is it worth investing in some gameing headphones

MG44

MG44

MG44

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27 Dec 2008
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iv recently brought a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card and i have it hooked up to my hi-fi system with 4 speakers placed around my room my music play back is amazing am just wondering is it worth investing in some gaming head phone like the creative set, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...eative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset (51MZ0310AA001)

at that price am very tempted to try it out just wondering if its worth bothering
main games i play are COD4, left for dead, doom 3, fallout 3
 
I am a big fan of surroundsound headphones. Great to hear someone sneaking up behind you try to knife you ;)

I have been using MedUSA 5.1's for many years (on my 2nd set since I stepped on the 1st ones) and have found them to be a good compromise between price / comfort / performance.

Basically you have three main choices; Zalman, MedUSA, and Razer.

IMO:
Zalman - Cheapest, but been around for ages. Plus looks like Darth Vaders earmuffs.
MedUSA - Good all-rounder.
Razer - Pricey, a mate had a pair for a while and we both wernt that impressed with them so he went with the MedUSA's.

I say go for it, but do some research and im sure you will get a what you want.
 
Or get some proper headphones that actually sound good and will last a lot longer.

HD595's
HD 555's
DR150's
DT770's
etc etc etc.

Or just buy some tin cups and put them on your ears as has just been suggested.
 
Fubsy said:
Or get some proper headphones that actually sound good and will last a lot longer.

Or just buy some tin cups and put them on your ears as has just been suggested.
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Complete tosh, nothing wrong with the quality of 5.1 headsets. Plus they give you an advantage in FPS games. Stereo is for listening to music. Yeah Sennheiser's and the like my have "superior" sound quality, but they should do considering they are generally more than double the price of a decent 5.1 headset.

Horses for courses.
 
They don't give any advantage over stereo headphones in FPS's whatsoever. If your ears work you will be able to tell if there is someone behind you wearing either gimmicky 5.1's or steroes.

I've owned both. The quality on 5.1 sets IS HORRIBLE, don't argue against it. You get what you pay for, and paying the same amount on 5.1 instead of 2, means you are spreading the cost out over the components which will be very poor quality in the 5.1s as they have to be to keep the costs down.

If you feel the need to get a headset though, go for the cheapest you can, don't go wasting more than you should on them.
 
Merlinbadman said:
Complete tosh, nothing wrong with the quality of 5.1 headsets. Plus they give you an advantage in FPS games. Stereo is for listening to music. Yeah Sennheiser's and the like my have "superior" sound quality, but they should do considering they are generally more than double the price of a decent 5.1 headset.

Horses for courses.
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define 'decent 5.1 headset'

you're just wrong
 
Merlinbadman said:
Yeah you are right, what the hell was I thinking. Just as well you guys are here to blast down people with differing opinions eh?
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Don't sit there playing the opinion 'get out of jail on the internet arguing free card'. Gaming headsets are not very well made and use cheap crappy little drivers in. That is fact not some silly opinion or personal preference.

I have found a decent set of stereo headphones with a good soudstage like the sennheisers or goldrings offer just as much positional acuracy as some 5.1 headset claiming this and that.

Please engage brain rather than quoting pc gaming fps, gaming site reviews, and manufacturer claims. There is no way that a headset with 3 drivers in each ear cup can sound as good a pair of stereo headphones where there are two very high quality drivers, and the cups are engineered to make the most out of these good drivers. Putting more drivers in does NOT make a headset better than headphones.

For example: Putting more exhausts, massive 20inch wheels with low 1.6 VW golf, does not make it anywhere near as good as a BMW M3, even if you spend loads on mods and extra bits making their prices equivalent.

Think quality rather than quantity ;)

OK, MG44 what is your max price for a set of headphones, then we can give you some recommendations, rather than just recomending something really expensive that none of us could afford :D:D:D
 
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Because you are wrong; they do sound terrible in comparison to real headphones! There's opinion and then there's fact. The Stereo headsets can produce decent imaging, as they are clamped close to your ears, we only have 2 ears don't we! Simple fact is that with 3 drivers per ear, you're getting both a smaller driver, and a cheaper driver (all being equal the stereo and surround headset costing the same) compared to a larger, more expensive driver in the stereo headphones.

And yes budget please and we'll see what we can do and if we can get 'put a smile on that face' *put in sinister cackling at this point* :P
 
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Merlinbadman said:
Complete tosh, nothing wrong with the quality of 5.1 headsets. Plus they give you an advantage in FPS games. Stereo is for listening to music. Yeah Sennheiser's and the like my have "superior" sound quality, but they should do considering they are generally more than double the price of a decent 5.1 headset.

Horses for courses.
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i'm just curious where would you find the .1 speaker in a 5.1 headset. (tongue in cheek)

Nothing wrong with surround gaming headphones other than the fact they are inferior in every possible way when compared to decent stereo headphones.
The quality of these "gaming" headsets is not something to brag about.

AKG k271 or the beyer dt770 will probably last you for a decade
 
pby said:
i'm just curious where would you find the .1 speaker in a 5.1 headset. (tongue in cheek)
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SUBWOOFER man.........you know nothing ;):D:D:D

The beyers are pretty cool, but the only version I have heard are the 'Darth beyers'. THey are a modified version, and the bass is like nothing you have heard, just think of a sub driver strapped to your ear and sealing the air gaps between. Absolute madness when I put some jungle on :D
 
The Fatality headset is OK if you need a headset, but tbh I got mine for £15 and I don't think it's really worth that.

Get some proper headphones if you want really decent sound.
 
Is there any point in agruing over something that is impossible to quantify? Or is everyone just happy to take the **** becuse I dont agree 100% with the general consensus? Adding comments such as "dont argue" & "your wrong".

I am very happy with the build quality, performance and the price I paid for my MedUSA's. The OP asked for opinions and he got mine, like I siad to him im my first post, research and make an informed choice.
 
We're not taking the ****, simply being honest; its not about opinion its about fact; the stereo headphones statistically produce a more correct reproduction of the sound being fed them, and have a wider frequency response (meaning more of the original information is correctly or more accurately portrayed), so in that sense yes it is quantifiable. Yes, you may like the sound the other phones produce (preferance is personal), but it isn't 'better'.

The more expensive stereo phones also tend to be built much more solidly, and many sets last for years; wheres the 3dgaming headsets are built for a certain audience, and usually not one thats interested in build quality. Horses for Courses.

You're absolutely correct in that the OP needs to make a informed decision though, as everyone has preferences. You tend to find most people who have some enthusiasm for music/sound though will buy fairly expensive phones, and not want to go back, and there is a reason for that :)
 
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Merlinbadman said:
Is there any point in agruing over something that is impossible to quantify? Or is everyone just happy to take the **** becuse I dont agree 100% with the general consensus? Adding comments such as "dont argue" & "your wrong".

I am very happy with the build quality, performance and the price I paid for my MedUSA's. The OP asked for opinions and he got mine, like I siad to him im my first post, research and make an informed choice.
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We are not arguing over your opinion, just the fact that you totally dismissed headphones and harp on about headsets being the must have when they arn't. You have your opinion, but have your actually compared any headsets to decent goldrings or sennhesiers to be able to comment ?

Plus they give you an advantage in FPS games
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More fps ? Better sound positiong you probably meant. Already talked about that in my first post here

Stereo is for listening to music. Yeah Sennheiser's and the like my have "superior" sound quality, but they should do considering they are generally more than double the price of a decent 5.1 headset.
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They also sound great listneing to music. So sound awesome for games and sound great for music, something a headset does not do. Headphones go up to many hundreds of times the price of that fat1i1i1ltlty headset i fyou want, but check out the goldrings the same price as the faitltialtii1ity headset and tell me they cost double ;) :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...&subcat=&name=Goldring DR50 Stereo Headphones

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...subcat=&name=Goldring DR100 Stereo Headphones
 
Merlinbadman said:
Is there any point in agruing over something that is impossible to quantify? Or is everyone just happy to take the **** becuse I dont agree 100% with the general consensus? Adding comments such as "dont argue" & "your wrong".

I am very happy with the build quality, performance and the price I paid for my MedUSA's. The OP asked for opinions and he got mine, like I siad to him im my first post, research and make an informed choice.
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Thats just funny, weren't you just arguing about the quality of surround headphones and how it gives you an "advantage" in fps games, which neither you could quantify.

The other thing I find funny is you saying "stereo is for listening to music"
so what, are you suggesting to OP to buy a second set of headphones just to listen to music? Wheres the "good compromise between price / comfort / performance" in that? (oh wait never mind, cant argue that since its not quantitive)

I happen to have a pair of medusa speedlink (some ex-house mate left it over when he moved out). They aren't bad headphones but I just wouldnt recommend it for the asking price.
 
Merlinbadman, for the record I owned some Medusas for 2 years and thought they were brilliant! Then I bought some Beydynamic DTX900's (which are pretty low end for Beyers) and felt ashamed of myself, and promtply gave away the shoddy Medusas to my mate who had a knack of breaking them all the time :p
 
My 6 year old Senn 580's were a country mile better than the Medusa's I owned, the medusas were extremely poorly built, sounded awful and the Sennheisers had better positional sound to me.

The 5.1's are a cheap marketing ploy, I fell for it sadly, oh the 5.1 oh you'll have an advantage, oh you'll be amazing in FPS' in the end I learnt after splashing the cash. The only downside is no microphone, so I have a cheap pair of sennheiser PC150's for talking on ventrilo and my 580's for everything else.
 
Medusa's are terrible, I had some and OH MY GOD THEY WERE BAD.

Moved to my first set of real headphones (Sennheiser HD595's) and the difference is amazing.

Plus, my Xonar set to Dolby Headphone gives a much better surround sound effect than the Medusa's ever could, that and the far, far better sound quality.

Love them when playing Left 4 Dead too, can pinpoint where people are coming from easily. :)

Stereo is for listening to music. Yeah Sennheiser's and the like my have "superior" sound quality, but they should do considering they are generally more than double the price of a decent 5.1 headset.
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Stereo is for listening for music? Weird, because my poor stereo headphones are in another league to the Medusa's, they are more comfy, the surround sound effect works miles better and the sound quality is out of this world in comparison.

Also you say headphones are double the price of a decent 5.1 headset, but the thing is no decent 5.1 headsets exist. ZING!
 
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