Rapid fire headphone selection

[adolf hamster]

welp, me headphones are dying, losing left ear audio.

so i'm in the market for something new.

primary use is gaming, so being able to locate in-game sounds is the main priority (read i'm not an audiophile), but i won't say no to good quality. i do need a half-decent mic for usual skype/discord/teams etc current set are usb wired corsairs (can't actually remember what model) so might need a soundcard if going for an analogue pair?

don't really have a specific budget, if it's worth putting the money into a good set then i'll consider it but i'd rather not be paying to have a million led's plastered all over them.

 

[adolf hamster]

Hey man.

Thanks for the reply, however after a days dealing with right ear only i ended up jumping the gun on a set of akg's and a desktop mic.

Now i'm really hoping someone isnt going to tell me i've just done a dumb......

 

[adolf hamster]

Depends on model.
AKG has even some of the absolutely best headphones for distinguishing details in competitive gaming.
Though those models are low on "fun factor" for normal gaming with neutral bass.

Sound is always compromise balancing between different things...

the 702's

distinguishing details like footsteps or being able to understand teammates in the middle of a firefight would be a priority for me (although not at a competitive level, just not getting shot in arma)

i get the impression my ears probably aren't well enough tuned to pick up on wether the bass is neutral or whatever other mods bass can be

i'll be honest i picked them mostly for not being plastered in rgb led's and hoping ocuk's premium stock wouldn't be too far off the mark.

 

[adolf hamster]

I use those, mostly for gaming, they are fairly clear and precise though they do lack a little bass, no complaints from me. I am no audiophile or pro gamer mind.

K702 is one the absolutely best for details.

phew, good to hear.

And feed them binaural sound and they give really good feel of distances.

But bass is overall very neutral aimed and "stays in its place on back seat" and doesn't make bigger number of itself, unless signal is very bass boosted/heavy.
(so would make bass bloated Dolby Headphone decent)

and now i'm lost again

 

[adolf hamster]

Unlike what general audio community claims, we don't have stereo hearing.
We have binaural hearing:
Shape of the head+outer ear causes direction dependant changes to signal received by both ears from sound source.
And "wetware" between ears simply processes position of source from those differences.

Meaning two channel recording could have natural sound positioning.
And actually better one than any of these 5.1/7.1 etc "surrounds" lacking for example vertical positioning.
That's alsy why Microsoft seriously hurt PC gaming by killing DirectSound, which gave sound card access to true 3D audio data of the game.

First minute-two of this is excellent quick test for headphones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_20T8x_OI
Assuming your head+ear shape is close to average, with good headphones there's also clear feel of distances besides good directionality.
With inaccurate headphones immersion is again towards having "head in bucket under water"... Without any feel of distances and so and so directionality.

i think i followed most of that lol.

will give that video a go when they arrive, not much point trying it on right ear only

 

[adolf hamster]

That would be monaural listening.
There are actually such headsets.
Maybe you could sell them as such by sticking some mic into them...

i was meaning my corsairs, no audio at all in the left ear, although they do have a mic that still works

they were nominally "7.1" iirc, and you could tell the position with them although in arma 3 specifically they seemed to be reversed, so if i heard something front right it was actually back left which needless to say led to much hilarity in-game.

 

[adolf hamster]

they arrived this morning, haven't had the chance to properly give them a try yet as i'm currently in a pitched battle with onedrive at the moment.

the fit is weird, but seems nice, at least they aren't skullcrushers like i'm used to

 

[adolf hamster]

I had (still have) AKG702s and whilst they were great for the huge soundstage they did lack bass. The main issue for me was that they’re open instead of closed.

The slightest noise inside or even outside the house and you’re trying to work out if its in game or resl life. The soundstage is that good that it sounds sometimes like there is noise outside but in fact its in game.

can confirm, it does mess with your head being unsure if noise it outside or inside.

@adolf hamster what headphone amp / sound source are you using? AKG 702 require an amp that will drive at least 300 ohms I would say.

an asus strix of some description, must admit i've been mulling over an amp, thought the dedicated card would do that but evidently i am mistaken. the maximum volume is just barely loud enough (game dependant)

Also, as you are gaming DO NOT get a desktop mic. They’re terrible for gaming as they will pick up keyboard and mouse clicks and other sounds like your pc fans instead of your voice…unless of course its on a boom and near your mouth.

that's the other guys problem although so far reports have been good on the audio quality front. tbh i'm less concerned (even with mech keyboard clack) about that, only time audio would be an issue is work-based presentation but i won't be clacking away when doing that.