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Buying Headphones Confusion.. Help

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FalaqTHEBUTCHER

New Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2015
Hey Guys.
I am looking into buying an new headphone i have decided on the Sennheiser G4ME ONE (http://en-us.sennheiser.com/gaming-headset-game-one). I have read the reviews and everything seems ok.
Expect i have read some post on the internet that said a good sound-card is required to drive these headset. I am using onboard sound on my ASUS p8z77-v motherboard which has Realtek ALC892 so guys plz help me on this i don't wanna spend 180$ on a headphone i cant fully enjoy. I usually play games such as Battlefield 4 and csgo and listen to some dubstep/Music.

Exp of people who are saying that a sound card/amp is required and some tomshardware forum.

 
FalaqTHEBUTCHER said:
dubstep/Music.
Click to expand...

Though, I think it may have been unintended, I appreciate the distinction between dubstep and music :rofl:

I don't know anything about the Sennheiser GAME ONEs you mentioned, but I think it's generally good practice to steer clear of anything marketed "for gamers". You'll always get more value for your money if you look at quality, non-gamer headphones.

I purchased a set of Creative Aurvana Lives about a year ago and have been extremely happy with them (not so much with the Modmic I bought alongside them...). When I put on my old gamer headset or those of friends, it's like night and day. Anything other than quality headphones now sound like I'm listening to noise coming through a plastic tube.
 
The G4ME One are an EXCELLENT headphone, my only concern here though is the interest in dubstep. You absolutely do NOT need an amp, but an amp will bring more life to them, but certainly not needed with Sennies like these.

Now, for FPS gaming, they will be fantastic, but... Again, you said dubstep, Sennheiser may not particularly be the best for dubstep music, it won't sound bad, but it won't sound as lively as it would with say my personal favorite the DT990 which favors the lows and highs vs Sennheiser's favoring of mids. Again, won't sound bad by any means, but I wouldn't expect to be wowed by music like dubstep.

Still a great headset and one that I actually highly recommend as a headset :)
 
Thank you for the input man but from the reviews Sennheiser G4ME ONE are considered entry level audiophile headphones. Like i said i am more concerned about my onboard audio being able to handle these high end headphones.
 
They are, they use the drivers from the Senn HD598 :)

As far as onboard, you are fine. The beauty of these is that down the road, if you want to invest say, $100 into a decent little amp or dac/amp combo, you most certainly can to get more out of them!
 
I'd invest in a DAC/amp, personally.
I've never seen anything amplified well on the 892 chipset.
 
A good sound card or DAC/amp can make quite a difference, but do try the onboard first. You can always upgrade later.

Here's how "high end" onboard audio compares to a top notch DAC/amp:
ver704.png.jpg

Note that the S/PDIF from the onboard is every bit (no pun intended) as good as S/PDIF from a sound card. It's just data. About the only reasons to buy a sound card are to use the analog I/O or S/PDIF input (which is rarely found in onboard audio).

Something else to beware of is that with a headset, if you use an external DAC/amp without a microphone preamp, you'll have to extend the microphone lead, which is not good for signal quality. (Microphone signals are very weak and very sensitive to interference.) Fortunately, a preamp is pretty easy to build with only a little electronics experience. Plus, the microphone preamps built into onboard audio aren't very good at all so you'll gain a lot by using the line in and an external preamp.
 
So guys i have looked at my options again and what do you guys think if i combine ASUS XONAR DG with the Sennheiser G4ME ONE will it be better or just a mild improvement. I don't have a budget for high end Dac/Amp so this is the closest i am afford.
 
If you really want to go down this path (it can be a very expensive path depending on how deep the rabbit hole you go.... lol), I think for a starter you can grab this DAC/AMP combo from Fiio, Fiio E10K. Very cheap and is rather highly favored.
 
No i don't wanna do very deep i just wanted to know will their be worth while improvement if i get the XONAR over my onboard. I chose this sound card because its in my budget and i don't really wanna do the dac/amp path.
 
The issue is that this varies from person to person. Everyone has different hearing, so it's somewhat hard to gauge if it's worth it for YOU.

Personally, I cannot stand most onboard setups for use with the headphones I use, my bare minimum is using a good sound card. That included my HD598's. So if it were ME, then I would go for the DG because of the better quality, yes.

*To sum up the above, yes the Xonar DG is better than your onboard*

But, I would go ahead and buy the headset, then test it out on the onboard first to see how you like it first and foremost before buying something else.
 
I suggest waiting and then getting a great sound card like the STX. Or learn some DIY electronics and then build your own headphone amp and maybe even a DAC. (A DIY amp is very easy, but a DIY DAC is somewhat harder.) The cheaper sound cards are not very much of an upgrade over onboard. Also, that USB DAC only goes up to 96kHz which is disappointing at that price level. (Nowadays, proper HD audio gear should support at least 192kHz. Even onboard audio has supported that for many years.)
 
I say "MEH" to the Xonar.
Use the optical from your onboard sound with a DAC and it'll be much better than that Xonar.
 
As far as getting an amp, if you want to go inexpensive, first try your local thrift shops. People are always ditching old equipment, and the non-sheep actually pass old equipment off to others *and get a nice tax deduction in the process*

We upgraded from a Marantz 5.1 non-hdmi system to a denon for the family room downstairs, w/ hdmi passthrough, now someone going to the goodwill store near us will find what was a $2000+ system a few years ago for about $40 lol

BTW........anyone have any idea what I should do with massive bundles of RCA cables? Other than stripping them and selling the copper as scrap........or as ways to tie things up, lol

Headphone wise, Im using a set of Turtle Beach DX1's *for Xbox One, optical out from PC to the amplifier it comes with..........Bass is pretty good, as long as you don't blast the volume too high, else you get some crackling from the speakers. Not as much bass as say, a Bose studio set in the $400+ range.
 
Last edited:
NZKshatriya said:
As far as getting an amp, if you want to go inexpensive, first try your local thrift shops. People are always ditching old equipment, and the non-sheep actually pass old equipment off to others *and get a nice tax deduction in the process*

We upgraded from a Marantz 5.1 non-hdmi system to a denon for the family room downstairs, w/ hdmi passthrough, now someone going to the goodwill store near us will find what was a $2000+ system a few years ago for about $40 lol

BTW........anyone have any idea what I should do with massive bundles of RCA cables? Other than stripping them and selling the copper as scrap........or as ways to tie things up, lol

Headphone wise, Im using a set of Turtle Beach DX1's *for Xbox One, optical out from PC to the amplifier it comes with..........Bass is pretty good, as long as you don't blast the volume too high, else you get some crackling from the speakers. Not as much bass as say, a Bose studio set in the $400+ range.
Click to expand...
Good luck finding a decent *headphone* amp at the local thrift store. For speaker amps, yes the thrift store is a good place, especially if you look for the ones with S/PDIF but not HDMI as those often go for cheap. And the headphone output on those is generally an afterthought (how many actually make use of it?) and is about on par with onboard.
 
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