Gaming Headphones... The Best Combo

[tehdigit]

hey keep me informed on your band
if you guys tour then come to pittsburgh PA and ill book you guys a show

and we can ****in party

 

[003]

I have read many posts on here about this topic and want to go ahead and make a post that anyone searching it can find to help out with their decisions. Based on what I read here and the debated issues, I spent a week on Head-Fi.org reading, posting and learning. I wanted to know what the best headphone setup for gaming was, and where I could purchase it etc.. After much research I finally made the purchases and all I can say is WOW.

To all those out there who have argued on here that Zalman 5.1 surround phones are fine, I am not trying to flame you. And I am not trying to claim anyone has to purchase this specific setup, but I cannot say that the cheap headphones are just as good. THEY ARE NOT. I am so blown away by the difference in sound that I find myself spending even more time gaming and enjoying it even more.

So the consensus on the phones is: Beyerdynamic DT 770/80. Make sure you get the 80ohm pair. I purchased mine at the local guitar center and got them to bring the price down but I have bought thousands of dollars of equipment from them I use in my band (www.myspace.com/sighlo) so they were nice. You should be able to get the pair for between $150-200. It was also recommended that I get an amp to power them. Nicer headphones tend to nead more power and an amp is supposed to bring out the low end on these specific phones. I ordered a very popular amp called a PA2v2 from a guy who custom builds them. They can be found at www.electric-avenues.com and ordered from e-mailing gary@electric-avenue.com . The amp does make a difference in the lows and I am happy I spent the extra $60. The base rumbles while all the highs and mids stay very clear.

So I hope this helps people searching this topic and really it is for those looking for Gaming Headphones. When I did I couldn't find any definitive answers. And of course people have preferences for other phones, but the majority came down to this and the Audio Techinca ATH 900's, but I saw a lot of complaints about the mids on these phones. Many people use those as well, just not as many as the DT770's. I have the Creative 6.1 surround that I have since retired becuase it does not compare. Now I am using the rig you see in the sig and the X-Fi card makes a big differnce for headphone setups becuase it has the 3D headphone settings which take advantage of a large soundstage. I did ask on the head-fi forums what card people were using with these phones and everyone basically replied that it doesn't matter, the DT770 rock with whatever card.

Any other advice people who use headphones have is welcomed and everyone have a great day.


Waytoosmall

Finally, somebody who knows what they are talking about when it comes to headphones. I also went to head-fi looking for gaming headphones, and ended up getting an A900 + the PA2v2 amp. However, I was so amazed at how much nicer this combo sounded compared to my klipsch promedia ultra 5.1s, that I totally dropped the gaming thing and wanted something great for music. I sold the A900, and snagged a sennheiser HD650, as well as pre-ordered the Corda HeadFive amp:
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=171549
I also dumped my X-fi for an ESI Juli@:
http://www.esi-pro.com/viewProduct.php?pid=43

Wow, the HeadFive amp won't get here until late june or early july, but with the Juli@ > PA2v2 > HD650 setup, music sounds amazing. So do games, by the way. The only problem is that I had all my music in 128kbps mp3 format, and when I compare that to lossless FLAC or CD audio on this setup, I can not believe what I have been missing. I have re-been buying a lot of my music (hopefully all of it in time) on CD for cheap on amazon.

BTW,
That link to the HD650 for $499 that was posted is crazy -- they go for about $310 new and on ebay you can even get them for $250-$270. And yes, there are headphone systems that can cost over $10,000. There are also speaker systems that can cost over $150,000. Oh yeah -- waytosmall, your band is real good.

 

[NeedAcpu]

Yea nice band dude. You guys have some talent.

 

[waytoosmall]

003, it was your arguing posts in other threads that got me to Head-Fi !!! So I thank you for that. I followed your advice and am very happy I did. You got flamed alot on those threads just for stating the truth. This forum has many people that want to know the "best" for high end systems and that is pretty much why you were telling them to not buy 5.1 surround headphones. Ohh well, to each their own.

And thank you so much everyone for checking out Sighlo. I am the drummer if you had not figured out. The guy who engineered our latest disc "This Used To Hurt", is named Ben Schigel. He runs Spider Studios in Cleveland and is also the Lead singer of the national band Switched. ( www.myspace.com/switched) He is an amazing engineer, singer, and pretty much everything else involved in music. He produced Chimera, and if you buy their DVD it was mostly filmed at his studio where we did our record. We got hooked up with him through another band that a few of us in Sighlo filled in for that was also signed and Ben had produced. He heard some of our Sighlo material and said "Let me produce you and go get a record deal." Everything is good so far!!!!

Again thank you everyone for taking the time to listen and if you are on myspace, ADD ME. We techies must stick together. My singer is big computer geek to but I own him .


Edit: And tell me about this other sound card and amp you ordered? I asume they will own an X-Fi and pa2v2 but fill me in on what makes them better!!!

 

[theshonen8899]

i dont see why the modern computer techie needs to do so much work to find headphones of that caliber. im absolutly fine with my headphones and i dont feel the need to take a risk with buying new ones that ive never even heard of before.

 

[003]

The Juli@ won't own an X-fi for gaming, but for music, it will own it for sound quality. It has a much better dac than the x-fi, and higher quality opamps. I heard the difference in sound quality right away, however it does not support EAX or hardware accelerated sound, so if you want all that then it might not be such a good idea. It does work in gaming just fine for me though. It's a given that the amp is better, I don't know what parts are used in the amp, but it is an enhanced version of the $450 HA-1 MK11. You probably would not benefit as much as I from it however, because your headphones are 80ohms, mine are 300ohms.

 

[waytoosmall]

theshonen....exactly......you have not heard them before. Again, I am not saying you have to, but if you want to take it to the next level, get better phones. I hadn't heard them either and took a leap of faith that I would notice a difference. I did. That is why I wanted to put this post up, so people can feel comfortable making this purchase. It really is great.