Need good gaming headphones/headset

[Aynjell]

Go with HD600 instead of HD650. A bit brighter, more balanced. The 650s are darker a bit heavier sound. I've heard both back to back on my rig and I stuck with my HD600s.

I have no opinion on the Grados. I can't stand the fit so I don't even listen to them

I hate comfies & bowls (there I used "real" terms), but the bagels make grado's awesome for me.

 

[IrishAssassin]

I really want to pick up a pair of AD700 but they are the biggest pain in the *** to find in Canada. I've been bashing my head trying to find them, only place that sells them is Amazon.com, and its 99 + 20$ shipping + import fees which probably is another 40-50$.

If anyone know where to pick these up in Canada at a lower price, PM me PLEASE!

 

[Mekks]

What type of pads do the AD700's have? I have a set of A500's and the plether pads rubbed on my face hair scruff too much and now its all falling apart. I don't really wana spend the money if its just going to happen again.

 

[Maxvla]

They are velour, not leather/pleather.

 

[agentbad]

Sennheiser pc151 will do everything you need for a good price, sound great, and will last you. I have dropped them, run over them, and they still work.

 

[KonaKona]

Sennheiser pc151 will do everything you need for a good price, sound great, and will last you. I have dropped them, run over them, and they still work.

Thread bump and a questionable recommendation? Tisk tisk.

 

[g0dM@n]

Thread bump and a questionable recommendation? Tisk tisk.

What's your budget?

 

[KonaKona]

What's your budget?

Wait what? Some kind of head-fi joke?

 

[Aynjell]

Wait what? Some kind of head-fi joke?

I think he was reviving a dead thread with a bad recommendation. I would probably agree since it was sennheiser and NOT an hd600/650.

 

[KonaKona]

I think he was reviving a dead thread with a bad recommendation. I would probably agree since it was sennheiser and NOT an hd600/650.

List of good senns:

HD 650 (yop)
HD 600 (yopyop)
HD 580/595/etc (ehh barely)
HD 25-II (don't leave these out!)
HD 800 (hurrrrr)
IE7/IE8 (maybe)

List of bad senns:

Everything else

 

[Aynjell]

List of good senns:

HD 650 (yop)
HD 600 (yopyop)
HD 580/595/etc (ehh barely)
HD 25-II (don't leave these out!)
HD 800 (hurrrrr)
IE7/IE8 (maybe)

List of bad senns:

Everything else

I heard the HD555 this weekend and I'd add it to that list. I haven't heard HD800, or the IEMs... but everything else I would probably have to agree with.

 

[g0dM@n]

Wait what? Some kind of head-fi joke?

Oh dude I'm sorry... you were commenting on his post. I thought you came in yourself to say that you're bumping the thread to look for a recommendation for yourself. OOPS!! Sorry... misunderstood.

 

[Gabb]

Sorry to revive the thread, but since it was such a big head phones talk thread I was wondering on the general opinions of lower end headsets like the steelseries h5 v2 headset? The Senn 550 and AD700s seem to be the most recommended headsets due to their amazing sound quality but they cost around double the price of the h5 v2s, so for $50 is the h5 v2 a good deal?

I recently just got a pair for $50 due to a newegg sale and although I think the sound location is excellent when I do the X-fi sound card 3d helicopter test, I can't really tell the sounds of locations much more then I could with my 2.1 speaker setup in actual games. ( Modern warfare 2 is a tough one since most people use ninja perk in S&D games and you can't hear footsteps anyways ) Am I doing the settings wrong or something? I enable that CSMSD 3d stuff and set it to headphones when using it.

 

[g0dM@n]

Sorry to revive the thread, but since it was such a big head phones talk thread I was wondering on the general opinions of lower end headsets like the steelseries h5 v2 headset? The Senn 550 and AD700s seem to be the most recommended headsets due to their amazing sound quality but they cost around double the price of the h5 v2s, so for $50 is the h5 v2 a good deal?

I recently just got a pair for $50 due to a newegg sale and although I think the sound location is excellent when I do the X-fi sound card 3d helicopter test, I can't really tell the sounds of locations much more then I could with my 2.1 speaker setup in actual games. ( Modern warfare 2 is a tough one since most people use ninja perk in S&D games and you can't hear footsteps anyways ) Am I doing the settings wrong or something? I enable that CSMSD 3d stuff and set it to headphones when using it.

First of all, I have to say that I've also used the Steelseries H5 V2 headset. In fact, I'm extremely upset I ever sold mine!! It was the most comfortable, non-expensive headset I ever owned. On top of that, it sounded better than the Icemat Siberia that I now use on my secondary gaming machine.

I thought about buying that $48 deal also on NewEgg, but I felt stupid knowing I only got $50 for my BLACK one last yr and would have to settle for White this time... though white does look cool. My Icemat Siberia is white.

I'm using the Audio-Technica AD700, and I'm not sure it's that much better than the headset you have. Everyone told me how awesome it was in general, but honestly... it's not as good as I expected AS FAR AS GAMING GOES. The sound QUALITY is awesome, but stereo headphones still don't cut it for me.

If my head wasn't so big, I'd go back to my 5.1 Razer headset. Everyone talks smack about how it isn't a good headset, but the 5.1-ness of it blows away any stereo headphones.

To use the CMSS3D, here's what I was told that needs to be done, which I have done with my AD700s:

• Enable CMSS 3D for your headphones in the X-Fi control panel. Make sure you use the GAMING mode console and enable gaming mode before you start your game. Set the speaker configuration to headphone
• Enable 5.1 speaker setup in your GAME - this makes perfect sense b/c you want the game to push out all 6 channels to your sound card and then have your soundcard scale it to the CMSS 3D headphone setup
• See if that does the trick

If you're on Windows 7, you should be good to go. If you're on a different OS, use google and research some more b/c you might also have to alter your volume control panel in the Windows Control Panel setup. Windows 7 doesn't need this... Vista might not either, but I know I recall XP needing this... very likely Vista might need it so please research if you're not on Windows 7.

Don't get rid of your 5H v2, IN MY OPINION... it's a GREAT headset for what you paid!!!!

 

[Gabb]

First of all, I have to say that I've also used the Steelseries H5 V2 headset. In fact, I'm extremely upset I ever sold mine!! It was the most comfortable, non-expensive headset I ever owned. On top of that, it sounded better than the Icemat Siberia that I now use on my secondary gaming machine.

I thought about buying that $48 deal also on NewEgg, but I felt stupid knowing I only got $50 for my BLACK one last yr and would have to settle for White this time... though white does look cool. My Icemat Siberia is white.

I'm using the Audio-Technica AD700, and I'm not sure it's that much better than the headset you have. Everyone told me how awesome it was in general, but honestly... it's not as good as I expected AS FAR AS GAMING GOES. The sound QUALITY is awesome, but stereo headphones still don't cut it for me.

If my head wasn't so big, I'd go back to my 5.1 Razer headset. Everyone talks smack about how it isn't a good headset, but the 5.1-ness of it blows away any stereo headphones.

To use the CMSS3D, here's what I was told that needs to be done, which I have done with my AD700s:

• Enable CMSS 3D for your headphones in the X-Fi control panel. Make sure you use the GAMING mode console and enable gaming mode before you start your game. Set the speaker configuration to headphone
• Enable 5.1 speaker setup in your GAME - this makes perfect sense b/c you want the game to push out all 6 channels to your sound card and then have your soundcard scale it to the CMSS 3D headphone setup
• See if that does the trick

If you're on Windows 7, you should be good to go. If you're on a different OS, use google and research some more b/c you might also have to alter your volume control panel in the Windows Control Panel setup. Windows 7 doesn't need this... Vista might not either, but I know I recall XP needing this... very likely Vista might need it so please research if you're not on Windows 7.

Don't get rid of your 5H v2, IN MY OPINION... it's a GREAT headset for what you paid!!!!

wow thanks for the very detailed reply, I'm starting to find these forums are a great place for audio information when compared to other tech related forums

I'm glad to hear I didn't totally make a bad purchasing decision. It's almost like a psychological deterrant, when i hear others saying how great the AD770 sound is, it makes me think the h5 sound is terrible when i never even heard the AD770. I guess it really is more subjective then I think
also are most of the high quality $200+ headphones stereo? I'm guessing 5.1 would really only be good for gaming due to sound location. Though a lot of people bag on the 5.1-ness like you say, so theres really a whole bunch of mixed reviews here.

Hmmm I have CMSS 3D definitely enabled ( I love using that 3d helicopter test ) and I never switched out of gaming mode since I installed my x-fi sound card ( though how do you enable it? or is it already enabled if your in that mode ). Interesting that your recommendation is to set the audio settings in the game to 5.1 speaker setup instead of head phones though? I'll have to try that out.

Also I'm not sure I understood your 2nd to last paragraph. I'm on windows XP and noticed the control panel/sound and audio devices/ speaker settings advanced tab has there own seperate 5.1 speaker and headphones options but wasn't sure what to set this as and just assumed the X-fi control panel overided this stuff. What do I need to alter with the XP?

Also I dunno if you saw one of my other threads, but I was asking if I had disabled my onboard sound and plugged the headset through my front port green jack is my headset for sure using the sound card? Its just too much hassle to go behind my computer on the floor to switch out the speaker and headset jacks if I want to plug it into my sound card directly

 

[KonaKona]

wow thanks for the very detailed reply, I'm starting to find these forums are a great place for audio information when compared to other tech related forums

I'm glad to hear I didn't totally make a bad purchasing decision. It's almost like a psychological deterrant, when i hear others saying how great the AD770 sound is, it makes me think the h5 sound is terrible when i never even heard the AD770. I guess it really is more subjective then I think
also are most of the high quality $200+ headphones stereo? I'm guessing 5.1 would really only be good for gaming due to sound location. Though a lot of people bag on the 5.1-ness like you say, so theres really a whole bunch of mixed reviews here.

Hmmm I have CMSS 3D definitely enabled ( I love using that 3d helicopter test ) and I never switched out of gaming mode since I installed my x-fi sound card ( though how do you enable it? or is it already enabled if your in that mode ). Interesting that your recommendation is to set the audio settings in the game to 5.1 speaker setup instead of head phones though? I'll have to try that out.

Also I'm not sure I understood your 2nd to last paragraph. I'm on windows XP and noticed the control panel/sound and audio devices/ speaker settings advanced tab has there own seperate 5.1 speaker and headphones options but wasn't sure what to set this as and just assumed the X-fi control panel overided this stuff. What do I need to alter with the XP?

Also I dunno if you saw one of my other threads, but I was asking if I had disabled my onboard sound and plugged the headset through my front port green jack is my headset for sure using the sound card? Its just too much hassle to go behind my computer on the floor to switch out the speaker and headset jacks if I want to plug it into my sound card directly

The AD770s are out? I need to go do a review!

I'm not sure exactly what has do be done, but by configuring I would guess he means going to properties and changing the check boxes to enable/disable some stuff.