New headset for gaming

Gregry254

Gregry254

Gregry254

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Joined
5 Dec 2006
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607
Location
Aberdeen
Looking for a new gaming headset and don't know where to start!

Currently using a pair of Sony XM3's which have become spare since I don't fly much anymore plugged into my B550 Aorus Pro with the 3.5mm jack.

I see a lot of headsets are now wireless, is latency an issue with wireless?

Are sound cards still a thing? Would you recommend it for primarily gaming? I remember buying a PCI soundblaster card back in the day.

Budget up to £200 and only real requirement is a mic that is detachable/folds away when not in use.
 
Gregry254 said:
Looking for a new gaming headset and don't know where to start!

Currently using a pair of Sony XM3's which have become spare since I don't fly much anymore plugged into my B550 Aorus Pro with the 3.5mm jack.

I see a lot of headsets are now wireless, is latency an issue with wireless?

Are sound cards still a thing? Would you recommend it for primarily gaming? I remember buying a PCI soundblaster card back in the day.

Budget up to £200 and only real requirement is a mic that is detachable/folds away when not in use.
Click to expand...

Will try and take a stab at some of these. Obviously your budget is going to be impacted if you have to buy a headset/headphones and DAC/AMP or Soundcard. So I do think that's the first question you'll need to answer; do you need a Soundcard or DAC/AMP.

1. Yes, soundcards are still a thing. Although there has been an explosion in external DAC/AMPs over the last decade for a few different reasons; not limited too but including; increasing interest in 'headfi', reducing risk of interference internal soundcards can suffer from, reducing the reliance on software drivers, use with non-PCs etc.

2. Latency is probably not noticeable for most. I've only seen Rtings.com measure latency and depending on headset can vary between 30-80ms-ish. I think wireless is more obvious for console use where most will be using wireless controllers already and therefore have a higer latency to begin with. Or indeed not care. Generally Wireless headsets/headphones will be more expensive than their wired counterparts and sound worse at the same price.

Do you want closed or open-back?
 
I use the XM3's with ambient sound mode (turns off ANC) so open back will be more what I am used to at the moment. If closed back would give a better experience/sound quality I am open to that too.
 
Personally I prefer open-back headphones for their more natural sound and wider sound stage. And the fact your ears are unlikely to heat up as much. That said I'm aware of the fact that open-backs are more at risk of allowing teammates voices to echo back in a loop thereby really irritating people.

Headset wise I think the obvious choice for wired is the Drop + EPOS PC38X c. £150. Integrated mic, open-back, can be powered from anything and include leads for PC and console use. Very natural and tuned to near perfection for gaming imho. However the clamp is very tight which can make them uncomfortable. The Epos H6Pro is based on the same GSP500 drivers and are much more comfortable but do have excessive bass - although they do retain a lot of the PC38X's strengths. Also both of these have the old Game One mic built in which is a solid mic.

If going separate microphone then the Modmic (USB or 3.5mm aux) is great but expensive. With certain headphones you can get a V Moda Mic for c.£20 which can fit in the jack on the headphone.

Obvious headphones are the Sennheiser HD 560S (c. £140), Beyerdynamic TYGR 300R (£120). I think the Beyerdynamic DT 990s and AKG K701/2 are also solid choices but I wouldn't choose over the aforementioned HD 560S or TYGR 300R. There is also the Phillips SHP9500 (c.£90) and Fidelio X2HR which also come up as recommended but I haven't used, personally. Although I did have the original Fidelio and didn't like how muddy there were but that's just my opinion. The HD 560S and TYGR 300R are more likely to need an AMP though than the earlier headsets.

Not sure if that helps but I think there's some starting points. All of these options are wired and leaning more on the audiophile side than 'gaming' headsets such as Steelseries etc.
 
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I use the HD560S i love them. I do run them through an amp and just use an apple dongle as the DAC. It is a bit of a rabbit hole that you can potentially fall into in regards to headphones.
 
Highly recommend the PC38X.

I have mine connected to the SoundBlaster G6 and it's a great combo.

Tried using the 560S and the 599s which are both fantastic but had mixed results with standalone mics so decided to just have an all-in-one.

The clamp is strong at first but after you break them in, they're very comfortable. I recommend putting them on the box they come in overnight to help reduce the clamp.
 
Thanks everyone for all the input.

I found a pair of H6Pro Open for £67 so have taken a punt on them. Having that bit of extra bass and detachable mic appealed to me over the PC38X. Will see how I get on with an open back set.

Next up will potentially be a soundcard. Any recommendations on what would pair nicely with the H6Pro?
 
Gregry254 said:
Thanks everyone for all the input.

I found a pair of H6Pro Open for £67 so have taken a punt on them. Having that bit of extra bass and detachable mic appealed to me over the PC38X. Will see how I get on with an open back set.

Next up will potentially be a soundcard. Any recommendations on what would pair nicely with the H6Pro?
Click to expand...

The Epos H6Pro does not need an Amp. I've a - b tested them (closed back version) with a few different DAC/AMPs and it doesn't really improve them because they are so easy to power. So they might be fine on your existing PC Audio and worth trying out that way first to make sure you like them.

That said I have used mine with the Fiio K5 Pro (c.£150), Creative SoundBlasterX G6 (c.£95) and Soundblaster X1 (c.£40) (with the PS5). When I use either of the Epos headsets with the PC I just plug them in the G6 as it's a 3.5mm audio jack. Which is just more convenient than getting out the 3.5 to 6.3mm adapter for the K5. The G6 does work well with the H6Pro/PC38X. You obviously get the benefits of the 'gaming' software so can enable virtual surround, mic input etc. That said you do have to deal with drivers which I know some people don't like. But the G6 is very capable DAC/AMP even when used in plain stereo mode with no processing enabled. There are newer Creative external USB DAC/AMPs but they've not appealed personally for various reasons. I do think the G6 is probably one of the best choices under £100.

Beyond that I think Fiio make a couple of very good budget DAC/AMPs which don't software; K3 (£90) or the older E10K. Also the Fosi K5 Pro (c.£80) not to be confused with the Fiio above)) has been mentioned on these forums as a solid budget choice with Mic input.

I'm afraid I've not kept up to date with internal soundcards as my last one was a ZxR which I sold on many years ago. So there might be options there too, I'm just not sure what they are.
 
Apologies if I am using the wrong terminology.

So I took the H6Pro's out of the box and connected them to my laptop, they sounded muffled/muddy and there was a lack of clarity. I then plugged them into my PC and had the same result. The best comparison I have is if I plug my Sony XM3's into my PC and listen to something without turning them on first, you get that quiet/muffled/muddy sound but after you turn them on the audio comes to life.

I did get the H6Pro's from that websites warehouse section, are they possibly faulty? Most of the reviews speak highly of the wide range and clarity. Or do you think it might need an amp/dac to "bring it to life" ?

I usually have the XM3's around 18% volume on the PC but had to turn the H6Pro's up to around 30% for the same level of volume.
 
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If they were open box there's a chance they were a returned item, there's a chance you got a dud unfortunately.

Judging by the price you paid I'm going to guess they were a rainforest warehouse special?
 
Gregry254 said:
Apologies if I am using the wrong terminology.

So I took the H6Pro's out of the box and connected them to my laptop, they sounded muffled/muddy and there was a lack of clarity. I then plugged them into my PC and had the same result. The best comparison I have is if I plug my Sony XM3's into my PC and listen to something without turning them on first, you get that quiet/muffled/muddy sound but after you turn them on the audio comes to life.

I did get the H6Pro's from Amazon warehouse, are they possibly faulty? Most of the reviews speak highly of the wide range and clarity. Or do you think it might need an amp/dac to "bring it to life" ?

I usually have the XM3's around 18% volume on the PC but had to turn the H6Pro's up to around 30% for the same level of volume.
Click to expand...
Your XM3s are built for travel, so they'll take less power for the same volume output - this is what you're noticing.


Your XM3s will also sound brighter/more lively, as this is the preferred Sony sound signature. Sennheiser/Epos tend to sound a lot darker.


It sounds like you turn your XM3s ON when you listen to audio - this will activate the built in (to the headphones) DAC and amp, giving the headphones more power and adjusting the sound profile.


If you want to replicate this as much as possible with the HD6, you'll want an external DAC of some sort with good power and good EQ adjustments.
 
Gregry254 said:
Apologies if I am using the wrong terminology.

So I took the H6Pro's out of the box and connected them to my laptop, they sounded muffled/muddy and there was a lack of clarity. I then plugged them into my PC and had the same result. The best comparison I have is if I plug my Sony XM3's into my PC and listen to something without turning them on first, you get that quiet/muffled/muddy sound but after you turn them on the audio comes to life.

I did get the H6Pro's from that websites warehouse section, are they possibly faulty? Most of the reviews speak highly of the wide range and clarity. Or do you think it might need an amp/dac to "bring it to life" ?

I usually have the XM3's around 18% volume on the PC but had to turn the H6Pro's up to around 30% for the same level of volume.
Click to expand...

A DAC/AMP doesn't affect these things perform, more features of that DAC/AMP with these given they are so easy to drive. So as noted you could play with EQ etc.

I have seen a similar thread on reddit before where someone complained of awful, muddy audio and it turned out the connection wasn't plugged in correctly in the audio jack on the headset. I'll try and find that thread.

It certainly doesn't sound right. Even on the Xbox controller the H6Pro (and PC38X) sound great. There is that 'bloated' bass with the H6Pro as previously mentioned but that shouldn't cause that muddy audio. Unless as mentioned by the others either your preference is strongly leaning towards the Sony XM3's, or there is a fault.

EDIT: Found it: reddit thread r/Gaming_Headsets. Would say do be careful though and don't be heavy handed or anything. But may be worth double-checking to make sure the connection is in properly. Also may be worth trying the other cable included with the H6Pro. i.e. I tend to use the short 1.2m cable and haven't tried the longer split PC cable.
 
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Gray2233 said:
If they were open box there's a chance they were a returned item, there's a chance you got a dud unfortunately.

Judging by the price you paid I'm going to guess they were a rainforest warehouse special?
Click to expand...

They were indeed, which makes me question if they were returned for this very reason.

Timber said:
A DAC/AMP won't affect things too much.

I have seen a similar thread on reddit before where someone complained of awful audio and it turned out the connection wasn't plugged in correctly in the audio jack on the headset. I'll try and find that thread.

It certainly doesn't sound right. Even on the Xbox controller the H6Pro (and PC38X) sound great. There is that 'bloated' bass with the H6Pro as previously mentioned but that should be it. Unless as mentioned by the others there your preference is strongly leaning towards the Sony XM3's or there is a fault.
Click to expand...

I did see that thread yesterday when I was trying to find a solution and did try pressing them in further, there is an initial click and then it goes in further up to the ring further down the 3.5 jack, I will try giving them an even harder push tonight.
 
Gregry254 said:
I did see that thread yesterday when I was trying to find a solution and did try pressing them in further, there is an initial click and then it goes in further up to the ring further down the 3.5 jack, I will try giving them an even harder push tonight.
Click to expand...

I don't remember either the PC38X or the H6Pro needing much force to plug in the cable, but thought it might be worth a mention.
 
So to update this, turns out I had issues with the Realtek drivers on my PC, but I'm not sure how much difference it made after being fixed.

I had my wife (no interest in decent audio) and daughter (who was more interested in the microphone sticking out) test both headsets without telling them which was my favourite and they both picked the H6pro over the XM3s ...

I spotted the g6 in b stock so have ordered one to see if I can mess with the audio a bit and get it where I want it to be.
 
Final update!

While waiting for the G6 to arrive I was using the H6pro's on my tablet which had a sound setting for different ages and picking my age set it to "boost highs" which made it sound better. I then plugged it into the PC again and messed with the settings in the Realtek software to boost the highs a little and it sounds so much better now.

I didn't get on with the G6 at all, it was so powerful that I had to have the volume set to something like 6 or 8 to be at a reasonable level and I plugged in the headphones a few times after using speakers which were set to 80-90 volume and almost blew my head off! Why would they not have individual settings for speakers and headphones?! Also had issues with restarting and not having any audio at all until power cycling the G6 and then a random issue where my PC couldn't record any sound from any device until I factory reset the G6 so it has gone back for a refund and I will be using the H6pro's with the onboard sound for now.

Anyway ... thanks everyone for the input and I can reccomend the H6pro to anyone that reads this very long and confusing thread!
 
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