Gaming Head-set Advice

[Sqwunk]

$150 is quite the investment. :\ My keyboard and mouse was just $220, otherwise I'd consider. And I don't even have a raid group at the moment.

With headphones, you get what you pay for. This is why $20 headphones from Walmart break after a couple months of use. I paid $130 for a pair of Sennheiser HD555, 8 years ago. The wear and tear on them is getting to the point where I need to consider upgrading, probably just one model up, to the HD558. But the point is that it's an investment worth making if you have the money to throw down on it. And it's not just about the durability of the technology, the sound quality is really amazing in high quality head phones like Sennheiser.

I have the new Beats Studio 2 headphones. Someone mentioned to just use headphones I have, and buy a $20 mic to talk into.

Beats are the trashiest "High quality" headphones you can buy.

http://gizmodo.com/how-beats-tricks-...m-p-1712319045

tl;dr
Beats suck

[Melena]

A couple months ago I picked up a pair of Skullcandy Hesh 2 Bluetooth headphones, which has a built in mic, and comes with a cable to plug into a headphone and mic jack. They run about a hundred, and blew away the $299 beats that was also being demoed at the store.

[theshun]

Gonna third Sennheiser. I have wireless ones that use rechargeable batteries (not built in) and I can mow around the entire house without static. They were $99 eight years ago.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Beats are literally the Monster cable of headphones. Buy and use them for impressing the unwashed masses but no means are you getting anywhere near your money in quality.

I'm also in the same boat as Grey. Been rocking the A40s for 6+ years and still my go to option since they feel amazing over my senn 650s.

[Artifact]

I went with the Razer Kraken 7.1 Classic's. I'll let you know how it goes.

With headphones, you get what you pay for. This is why $20 headphones from Walmart break after a couple months of use. I paid $130 for a pair of Sennheiser HD555, 8 years ago. The wear and tear on them is getting to the point where I need to consider upgrading, probably just one model up, to the HD558. But the point is that it's an investment worth making if you have the money to throw down on it. And it's not just about the durability of the technology, the sound quality is really amazing in high quality head phones like Sennheiser.



Beats are the trashiest "High quality" headphones you can buy.

http://gizmodo.com/how-beats-tricks-...m-p-1712319045

tl;dr
Beats suck

I agree to disagree. I've used multiple headphones -- Bose, Velodyne, etc.
I use the headphones 2-3 hours a day for training, shooting (basketball), sauna and lifting. The Beats products are usually bulkier, which I don't like, but they stay put for the most part. The new Studio 2's have been the least straining on my ears (long use) of the 3.
Beats is very good at replacing products if anything goes wrong as well. Over the counter, no hassle. If they do not work perfectly, they swap it out with the newer edition.

I know there is better quality sound and production headphones out there, but they do not exactly fit for my usage. Velodyne was a close second, however they are $700+ a pair.

[Kalmado]

Gonna have to be another "Beats suck" person here. They, like all rapper endorsed headphones, are trash compared to good quality headphones such as Senn's. The quality versus money doesn't add up. Ghost really nailed it. They are the Monster Cables of headphones.

[hopefulki]

In regard to Beats, saw this earlier, seems relevant:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-ei...ushpmg00000042

EDIT: Didn't see this posted by Sqwunk, disregard (or read again?)

[Ghost_Wheel22]

They are the Monster Cables of headphones.

Monster actually designed Beats. Due to moderate shenanigans with Dre they lost rights to it shortly after launch and ever since fighting tooth and nail to get their thumb back in that sweet sweet profitable pie.

Monster has never sold quality, only hype.

[orinthia]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-ei...ushpmg00000042

Here's a link to an ebay listing of "fake" beats, for $7.75: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5mm-Stereo...887&rmvSB=true

I bought two of these a few weeks ago. They look exactly like that teardown, except no beats branding. They also sound exactly like them (a friend of mine has an original pair, the look on his face was priceless). Really, without the branding it's a pretty nice looking headset, and after a bit of wear-in, pretty comfy. I do like the detachable cord a lot, that is damn handy.

While I wouldn't say most high-priced headwear isn't snake oil, a lot is. I use an old pair of JVC HA-S650, got for like $20 about 5-6 years ago, and it still looks pretty new and sounds great (better than those beats). Though looking up prices for it now, seems I got a really good deal on them (looks like ~$50 or so). That's about the limit I'd spend as you'll be paying higher and higher premiums for branding and faith after that.

Same with a mic, you probably shouldn't pay more than like $10 for one since no one wants to hear you breathe at 24bit, 192khz. I have a cheap clip-on mic I got from Fry's, or just shout at my laptop's built-in one, since they all sound the same to the other end thanks to audio-streaming compression and such. A cheap clip-on is nice since I just clip it to the cord, turn the gain up a little and turn off my fan, and things work nicely. If you're recording your garage band though then mic quality, dac, etc, matters a bit more, but keep the thing out of your nose/mouth/jet and the jerks on the other end of your skype/mumble/etc won't be complaining.