New Headphones - Upto £300

nickrose

nickrose

nickrose

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28 Aug 2009
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Location
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Hi All,

Looking for a new Headset / headphones for Gaming / Music / Films.

Budget upto £300.

Hardware Owned: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series and Fiio E9.

Not looking for surround headphones as the X-Fi takes care of virtual surround fairly well IMO.

I use the Fiio as a desktop amp so I don't have to scrabble about to adjust the voulme and it is plugged into the headphone output on the front panel of the soundcard via a quality 3.5mm cable.

If I dont buy a headset I will get a seperate mic for gaming.

I mainly play Batlefield / MW3 etc.

Music varies a lot in different genres.

Shortlist I have been looking at:

AKG Q701 Quincy Jones Reference Class Premium Headphones - £269

Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium 32/600 OHM Headphones - £235-246

Beyerdynamic MMX300 Closed Back multimedia Headphone/Headset - £300

Sennheiser HD650 - £300

Denon AHD2000 Over Ear Closed Back Headphones - Black - £250

Any opinions on these or better suggestions for the money?

Thanks in advance.
 
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I've got some Beyerdynamic DT990 pros but am going to try the Sennheiser PC360 (£129) to see if they are any better for gaming, not that the DT990's are bad, they are EXCELLENT - I just cant be bothered with all the bloody wires of a separate mic and headphones.
 
sHo0sH said:
I've got some Beyerdynamic DT990 pros but am going to try the Sennheiser PC360 (£129) to see if they are any better for gaming, not that the DT990's are bad, they are EXCELLENT - I just cant be bothered with all the bloody wires of a separate mic and headphones.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have the Sennheiser PC350 at the moment, while its a good headset, can't help but feel it lacks the quality of dedicated cans. And the mike seems to pickup all sorts of erroneous noises and needs a lot of fine tuning.

I was thinking of getting a clip on mike and mounting it at the bottom/top of my screen, don't know how well it would work mounted there though.

What are the DT990's like for spacial (3D) sound? Are the Beyerdynamic MMX300's basically the same headphones with a mike attached do you know?
 
The DT990s are excellent for spacial sound, I can hear 360 and even above and below (I use dolby headphone from a mixamp). I really only bought the 360s because I want the all in one solution, the clip on mic I had got stepped on and broke, and i have been using a desktop mic draped over one of the cups which is just not ideal, especially when you have about 10 ft of cable on each thing.

The MMX300 are the DT770 (closed cup) headphones with a boom mic attached, they are actually cheaper to get on the beyerdynamic website where you can make a manufaktur version in your own colours if you wish.

Check out this thread on head-fi to help you out...
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad...hone-gaming-particularly-with-dolby-headphone
 
I use a free standing desk mic over USB with my 650s. Works awesome. I remove it from the desk to avoid picking up keyboard vibrations by No More Nails Double Sided Stickying it to the wall :D

Pick up is just fine as is the SQ. No need to attach a mic to your head and compromise on what you need the most - incoming sound!
 
Sin_Chase said:
I use a free standing desk mic over USB with my 650s. Works awesome. I remove it from the desk to avoid picking up keyboard vibrations by No More Nails Double Sided Stickying it to the wall :D

Pick up is just fine as is the SQ. No need to attach a mic to your head and compromise on what you need the most - incoming sound!
Click to expand...

I would love to do this, but I don't game at a desk, I lay on the bed with a projector on the wall so it needs to be near my face :(
 
sHo0sH said:
The DT990s are excellent for spacial sound, I can hear 360 and even above and below (I use dolby headphone from a mixamp). I really only bought the 360s because I want the all in one solution, the clip on mic I had got stepped on and broke, and i have been using a desktop mic draped over one of the cups which is just not ideal, especially when you have about 10 ft of cable on each thing.

The MMX300 are the DT770 (closed cup) headphones with a boom mic attached, they are actually cheaper to get on the beyerdynamic website where you can make a manufaktur version in your own colours if you wish.

Check out this thread on head-fi to help you out...
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad...hone-gaming-particularly-with-dolby-headphone
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info - Good link.

Like the look of the Mixamp, is it the Mixamp pro you have? Would this be better than the X-Fi Titanium?

Sin_Chase said:
I use a free standing desk mic over USB with my 650s. Works awesome. I remove it from the desk to avoid picking up keyboard vibrations by No More Nails Double Sided Stickying it to the wall :D

Pick up is just fine as is the SQ. No need to attach a mic to your head and compromise on what you need the most - incoming sound!
Click to expand...

Good idea to isolate it from the keyboard - wouldn't have thought of that.
 
Try and think what sort of sound signature you like. There are many different sonic "flavours" in the headphones you've listed in the OP. People tend to think of sound quality as some sort of linear scale that increases with price tag, but it just doesn't work that way.

For example, the D2000 and HD650 could be considered technically comparable, but they sound totally different to each other.

Q701 - Analytical, bright and cold, bass-light
D2000 and DT990 - V-shaped, bass and treble heavy, recessed mids (vocals)
HD650 - forward midrange, smooth treble (slightly dark), warm bass
 
I really like my MMX 300s but whilst the basic price is cheaper on the Beyer website, if you Manufaktur a custom one it soon gets expensive :P Most of the options you choose add to the price.
 
nickrose said:
Thanks for the info - Good link.
Like the look of the Mixamp, is it the Mixamp pro you have? Would this be better than the X-Fi Titanium?
Click to expand...

I only use a mixamp because I use a console, the X-fi titanium, if it does "Dolby Headphone" would be the pc equivalent.
 
Ultrasone pro 900's are worthy of a shout, closed back as well so no sound leaking everywhere if that matters to you.

Guy on ebay sells them for around £230.
 
hux said:
Ultrasone pro 900's are worthy of a shout, closed back as well so no sound leaking everywhere if that matters to you.

Guy on ebay sells them for around £230.
Click to expand...

Yeah Pro900 is great for gaming when combined with DH and the bass really adds to the experience for explosions etc.

However, for music they are limited to certain genres I think. They excel with bass-driven music or electronic dance music, but for stuff where the vocals are important I think there are better options.
 
AFAIK the DT990s are quite bright sounding, but have good bass. I have HD 650s and D2000s atm, and have had AKG K701s in the past. Not heard the other Beyers.

D2000s are my most used headphones. They are extremely comfy and are shockingly good for electronic music/hip hop and excel with movies. I believe the DT990s are meant to be brighter sounding than the D2000s. Isolation is okay - better than the other headphones in the OP (excepting the Beyer headset). They don't have a particularly 'closed' sound either. Very good bass, and indeed a little mid-recessed, but not too bad when compared with the HD 650s. Mid-centric cans like my Ultrasone HFI2200s do show the D2000s weakness in this area though.

HD 650s are very good too. Better by a good way at certain things than many headphones. Jazz and vocals are excellent, bass is quite prominent and plenty for most things (D2000s walk over them though), they are very good for rock music (particularly kind on thrashy old metal if that's your thing), and they are generally very versatile. Newer HD 650s with metal screening around the drivers are a little brighter sounding than older ones, and are good for it. Slightly better overall build quality than the D2000s, but not enough in it to swing the deal either way imo. Slightly less comfy than the D2000s.

My experience with the K701s (which are pretty much Q701s), is that they are the best headphones bar none at the price for certain jazz. And that's it. They don't have anything like enough bass for movies and hip-hop/electronica, really, really suck for most rock (they are particularly poor with 80s metal, and made me wince due to the thrashyness of cymbals a lot of the time), and generally a bit niche as a result. They are incredibly detailed though, and you'd be hard pushed to get more detail at the price (and even quite a bit more from what I've read). They're comfy enough, similar to properly adjusted HD 650s. Build quality is lacking and they feel a bit flimsy. The gymbal mechanism on each ear cup moves around and strains the wires to the drivers as I found with the pair I bought (one of the solder joints had fatigued and broken).

So, out of those:

- Denon D2000s win for me with their brilliant bass
- HD 650s are a close second with their easy-going, versatile nature.
- K701s are too niche for me to recommend them (and as such the same goes for the apparently identical Q701s).

DT990s interest me, and I'd quite like to give a pair a home one day.
 
I am a Denon fan also. Many audiophiles look down on the D2K, D5K and D7K but they are comfortable, fun sounding headphones with satisfying, visceral bass and versatile enough for gaming, movies and music. They are also relatively easy to drive.

I've too been keen to try the DT990/600, but many reports are that it's a step down from the D2000 and Pro900 in most areas except sound stage.
 
I can't really add much to the pot apart from check out the reviews on head-fi.org, i myself just purchased a pair of AKG K272HD for £121.
 
The k701s are an acquired taste, very hard to drive and definitely limited for many genres of music. But if you have £200 or so to spend on gaming headphones you won't find a more precise and expansive experience anywhere. At least not at any rational price.
 
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