[robskii]

Hi
Im looking for some advice and have being pointed in the direction of this forum by a friend. Basically i need a headset for gaming and have heard good things about the PC350's. I wondering if people have other suggestions
 
I Don't want to be spending more than £200 on these i do have the option of using a clip on mic and just buying a pair of good headphones if people think this is a better option?
 
Also they need to be comfortable wearing with glasses as i have had headphones in the past where this was not the case so want to avoid this.
 
Thanks in advance
Rob

 

[Agarvaen]

I am using PC360 - open version of Sennheiser headset. After 2 years volume control is buggy - if you fiddle with it sound disappears from one of the other side of headset. I just don't adjust it and all is well.
While it can be remedied by opening it and just wiring it to bypass I am not so comfortable with technical skills and am upgrading to amp and better headphones.
I have no problems with microphone works flawlessly and it is a quality mic - as the reviews say.
 
I would advice you to just get a separate headphone of your choice. There is a topic dedicated to gaming headphones
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-updated-10-8-12-ps3-bd-playback-in-dolby-digital

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robskii /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm looking for some advice and have being pointed in the direction of this forum by a friend. Basically i need a headset for gaming and have heard good things about the PC350's. I wondering if people have other suggestions
I Don't want to be spending more than £200 on these i do have the option of using a clip on mic and just buying a pair of good headphones if people think this is a better option?
Also they need to be comfortable wearing with glasses as i have had headphones in the past where this was not the case so want to avoid this.

I'm assuming this is for PC gaming, what sound card do you have? or is it built in audio?
How about a used Sennheiser HD558 headphones, way under your budget.

 

[robskii]

i have built in audio as i was always unsure if a soundcard made a huge difference? Are the 558's just the old 598's i assume? would they be better than the pc350's or the pc 360's?
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I have built in audio as i was always unsure if a sound card made a huge difference? Are the 558's just the old 598's i assume? would they be better than the PC350's or the PC360's?

Motherboards come with the lowest cost DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) the manufacturer can get away with.
Some of the higher costing motherboards I would assume would have better audio support.
Also the headphone (line-out) jacks on motherboards are more like a line-out (high impedance) that pretends to be a headphone jack.
So, something as low cost as the Asus Xonar DG (or DGX) sound card should improve the audio quality of whatever headphones you use.
Comes with a half-way decent headphone amplifier and Dolby Headphone surround sound.
 
If your really into FPS gaming, you can get a refurb Creative X-Fi Titanium (non-HD) for $43
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102043
It does not come with a headphone amplifier, but the Senn HD558s are only 50-Ohm, so should work very decently with the Titanium (non-HD).
PC350 are an older design and are 150-Ohms, newer Senns like the HD558, HD598, PC360 are only 50-Ohms

 

[robskii]

Thanks for your help so far unfortunately I'm in the UK so i cannot get that sound card for that price so would be costing me £65 i could stretch to that and the 595's would be  a little over £200 here. Would this be the best option for me then?
 
Also i read the guide above and a lot of the headphones say they need an amp to get the most out of them i take it these are found in the sound card? 
Thanks

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thanks for your help so far unfortunately I'm in the UK so i cannot get that sound card for that price so would be costing me £65 i could stretch to that and the 595's would be  a little over £200 here. Would this be the best option for me then?
 
Also i read the guide above and a lot of the headphones say they need an amp to get the most out of them i take it these are found in the sound card? 
Thanks

It can depend on the headphones, some are designed to work well on unamped connections, like the Senn HD518 (50-Ohm).
Some headphones really benefit from a good headphone amplifier, like Senn HD600 or HD650 (300-Ohm)
Senn HD558 & HD598 are somewhere in the middle. As the DH559/HD598 are only 50-Ohms they can work decently plugged into just about any headphone jack.
But adding an amplifier will improve their audio quality.
 
The Asus Xonar DG sound card is 26GBP on Amazon UK.

 

[OPR8R]

I've been using the PC360 for coming up on a couple years now, and haven't had any problems.  I use an Astro Mixamp with mine and they sound pretty good.  The microphone is very good.