Best headphones for £50-100?

rids57 said:
Not sure of that, the AKG K612 takes some beating at the £100 price point
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The price point is £50-£100, not £100.

The CALs cost around half of what the K612 cost. I said I consider them the best headphones at around £50, beating most £100 headphones. The K612 seem to be a good set, sure, but they cost a twice as much and seeing as the OP's budget is £50-£100, I thought I'd offer the other side of the spectrum. Not to mention that the K612 was recommended in this thread already quite a few times so I thought I'd suggest something else.

I would personally go with the CALs at £50 or the K612. Never actually used the K612, but the reviews look good. I guess it's all down to personal preference, headphones are a lot about finding a signature that you like in the first place, then comes comfort, build quality etc.

The CALs will sound quite different to the K612, being what they are. Some might prefer the CALs to the K612, or vice versa. I know from personal experience that I've enjoyed many a headphone that was supposed to be pretty average compared to the competition. All of the headphones I own are completely different but that's what I love about them.
 
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I agree, at around £50 the Cals take some beating but there is another very good option at just just over £50 - HyperX Cloud and unplug the microphone from the headset and you always have the option of using the mic should you need it in the future.
 
A price point of £50-100 includes, by definition, £100... At which price the K612 is the superior headphone.

If the OP has the budget for better headphones, whats wrong with recommending the best s/he can get for the money? You do have a point in that it all comes down to sound signatures and hence one's personal preference for them but I would still recommend the K612s over the CAL! - and as good as they are the for the money, I'm not sure which £100 headphones they beat, the CAL!2 is superior for a few pounds more and there are plenty of other headphones which are better than those.

On top of that, for the OPs uses (i.e. fps gaming), the wider soundstage with better clarity is more suited than the CAL, which is somewhat lacking in both in comparison.
 
Thanks for all the advice :)

I bought the AKG K612 for £85, should be here sometime next week.

Any advice on what settings I should use in my asus essence STX II control panel with these headphones?

With my Edifier speakers, I like this setup: hifi preset mode, 48kHZ, 8 channels.
 
CAL! is the best £50 headphone, but if the OP can spend £100, he'd be far better off buying the K612.

As he has a Xonar Essence STX II, I think he'd be mad to buy the CAL! over the K612. K612 is all round better headphone, especially for gaming.

For someone to pair £50 headphones (that can be powered by a potato) with a £170 sound card, I'd have to ask: What's the point in owning such a sound card?

Too many times people put too much focus into the sound card, thinking an expensive one will bring huge gains to cheaper headphones. Spend the money on what recreates the sound you hear; the headphones. Doesn't matter how good the sound card is, the sound can only be as good as the headphones.
 
Marsman said:
CAL! is the best £50 headphone, but if the OP can spend £100, he'd be far better off buying the K612.

As he has a Xonar Essence STX II, I think he'd be mad to buy the CAL! over the K612. K612 is all round better headphone, especially for gaming.

For someone to pair £50 headphones (that can be powered by a potato) with a £170 sound card, I'd have to ask: What's the point in owning such a sound card?

Too many times people put too much focus into the sound card, thinking an expensive one will bring huge gains to cheaper headphones. Spend the money on what recreates the sound you hear; the headphones. Doesn't matter how good the sound card is, the sound can only be as good as the headphones.
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haha, fair play, but you could also say that about pairing £85 headphones with a £170 sound card
 
DT990's?, or the AKG 612. I had them before my Beyerdynamic T70's and they were very good for the price.
 
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Regarding the asus essence STX II sound card, I got it for free, I would never have spent that much money on audio stuff for myself otherwise :p

I imagine that if it were to fail now though and going back to onboard audio, I would probably notice a huge decrease in sound quality so would have no choice but to buy one :p
 
Nexus18 said:
Regarding the asus essence STX II sound card, I got it for free, I would never have spent that much money on audio stuff for myself otherwise :p

I imagine that if it were to fail now though and going back to onboard audio, I would probably notice a huge decrease in sound quality so would have no choice but to buy one :p
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I bought mine very recently and there was a very nice difference between onboard. Especially when using the dolby surround it comes with. Sounds really good, shant go without a sound card again. Also really nice in game etc. I suppose it wants to be for the price :p
 
Nexus18 said:
Regarding the asus essence STX II sound card, I got it for free, I would never have spent that much money on audio stuff for myself otherwise :p

I imagine that if it were to fail now though and going back to onboard audio, I would probably notice a huge decrease in sound quality so would have no choice but to buy one :p
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Free!!

Can't get much better than getting a quality product for no money. :D
 
tyler_jrb said:
I bought mine very recently and there was a very nice difference between onboard. Especially when using the dolby surround it comes with. Sounds really good, shant go without a sound card again. Also really nice in game etc. I suppose it wants to be for the price :p
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Yeah I noticed a massive difference going from onboard to this soundcard when using my edifier rt1600 speakers, however, my motherboard is pretty damn old now (GA-P55-UD3), I will be getting a new setup in the next month or 2 though so will perhaps have much better onboard audio but whether it will be a match for the asus essence STX II is another question :D

I am looking forward to trying out the dolby feature stuff with these headphones, with my edifier rt1600, I am not too keen on how all the effects sound but have read good things when it comes to the presets and good quality headphones for gaming etc.

The only headphones that I have briefly tried out with this soundcard was Sennheiser HD 202, which when paired with the soundcard were superior to my plantronics 780 headset but they aren't exactly headphones that require much to drive them in the first place anyway :p :o

Marsman said:
Free!!

Can't get much better than getting a quality product for no money. :D
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Indeed, I was chuffed to bits :D Wish I could get other expensive PC stuff for free though!!!! :p
 
Arrived today and certainly feel and look nice :)

What settings do you think I should use for gaming/bf 4?

Currently got these settings in asus CP:

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EDIT:

Am I correct in thinking that I should switch to high gain for these headphones?

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The settings will vary depending on what game you are playing.

If the game has a setting for headphones then it means that it has it's own binaural driver and in that case you should set it to 2 channel and hit the HF button to bypass all processing.

If the game only has windows default or speaker settings then select 6 or 8 channel and hit the GAME button.

As for the gain setting, it depends on what headphones you are using and you didn't say in your post. If you can get good volume at 50% then you're set, otherwise change it.
 
Take them up to high gain, they are 120ohm I believe and should benefit from a little more drive.

Just turn your speakers up a little to compensate for the lower volume setting - I have the same speakers ;)
 
I bought my son some Philips SHP9500's for just over £50 a bit ago and would have recommended those but the price has shot up and i think they are to expensive now.
 
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