[pandabear24]

Just out of interest then (considering i'm interested in buying for gaming + rock/dance/hip hop music), what would be the best kind of set up? I mean, right now, i'm looking at DT880 Premium's + custom made amp from my friend here in the UK + decent soundcard (got an X-Fi right now but will be upgrading soon)...

 

[Foe-hammer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Phones can't match a surround system.

In what way? I have a pretty decent 5.1 sound system, and my headphones (880's plus Dolby Headphone) is my preferred audio for competitive FPS. More detail, and better 3D positioning. For regular gaming, i prefer the 5.1 system - in particular the bass (love to feel it).

 

[iriverdude]

Lots of ways really can only be described if you've heard a good home theatre.

 

[mbd2884]

I definitely prefer headphones over any speaker system for gaming.

Also gaming with headphones is just common courtesy for your clan mates. Speakers + Ventrilo = ********* and should be ostracized by the gaming community for being an inconsiderate @sswipe.

But seriously, any headphone that works well out of your soundcard should be fine. If I had to buy another headphone just for gaming based on the reviews and impressions I've read, the Sony MDR-F1. But I already have the AD900s so already happy.

Good luck.

 

[ourfpshero]

lol at peeps who think game sound is overrated. go hide in your basement and post about how you listen to music the way it was meant to be heard...

sound card- get one for 3d positioning. x-fi is still best but its 3d sound schemes (eax, ds3d, openal) are not being used much in newer games. the forte seems to be the soundcard of choice right now- x-fi chip, headphone amp, decent price, swappaple op-amps. its about 120$

your hd650 is nice for gaming, the ad700 is just redundant with that headphone. maybe a closed headphone with more punch to it to complement the hd650
think jvc hadx1, denon d2000, beyer dt770

 

[paulb09]

Sound cards are more my bother. I never liked EAX, or any of this CMSS 3D or whatever it was called on my old X-Fi. Many games these days seem to incorporate relevant echo effects etc into normal hardware processing, so I stick with that. Plus the X-Fi gave me no end of trouble on Vista. Okay, so the drivers worked, but sometimes the sound would have a high pitched crackle and cut out, never returning until I restarted my machine. Though I could do with something that does 24-bit digital out, as my onboard now doesn't do that (it's not like only gaming cards do that though).

Anyway, as headphones are what we're really discussing, my K601 did make a difference compared to the HD497, mainly because of the latter's bloated bass getting in the way. I find it more a question of quality than positioning most of the time though, and many games have such ridiculous compression that the sound quality is rubbish (especially older games... newer ones generally seem to be a bit better).

 

[LordZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbd2884 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I played Bioshock and Fallout 3 (not completely, among the few who got bored), and played it with sound off with just my music playing in the background. Made no difference to me at all. Game sound overrated.

You're effectively saying the equal of "Just buy a $20 headset for music since music is overrated." From you arguments, it sounds like you frequently only use your headset for VOIP and are effectively missing out on at least 40% of the game. I find it hard to believe you even enjoy games at all and by no right would I call you a gamer. The best games don't even require the use of a mic, which you seem to consider to be a necessity to all games. You are not a gamer, you are using games as an excuse to chat. Do yourself a favor, just drop gaming and install Skype. It's all you seem to really need anyways.

Anyone who has any appreciation for games should be able to feel the difference between hearing a monster creep up behind you and hearing a flat sound with no sense of direction or depth to it.

When it comes to games, it probably is impossible to beat a good 5.1 surround sound system. Headphones cannot hope to match a truly good surround sound system but even $20 cans can exceed cheap to moderately priced surround sound system(even some of the expensive surround sound systems are beaten senseless by $20 headphones since expensive != good). A good surround sound system will let you audibly detect and pinpoint a fly fart from across the map while maintaining sound quality that is true to the source. However, there are times when that is not an option. Like, you want to play your games without waking up the neighborhood or you just don't have anywhere to place the rear speakers or whatever.

In these cases you basically have to choose, quality of sound or quality of positional audio. You can't choose both because that doesn't exist in this world, yet. I can't speak from experience because I don't have the cash to blow on dozens of headsets ranging from $45 to $1000+ each. I can say that I have spent many days reading reviews and comparing endlessly to see what is most likely to be the best.

I personally have my eye on the Medusa for 5.1 sound. I also have my eye on the Plantronics 770 for comfort and over all sound quality per $ ratio. I'm likely to buy both and only use the Medusa when positional audio is critical but I've yet to find out how much I will even like the Medusa.

Of course, comfort and sound quality are a subjective thing and not everyone will agree on my choices, so I should at least explain why I have set my eyes on both headsets.

First, the Medusa is said to have unrivaled quality when it comes to positional audio(for headsets; it has 4 speakers per ear). I have yet to find anyone compare a true 5.1 headset to it and say that it was in any way better. Further, it is said to be a reasonably comfortable around the ear design. Personally, I like the idea of a headset that sits around the ear instead of on them because every headset I've tried that rests on my ears causes a great deal of pain to the point that I have to go the next day or two without wearing them, after a single extended game session. The problems with this headset are that the customer service and quality control seem to be lacking. Further, I'm sure this headset will sound like utter crap at producing quality sound compared to even headsets that are half the price due to sacrificing quality for better positional audio. This is why I say it is impossible to have both good positional audio and quality sound from the same headset. If anyone has experienced the Medusa headset and compared it to other headsets, feel free to correct me since I'm going solely on what I've seen others say. The gamers I know who use a Medusa absolutely love it. The audiophiles absolutely hate it.

The reason I find the 770 as an attractive choice is purely based on comfort. Again, the 770 is an around the ear design and said to be extremely comfortable. Further, it is said to have good sound quality for both headphones and mic. It is also about half the price of the Medusa and I wont have to pay international shipping if I get a DOA one(see support forums for further info, if you care).

People can argue sound quality until their ears bleed but the most important things to a gamer when it comes to sound are, above all else, comfort(without this, you may be limited to gaming only an hour or two at a time) followed by a mix of positional audio and sound quality. Comfort allows you to enjoy extended gaming sessions without headaches and without feeling like your ears will fall off. Positional audio adds a great deal of depth to a game since you can actually hear where a sound is coming from. Sound quality is important for all the same reasons as it is in anything else; the more realistic the sound is the more immersion you get and the more your ears will enjoy it. As for what headset will have the comfort you want and the mix of positional audio and sound quality that appeals to you can vary a great deal from person to person. If you absolutely need to be able to pinpoint the location of a sound, you're likely to find yourself sacrificing a lot of quality for correct positioning. On the other hand, a person can usually adapt to simulated positional audio on a headset that merely has good quality sound.

So far, I haven't even seen anyone make recommendations based on positional audio. This isn't surprising from a group that'd rather listen to music than play games. I'm no audiophile, I wont claim to be. I am, however, very serious about my games. I've been researching headsets a lot recently as I attempt to find one or two headsets to fulfill my gaming needs. I would be willing to spend almost any amount for a single headset to do everything but such a headset simply does not exist. Currently, I'm thinking about getting the Medusa for competitive play and the 770 for casual play. This is purely from the perspective of a gamer. If I were hardcore about music, I'd probably need a completely separate setup for music.

Oh, a final note for the OP, you don't need anything special in the way of a sound card. However, any 5.1 or better sound card is an upgrade over integrated sound simply because integrated sound eats CPU cycles(read: kills frame rates) and the more dubious ones can even make your entire system unstable(disable your integrated audio in the BIOS and uninstall the drivers for it if you add an expansion audio card). The better integrated sound cards wont sound any different but they will still eat into your CPU. If you're tired of Creative sound cards the Xonar DX made some waves recently in the gaming community. If you want some real comparisons of audio cards, you're going to have to do a lot of research and BS detection.

tl;dr: True 5.1 and comfort are for real gamers, VOIP whores need not apply.

 

[oqvist]

Those steelseries are actually not bad for positional btw. They are tweaked for it and sound like **** but you hear the foot steps

. That is not the reason they wear them it´s because they get payed to do it. Why do Metallica "use" Skullcandy

.

Also LAN is as you say noisy environments but it´s the same for all. It does matter though. There is VGP and other shows for simracing where they sit in the same room with speakers and racing. In simracing since you can´t really feel the G-forces the same way as IRL you do depend quite a bit on audio cues for hearing when your tires are spinning and such. You definiatly see in the lap times that times they do easy on their own they can´t match in such an environment.

That´s an example where it actually makes quite a difference. I am sure also the pros would be even more unhuman at home over the internet.

But for me since I ain´t gaming competively I just want to get immersed. And since there is better and worse headphones they do make a difference. Otherwise it´s like saying there is no difference between 128 kb mp3s and FLAC for music either you get the music with either. For me there is a clear difference.

For me sound in games are a LOT more important then visuals. I can play really old games with awful graphics and still get very immersed due to great sound and good controls. Controls is just as important if not more then sound but it´s pretty close unless you play tetris or chess or something.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbd2884 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Somehow the best players out there playing in the toughest tournaments in the world with sponsored headphones from Steel and the like with Creative's X-Fi soundcards, and being the best tells me, yeah sound and headphone in games is completely, utterly 100% overrated on Head-Fi. Just blown way out of proportion that to me it's a laughable. And they play in loud environments with that lan setup, where they can hear their clan mates yelling screaming, onlooking audience. Yeah frankly, it's hilarious reading Head-Fi where gamers are looking for ridiculously overkill headphone setups for their games. Just buy some decent headphones, doesn't even have to be AD700s, something even cheaper. If you are serious gamer, spend the money on improving your latency, better connection, better mouse and keyboards, mastery macros, and better hardware. Upgrading my old Logitech mouse to my Microsoft Habu mouse using Razer's technology made more difference than any headphone would have. And if I was a more serious gamer, definitely would have spent even more on my mouse.

"The best' only use those headphones cause they are given to them by their sponsor. It's a marketing ploy. The 'best' wears so and so. If I want to be the best I need a pair too.

Sound in games is not overrated. SQ is quite advanced in current games.

 

[iriverdude]

I doubt a complete M&K S-150 system would be fatalities choice, as it doesn't work well in LAN games For home use though...

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordZ /img/forum/go_quote.gif You're effectively saying the equal of "Just buy a $20 headset for music since music is overrated." From you arguments, it sounds like you frequently only use your headset for VOIP and are effectively missing out on at least 40% of the game. I find it hard to believe you even enjoy games at all and by no right would I call you a gamer. The best games don't even require the use of a mic, which you seem to consider to be a necessity to all games. You are not a gamer, you are using games as an excuse to chat. Do yourself a favor, just drop gaming and install Skype. It's all you seem to really need anyways. Anyone who has any appreciation for games should be able to feel the difference between hearing a monster creep up behind you and hearing a flat sound with no sense of direction or depth to it. When it comes to games, it probably is impossible to beat a good 5.1 surround sound system. Headphones cannot hope to match a truly good surround sound system but even $20 cans can exceed cheap to moderately priced surround sound system(even some of the expensive surround sound systems are beaten senseless by $20 headphones since expensive != good). A good surround sound system will let you audibly detect and pinpoint a fly fart from across the map while maintaining sound quality that is true to the source. However, there are times when that is not an option. Like, you want to play your games without waking up the neighborhood or you just don't have anywhere to place the rear speakers or whatever. In these cases you basically have to choose, quality of sound or quality of positional audio. You can't choose both because that doesn't exist in this world, yet. I can't speak from experience because I don't have the cash to blow on dozens of headsets ranging from $45 to $1000+ each. I can say that I have spent many days reading reviews and comparing endlessly to see what is most likely to be the best. I personally have my eye on the Medusa for 5.1 sound. I also have my eye on the Plantronics 770 for comfort and over all sound quality per $ ratio. I'm likely to buy both and only use the Medusa when positional audio is critical but I've yet to find out how much I will even like the Medusa. Of course, comfort and sound quality are a subjective thing and not everyone will agree on my choices, so I should at least explain why I have set my eyes on both headsets. First, the Medusa is said to have unrivaled quality when it comes to positional audio(for headsets; it has 4 speakers per ear). I have yet to find anyone compare a true 5.1 headset to it and say that it was in any way better. Further, it is said to be a reasonably comfortable around the ear design. Personally, I like the idea of a headset that sits around the ear instead of on them because every headset I've tried that rests on my ears causes a great deal of pain to the point that I have to go the next day or two without wearing them, after a single extended game session. The problems with this headset are that the customer service and quality control seem to be lacking. Further, I'm sure this headset will sound like utter crap at producing quality sound compared to even headsets that are half the price due to sacrificing quality for better positional audio. This is why I say it is impossible to have both good positional audio and quality sound from the same headset. If anyone has experienced the Medusa headset and compared it to other headsets, feel free to correct me since I'm going solely on what I've seen others say. The gamers I know who use a Medusa absolutely love it. The audiophiles absolutely hate it. The reason I find the 770 as an attractive choice is purely based on comfort. Again, the 770 is an around the ear design and said to be extremely comfortable. Further, it is said to have good sound quality for both headphones and mic. It is also about half the price of the Medusa and I wont have to pay international shipping if I get a DOA one(see support forums for further info, if you care). People can argue sound quality until their ears bleed but the most important things to a gamer when it comes to sound are, above all else, comfort(without this, you may be limited to gaming only an hour or two at a time) followed by a mix of positional audio and sound quality. Comfort allows you to enjoy extended gaming sessions without headaches and without feeling like your ears will fall off. Positional audio adds a great deal of depth to a game since you can actually hear where a sound is coming from. Sound quality is important for all the same reasons as it is in anything else; the more realistic the sound is the more immersion you get and the more your ears will enjoy it. As for what headset will have the comfort you want and the mix of positional audio and sound quality that appeals to you can vary a great deal from person to person. If you absolutely need to be able to pinpoint the location of a sound, you're likely to find yourself sacrificing a lot of quality for correct positioning. On the other hand, a person can usually adapt to simulated positional audio on a headset that merely has good quality sound. So far, I haven't even seen anyone make recommendations based on positional audio. This isn't surprising from a group that'd rather listen to music than play games. I'm no audiophile, I wont claim to be. I am, however, very serious about my games. I've been researching headsets a lot recently as I attempt to find one or two headsets to fulfill my gaming needs. I would be willing to spend almost any amount for a single headset to do everything but such a headset simply does not exist. Currently, I'm thinking about getting the Medusa for competitive play and the 770 for casual play. This is purely from the perspective of a gamer. If I were hardcore about music, I'd probably need a completely separate setup for music. Oh, a final note for the OP, you don't need anything special in the way of a sound card. However, any 5.1 or better sound card is an upgrade over integrated sound simply because integrated sound eats CPU cycles(read: kills frame rates) and the more dubious ones can even make your entire system unstable(disable your integrated audio in the BIOS and uninstall the drivers for it if you add an expansion audio card). The better integrated sound cards wont sound any different but they will still eat into your CPU. If you're tired of Creative sound cards the Xonar DX made some waves recently in the gaming community. If you want some real comparisons of audio cards, you're going to have to do a lot of research and BS detection. tl;dr: True 5.1 and comfort are for real gamers, VOIP whores need not apply.

There are pro's and cons. A 5.1 system isn't automatically better then headphones for gaming.

 

[Fusedmb]

I find it hard to believe 5.1 being "better" than quality headphones, binaural recordings help prove this.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fusedmb /img/forum/go_quote.gif I find it hard to believe 5.1 being "better" than quality headphones, binaural recordings help prove this.

It will be for movies, as they're designed for multi-channel surround. And how common are binaural recordings?

 

[LordZ]

I never said 5.1 is automatically better. Did you even read my post?

I went over it more than once. This time I'll be more detailed. In a cheap setup, you might not even hear footsteps. With audiophile headphones, you will hear an accurate reproduction of each footstep but will likely have no clue of which direction they are coming from(you might be able to tell left or right but not front or back). With 5.1 surround sound, you will know the direction and distance of the footsteps the moment you hear them, even if the footsteps do not sound as realistic as they would on an audiophile headset. This is what makes 5.1 important to a gamer. It doesn't just make it easier to detect enemies but it adds a whole new layer of depth to the game. In a game like FEAR, it really makes the game come to life. Playing FEAR with a standard 2.0 speaker setup can't even be compared to playing on a decent 5.1 setup. It's not even the same game anymore. Without 5.1, you don't get the feeling of Alma being behind you whispering in your ear and the sudden urge to turn around. There are a lot of other games that are the same way. If you can't tell the difference between stereo and surround sound in a game like that then you need to have your hearing checked or you screwed up your settings badly.

 

[Oggranak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordZ /img/forum/go_quote.gif With audiophile headphones, you will hear an accurate reproduction of each footstep but will likely have no clue of which direction they are coming from(you might be able to tell left or right but not front or back).

I'll have to call you on your bull**** right here. This is 100% wrong. I can easily tell front from back with all of my stereo headphones.