Gaming or Audiophile Headset?

Ging3r

Ging3r

Ging3r

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I bought a of Speedlink Medusa 5.1 gaming headset and to start off with, i thought it was quite good, but slowly as I've used it, i like it less and less.

I've seen a lot of people say that a nice pair of Stereo headphones, is just as good as a 5.1 set for gaming, but i kinda believe it.
But i speak to all my clan mates, and they say, go for a specific gaming Headset, like the Sennheiser PC350's with a mic, or the Steelseries Siberia.

I was thinking about buying a pair of Sennheiser HD555's, or 595's if i feel extravigant.
But I'm really not sure whether i go for gaming (Like the look of the Logitech G35 7.1)
Or go full audiolphile stereo.


Just wondered what others thought.
And suggestions of a setup i could go for

Thanks :d
 
Ging3r said:
I bought a of Speedlink Medusa 5.1 gaming headset and to start off with, i thought it was quite good, but slowly as I've used it, i like it less and less.

I've seen a lot of people say that a nice pair of Stereo headphones, is just as good as a 5.1 set for gaming, but i kinda believe it.
But i speak to all my clan mates, and they say, go for a specific gaming Headset, like the Sennheiser PC350's with a mic, or the Steelseries Siberia.

I was thinking about buying a pair of Sennheiser HD555's, or 595's if i feel extravigant.
But I'm really not sure whether i go for gaming (Like the look of the Logitech G35 7.1)
Or go full audiolphile stereo.


Just wondered what others thought.
And suggestions of a setup i could go for

Thanks :d
Click to expand...

Audiophile is a horrible word.

But i speak to all my clan mates, and they say, go for a specific gaming Headset, like the Sennheiser PC350's with a mic, or the Steelseries Siberia.
Click to expand...

It's like asking someone in the purple shirt store for advice on which pc to buy, your clan mates are just typical gamers with no idea who recommend a headset because the marekting and packaging brand it as gaming, and 1337 r3v3iws gives it eleventy starz :p

The 350 headset is supposed to be quite good, but better to just geat headphones then a separate mic. You can then use your headphones for music and movies, then attach/ move out the mic onto the desk for when you game.

But I'm really not sure whether i go for gaming (Like the look of the Logitech G35 7.1)
Click to expand...

Logitech make some good stuff, but it will be cheap tat compared to a decent set of headphones.
 
It seems to me that you have to spend 3x as much on a gaming headset to match the quality of proper Audiophille headphones.
The only notable exception seems to be the QPad 1339 and all other Beryerdynamic headsets (1339 is a repackaged Beryerdynamic). This is simply because they're not made just for gaming, they're aviation headsets with a USB soundcard added. Though of course these have a price tag to match, you're gonna spend about the same and get similar quality if you just got proper headphones and a clip on mic.
 
i've got a set of HD595's

was going to get HD555, but the desk clip thing (and people on here) swayed me to spend the extra on the 595s

mine were £90 when I got them


I can wear them literally all day and they're just as corfortable in the 10 hour as the first minute :)
 
I also have 595's and have to agree they are extremely comfortable to wear for long sessions, and have the benefit of sounding ******* ace.

Ignore 'gaming' brand headsets if I were you and buy something proper.
 
I am in a similar situation and have done a fair amount of research over the last few weeks.

For positional audio in games, general consensus points towards coupling a good stereo headset with a nice soundcard that employs a form of HRTF- either Dolby Headphones, or CMSS3D. This type of setup will generally give much better 3d positioning results than using headphones with multiple drivers.

Another factor to consider is that the quality of stereo headphones is usually much finer than the 'surround sound' ones.

As for the headphones themselves, I would recommend looking at all the options. Headfi forum is a good place to start (although most threads can be incredibly long).

Also look at the following page: http://base.teamxbox.com/43202/
The chap there has rounded up a selection of headphones based on their soundstage.
A wide soundstage will allow you to pick out exactly where footsteps fall in games when combined with a good HRTF soundcard.

After much research I am torn between the Beyerdynamic DT880 and the Audio Technia AD700.

For a good soundcard, there are two camps, those who would recommend Creative XFi's and those who push the Asus Xonar range.

I currently have a Creative, and whilst for a long time poor driver support drove me insane, they do seem to have got their act together.
The Xfi's using CMSS3D support EAX5, a technology that a few games employ to give good positional cues to the audio streams.
The Xonars I believe support upto EAX2, and use Dolby Headphones to provide the HRTF. Either should be adequate for your needs.

Hope this helps.
 
Dreadhead said:
I am in a similar situation and have done a fair amount of research over the last few weeks.

For positional audio in games, general consensus points towards coupling a good stereo headset with a nice soundcard that employs a form of HRTF- either Dolby Headphones, or CMSS3D. This type of setup will generally give much better 3d positioning results than using headphones with multiple drivers.

Another factor to consider is that the quality of stereo headphones is usually much finer than the 'surround sound' ones.

As for the headphones themselves, I would recommend looking at all the options. Headfi forum is a good place to start (although most threads can be incredibly long).

Also look at the following page: http://base.teamxbox.com/43202/
The chap there has rounded up a selection of headphones based on their soundstage.
A wide soundstage will allow you to pick out exactly where footsteps fall in games when combined with a good HRTF soundcard.

After much research I am torn between the Beyerdynamic DT880 and the Audio Technia AD700.

For a good soundcard, there are two camps, those who would recommend Creative XFi's and those who push the Asus Xonar range.

I currently have a Creative, and whilst for a long time poor driver support drove me insane, they do seem to have got their act together.
The Xfi's using CMSS3D support EAX5, a technology that a few games employ to give good positional cues to the audio streams.
The Xonars I believe support upto EAX2, and use Dolby Headphones to provide the HRTF. Either should be adequate for your needs.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Nice info, im in exactly the same situation lol... for me i just dont like the look of the 595's (my personal opinion) the colour of them, i prefer the pc350's. If there is a decent headset/headphones that are full black and don't look cheap (again my opinion) then thats the ones i will go for.
Of course sound quality is a big thing as well ;)
 
I got a xonar essence soundcard (geared towards headphones rather than speakers) and a set of goldring NS1000 headphones and the sound is absolutely amazing, I havent used a gaming headset to compare against to be fair but theres no way I can see how they'd come close
 
bledd. said:
Dreadhead, best post this year
Click to expand...

Well thank you sir. :)

And RobPot, thank you for the recommendation. They are roughly £70 cheaper than the Beyerdynamics, so may well opt for these.

Soldier786- I bought some PC350's for my dad to use when killing zombies, and so have had the oppertunity to give them a go.
As well as being very comfortable, the soundstage is fairly wide, and the mids and highs are crisp. The only negative point I would make is that the bass can be somewhat lacking.
I have heard that this can be fixed with a modification involving drilling small holes in the cans, but I managed to acheive a respectable amount of bass by boosting the eq on his soundcard.
Another point to note is that the microphone on this headset is excellent. It surpasses the quality of the mic i have on my quickcam pro 9000 by a considerable margin, leading to astonishingly accurate reproduction over the steam client :D
 
Major price difference between the AD700 and DT880!

I've recently ordered a pair of AD700... £61 from the US :)
 
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