Best Gaming Headset/Headphones?

[Penner]

So, i'm getting a new headset/headphones and as always i'm having a damn hard time picking which one to get.

As the title suggests its primary function will be for PC gaming, and ofcourse alot of movie watching and listening to music..

Just wanted to ask if any of you might have some experience with some and/or any suggestions on what to get?

Price range is around $200...

So far i've read good things about the following:

Logitech G35 (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webcam_communications/internet_headsets_phones/devices/5095&cl=us,en)
Razer Carcharias (http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169415800)
Creative Sound Blaster Arena Headset (http://se.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=437&subcategory=865&product=18979&listby=)
Sennheiser PC 350 (http://www.sennheiser.com/comm/icm_eng.nsf/root/502141)
SteelSeries Siberia V2 "Full-Size" (http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/audio/siberia-v2-full/information)

[Assertn]

My ex's dad owns turtlebeach.com
They seem to be pretty well-known for their gaming headsets.

I was supposed to get a free pair of the Ear Force HPA2 but that never happened :[

[Xelbair]

If you got a decent sound card forget about usb headphones - they don't utilize your card.
I've red the review of 35 headphones(but it was in polish) - i'll post what i read here.
Sound blaster headphones - they work well for games but they were awful for music.
PC350 - same as SB ones - but they are better in everything. also don't trust reviews from non-company reviewers - who with sane mind would tell someone that he bought damn expansive headphones and say they are bad? Also they got pretty high resistance - 150 ohms(usually headphones have 32) so without good souncard and/or good headphones amplifier forget about them.
Siberia ones are damn awesome - but they work better with sound cards than on the usb, even on the integrated one.
Razer - meh. i just don't like them.
Try also Roccat Kave 5.1 - I've recently bought them(for about 2/3 of the price(new ones)) and they are damn awesome for games(positioning is great) and great for movies/music. If you get them remember to 'warm them up' - at first they sounded flat but after 1 day of using them they started sounding totally awesome. Rear sounds are quiet - but after you use it for a while you'll get why(they would mess up positioning if they were louder)

Gaming headphones nominated by that review:
Plantronics GameCom 777
Sennheiser HD 555(They just work great with everything)
Roccat Kave 5.1
SteelSeries Siberia V2 USB
Qpad QH-1339 (they are WAY too expansive...)

[darkshadow]

I agree with the HD 555's, pretty much the best mid range headphones you can get, problem is, it's not a pc headphone so no mic.

I don't like 5.1 headphones because I don't feel the effect is worth the extra money ( though I'm prolly saturated by my 5.1 speaker set) and because most 5.1 headphones, or pretty much all (cheaper), pc headphones are closed type.

This may be great for silent gaming at night or something, but for the best audio quality and prolonged comfort you should always pick an open type headphone (which the HD 555's are)

[Xelbair]

Roccat's are semi-closed so its not serious problem, and i got them cheaper than the HD 555. Also i bought them with lan-parties in mind(and the ones i go to usually have also guitar hero/DDR/PIU games.. its good to block those sounds when playing cod4 match)

[Penner]

Yeah i dont really mind closed headsets, cuz its usually ALOT of various noises going on here, which gets annoying fast :P

Also, why does most (all?) USB headsets cost more than the non-USB ones, are they in any way better?

[Xelbair]

USB headsets got integrated sound card in them, and hence the increased price.
As i said - if you got decent sound card forget about them. you'll just waste money spend on card and on headset(because you pay for card inside it)

[Penner]

Actually, the more i think about it.. i pretty much have to get a headset/phones that keep sounds from leaking out, and block outside sounds because most of the time i'm up playing or whatever when everyone else is asleep and its dead silent..

So any noise leaking from my phones is heard quite easily, and during the day theres a tv right outside my room thats pretty much on all day, and i can hear it really well even with my current headphones on and my door closed.. :D

[Buffalobiian]

I prefer open headphones because:

1) I can actually hear when people call me rather than have them barge into my room.

2) They're more comfortable.

3) They have less distortion.

May main issue with my one (plantronics something-or-rather, ~49AUD) is that it lacks bass. It's on the cheap side though, so you'd expect as much.

I close my door when I sleep (or when other people sleep), so noise leakage isn't a problem. My keyboard would make more noise anyway.

[Penner]

I'm kinda leaning towards the Sennheiser HD 555's even tho they might leak sound out because ive read almost nothing but positive things about em, however, one thing worries me... i've read that a bunch of people think they are abit weak in the bass..

Anyone got a pair that can confirm/deny this? ^^

[darkshadow]

Just tried it myself, didn't sound too good when plugged in the headphone out of my speakers, but that's cause my audigy2zs has issues...

Then I tried my onboard audio chip ( which is actually a pretty good one), and it sounded fine, I even forced a bass equalizer setting and it sounded nice

I tested it with linkin park - in the end
BTNH - 1st of the month
Usher - Burn
Usher - dotcom (the bass here was really good)
Xzibit - X
Anouk - Jerusalem

[Penner]

Shit.. from what i've read the Sennheiser HD555's apparently leak ALOT of sound.. which would suck for me :(

[darkshadow]

Yep, open type headphones tend to do that :P, but I think that would only be a real problem if the volume is so high you wouldn't hear outside noises either.

Unless your walls and doors are paper thin ofcourse..

[Penner]

Well.. except for the load-bearing walls and the main door, the rest of the doors/walls kinda are that weak, i could probably punch a hole straight through any of the non-bearing walls and room-doors without much effort ^^

God damn i always have such problems choosing what things to buy, i hate it! :D

[Penner]

Btw, my current headphones are Sony MDR-XD200 (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=MDRXD200#specifications)

Not the best ones i know but i actually have no complaints about the sound, the main issue is the thing that goes ontop of your head.. its really fucking uncomfortable, and it gets worse the longer you wear it, and i've had these for like 2 years now so its about time i upgraded to something better :P

[Kraco]

Somehow I think that if somebody in a neighbouring room can be disturbed by the noise from your headphones, you should be already far more worried about your own accumulating hearing loss.

Sometimes I take my headphones off and forget about the music playing and after a while I start to wonder about the vague, barely audible sounds eminating from somewhere before I realise they come from half a meter away from the headphones lying on the table. That's the kind of volume I consider normal. From the other side of my room I wouldn't have a chance of detecting the sound.

[Penner]

Yeah but the only time the noise from my headphones might disturb someone is at night when its pretty much as silent as in space, seriously, the sound isolation in our building is shit, i can hear footsteps from our neighbours that live like 2-3 floors above us and sometimes i hear em pee at night... :D

[darkshadow]

Kraco, open type headphones spray soundwaves in both directions, so it really doesn't matter if your volume is at "normal" levels, some people find this ambient noise quite annoying.

Plus if his walls are as thin as he says, then open type headphones will definitly disturb people at night.

Sucks dude, there are some quality closed hphones out there but they are generally a fair bit more expensive then an open type counterpart.
Maybe you should look into those roccat's xelbair mentioned.

[David75]

Gaming required a mic
but the discussion derived a bit to headphones without mic.

So why not some in ear headphones?
You can get high quality
You are sure you get no leak
Some models have lots of adapters to feel confortable wearing them (after you get used to the feeling of wearing such headphones)

Thing is most of them isolate you quite a bit (30dB most of the time, which is a lot)

just an example, with accessories, reasonable price and quality:
http://www.amazon.com/iM-590-Enhanced-Definition-Isolation-Earphones/dp/B002E95P3C/

[darkshadow]

Watch out with canalphones though, they have the most potential of destroying your hearing.
Even then you need to get over the treshold of getting comfortable of having something stuck in your ear.

[Xelbair]

And you have to remember that they should be gaming headphones. So positioning of sound must be good, they must have a mic, and quality should be good too.
And positioning is most in ear headphones is just bad.

[Buffalobiian]

Watch out with canalphones though, they have the most potential of destroying your hearing.
Even then you need to get over the treshold of getting comfortable of having something stuck in your ear.

What? Canalphones have the least potential to destroy your hearing. (along with closed circumaural.)

Also, I can wear canalphones all day without noticing them, while I always notice my circumaural headphones, no matter how comfortable I get with them.

[Penner]

Read up on a pair of Audio Technica ATH-AD700, i have not read one SINGLE bad review about them, and people on "audiophile" forums praise them alot and apparently they are better than both Sennheisers 555 and 595's, even as gaming headphones, but for a pair of headphones that are so loved they seem crazy hard to get in Sweden unless shipped/delivered from another country... lame :P

[darkshadow]

What? Canalphones have the least potential to destroy your hearing. (along with closed circumaural.)

Also, I can wear canalphones all day without noticing them, while I always notice my circumaural headphones, no matter how comfortable I get with them.

:/................


You also get another pick thingy, a little soft case (easier to pocket than the chunky hard case), another standard socket adapter, and a 1/8th-to-1/8th volume attenuator. If you plug the earphones in through the attenuator, it makes them quieter.

There's a good reason for the inclusion of these fixed and variable volume control devices. Without them, it's easy to damage your hearing with canalphones.

It's easy to damage your hearing with practically any headphones, of course; you'd be surprised how low a noise level can be and still do permanent harm over time. There are several factors involved, not least of which is sound frequency - bass is much less dangerous per watt than midrange or treble, which is why hair tricks and experimental subwoofers don't leave trails of deaf people in their wake. I think there's also good reason to not get too terrified about the most conservative estimates of harmful sound levels, if only because according to the worst of them there's practically no modern environment quiet enough to keep you safe.

It is, however, very easy to achieve serious industrial-equipment noise levels with all sorts of "personal stereo" equipment. Just because the noise you're hearing is more enjoyable doesn't mean it won't wreck your ears, given time.

There are two things that make earbuds and canalphones particularly dangerous.

One: Their maximum volume level is generally higher than that of full-sized headphones, mainly because big headphones, even sealed-back models, aren't as directly coupled to the eardrums. Even weedy portable player headphone amplifiers can drive most earbuds to alarmingly high volume levels, especially if the wearer doesn't care (or know...) about distortion.

Two: People usually wear these tiny headphones in noisy environments, so they turn 'em up to cut through the sound of the train or city street or whatever. Earbuds are far worse in this department, because they don't seal the ear canals and thus let in lots of outside noise.

Result: Possible hearing damage, definite lawsuits, and software and hardware to limit volume.

[Buffalobiian]

You also get another pick thingy, a little soft case (easier to pocket than the chunky hard case), another standard socket adapter, and a 1/8th-to-1/8th volume attenuator. If you plug the earphones in through the attenuator, it makes them quieter.

There's a good reason for the inclusion of these fixed and variable volume control devices. Without them, it's easy to damage your hearing with canalphones.

Is this part taken out of context? I don't get where it's coming from, unless its reasoning was in the content to follow.


There are two things that make earbuds and canalphones particularly dangerous.

One: Their maximum volume level is generally higher than that of full-sized headphones, mainly because big headphones, even sealed-back models, aren't as directly coupled to the eardrums. Even weedy portable player headphone amplifiers can drive most earbuds to alarmingly high volume levels, especially if the wearer doesn't care (or know...) about distortion.

When it's worded like that, then I'll have to agree with you (DS) that " they (canalphones) have the most potential of destroying your hearing."

When "potential" is read as the "physical ability" or "power" to induce hearing loss, then yes, I agree with your previous statement. Canalphones/earbuds have smaller drivers, which in turn means they use less power, an mp3 player with X amount of power can drive the volume higher when using canalphones/earbuds than large headphones.

However, my original interpretation of "potential" was "likelihood". Canalphones have a degree of noise isolation while open circumaural and regular earphones don't, so they need less volume to drown out ambient noise. A person headphones without noise isolation would need to turn it up louder to obtain the same SNR. When you use SNR as a control, open-earphones would be more likely to lead to hearing loss.

Canalphones would only have more "potential" (in the ability sense) because they are physically capable of being louder, but this argument requires the assumption that users will turn it (volume) up because they can, which isn't necessarily valid when talking about the "dangers" or "risk" of hearing loss from using various types of head/earphones, which I take as the underlying point of our discussion.

In the end though, this comes down who which interpretation of "potential" we are talking about. Potential = ability (and what I assume was your take on the word), by dictionary definition solely, is more correct.


Two: People usually wear these tiny headphones in noisy environments, so they turn 'em up to cut through the sound of the train or city street or whatever. Earbuds are far worse in this department, because they don't seal the ear canals and thus let in lots of outside noise.

I don't consider this a point at all against portable earphones. Interestingly, this point utlises the "likeihood" definition rather than "ability".

[Xelbair]

I've heard that those audio technica are great too, but they are without mic right?

[Penner]

yeah but i figure i dont actually need a mic, almost all the games i play have no need for it and the few times ive actually used one was like 2 years ago when i was still raiding in WoW :P

Still, sucks that the Audio Technica ones are near-impossible to get here in Sweden.. im seriously thinking about just getting me a pair of Sennheiser HD555's now becase they are available pretty much everywhere :)

Question to anyone who has experience with the Sennheiser HD555:

How is the bass? i listen to Hardrock/Metal and Trance almost exclusively and sucky bass would totally gimp the trance songs :P

[darkshadow]

yeah but i figure i dont actually need a mic, almost all the games i play have no need for it and the few times ive actually used one was like 2 years ago when i was still raiding in WoW :P

Still, sucks that the Audio Technica ones are near-impossible to get here in Sweden.. im seriously thinking about just getting me a pair of Sennheiser HD555's now becase they are available pretty much everywhere :)

Question to anyone who has experience with the Sennheiser HD555:

How is the bass? i listen to Hardrock/Metal and Trance almost exclusively and sucky bass would totally gimp the trance songs :P

http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php?p=458974&postcount=11

..........>_>

[Penner]

D'oh, my bad ^_^

Gonna go check some local stores if they have a pair so i might test em out before i make a decision -.-

[Penner]

This looks totally sweet, updated version of the PC350's, if it wasnt for the high price i'd probably buy em

Sennheiser PC 360 (http://www.sennheiser.com/comm/home_en.nsf/root/headsets_PCs_gaming_504122?Open&row=2)

[Xelbair]

Bill do you know how to calcualte SPL?
If not go read how to do it - you'll see why the canalphones are more dangerous.

[Buffalobiian]

Bill do you know how to calcualte SPL?
If not go read how to do it - you'll see why the canalphones are more dangerous.

Yeah, I know they can produce a higher SPL in the ear.

What I was trying to say was that with canalphones' sound isolation, users don't need as high a SPL to listen to music compared to headphones without sound isolation, leading to less hearing loss with "normal" usage.

If the user pumps the volume up as high as it can go for his "normal" usage, then yeah, canalphones will definitely screw him over.

[Penner]

Looks like Steelseries is releasing a new headset soon aswell, the Steelseries 7H (http://www.steelseries.com/us/products/audio/7h/information)

[Penner]

Exactly how much noise to open-back headphones leak out?

I've read that some people think its not bad at all, while some think they leaked "extreme" lol

[darkshadow]

they pretty much leak out as much as they produce on the other side, it's just a bit lower in volume(like ~20%?) and higher in distortion

[enkoujin]

Necromancer powers, activate!

http://www.headphone.com/selection-guide/top-picks/audio-technica-ath-m50.php
http://www.headphone.com/selection-guide/top-picks/denon-ah-d2000.php

I'm looking to buy the ATH-M50 because it has good value for its money and produces a very natural sound (although the Denon is better, but is too pricey for my tastes). For a guy who's just using it to listen to his iPod on public transportation and while studying, what are some other alternatives/suggestions?

[Animeniax]

I'm hearing good things about audio products from Nuforce out of California:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GFNDDG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A235PXMX0JATIS

[Buffalobiian]

Do you have a budget cap? I'd pick the ATH-M50s myself as well if you're after closed headphones.

[enkoujin]

I think $400 is my limit, but I'm only willing to go that high if some high-quality headphones are on sale.

I guess open/closed doesn't matter much to me since I'm pretty cautious when crossing streets or intersections (I take them off).

Thanks, Animeniax and Buffalobiian, I'll be sure to check them out.

[Buffalobiian]

Oh, open/close doesn't matter? I was under the assumption that you specifically wanted closed headphones so you could isolate ambient noise (especially since you mentioned commuting and studying). In that case, you could also consider the Alessandro MS-1. They can be configured with a circumaural earpiece should you want to use them like such. (or, if you're looking at the Headroom site, they'll be the Grados 125i/225i. The Audio Tech looks more comfy though.

Both seem to be pretty easy to drive, though a portable amp is supposed to bring the max out of them - I wouldn't really bother with the amp for these.

[Penner]

Oh, my old headset thread back from the dead ^^

It seems i forgot to actually say what i finally decided to get lol, i got a pair of 'Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (http://www.google.se/search?q=beyerdynamic+dt770+pro&hl=sv&safe=off&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=YE6nTcmzAsbtsgazpIGQCA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCAQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=868)'

I've had them exactly 1 year ago yesterday, and haven't regretted it at all since.

Very comfy (personal preference atleast :P), isolates sound really well, and they have great bass, which is awesome when watching movies or bass-heavy music :P

They are probably abit on the large side, so not ideal if used 'on the move', i only use them with my PC ^^

[Buffalobiian]

Oh, my old headset thread back from the dead ^^

It seems i forgot to actually say what i finally decided to get lol, i got a pair of 'Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (http://www.google.se/search?q=beyerdynamic+dt770+pro&hl=sv&safe=off&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=YE6nTcmzAsbtsgazpIGQCA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CCAQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=868)'

I've had them exactly 1 year ago yesterday, and haven't regretted it at all since.

Very comfy (personal preference atleast :P), isolates sound really well, and they have great bass, which is awesome when watching movies or bass-heavy music :P

They are probably abit on the large side, so not ideal if used 'on the move', i only use them with my PC ^^

Are you driving them straight off onboard sound/sound card, or do you have a headphone amp hooked up too?