Best general use headphones for between £150-£250
- Thread starter Fate Zero
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Caporegime
Have you got an amp/dac?
For the upper end of your budget HD650's are possible but I wouldn't run them off onboard audio
For the upper end of your budget HD650's are possible but I wouldn't run them off onboard audio
Soldato
get 599s
For headphone gaming you would want to have binaural-sound.
Aka sound card with good HRTF.
And not that it would be bad thing for movies with their surround sound tracks.
While of course always dependant on listeners head and ear shape results can be quite nice with good headphones.
Meaning there's both sense of direction to sound and also that it feels to come from father than next to ear.
Closed gaming headphones tend to be good for head in bucket size sound stage.
This can literally sound like there's real big space around you or that everything happens in bucket size space.
(Dolby always echoing badly is its feature)
Aka sound card with good HRTF.
And not that it would be bad thing for movies with their surround sound tracks.
While of course always dependant on listeners head and ear shape results can be quite nice with good headphones.
Meaning there's both sense of direction to sound and also that it feels to come from father than next to ear.
Closed gaming headphones tend to be good for head in bucket size sound stage.
This can literally sound like there's real big space around you or that everything happens in bucket size space.
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I would probably recommend the akg 702 over the Senns. Better soundstage and imaging for gaming. Nothing wrong with the hd598/9 of course and to most there wouldn't be a huge difference. Got gaming I would say there is little point in getting any higher Senn headphone such as the hd650 (which would be a tad dark anyway)
A simple Fiio e10k would be sufficient for either headphone. Of course you could spend more or even get a soundcard like the soundblaster z which would be fine for your purposes. As with the headphones more could an spent on the amp for better performance.
A simple Fiio e10k would be sufficient for either headphone. Of course you could spend more or even get a soundcard like the soundblaster z which would be fine for your purposes. As with the headphones more could an spent on the amp for better performance.
Soldato
Save some money and get a set of DT770's.
Indeed good binaural sound requires certain things from headphones not necessarily needed by music.
With its apparently mediocrish soundstage HD650 is way worser than HD59x models (not to mention AKGs) for competitive fps gaming with focus in hearing foot steps and such. Which benefits greatly from bass neutral/light frequency response and big soundtage.
And in "fun" gaming with immersion of explosions and gun sounds equally important there are other cheaper open headphones with strong bass and big soundstage.
Like DT990 Beyers or Philips Fidelios, which do also that competitive part better thanks to big soundstage.
With "neutralizing" bass using equalizer likely allowing increasing their competitive gaming performance.
AKG 701/702 are light/neutral on bass notably decreasing that fun aspect, while being good for that competitive gaming.
Though apparently there has been slight changes during years.
K712 should be more balancing with stronger more immersive bass obviously making footsteps etc little harder to distinguish, just like in DT990 Beyers.
Myself have HD595 Sennheiser which definitely work extremely well for telling those footsteps etc. But with light bass making that "fun" immersion lowish.
DT990 Beyers are excellent for that fun part. But with immersive bass making hearing those footsteps less excellent, though still great with big soundstage.
DT880 semi open design imitating HD330 Superlux has clearly smaller soundstage likely much like that HD650 Sennheiser.
With stronger than DT990 emphasis on bass and treble that gives "front row" agressiveness to say rock music.
But in binaural game sound that smaller soundstage is clear minus.
That Youtube BF4 comparison is very good for comparing headphones for gaming.
With human hearing having bad memory and being even worser as measuring instrument that close/side by side comparison is important.
Only after getting DT990s really found out how bass neutral HD595 is.
(that fashion design of Sennheiser started getting cracks to plastic parts in couple years)
Now it's correct.
With semiconductors and especially opamps it doen't take expensive parts to make amplifier which is transparent for human hearing.
Of course there are certain situations which have to be accounted for getting absolutely neutral technical performance in all situations, but overal that electric engineering part is clear and well studied.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
And many other scientific test have confirmed that after reaching certain (technically not so high end specs) level human hearing simply can't tell things apart.
That's the reason why "audiophiles" don't accept blind testing: It would show all those expensive special cables, equipment etc as scam.
Soldato
Firstly I think you'll find that it's actually Superlux imitating the DT880 rather than the other way around.
Also, the DT880 is considerably more neutral than the DT990, which has a strong V shaped signature.
The simple K702 bass port mod adds 5db of sub-bass, which makes quite a difference to the low end, without making too much of a mess of the highs, with the only real difference being a slight reduction in the sound stage, which is simply too wide in the first place.
As for amps, if it's just for gaming then as long as it's capable of driving the headphones loud enough then you don't need anything else but it is far from true when it comes to music. A pair of AKG K702 or Senn HD650 will sound quite different through a cheap, far eastern, generic op-amp based amp compared with something capable of driving them properly. AKGs require a shed load of current while HD650s love a large voltage swing and most cheap amps are incapable of doing either. I don't mean you have to spend a fortune, my Schiit Vali only cost me £105 and my Magni 2 was even less, just avoid a lot of the generic junk available on ebay and the rainforest.
ps. I game quite happily with my HD650s as what they lose out on in sound stage they make up for in resolution. (my K702s are on the stand and my DT990s are in the cupboard)
Also, the DT880 is considerably more neutral than the DT990, which has a strong V shaped signature.
The simple K702 bass port mod adds 5db of sub-bass, which makes quite a difference to the low end, without making too much of a mess of the highs, with the only real difference being a slight reduction in the sound stage, which is simply too wide in the first place.
As for amps, if it's just for gaming then as long as it's capable of driving the headphones loud enough then you don't need anything else but it is far from true when it comes to music. A pair of AKG K702 or Senn HD650 will sound quite different through a cheap, far eastern, generic op-amp based amp compared with something capable of driving them properly. AKGs require a shed load of current while HD650s love a large voltage swing and most cheap amps are incapable of doing either. I don't mean you have to spend a fortune, my Schiit Vali only cost me £105 and my Magni 2 was even less, just avoid a lot of the generic junk available on ebay and the rainforest.
ps. I game quite happily with my HD650s as what they lose out on in sound stage they make up for in resolution. (my K702s are on the stand and my DT990s are in the cupboard)