Best gaming headset for £70-£80?

If I were you I would avoid the Kaves. I have sent back 2 pairs already and now awaiting refund. They make a constant hissing when idle, which I just couldn't bear as I was use to my hiss free Sennheisers. Apparently it's due to the headphone amp. Also I have found that 5.1 gaming headsets in general suck. Not sure what I'm going to do with my refund. Was thinking Corsair HS1A's and xonar DG but heard some disheartening things about them recently. I was also looking at the Asus Vulcan's but not sure yet.

Either going to go Goldring DR150's and Xonar DG + clip on mic, or just use my battered sennheisers and get my first SSD...
 
Long ago I had the Medusa 5.1 headset (non-USB) and it was brilliant for gaming, didn't understand why people knocked it, but unfortunately it fell apart after 2-3 years. I then tried the DR150's with the Asus Xonar DS 7.1 and wasn't too impressed, no 'surround' so the FPS experience wasn't as good as the Medusa's.
 
try looking for a logitech g930, 79.99 off a well known auction site. ( sorry about mentioning a competitor before, i did try to avoid that and only wanted to help )
 
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http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-050-SN&groupid=702&catid=1058&subcat=692

A little more money but will blow the others out the water for sound quality/detailing and have a convenient feature for gaming if you use voice functionality - the mic auto mutes when the boom is rotated to the rest position.

I don't personally believe dolby headphone produces the best positional audio* - it does a great job of reproducing an immersive soundstage, with a good sense of depth to audio positions but surround (pannned) positioning is fairly average, slightly better IMO than multi driver "5.1" headphones but not much. CMSS-3D seems to do a better job of dead on surround positioning of audio but you do need a set of headphones that works well with it - typical sennheisers. As I've said before I consider CMSS-3D a must for multiplayer/competitive online gaming and Dolby Headphone/ProLogic better for single player gaming.



* Bare in mind that with almost every HRTF type system for reproducing audio it will not suit everyone, one system might work well with one person but not another, etc.
 
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Got the G930 delivered today (very quick!) and the sound quality is awesome, but I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with the surround sound positioning. My old Medusa's were a lot more accurate and the directions seemed more distinct. With the G930 the difference between front-left, left and rear-left is very small... with the Medusa's it was as if the speakers were literally a metre apart in each direction. So far not very impressed with Dolby surround, need to check our real surround I think! I miss being accused of hacking lol.
 
Problem is a surround system that works for one person might completely not work at all for someone else, they all basically work by trying to fool the ears/brain.

I tried a ton of "5.1" headsets that actually had multiple physical drivers and the only ones that worked for me were the Gainward SoundXplosion and while the positional worked well for me the sound quality was pretty flat/dull. Dolby Headphone generally doesn't work for me that well whereas CMSS-3D is spot on.
 
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To be honest, having 2/3 "real" speakers in each earpiece doesn't make them a true "surround sound" solution. Surround sound isn't meant to be experienced with the noise coming from an inch around your ear, they are meant to have distance between you and each source.

5.1 Headsets are a bit gimicky in my mind, they do a poor job of giving you spacial-awareness, sacrificing audio fidelity and stereo-listening (ie. music) in the process.

Stereo headset are a much better choice, simply because you lose all the downsides of 5.1s and also can give good spacial awareness. Simply put, you have two ears. You don't have 5.1 of an ear, that means that you can discern directional sound in the real world by listening to subtle pitch shifts, loudness levels, etc. not direction per-se.

Take a listen to this:
(Make sure you are only wearing STEREO headphones... Then close you're eyes.)

This is an example of what *could* be possible in the future, using software surround sound emulation (such as Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D) with a set of stereo headphones. Dolby Headphone and CMSS-3D already do a half-decent job, and they are getting better all the time!
 
Global_Inferno said:
To be honest, having 2/3 "real" speakers in each earpiece doesn't make them a true "surround sound" solution. Surround sound isn't meant to be experienced with the noise coming from an inch around your ear, they are meant to have distance between you and each source.

5.1 Headsets are a bit gimicky in my mind, they do a poor job of giving you spacial-awareness, sacrificing audio fidelity and stereo-listening (ie. music) in the process.

Stereo headset are a much better choice, simply because you lose all the downsides of 5.1s and also can give good spacial awareness. Simply put, you have two ears. You don't have 5.1 of an ear, that means that you can discern directional sound in the real world by listening to subtle pitch shifts, loudness levels, etc. not direction per-se.

Take a listen to this:
(Make sure you are only wearing STEREO headphones... Then close you're eyes.)

This is an example of what *could* be possible in the future, using software surround sound emulation (such as Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D) with a set of stereo headphones. Dolby Headphone and CMSS-3D already do a half-decent job, and they are getting better all the time!
Click to expand...

That video is amazing hahaha, well realistic!

Medusa's were the best headphones I ever had, were amazing comfy, the surround sound and bass were amazing.
 
Sold the G930's and got myself the Medusa 5.1's, they aren't the same as the pair I had a few years ago though maybe because these are USB and previous ones were 5.1 stereo jack...
 
gee3000 said:
Sold the G930's and got myself the Medusa 5.1's, they aren't the same as the pair I had a few years ago though maybe because these are USB and previous ones were 5.1 stereo jack...
Click to expand...

Bought some new medusa 5.1's after the dog ate the old pair :mad:

I bought the non USB version and they work well for me with my asus dx sound card. It's all down to personal taste as the 5.1 works well for me playing bf3 etc.
 
Might buy and trial the non-usb ones to see if there is a difference.. Also about to buy the Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 5.1 speakers to add to my AV receiver for some epic BF3!
 
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