Best Gaming Headset/Headphones?

[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...4&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

[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

[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-g...ca-ath-m50.php
http://www.headphone.com/selection-g...n-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/B00...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.