Please can you recommend a new set of headphones for PC gaming

SkScotchegg

SkScotchegg

SkScotchegg

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Hi guys,

About 13 years ago I posted on this board and asked for your help and some kind chap recommended me "Creative Aurvana Live Headphones - wired" which I've been using for the past 13 years, and they've been absolutely amazing, but it's finally time for an upgrade as the cups have started to break apart and the sound has started to fade.

I remember I would buy these £130 PC gaming headsets prior to owning the Creative Aurvana and they would always break apart after 1 year of use and then someone recommended the Creative ones and they've lasted 13 years which is crazy.

Please can you recommend some headphones with ground sound, primarily for gaming.

I have an AV reciever on my desk which I have my headphones plugged into so I'm happy to get wired again with a 3.5m jack or the bigger 6.35m, either way I'm happy.

Budget wise, anything from £50 to £300, I'm not fussed, just whatever you think will blow me away.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I just wanted to say that I do listen to music too, and I think that guy years ago recommended the Creative Aurvana Live Headphones because of the great base and sound quality for music too. I'm guessing these headphones weren't seen as gaming headphones back then and I'm wanting something similar now, headphones that perform really well for music and games.

EDIT 2: I'd also prefer a headset with no mic attached as I use a mic on my desk for talking on discord, and I've always prefered that too.
 
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13 years, that's a very good innings. The CAL was basically the bargain recommendation back in the day. From what I know of it has some elevated bass, slight treble but warm with a fairly narrow soundstage. If you like that sound profile that might help in choosing a successor. There were cheap, super lightweight and easy to drive.

Do you want to stay with closed-back, or venture into the world of open-back headphones?

In case you are not aware; closed-back is what you had with the CAL, so isolation in-terms of blocking outside noise, however this means much less air gets into the ear cups and typically tends to mean more bass and your ears may get hotter amongst other things. Open-backs will not isolate outside noises (so you can hear background PC, or family etc.). However because they let the air in can offer a more natural sound and typically more soundstage (depth for want of a better word).

If you go with the former the choice is more limited, so somethings like the Fiio FT1 (£140), Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro/X (£130-190), or Sony MDR M1 (£210). They are probably the go to suggestions for closed-back headphones. You can get cheaper headphones like the AKG K361, Sony MDR 7506 or Takstar Pro 82 (c.£60 - £80) which might be solid for budget buys. From what you've mentioned it's going to be hard to argue against the Fiio FT1. The only unknown with the Fiio is long-term durability.

If going with open-backs there's going to be a lot more choice.
 
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I have some Philips X2HRs for exactly your use case (at the desk, wired, for gaming and music, don't want a mic). And have been very pleased with them. They're getting on a bit these days, so you can buy them pretty cheap too - £120 on Amazon.
 
I use sennheiser 598s very comfy for hours. Dont get sweaty or hot at all.

Good sound from them too.
Id look for something similar today.
 

MOMENTUM 4 Denim | Sennheiser United Kingdom

www.sennheiser-hearing.com www.sennheiser-hearing.com

I have a pair in the copper colour, for music and sound they are very nice. Good battery life as well. I did try and use them for office work also but the active transparency was hit and miss and the built in mic's actually picked up too much background noise. However, for your gaming and music requirements along with a stand alone mic I think these would fit right in. And the Denim is on offer at just £169.99.

Obviously not wired so that may be a deal breaker.
 
I can recommend the Maxwells as well if you wanted wireless\bluetooth. If you like Sennheiser, their outlet have some good refurbished with a 1 year warranty as well. Not used them myself but genuine manufacturer
 
HD560S, they've on deal for £99.99 at the moment. Otherwise, The HD598 if you can get it for £70. X2HR is fine, but I found it a bit too heavy for long periods. I actually use the Philips SHP9500 at the moment, which can be had for peanuts, easily the most comfortable pear of headphones I've ever tried. Sound is a bit on the trebly side.
 
Not a fan of the X2HR for gaming personally - I have a pair in my collection and as above they are quite big headphones that aren't the best for longer sessions and while decent for music the positional accuracy in movies and games with surround audio is behind other headphones in the price range in my opinion. I also wouldn't spend £120 on them as they regularly come up on deals at half that - I bought mine for £67 new.

The 560S are a bargain especially with the deals which have been on them recently but the Sennheiser sound might not be for everyone and the 505s are notably more comfortable albeit considerably more expensive. The HD620S might be a good closed back option here but not something I can recommend from personal experience (I'm also not a fan of closed back for gaming purposes unless you have to).
 
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InkZ said:
I'm on my 3rd pair of Sennheisers. Keep buying virtually the same ones lol. So comfortable.
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Think i got mine very early 2010/11 or so. Easily nearly 15 years old thousands and thousands of hours on them. I did replace the haedband with parts from senheiser after a couple years after the younger one ran over it with a toddler chair. She's now an adult. I'ver tried quite a few headphones over the years and these are by far the favourite, very comfy extremely non-fatiguing at all, but great sound for all sorts of media.
 
Timber said:
13 years, that's a very good innings. The CAL was basically the bargain recommendation back in the day. From what I know of it has some elevated bass, slight treble but warm with a fairly narrow soundstage. If you like that sound profile that might help in choosing a successor. There were cheap, super lightweight and easy to drive.

Do you want to stay with closed-back, or venture into the world of open-back headphones?

In case you are not aware; closed-back is what you had with the CAL, so isolation in-terms of blocking outside noise, however this means much less air gets into the ear cups and typically tends to mean more bass and your ears may get hotter amongst other things. Open-backs will not isolate outside noises (so you can hear background PC, or family etc.). However because they let the air in can offer a more natural sound and typically more soundstage (depth for want of a better word).

If you go with the former the choice is more limited, so somethings like the Fiio FT1 (£140), Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro/X (£130-190), or Sony MDR M1 (£210). They are probably the go to suggestions for closed-back headphones. You can get cheaper headphones like the AKG K361, Sony MDR 7506 or Takstar Pro 82 (c.£60 - £80) which might be solid for budget buys. From what you've mentioned it's going to be hard to argue against the Fiio FT1. The only unknown with the Fiio is long-term durability.

If going with open-backs there's going to be a lot more choice.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your quick reply and thank you for all the helpful information so far, really appreciate it.

And thanks to all the other replies in the thread too.

I'm so glad you explained what the open back headphones is because whilst I was at work today, I was sat there thinking about a problem that I discovered between two headsets on PC and I think you might have just answered that question for me.

So basically, I own PC, PS5 and Xbox and I have two wireless headsets for the consoles and this wired headset for PC. Sometimes I like to try the PS5 headset on PC as the sound quality is very good. The PS5 headset is called Sony Inzone H7 and they're great and sound great on both console and PC but the problem I ran into is whenever I join friends to play Battlefield, I join our discord server to talk, and that's when I run into the problem as I didn't like the way I sound when I speak, I hope this makes sense, but the sound on the Inzone H7 felt enclosed, like something was doing something with the cups because as soon as I tried to talk I was like omg, I can't stand this, and I had to switch back to the wired Creative Aurvana Live Headphones. And I've never understood why.

So I'm presuming it's because the Creative Aurvana Live wired Headphones are open-back like you said which allows me to hear my own voice properly as well as everything else in the room where as the H7 doesn't allow me to hear my own voice properly in my ears, so it doesn't sound right to me when I talk.

If this is the case, I would definately rather have the open-back style headphones again as there's no point me owning a headset on PC if I can't speak to my friends on Discord.

I wasn't sure what was causing it, if it was the design of the ear cups on the Inzone H7 or noise cancelling etc, but I don't even think the H7 has noise cancelling, I think only the H9 (more expensive version) has noise cancelling actually.

So what do you guys reckon based on what I've described? Stick with open-back, yeah?
 
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SkScotchegg said:
Thank you for your quick reply and thank you for all the helpful information so far, really appreciate it.

...

So basically, I own PC, PS5 and Xbox and I have two wireless headsets for the consoles and this wired headset for PC. Sometimes I like to try the PS5 headset on PC as the sound quality is very good. The PS5 headset is called Sony Inzone H7 and they're great and sound great on both console and PC but the problem I ran into is whenever I join friends to play Battlefield, I join our discord server to talk, and that's when I run into the problem as I didn't like the way I sound when I speak, I hope this makes sense, but the sound on the Inzone H7 felt enclosed, like something was doing something with the cups because as soon as I tried to talk I was like omg, I can't stand this, and I had to switch back to the wired Creative Aurvana Live Headphones. And I've never understood why.

So what do you guys reckon based on what I've described? Stick with open-back, yeah?
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Np.

Both the CAL and the Sony Inzone H7 are closed-back headphones. I'm not sure as to the issue you've described, other than maybe the Inzone is doing something with chat/game mix, or using bluetooth for Discord (and reducing the audio quality). Not sure. However the Inzone has all the audio hardware inside the headset and doing the processing whether using the 2.4ghz USB dongle, or Bluetooth. Maybe whatever you're using for the mic on the CAL is just better, or you prefer as I assume it's using your onboard/soundcard audio on PC.

Personally I prefer open-backs, but it is a preference thing. If you're find hearing background noise then open-back can have major benefits; more natural sounding, more soundstage, less bass and ears don't tend to heat up as much.
 
Sounds like you should stick with the open back. The other issue I have with closed back is I find they get hot after a while, whilst I can wear open back for hours.
 
Timber said:
Np.

Both the CAL and the Sony Inzone H7 are closed-back headphones. I'm not sure as to the issue you've described, other than maybe the Inzone is doing something with chat/game mix, or using bluetooth for Discord (and reducing the audio quality). Not sure. However the Inzone has all the audio hardware inside the headset and doing the processing whether using the 2.4ghz USB dongle, or Bluetooth. Maybe whatever you're using for the mic on the CAL is just better, or you prefer as I assume it's using your onboard/soundcard audio on PC.

Personally I prefer open-backs, but it is a preference thing. If you're find hearing background noise then open-back can have major benefits; more natural sounding, more soundstage, less bass and ears don't tend to heat up as much.
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Cheers mate.

And yeah, I reckon I'll stick with open back as that seems to tick all the boxes for me.

InkZ said:
Sounds like you should stick with the open back. The other issue I have with closed back is I find they get hot after a while, whilst I can wear open back for hours.
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Thanks mate.

So now I just need to decide between going for the Fiio FT1 (£140), Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro/X (£130-190), or Sony MDR M1 (£210)

I do like Sony, so I'm leaning towards those, but I'll read reviews and watch YouTube vids first to help me decide.

I'll post back when I get them and let you know how it all turns out. :)
 
SkScotchegg said:
So now I just need to decide between going for the Fiio FT1 (£140), Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro/X (£130-190), or Sony MDR M1 (£210)

I do like Sony, so I'm leaning towards those, but I'll read reviews and watch YouTube vids first to help me decide.

I'll post back when I get them and let you know how it all turns out. :)
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, those 3 recommendations are wired closed-back headphones, not open-backs.
 
Rroff said:
Not a fan of the X2HR for gaming personally - I have a pair in my collection and as above they are quite big headphones that aren't the best for longer sessions and while decent for music the positional accuracy in movies and games with surround audio is behind other headphones in the price range in my opinion. I also wouldn't spend £120 on them as they regularly come up on deals at half that - I bought mine for £67 new.

The 560S are a bargain especially with the deals which have been on them recently but the Sennheiser sound might not be for everyone and the 505s are notably more comfortable albeit considerably more expensive. The HD620S might be a good closed back option here but not something I can recommend from personal experience (I'm also not a fan of closed back for gaming purposes unless you have to).
Click to expand...

Largely agreed with this, I think highly of the X2HR but I also picked them up brand new for less than £70 on sale. For that price they're shocking value in terms of build quality and sound, but I honestly find them a tad boring with bass that while arguably punchy lacks any depth which is probably my biggest complaint.

For open backed gaming and the OP, I'd look into the Beyerdynamics DT990's, I own a good few headphones and they're the ones I tend to come back to for the fun competency factor. I've got a set of Sennheiser HD598's that are near 20 years old, some HD650's which are similarly old, and a bunch of others. For fast paced, punchy, bass accurate open backed headphones with good gaming potential for around the £100-150 mark? It's the DT990's every time for me, either the 32ohm or 250ohm Premiums or the 250 standard, I'd spring for the Premiums simply for comfort and build quality for little to no price difference.

Love those headphones to death, you might want to EQ the treble a little but that's the only thing I'd be concerned about. Probably the best open back headphones I've ever used for bass reproduction and response that weren't planars shy of spending a grand, and my daily drivers are planars in the form of the Audeze LCD2's.
 
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I currently use DT 1990 Pro's and they are the best headphones I have owned for gaming and no slouch for music either. Thoroughly recommended. Maybe look to pick up some 2nd hand to stay in your budget? They are built like tanks, so as long as they haven't been abused they should be good for years and years.
 
Timber said:
Just to be clear, those 3 recommendations are wired closed-back headphones, not open-backs.
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Ah sorry mate, yeah I did miss-read.

I've re-read what you said in your origonal post above and based on your advice I've been looking at the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro/X which I can see for £189.99, I think that's a good price for me and the reviews seem really good so I think I’m going to go ahead and order those ones. They seem to tick all the boxes so fingers crossed they’re a good replacement over my existing “Creative Aurvana Live Headphones”.

Thanks again for all your help, as well as everyone else that contributed to the thread, much appreciated!
 
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