I guess).
I also see various sound cards, amps and stuff like that recommended, but is that for PC only? I don't know what any of it means/is required for and I'm just so overwhelmed that I don't know what to look for.
First off,
if you do use an external soundcard, then it won't matter that your ROG laptop has a combo jack because the Xonar U3 for example has two separate jacks.
Second, DACs and Soundcards are two different things. A
Digital to
Analogue
Converter converts your 10001010000111010011001110011 audio into an electric signal that can be amplified to drive speakers. DAC may refer to the whole device or the specific chip that does the conversion. A soundcard, external or internal, also has a DAC chip - the difference is that it also has a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) chip where the sound can be enhanced, like virtual surround for headphones.
Now, the thing is, you only really need an amp if your headphone can't be driven by whatever you hook it up to without getting distortion, but that is determined also by how efficient the headphone is, as well as its impedance (in terms of how much output the amp has depending on the impedance of what it's trying to drive). It depends on the design of the transducers - designing one with a smooth response curve
and high efficiency isn't as easy as one might think, especially if the goal is better performance, so manufacturers could sacrifice efficiency or use higher impedance to manage the effect of impedance dynamics (ie "nominal impedance" basically means "usual impedance," but can spike or drop at certain frequencies). In turn, you only really need a DAC to feed an amplifier with a clean, fixed voltage (ie not controlled by volume control) analogue signal.
Check your Asus laptop first - it might have virtual surround DSP already since Asus makes soundcards. Next, is the mic really that important? If not then you have a much wider range of options.
Could someone please be kind enough to post a few recommendations, for a budget of $<100 and >$100? I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
If you don't need a microphone, look into the Superlux HD660 and HD330. I use those with an Asus Xonar U3 on my desktop rig, along with a cheap tabletop mic. You can get all that for $100, maybe a little over that when shipping is factored in.
