[vi Josh]

Hey guys excellent site i was just wondering (after a few weeks of lurk-learning) if you could recommend a set up for the xbox one. i'm open to all options with a budget of about 600 but the lower the price the sooner i can get it
sorry to ask a question that i think would have been answered before but i have tried searching, i just cant find anything that is xbox specific, i'm still treading relatively unknown waters. . id like something to take me back to my turtle beach x41s.. beautiful sound-whoring ..

my main reason for posting is because im just so overloaded with info atm, its like every time i think i know something theres an opposing comment or it turns out theres a newer product my head is spinning and im at risk of doing something stupid like buying some beats pro hahaha

thanks in advance for any responses
Josh

 

[AAJoe]

That's a solid budget. There's going to be a lot of people who will weigh in on which headphones are best, but I think most will agree the best solution is going to be get a nice pair of headphones with a 3.5mm plug and then use an external mic, such as the ModMic. 

If you have the new Xbox controller you just need a Y adapter and you're good to go. If you have an older controller you'll need the Stereo Adapter.
 
When not playing a voice comms game, just store the mic.
 
As for which headphones to get... There's as many choices as the ocean. I personally don't own anything in the $500 price range, but I am perfectly happy with my AudioTechnica m50x (~170) with the ModMic (50).

 

[AAJoe]

Also, this thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/686894/which-headphones-do-you-use-for-pc-gaming/195#post_12460691 - you can probably get a pretty good idea of what everyone is using from it.

 

[vi Josh]

hey thanks for the reply, Yeh im familiar with the thread but its for pc gaming, do you happen to know if there are any DAC's that have proven to be more "compatible" with the XBOne? i was origonally thinking about getting a mixamp and some sennheiser g4me's but after reading some comments decided to hold off... then i was looking at the hyper x's but i dont know how they would perform with the xbox, it goes on and on... im at the point now where i think i know less than when i started lol

 

[AAJoe]

Ah I see your problem - yeah, if you really want to go far into the top end stuff you're outside my wheelhouse. That's why I like to keep it simple with a 3.5mm plug That and poverty.

 

[vi Josh]

can anyone else weigh in?

 

[Holmesy321]

So I'm kind of in the same situation at the moment - and while this is not a definitive answer, after a few days research this is where I'm at...
 
I'm currently looking for headphones that are generally accepted as good for gaming, but also good for general music listening. I plan on (at some point in the future) getting a mixamp pro, but for the time being I have the xbox stereo chat adapter and a ****ty clip on mic.
 
 
My current thoughts are to go something like this:
 
- Mixamp Pro
 
- Y-splitter with ModMic
 
- Some kind of headphone amp (for the purpose of being small and lightweight and just to give more juice to your headphones something like the FiiO E6 seems a reasonable bet)
 
- Decent open backed headphones (and this is where it gets tricky for me...).
 
Possible headphone choices:
 
- BeyerDynamic DT990 Premium (250 Ohm) Seem like a fairly popular, solid headphone choice for both gaming and general listening. So there's a starting point.
- Philips Fidelio X2 (unfortunately there's currently a lot of quality control issues with these since they started being produced by Gibson, and this has put me off, otherwise they would be my first choice.
- Hifiman HE400S (also great for music but perhaps not the best for gaming)
- AKG K712 (very good for gaming by all accounts, and very good for mixing, but maybe not so much for 'fun' music listening)
- Senn HD600 (not so good for gaming, but great for music - so maybe not for you)
 
 
Currently I'm leaning towards either the HE400S or the DT990 Premium...
 
 
Not sure how much this comes to in your currency, but for me it's about £300-350 all in I guess depending on which headphones you'd buy. Above this (in terms of price) I don't think you're really going to get much better that remains portable/convenient (though you can probably buy a better amp than the E6, but most likely not necessary).

 

[obobskivich]

Xbox One has a TOSlink output that can send out PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS audio - most hi-fi DACs will take PCM but there are some other components that can take Dolby or DTS (usually AV-oriented devices). You could also extract audio from the HDMI output with a relatively inexpensive (and aptly named) "HDMI audio extractor." There are no analog outputs, however, so you'll have to convert from digital to analog in order to plug in beyond the 3.5mm jack.

There's literally an endless cavalcade of DACs that you could plug into that TOSlink output, at prices ranging from under $50 to many times over the price of the entire Xbox itself. Compatibility won't be a problem since there's no drivers or similar going on there, and the Xbox has decent configuration options for its outputs (so as long as you configure it to something the DAC can understand, it will work).

As far as headphones go, IME the point of diminishing returns for headphones and gaming is pretty low, and even moreso with many console games (this isn't a "go get a PC" argument or anything, and some of the more recent "next-gen" games have started to reverse this trend with gusto); anything that's generally regarded as good wrt soundstage and imaging is probably going to be just fine as a result. That said, I like Ultrasone headphones quite a bit for gaming, but again, there's tons of good options out there.

 

[vi Josh]

Thanks heaps for clearing all that up, much appreciated. That pretty much connects all the dots for me cheers!

 

[jhawlz]

I am in the same boat as yourself and I'm currently awaiting the rest of my gear. I was going to set up my office for multiple use so I purchased the Magni 2 Uber and Modi 2 Uber and a set of Sennheiser HD600. I was going to use the optical out on the Xbox to the DAC to the amp and then to the Sennheisers. We shall see how well it works out.

 

[vi Josh]

let us know how you go as that was the way I was going to go aswell, hope it all goes well
 
 I think my mixamp should be coming in the mail today, I'm still a bit up in the air about the headphones, I'm thinking either audio technical, AKG K7XX or the Sennheiser G4me ones as I'm more looking for competitive position awareness...
also is there any reason to avoid audio technica's ATH-ADG1X if anyone knows? 

 

[elecen010]

OP How did this setup work?

 

[rjjasick]

I run Phillips X1's with an Astro MixAmp Pro.  I use a VModa Boom Mic Pro for a mic.  The only downside is that I have wires across the floor when I play in the living room.  For me, it's no big deal.

 

[vi Josh]

  OP How did this setup work?

which one sorry?

 

[Alan Torres]

Xbox One has a TOSlink output that can send out PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS audio - most hi-fi DACs will take PCM but there are some other components that can take Dolby or DTS (usually AV-oriented devices). You could also extract audio from the HDMI output with a relatively inexpensive (and aptly named) "HDMI audio extractor." There are no analog outputs, however, so you'll have to convert from digital to analog in order to plug in beyond the 3.5mm jack.

There's literally an endless cavalcade of DACs that you could plug into that TOSlink output, at prices ranging from under $50 to many times over the price of the entire Xbox itself. Compatibility won't be a problem since there's no drivers or similar going on there, and the Xbox has decent configuration options for its outputs (so as long as you configure it to something the DAC can understand, it will work).

As far as headphones go, IME the point of diminishing returns for headphones and gaming is pretty low, and even moreso with many console games (this isn't a "go get a PC" argument or anything, and some of the more recent "next-gen" games have started to reverse this trend with gusto); anything that's generally regarded as good wrt soundstage and imaging is probably going to be just fine as a result. That said, I like Ultrasone headphones quite a bit for gaming, but again, there's tons of good options out there.

I have a monoprice desktop amp/dac and I can connect the amp to my xb1 without a problem but since the dac is usb I have no idea how to connect it to the xb1. Any tips?