What's a good headset around $100USD?

[Stealth3si]

My primary use for it is one, movies, two, music, and three, games.

My considerations from a very quick research for an open headphone, actually, are:

Logitech G35
Audio Technica ATH-AD700
Sennheiser HD-280 PRO
Sennheiser PC 350
Sennheiser HD438
Sennheiser HD448
Sennheiser HD555

I welcome additional headsets/headphones that anyone recommends (within the price range).

FYI, the above are under $100 USD from Amazon and Ebay.

 

[DjAmTraX]

I vote for Sony MDR-7506/V6. Street price is well under $100 and they sound great.

 

[imranh101]

I bought these for $80 plus tax....
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-Blaster-Surround-Headset/dp/B002J9HCV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292113064&sr=8-1
Now they are $58... Regular price is $130!
I will tell you, they are amazing!
I use them for gaming and listening to music.
Amazing bass! I can play my Trance (Deamau5), rap, or rock music on 75% volume, and the bass literally vibrates on my ears (just a small amount, not so much that its annoying) and doesn't crackle or ANYTHING. I'm not even kidding.
These things go NICE and LOUD! I usually listen to music on %25 volume... That's around medium volume, for an average person.
I listen up to maybe 65-70% when a favorite song comes on... That's really pushing it, loud enough to *almost* hurt.
Oh my god, 100% volume actually hurts my ears a TINY bit. And I like to listen to my music loud normally, as in my JVC IEMs at full volume... Im trying to show you how loud these get...
And even at 100% volume there is LITERALLY 0% DISTORTION.
I just turned up my usic to full volume to test and make sure... Yes, NO distortion.... Even with the amazing bass.
 
Mids are great! all music sounds great on these phones.
 
The Treble isn't AMAZING but still... amazing... I just can't believe it has amazing bass, amazing mids, and amazing treble... I'd think for a gaming headset it would, you know, be cut off...
 
Okay, then there is the microphone for your gaming.
It is detatchable.
It has 2 actual microphones on it! On right in front of your mouth, one on the other side of the microphone's arm
The software the headset comes with has "Silencer" technology, which actually processes sound from both microphones and eliminates noise heard on the rear microphone from what you're actually saying, effectively drowning outside noise from your microphone... So if you are clacking on your keyboard with silencer disabled, everyone would hear it on your mic chat... but enable silencer and it processes that the keyboard's clacking is coming from the "other side of the mic" (the side not next to your mouth) so it will lower that frequency...
Here listen to this, from someone else's review of the same headset : http://www.everythingusb.com/files/creative-arena-gaming-headset-review-silencer.mp3
And the actual mic quality is great... as you can tell from that recording, it sounds just fantastic.
 
Next, the software it comes with is cool...
Has a voice changer for scaring little kids on call of duty or whatever you play... or just greifing people.
Also has it's own graphical equalizer
A bass booster
and 2 special features
1 is the "EAX" feature... Play a song then enable and it makes the music/game etc sound like you are in an ampitheater, or jazz club, etc... Not useful, kinda annoying, but believe it or not was interesting to hear my favorite song with a twist
and then the best feature is the Surround3D
Basically virtual surround... from what i;ve heard of the G35 this is better
I was playing battlefield bad company 2 in singleplayer, driving a tank around, and an enemy infantry was shooting my rear-right tank corner... I actually heard it like that. I was blown away; that opened my eyes to how awesome it really is - its only virtual but it does a GOOD JOB, not kidding...
 
And lastly I'll tell you a couple more general facts.
It has a super long, somerthing like 10 foot cable... I have it wrapped up in a tie because its too long
there are no controls on the headset itself, instead about a foot and a half down the cable is a small controller with volume up/down buttons, and mic on/off switch, and a mic light - if your mic is on it stays red, if your mic is off it flashes red
The cable only comes off the left ear, something nice instead of having a wire hang from both sides of your head
and the headset can't be used on your iPod or anything because it's USb - but for a good reason!
You don't need a sound card at all to use this headset, the usb plug is around 2 inches long because it has a built in sound card! it does a great job, too!
 
And not to mention the headset is comfortable, I have worn it I think.... 3 hours straight and it got a tiny TINY bit uncomfortable, just pushed the headband forward a half an inch off the spot it had been resting for 3 hours and it felt better.... OH yeah, they headband is adjustable, each side sepeatly, and these headphones DONT "clamp" on your head, but they can fit anyone from a small head to large... I'm around medium i suppose.
 
AND lastly.... If they are on your ear but not playing music they block a little noise out...
But playing at 16% volume I can barely hear my fingers type, at 32% i cant hear someone yelling at me from next room over and at 75% or more volume I couldn't hear you screaming at me from behind my back probably....
 
Yeah I just basically WROTE you a review... Because I really, REALLY like this headset - I'm not an audiophile, but I do know more about headphones than probably anyone at my school... I know how to choose good headphones based on frequencies and the like, and I know what a good headset sounds like - and THIS IS IT.... Promised!
 
P.S. On the subject of bass I forgot to mention I have my bass booster in the headset options set to increase by 8 dB and i can STILL play full volume without distortion....
 
Cheers!

 

[earerror]

What kind of music you listen to? you like strong bass? 

 

[imranh101]

Hey... About the  creative headset I suggested, I thought I'd try to find the review I read for it from this site called bit-tech...They do reviews for everything. They gave this headset the highest rating of all headsets, even topped it over the razers, senns, and the g35... Since, however, they have updated the article... But read the first paragraph on this page : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/peripherals/2010/01/03/the-best-gaming-headset/2      it says that the soundblaster beat out the razer last year when they reviewed (which it did, it was the ONLY headset to get a 10/10) but it has been discontinued which explains why its $50 at amazon- I'd advise you to buy one ASAP before they are all gone because I realllllly love mine.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[dude120]

I've owned the creative headset. It sounds very good and has immensely powerful bass. (Makes you feel like your ears are getting sucked out of the headphones). However, there is a fatal design flaw with the headphones. The usb dongle you plug into your computer on the end of the headphones is insanely fragile. I broke mine when I tripped over my cat on the cord and the dongle bent a bit in the usb plug on my computer. For 57 bucks they sound great, but they weren't worth the 80 I payed for them considering how fragile they were. 
(obviously there are better headphones/headsets, but they are hard to beat for the price)

 

[Sandwich]

See my profile pic
 
I use them for pretty much all my games with the "Heaphone" setting set in game. It sounds like stuff crawling all around me... crazy immersive.

 

[imranh101]

Quote:

I've owned the creative headset. It sounds very good and has immensely powerful bass. (Makes you feel like your ears are getting sucked out of the headphones). However, there is a fatal design flaw with the headphones. The usb dongle you plug into your computer on the end of the headphones is insanely fragile. I broke mine when I tripped over my cat on the cord and the dongle bent a bit in the usb plug on my computer. For 57 bucks they sound great, but they weren't worth the 80 I payed for them considering how fragile they were. 
(obviously there are better headphones/headsets, but they are hard to beat for the price)

I see where you are coming from, and heard similar complaints, but I can't agree - I mistakenly stepped on the cord, head a cracking type sound, the plug flew out of my USB port, but I see no damage. If this is a fear for you, which it is for me now definately, what I did was went to the dollar store and got a small cable hook... Put the cord through the hook in the right direction such that if I yank the cord by mistake it will just pull at the hook, and the rest of the cable after that, including the plug, doesnt move. That and its useful because a lot less cord hangs from your computer. Since then I have also moved the plug to a USB hub I attached to the side of my desk, but I'm still using that hook just in case - and I use the hook for other things too... But good point though thats actually the only Con i've found with the headset but I remedied the problem
 

 

[dude120]

Thats exactly what I did with my newer headset (g35), for fear of having to shell out more money for another headset just to game on. 
I now have about 35 feet of slack with the heatset connected to the computer with 3 usb extenders. This is more so I can go to the fridge in the other room and back without having to take off the headphones though. 

 

[Stealth3si]

 
Sorry I didn't mention this earlier.
 
My first and primary use for the headphone/headset, will be movies. I want good noticeable bass that goes along with action movies. Compared to music and games, cinema watching is a frequent activity of mine. Second comes music, which I would consider a normal/usual past time. I do actually listen to classical music so I don't want an overly boomy bass but I mostly listen to music that is 'exciting' or 'energetic' like good bass and treble (rap, hip hop, pop, rock, alternative, dance, house/trance, metal) but not something like drum and bass or music that requires super loud bass. Less often though, if not rarely, are games. FPS almost exclusively. But when do I play them I like to enjoy them for days, if not, weeks at a time. I like them with accurate positioning and discrete sounds.
 
The headphone/headset will be exclusively used on my desktop PC using a SB Audigy 2 soundcard.
 
Thanks for the previous responses (and imranh's review.) They were all very helpful and I learned a lot in general.

 

[imranh101]

 
Well, let me say one thing, if you like action movies these are great... Also great for comedy but for some reason i'm assuming you like action movies... Just guessing.  They sound nice because in movies like Greenzone or Hurt Locker, gunshots and explosions sound nice... But other sounds are fine... As for music, (not meant in an offensive way) - did you see my post about what music I like? SAME as you basically! Rap/Hiphop, Trance, and Rock! And as I said these are great for that type of music. And also they are great for gaming, again explosions and gunshots from FPS games (which is what I always play, too - Battlefield Bad Company 2, TF2, or COD - etc.) sound amazing, and the directional positioning is good... I had the 3D mode disabled and I just heard a sniper bullet fly past... I enabled 3D position, and the next time it came past I was actually able to not PINPOINT the location but had a VERY good idea of where he was, just looked in the right direction and found him... And for games with REALLY nice sound like Bad Company 2 with all the report gunshot sounds ricocheting off mountain sides, or hearing a tank fire in the distance...  
 

 

[Stealth3si]

Does anyone know how the Sound Blaster Arena would compare to a Koss SB49 that I already have?

 

[dub Beatz]

Quote:

I bought these for $80 plus tax....
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-Blaster-Surround-Headset/dp/B002J9HCV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292113064&sr=8-1
Now they are $58... Regular price is $130!
I will tell you, they are amazing!
I use them for gaming and listening to music.
Amazing bass! I can play my Trance (Deamau5), rap, or rock music on 75% volume, and the bass literally vibrates on my ears (just a small amount, not so much that its annoying) and doesn't crackle or ANYTHING. I'm not even kidding.
These things go NICE and LOUD! I usually listen to music on %25 volume... That's around medium volume, for an average person.
I listen up to maybe 65-70% when a favorite song comes on... That's really pushing it, loud enough to *almost* hurt.
Oh my god, 100% volume actually hurts my ears a TINY bit. And I like to listen to my music loud normally, as in my JVC IEMs at full volume... Im trying to show you how loud these get...
And even at 100% volume there is LITERALLY 0% DISTORTION.
I just turned up my usic to full volume to test and make sure... Yes, NO distortion.... Even with the amazing bass.
 
Mids are great! all music sounds great on these phones.
 
The Treble isn't AMAZING but still... amazing... I just can't believe it has amazing bass, amazing mids, and amazing treble... I'd think for a gaming headset it would, you know, be cut off...
 
Okay, then there is the microphone for your gaming.
It is detatchable.
It has 2 actual microphones on it! On right in front of your mouth, one on the other side of the microphone's arm
The software the headset comes with has "Silencer" technology, which actually processes sound from both microphones and eliminates noise heard on the rear microphone from what you're actually saying, effectively drowning outside noise from your microphone... So if you are clacking on your keyboard with silencer disabled, everyone would hear it on your mic chat... but enable silencer and it processes that the keyboard's clacking is coming from the "other side of the mic" (the side not next to your mouth) so it will lower that frequency...
Here listen to this, from someone else's review of the same headset : http://www.everythingusb.com/files/creative-arena-gaming-headset-review-silencer.mp3
And the actual mic quality is great... as you can tell from that recording, it sounds just fantastic.
 
Next, the software it comes with is cool...
Has a voice changer for scaring little kids on call of duty or whatever you play... or just greifing people.
Also has it's own graphical equalizer
A bass booster
and 2 special features
1 is the "EAX" feature... Play a song then enable and it makes the music/game etc sound like you are in an ampitheater, or jazz club, etc... Not useful, kinda annoying, but believe it or not was interesting to hear my favorite song with a twist
and then the best feature is the Surround3D
Basically virtual surround... from what i;ve heard of the G35 this is better
I was playing battlefield bad company 2 in singleplayer, driving a tank around, and an enemy infantry was shooting my rear-right tank corner... I actually heard it like that. I was blown away; that opened my eyes to how awesome it really is - its only virtual but it does a GOOD JOB, not kidding...
 
And lastly I'll tell you a couple more general facts.
It has a super long, somerthing like 10 foot cable... I have it wrapped up in a tie because its too long
there are no controls on the headset itself, instead about a foot and a half down the cable is a small controller with volume up/down buttons, and mic on/off switch, and a mic light - if your mic is on it stays red, if your mic is off it flashes red
The cable only comes off the left ear, something nice instead of having a wire hang from both sides of your head
and the headset can't be used on your iPod or anything because it's USb - but for a good reason!
You don't need a sound card at all to use this headset, the usb plug is around 2 inches long because it has a built in sound card! it does a great job, too!
 
And not to mention the headset is comfortable, I have worn it I think.... 3 hours straight and it got a tiny TINY bit uncomfortable, just pushed the headband forward a half an inch off the spot it had been resting for 3 hours and it felt better.... OH yeah, they headband is adjustable, each side sepeatly, and these headphones DONT "clamp" on your head, but they can fit anyone from a small head to large... I'm around medium i suppose.
 
AND lastly.... If they are on your ear but not playing music they block a little noise out...
But playing at 16% volume I can barely hear my fingers type, at 32% i cant hear someone yelling at me from next room over and at 75% or more volume I couldn't hear you screaming at me from behind my back probably....
 
Yeah I just basically WROTE you a review... Because I really, REALLY like this headset - I'm not an audiophile, but I do know more about headphones than probably anyone at my school... I know how to choose good headphones based on frequencies and the like, and I know what a good headset sounds like - and THIS IS IT.... Promised!
 
P.S. On the subject of bass I forgot to mention I have my bass booster in the headset options set to increase by 8 dB and i can STILL play full volume without distortion....
 
Cheers!

 
 
Haha, I'll be honest. As soon as I saw you link an actual headset I thought, "Oh god, not another..." And then I scrolled down and realized you wrote a scholarly journal. I would hand your post in as my term paper for CRIM 611. Nobody can get upset with your choice after that lengthy post haha. But in all honesty, headsets are generally frowned upon in this community, and to be fair, they are rightfully so. Headsets tend to be designed for gamers, and because of such have terrible sound quality, and not to mention build quality. Gaming headsets are pre EQd to bring out important factors while gaming, like highs for example. You're really paying for the convenience of an attached microphone. The AD700 trump the 555s in terms of gaming, and when compared to all of the other headphones the OP listed, they do the same. The soundstage and accuracy on the AD700 when paired with a good sound card is almost unbeatable. Take it from me, I played competitively on the PC for years. Unreal Tournament, CoD, CS, CSS you name it, I've played and surely excelled at it during one point or another. I loved my AD700s. The time came however when I got bored of playing games, and took a step forward to purchase a more fun sounding pair of cans, which resulted in me buying some DT770/80s. That's another story however. Anyways, grab the AD700s with the zalman clip on mic. You won't regret it. As an added bonus, the AD700s are hands down the most comfortable headphones on the planet. 
 

 

[Stealth3si]

dub Beatz, thanks.
 
I'm currently not gaming but in the future when I upgrade my PC to game again, I will definitely consider the AD700 (and A700 (see below).)
 
Quote:

The AD700 trump the 555s in terms of gaming, and when compared to all of the other headphones the OP listed, they do the same.

What about in terms of movies and music? Would you consider the HD-555 better in these departments?
 
 
Quote:

The soundstage and accuracy on the AD700 when paired with a good sound card is almost unbeatable.

How is the soundstage and accuracy on the AD700 when paired with an Audigy 2 sound card (the normal version)?
 
 
Quote:

The time came however when I got bored of playing games, and took a step forward to purchase a more fun sounding pair of cans, which resulted in me buying some DT770/80s. That's another story however.

I would love to hear it, including a link to a specific model, if possible.
 
Also, in what areas does the DT770/80s excel in? Why did you get it?
 
 
Quote:

Anyways, grab the AD700s with the zalman clip on mic. You won't regret it. As an added bonus, the AD700s are hands down the most comfortable headphones on the planet. 

If you know, how does the AD700 compare to the A700, which is $10 more (on Amazon?) What are the major differences between them?
 

 

 

[musiclicn]

Please add Grado sr60i into your consideration. It is really good for movie and pop music.