Looking for some gaming headphones for 170 quids ish

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Hey just wanted to hear what peoples reccomendations are for a pair of gaming headphones, I'm not an overly competitive player and am looking for more of the blow me away audio compared to the hear footsteps from 2 miles away. But both would be sweet i guess :)
 
I have the Hyper X Cloud II. They at sub £100 and they are the best I've had so far. The mic is nice and clear, the sound is good, deep tones and very clear. I've owned SteelSeries Arctic 5/7 and these beat them imo.
 
First thing is do you have quiet or noisy environment?
While enabling strong lowest "rumbling" bass closed headphone design otherwise sucks for sound quality having huge challenges and usually causing heavy compromising.

For open design you could anyway get very good headphones for not much more than £100.
AKG K701/702 are among absolute top for competitive gaming with huge binaural soundstage.
Unlike in similar Audio-Technicas their bass is there and actually reaches pretty low if you listen for it, but it simply always takes back seat to details giving average "fun factor".

For more fun Beyerdynamic DT990 whose meant for studio use Pro version is around £100 would have bell balanced sound for gaming.
It has excellent for open headphone bass immersion with big soundstage which allows bass without it drowning that much of details unlike in small soundstage headphones.
Though soundstage is notch smaller than in AKGs and also fun bass makes distinguishing foot steps andsuch harder when there's low frequency sounds.
But that doesn't mean they wouldn't shred typical closed headphones to atoms.

More expensive (~£200) AKG K712 has near DT990 level fun factor with above neutral bass added to it.

Sound is also as bad/good as weakest link so for anykind fps games you need binaural simulation to get to good immersion.
Sound Blaster Z would handle 250 ohm Beyers well while having Creative's excellent binaural simulation.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=sound+blaster+Z


With good headphones for gaming this sounds like actually being in there instead of listening to headphones/recording.
While typical closed headphones are like putting head into bucket... under water.
And this is how binaural sound works in games.
Though with closed headphones with small soundstage none of these sound really any special.
 
Sennheiser Game One for open headphones
Sennheiser Game Zero for closed
Steel Series Arctis 7 for wireless.

You will be FAR better off buying a good pair of traditional headphones and a separate boom mic like the Modi Mic or a USB desk microphone like a Blue Snowball.
 
My Sennheiser GSP 600's arrive today, I'm hoping with the mix of those with my STX II sound card, they would be pretty good for gaming.

I tried my hd 580's with the antilon modmic and although they were good, the streams of cabling and the fact I have to hair drier the glue on every so often and the weak magnet just gave me an unpleasant experience most of the time.

I've went all in one this time.
 
Slightly over budget but you can get AKG 712 Pro on the rainforest for less than £200 at the moment.

I'm using them with a modmic and whilst I agree with the above post that the glue is weak it's still a great setup - no issues with the magnet on mine either.

For gaming I prefer them over my Massdrop HD6XX (650s)
 
I needed a new headset with mic, and had to be open-back. Spotted what looked like a good deal over in the US this weekend and am having a friend ship it over for $15-20.

Philips SHP9500s - $49.95
V-Moda Boom Pro mic - $27.02
Creative Soundblaster Play!3 - $24.95

It ticked all my boxes (for my £100 budget). And as the headphones and mic were so cheap, I added the USB DAC (not really needed for those headphones although they should give them a nice little boost regardless) to ensure cleaner mic, provide me with the Creative drivers and software, and bypass my motherboard audio which I don't really trust anymore after trying a headset which emitted mic hiss. Was a bit torn between the Play! 3 and the slightly more expensive SoundblasterX G1 (latter has 7.1 surround) but ultimately I'm happy with decent stereo for everything. The V-Moda Boom Pro plugs into the SHP9500 no problem, replacing the SHP9500 stock cable, and avoids so much cable mess and bulk, so that became my mic choice after originally looking at the more expensive ModMic 5.0. The V-Moda cable looks nice and durable too, and is longer than the SHP9500s cable (200cm v 120cm) so bonus as the stock cable wouldn't have reached my computer. The V-Moda's 3.5mm splitter and the USB DAC will also both act as little extensions too, maybe adding ~25cm or so.

Going by all the vids I watched comparing mic quality etc, I'll be a happy puppy (if everything arrives in one piece). Oh yeah, also added a pair of stretchable, washable covers to use on the headphones and protect the stock earpads which unfortunately aren't removable. Still all came in under £100 inc. shipping - £97.61.
 
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702s are amazing for the price with a couple of negatives for me. Firstly they slightly touch the ear causing me pain after 10 mins or so. Secondly they have these little elastic bands that after a few years can stretch and become useless. the sound for gaming is great. I own these and the hd599 and the latter is my top pick. They are so comfy I could wear them all day and the sound signature almost feels made for gaming
 
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