The official PS4 Headset/Headphones Guide/Discussion

[Psycho Sonny]

Looking to go with one of these fancy set ups. What mixamp would I have to use? I see Astro ones cost £100 new but theres also 'Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro' for around £45.

I have both an xbox one and ps4 and my tv has a optical in so I could just plug the mix amp into the tv instead of the consoles right?

I don't think you get how these work.

Console > Optical Cable > MIXAMP

MIXAMP is the best option forget the Creative one it's cheap crap you would be better off just buying a cheap gaming headset than going down that route tbh.


So if you have both consoles then you will need either a optical switch or have to unplug optical cables every time you switch from one console to the other.

I suggest buying a switch

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HQ-Optical-...qid=1400588244&sr=8-1&keywords=toslink+switch

that is a cheap switch, I have a similar one and it does a good enough job tbh.

Kabeldirekt is who I use for all my cabling they basically offer high quality cables at very cheap prices

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=kabeldirekt toslink

note HDMI cables have no difference in quality and I think it's the same for toslink but I buy kabeldirekt because it only costs a couple of quid more and I know they will last forever. in comparison to cheapy £1 cables which die after being bent or after a few months of use, it's worth paying the £2-3 extra to get something you know will last forever than have the hassle of one failing on you.

don't however buy HDMI or toslink cables for more than what kabeldirekt sell them for, your just throwing money away the sound/picture quality is the exact same as a £1 cable your just paying extra for durability.


so you will need 3 toslink cables one for each console going into the switch and then one from the switch to the MIXAMP, the length of these depends on your setup.


do you want a wired or wireless mixamp?


pretty much all the info you seek is already in this thread therefore i suggest you read through it all.

i may update the OP as it has some rubbish info in it regarding that belkin mic.


what is your budget? it's much easier if you tell me that and if you want wired or wireless tbh. do you mind having 2 cables or would prefer one (you need to stump up a lot more cash for one over 2).

 

[thenameDS]

Ok, sounds like this is going to be a lot of wires to hide and clean. I have here 3 XO hdmi cables and 2 XO optical, like you I don't believe in spending £100's on cables I buy nice durable cables and that's it.

I would say my budget would be £300 max. What would my options be both wireless and wired? Thanks

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ok, sounds like this is going to be a lot of wires to hide and clean. I have here 3 XO hdmi cables and 2 XO optical, like you I don't believe in spending £100's on cables I buy nice durable cables and that's it.

I would say my budget would be £300 max. What would my options be both wireless and wired? Thanks

that's a very very good budget

wireless mixamp is only available second hand for around £70 on ebay, it's very hard to find or rare so if you see one on ebay or a members market buy it ASAP.

wired mixamp is £130 brand new or probably around £70 second hand (not looked into them).

so that leaves let's say £170-£230 for headphones and a mic

at that price point you can get pretty much anything mid fi for brand new

Q701 > HD598 > Fidelio X1 > DT 770 (for competitive gaming)

now the Q701 is hard to drive you may need to buy an additional amp (fiio e6 or e11 or something like that) to boost them if you use voice chat at the same time but it is the best out the lot for competitive gaming and is also good for music, it's the most expensive though at around £200. It looks fantastic and comes in 3 colours a bright lime green, white or black. So it suits all types of players. It is hard to drive so beware about that if you want to use it with anything it requires a lot of power (a decent amp). So it's not a very easy setup so i personally would avoid this unless you want the best.

HD598 is easy to drive looks amazing but not great for music/movies or immersive gaming it's very good for competitive gaming though (FPS). It's not bad for music/movies just nowhere near as good as the other options in this price range.

Fidelio X1 is the ultimate all rounder it's good at everything, it's also compatible with the v moda boom pro mic meaning less wires (a big plus point for some) it has amazing bass for an open can and is brilliant at everything, gaming, movies or music are all a delight, it's very easy to drive, doesn't require an AMP so it can be used with a PC or phone/tablet directly, although I wouldn't recommend using onboard sound on a PC with it, but the Asus Xonar DG which I got brand new for £15 is more than enough for it. This is the one I highly recommend it's a delightful can, beautifully made it should last you 10 years easy if looked after before you need to replace the earpads and the rest should last a lifetime. It has a removeable cable so no chance of wire being pulled by accident and breaking your headphones.

The DT770 is the cheapest but it's the best for music/movies and immersive gaming (strong bass) it's great at gaming but the bass makes it hard to distinguish things like footsteps because it is powerful bass, which lets it down competitively slightly but it is the best can for everything else. I would recommend this if your a huge basshead and your an occasional competitive gamer, if your serious about your K/D ratio this isn't the can for you.


there are other options which are cheaper and just as good for competitive gaming the AD700 is like £50-£70 second hand and is one of the best competitive gaming cans available, it has zero bass which is why it's so good but awful for music/movies. it's only available second hand and rare. this is the best option if your serious about k/d ratio and don't care about using the cans for anything else but FPS.

HD595 is also a great alternative to the AD700 it's the older version of the HD 598 but without a removeable cable. It's also around £75 second hand so a lot cheaper than the HD 598.


So it depends on what your usage is as to what headphone is best for you and whether you want to use it for other things or just as a headset.

Fidelio X1's can be used for anything and with anything that's why it's the generic recommendation for everyone.

But if you want a more personalised recommendation then I need to know what you intend to use the headphones for, any music, movies? portable (outside the house)? competitive gaming or immersive gaming?

 

[kmetek]

I was wondering what to get and wanted fully wireless while being a cheap alternative and decided on the Sony Wireless Gold 2.0 and received it today.

So far i'm impressed the sound quality is good, not brilliant but then again i never expected it to be. I've had friends say the mic is nice and clear and can hear stuff perfectly in game and they are nice and comfy.

I think i managed to get it for £62 delivered in the end so not to bad a choice.

link?

 

[dakaiez]

I got it imported from VideoGamesPlus, it's £80 most places over here so thought i'd just go for it.

 

[kmetek]

no custom tax?

 

[dakaiez]

no custom tax?

I've never got any on anything delivered from there so took a risk. If i do then it'll cost just a little less than buying over here if not then i got a good price.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

tax is hit or miss usually especially if it's a small box and under £100.

it's normally big boxes and those with a value over £100 they like to hit, it's a numbers game and the smaller numbers is just more of a headache and theres more of them to deal with.

your country may be different though.

 

[kmetek]

here is very stricted.......10% chance maybe.

 

[thenameDS]

......

Wow thank you!! Super helpful post and gives me a lot to think about.

I would like to get the Q701 but having to get an extra amp is a bitter of a bother for me, I checked out the Fidelio X1 and they are definitely my favourite and reviews are all superb.

My main use would probably be for immersive gaming, but would also be nice to hear footsteps in COD. Music is not a priority but would also be used for Netflix or movie watching when the girlfriend is sleeping.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Wow thank you!! Super helpful post and gives me a lot to think about.

I would like to get the Q701 but having to get an extra amp is a bitter of a bother for me, I checked out the Fidelio X1 and they are definitely my favourite and reviews are all superb.

My main use would probably be for immersive gaming, but would also be nice to hear footsteps in COD. Music is not a priority but would also be used for Netflix or movie watching when the girlfriend is sleeping.

if you watch movies and netflix through your consoles then you could just use the mixamp for the headphones that you choose.

if you use a laptop it would require a dac (laptops as well as onboard audio tend to have really crap DAC's built in) as well as a amp if your thinking of Q701's. if you use a phone/tablet and it's made by a decent company like Samsung then it should have a decent DAC built in tbh so all you would need is a amp to power them, it's just a really messy situation tbh needing other devices, etc.

the thing with amp/dac's is there isn't much difference between the cheap ones and any of the more expensive ones under say £200, that's why a xonar DG for £15-£20 is recommended to anyone using a PC with headphones if they want something better then they really need to stump up top money for a noticeable difference £200+.

tbh I think Fidelio X1 is the one for you (doesn't need an amp with anything) if you want to use it with your pc get a xonar DG for £20. use with consoles then get a mixamp (5.8 mixamp is wireless and only available second hand, all other mixamps are wired and newer).

now that we have the sources sorted and headphones (fidelio X1) all you need now is a mic.

there are 3 options:

V Moda Boom Pro

http://v-moda.com/boompro-microphone/

it's not cheap but it's crystal clear, replaces the stock wire on the fidelio x1's to give you a brilliant simple solution which means one less wire to worry about.

DX Clip on mic

http://www.dx.com/p/mini-clip-on-microphone-7080#.U3vyifldV8E

£1.48 currently (I paid £1.56), this mic is pretty much the one to get if you don't want a v moda boom pro, don't be fooled by it's cheap price it's better than the next option, the only downside is that it's coming direct from china so it will take about 1-2 weeks for delivery. I actually use this mic and it's brilliant and costs less than a soft drink in a restaurant, cannot grumble with that.

Speedlink Spes Clip-On Microphone

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speedlink-I...F8&qid=1400632170&sr=8-1&keywords=clip+on+mic

this is what you buy if you need a mic straight away and cannot afford the boom pro, it's slightly worse than the dx mic as well as more expensive but you should get it within 2 days of ordering.



also to note some people prefer to replace the stock cable of the fidelio x1 when using it for movies/music as the stock ones have a high resistance for some reason, some people like the stock others don't so it's worth buying another and comparing the two just to see if you can notice a difference, it's minimal but it should be there.

the best one to go for is one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/KabelDirekt...=1400632392&sr=8-2&keywords=kabeldirekt+3.5mm

it comes in various sizes from 0.5m to 5m

no point in buying a more expensive cable as to get an even more noticeable difference your talking about dropping £35+ on a cable just to get a very small performance increase. kabledirekt cables for less than £5 are the best option for price to performance.

so to sum that all up you need to buy a mixamp (for consoles), toslink splitter (to plug both consoles into and then into mixamp), 3 toslink cables (kabledirekt), fidelio x1's, whatever mic you want and a replacement cable for your X1 for a slight performance increase, also possibly a xonar dg to replace your onboard sound on your pc if you wish to use with your pc.

also the best amp to get for the money is the topping nx1 it's about £22 on ebay and better than fiio e11 which is £54 on amazon.


i have sent you a flubit invite in your trust (that will get you a discount on anything you buy from amazon).

 

[thenameDS]

Sorted will be buying all the stuff next weekend. Going with the Fidelio X1, Astro Mixamp and that V Moda Boom Pro.

Going a little over budget by my calculations but it will be worth it, won't be upgrading this setup for a good 5 years.

Also thanks for the flubit invite and massive help.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Sorted will be buying all the stuff next weekend. Going with the Fidelio X1, Astro Mixamp and that V Moda Boom Pro.

Going a little over budget by my calculations but it will be worth it, won't be upgrading this setup for a good 5 years.

Also thanks for the flubit invite and massive help.

you just bought yourself a very very good mid-fi setup to get a noticeable major amount of difference would mean buying headphones costing £300-£800, you would also then need to buy an DAC and AMP to complement them.

basically to upgrade from this setup your talking the best part of £1000 to get a hi-fi setup.

so chances are you won't ever upgrade from this setup unless your looking at spending that kind of money but there are other mid-fi choices out there which will give you a slightly different flavour of mid-fi.

fidelio x1's are my "end game" cans, I won't be buying anything better or anything else at all for that matter unless some sort of firesale happens and i get Q701's for under £125 or HD600's or HD650's for less than £175.

best thing about the fidelio's is you can leave the v moda plugged into your mixamp, get either the stock cable or a kabledirekt cable and plug them into your pc, phone, tablet, etc and use the fidelio x1 with another device very easily and quickly.

they are easy to drive so no need for an expensive amp

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Hi All, does anyone know if the PS4 had had an update to allow the Official Sony Stereo Headset to work? I did notice that there is a new version for the PS4 so I REALLY hope they don't screw us and say I will have to buy a new set at £80 when I buy the PS4...

Just to update this thread and answer my own question.. YES The original Official Sony Stereo Headset works with the PS4 now

 

[rp2000]

I bought the Sony Wireless 2.0 headset yesterday. A few questions:

1) Can someone explain what the sound/chat button on the headset does?
2) When I connected them to my phone (with the wire), none off the buttons seem to do anything. Is that normal?
3) Is there much benefit in using the game profiles you get with the companion PS4 app or just a gimmick?

Fourth point isn't really a question, but, I'm naive expecting these to be as loud as in ear headphones right? I guess the "speaker" in them is much closer to my ear drums so these don't seem as loud, although I imagine I'll get used to it. On both the PS4 and on my phone on max volume it didn't feel loud, although they drowned out outside sounds just as well as my standard in ear headphones.

Apart from that pleased. Very comfortable and not as heavy as they looked. The USB adaptor is a bit annoying (PS4 only has 2 slots) and the charging cable is ridiculously short (but I think I read somewhere that the shorter the cable the faster it charges, so maybe that's why).


rp2000

 

[GTanny]

I bought the Sony Wireless 2.0 headset yesterday. A few questions:

1) Can someone explain what the sound/chat button on the headset does?
2) When I connected them to my phone (with the wire), none off the buttons seem to do anything. Is that normal?
3) Is there much benefit in using the game profiles you get with the companion PS4 app or just a gimmick?

Fourth point isn't really a question, but, I'm naive expecting these to be as loud as in ear headphones right? I guess the "speaker" in them is much closer to my ear drums so these don't seem as loud, although I imagine I'll get used to it. On both the PS4 and on my phone on max volume it didn't feel loud, although they drowned out outside sounds just as well as my standard in ear headphones.

Apart from that pleased. Very comfortable and not as heavy as they looked. The USB adaptor is a bit annoying (PS4 only has 2 slots) and the charging cable is ridiculously short (but I think I read somewhere that the shorter the cable the faster it charges, so maybe that's why).


rp2000

i was torn between these and the pulse but went with the pulse in the end as there was a few questions over a lack of bass on the 2.0.

1, if they function the same as the pulse which i believe they do the chat button mutes the built in mic
2, when plugged in using the wire they act as a normal pair of unpowered stereo headphones, on the pulse the volume control works but nothing else
3, it does make a difference but not a huge one, i find using the 'shooter' setting on the pulse makes the guns have more of a 'crack' to them and makes footsteps louder which is great on BF4, i tried in 'infamous' setting too and it seemed to add more atmosphere but it wasnt much different from the general 'game' setting but did work well.

I find the pulse to be slightly quieter then my in ear headphones but not too bad to a level where its a big difference

as a note yes the usb dongle is annoying and i used my old PS3 charging cable and have it connected to a USB slot on the TV as its out the way then.

my only regret with the pulse is after a couple of hours they are quite tight as i have a big/fat but delicate head and the 2.0's are supposed to be more comfortable long term

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I imagine they aren't that loud because they are wireless and sony don't really do wireless headphones. Do they not have a volume control?

Sony do have some good headphones for studio use (mdr-7506 and mdr-v6) but none really for gaming use.

The companion app is basically just an equaliser or effects app. If your a purist you will want to leave it alone, if you prefer a certain sound signature then you may want to dabble with it. People have been duped into thinking it's some sort of magical app which makes everything amazing and "pro hax", etc, but it's basically just an equaliser or effects playing with the sounds. Try it out and see if you prefer it.

You would have been far better off with a mixamp, proper headphones and a separate mic, for sound quality, loudness (which you can tailor to suit yourself by adjusting the volume), etc, etc.

Sony don't make decent gaming headphones (competitive) so I don't see how they could make a decent wireless gaming headset (competitive), it may be good for immersive gaming but I doubt it (since their best headphones are rather flat).

Something as cheap as portapros (£30) or HTF 600's (sold a pair of these in the mm for £22.50 recently) would be a step up from these. HD595's (which i'm selling in the members market currently) would blow them away.

If you aren't happy with them then I would recommend getting a proper setup. Wireless however is the issue with the only way of doing it properly needs an old mixamp which is very rare to get and second hand only. Wired is far easier since newer mixamps are all wired.

If you don't want to use a mic at all it's even easier. All you need is a DAC/AMP which can be had for as little as £50 or as much as £400 depending on how far you want to go.

 

[antijoke]

Sonny how good is that optical switch?

I'm always concerned they will be a weak link and possibly cause a loss in sound quality.

ATM I switch cables to my mixamp between the ps4 and xb1

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Optical is digital, if it works it works.

Much like HDMI.

It may not be brilliant build quality but who cares if it works. If your going to spend more money then I would want one with either buttons or a remote to switch between toslink cables.

The cheap one I have uses a switch with a button, it's fine but you can tell it's a cheap product in terms of build quality.

 

[rp2000]

i was torn between these and the pulse but went with the pulse in the end as there was a few questions over a lack of bass on the 2.0.

1, if they function the same as the pulse which i believe they do the chat button mutes the built in mic
2, when plugged in using the wire they act as a normal pair of unpowered stereo headphones, on the pulse the volume control works but nothing else
3, it does make a difference but not a huge one, i find using the 'shooter' setting on the pulse makes the guns have more of a 'crack' to them and makes footsteps louder which is great on BF4, i tried in 'infamous' setting too and it seemed to add more atmosphere but it wasnt much different from the general 'game' setting but did work well.

I find the pulse to be slightly quieter then my in ear headphones but not too bad to a level where its a big difference

as a note yes the usb dongle is annoying and i used my old PS3 charging cable and have it connected to a USB slot on the TV as its out the way then.

my only regret with the pulse is after a couple of hours they are quite tight as i have a big/fat but delicate head and the 2.0's are supposed to be more comfortable long term

Thanks, I think the volume controls don't work on the 2.0 one when using the cable. I will try it with other devices at some point. No biggie, I can control the volume from my phone anyway, and I doubt I will ever use these except for PS4. I'll have a mess around with game profiles at some point.

Battery life seems good. I have used them for at least 4 hours I reckon and its not showing low on the dashboard yet.


rp2000