Gaming Headphones // Headset - Advice Needed

[Meritor]

Hey,

Hoping someone might be able to offer me some advice, previously I lived in a small studio apartment and had been using a single headset / setup across all my devices (Philips Fidelio X2HR’s + Syba Sonic DAC + V-Moda Boom Mic).

I’ve recently relocated to a town house and now my PC is in the attic space and the PS5 / XSX / Switch on the ground floor living area. With only 1 set of headphones it’s a pain to keep swapping (or remembering them) when I want to use another device. Ideally I’d like a second pair of headphones (or headset) to use either for the PC or Games consoles but I’m a little unsure what would be the best option.

With a budget of £100 what would people recommend? Do I just get another set of X2HR’s and call it a day or are there better headphone / headset options out there for gaming (mainly competitive FPS type games)? Additionally, should I get a different DAC or microphone or are the ones I’ve got solid for my needs?

Basically, what would you do if you were in my situation?

 

[EsaT]

Most of gaming stuff is cheapest trinkets completely unable to compete with audio maker headphones.
Already the fact of nearly all of them being closed designs makes it hard for them to match sound.

While X2HR isn't exactly bass neutral, which limits competitiveness in distinguishing foot steps etc, it should still do well.
And above neutral bass improvess overall immersion especially in single player gaming.


Also for FPS gaming you'll want to have binaural sound simulation/HRTF.
Unlike completely erroneously claimed, we humans don't have stereo hearing, but binaural hearing.
Meaning shape of the head causes direction dependant changes to signal received by ears from sound source and brain uses those differences to process sound source location.
That's why pure speaker stereo mix works very badly with headphones.
Those binaural cues can be simulated mathematically and if your head shape is close enough to average and heaphones are good, you'll get even sense of distance besides directionality:

First minute or two of this is excellent quick test for headphones:

For comparison stereo speaker mix:

Stereo:

HRTF: