[thrawn86]

have no reservations about the ATs for gaming. I'm by no means a professional player, but I do play a lot of CS, and I know what good positioning sounds like.

I did not like my dt770s nearly as much for gaming as my a500s. the dt770s just weren't as comfortable, didn't have as big of a soundstage.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Gamer headphones:
AT A900 - $200 - Considered best gaming headphones by many. Great soundstaging and comfort.
AT A500 - $100 - Little brother of the A900 with worse soundstaging and detail.
Beyer DT770 - $200 - Probably not quite as good soncially as the Ax00 series, but it has better isolation, portability, and is more durable.
Sony V6/MDR-7506 - $70/$100 - This is the choice of many gamers and for good reason. It's inexpensive, durable, and has excellent positioning. Buy this if you're on a budget.
Beyerdynamic DT234 Headset - $N/A - This is the, virtually impossible to find, headset version of the DT231 headphone. It's intended for professional audio so the microphone is pretty good. If you want it try contacting Jan Meier of Meier Audio to see if he can get one for you.

 

[Falqon]

I'm a noob, I know, so flame away.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the Zalman 5.1's? I realize that compared to what you guys listen to as far as sound quality goes, they blow, but that's not what gamers really want.

Buddy of mine has them (we play UT2k4 pretty competively) and I'm at a definate disadvantage on maps like DM-Ironic with long hallways just cause he freakin hears me coming with the 5.1 stuff. It's not amazing quality, but the channel seperation does work.

 

[SDA]

It's quite possible to get good channel separation with decent stereo headphones as well, though. Zalman's headphones exaggerate this channel separation unrealistically, but that doesn't mean quality stereo headphones don't do this at all. Given a couple of hours, it's quite possible to get the brain adjusted to pretty much everything... I can hear sounds from all directions with my MS-1s if I adjust to the sound, and the MS-1s have a tiny little soundstage.

 

[cadobhuk]

The recabled and woodified cd3000 rock for games!

More and better bass than stock ones,with ppa and bassboost,they wont leave you desiring more bass!

 

[D4RPA]

I have onBoard sound, using the nForce2 chipset from nVidia. Do you think adding an actual soundcard that can handle 5.1 or just having a REAL soundcard will to the headphone's performance?

 

[Supsup]

I might just be using the worst possible headphones to play CS: Source with...


GRADOS!

I've tried other headphones... 280 pros, DT770 pro... but I prefer my Grados (225s).

You would think that Grados would be the worst due to a lack of soundstage, but the quickness, separation, and detail of the phones really make games shine. Especially that quickness. Popping off 20 rounds on the AK or the PARA sounds so nice... worlds better than the other phones I've played with.

I find that I can still get a good feel of player positions from their shots.

Plus my day on the computer is usually:
music
play games
more music
play games
more music
play games
sleep.


So, I can just leave my Grados on all day

 

[D4RPA]

I just ordered my A900's and microphone (just because it looked like fun) from AudioCubes.com. I'll try to attempt to make a review, based on a gamer's perspective.

 

[psyco1]

I'm pretty sure that's a 3 meter cord on the A900, it's definatly longer than 6ft and it's from Japan(metric) I don't see why it'd be 10 ft.

I'm sure you'll be happy with it, especially after a two or three day burn-in.

Comfort++

 

[The Actual]

How is it possible to get full surround sound out of stereo headphones? I understand how crossfeed can help to set up a better sound stage, but how can one differentiate between a sound that is coming from directly in front of you and directly behind?

 

[funnytimes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Actual How is it possible to get full surround sound out of stereo headphones? I understand how crossfeed can help to set up a better sound stage, but how can one differentiate between a sound that is coming from directly in front of you and directly behind?

I play games competitively, and I know a couple gamers who have been CPL and are cal-invite. One or two are alittle into headphones, but none of them would ever argue that a better headphone lets them here more. Turn up the volume on any functioning headphone, and positioning will come. Enhanced bass does not help distinguish weapons, like I said before, just turn up the volume if you cannot distinguish weapons, or turn up EQ if you happen to play a game where only different tones of bass can distinguish weapons ( i cannot think of any). Soundstage, well lets just put it this way, its still STEREO. If a headphone sounds especially distant or immediate, then all sounds will be affected equally.

However, if you are concerned with the sound quality of some low quality .wav files, a bass heavy headphone is always fun.. but then again I'd prefer a surround sound system with a beefy subwoofer for casual gaming.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Actual How is it possible to get full surround sound out of stereo headphones? I understand how crossfeed can help to set up a better sound stage, but how can one differentiate between a sound that is coming from directly in front of you and directly behind?

Try listening to this file which demonstrates binaural surround sound.

 

[gregr507]

Woah, that file is awesome! One thing I noticed though is that I never really heard the sound go directly in front of me, I could clearly hear it behind me and going up and down on the sides, but I never really heard it a foot or so directly in front of me like the other sounds were. Did anyone else notice this?

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregr507 Did anyone else notice this?

Most people do, and it's probably because our brains are wired to see where stuff in front of us is primarily based on our vision and not our hearing, while for stuff out of our feild of view we depend more on our hearing.

 

[D4RPA]

So, you're saying its all psychological?