Good headset

[Elites]

Had a creative fatality gaming headset and it broke, recommendations for a nice headset(preferrably circumaural), mic is a must. Cost can be between 25-100, would only pay 100 if the audio quality/bass is superb as i find alot of the 30 dollar headsets sound the same as a 90 dollar one...The razor orca has good reviews but has no mic on it so it leaves me hanging when i need to use vent or skype.

[richardd]

anything for normal headphones w/o requiring use of a mic (basically any none gaming headset) SENNHEISER is king. period. the price, the value cannot be beat. I've bought the HD201's awhile ago, and did almost everything bad you can do to break a mic. Ive had it in rain, stepped on, snowed on (when i was in Norway) dropped from undesired locations and still work just as good as the day i bought them. The bass, the sound is absolutely superb.


as far as gaming headsets go, im glad you brought up Creative. I was considering replacing my old ones, since i cant stand leather padding, and its about that time to replace one anyways. i was looking at this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-082-_-Product

it seems decent, but i wouldnt mind getting a headset with those preset voices on them to fuck around with some friends on Vent lol

[Boyiee]

Don't buy shitty "gaming headsets"

Sennheiser HD555 $85-100 + Zalman mic $10 and you'll never go back.

If you scroll down the HD555 page you'll see they are frequently bought together. Then you can mod your HD555's (literally take ear cups off, and remove a small piece of foam in each ear) and they will be HD595's.

"Headsets" with mic's attached are almost always shitty and overpriced. They dumb down on the headphone quality, toss a shitty 5-10$ mic on them if that, then charge you a premium cause they are connected. If you really must get a "headset" which is a waste, then get a sennheiser one. They have a couple of decent options. Also, the quality of your voice through that 10$ zalman clip on mic is quite good. I know tons of people in cod/wow that use this same exact setup, and the clarity is amazing. Plus, you probably won't get better audio until you pass the $200 plateau. Best headphones for less than 100$, best gaming setup for less than $100, and probably the best below $200.

edit: the hd555's are fucking $85 right now which is the cheapest I've EVER seen them. I've bought a few pairs for 90-95.

edit2: razers are shit. I bought one of their headsets for my sister trying to save money off of ebay, and swapped it for a brand new one in bestbuy. The earpieces wore out after a couple months and started to feel like straight plastic cutting your ears, and the audio jack failed every month and needed to be plugged into a different port. Razer is one of the worst brands you could be looking at - they need to stick to mice/keyboards/mousepads. Also a steelseries headset I owned failed miserably after 3 months, waste of like 70$.

edit3: this question is asked twice a month, should sticky it someday or add it to one of the compendium threads.

edit4: if you must get a "headset" then I would suggest http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-.../ref=pd_cp_e_3

[jinkazama]

I used to use Razer Carcharias and loved them until my puppy chewed thru the wires now I use Razer Megalodon and I loved both of them.

Both really solid headsets

[Elites]

Don't buy shitty "gaming headsets"

Sennheiser HD555 $85-100 + Zalman mic $10 and you'll never go back.

If you scroll down the HD555 page you'll see they are frequently bought together. Then you can mod your HD555's (literally take ear cups off, and remove a small piece of foam in each ear) and they will be HD595's.

"Headsets" with mic's attached are almost always shitty and overpriced. They dumb down on the headphone quality, toss a shitty 5-10$ mic on them if that, then charge you a premium cause they are connected. If you really must get a "headset" which is a waste, then get a sennheiser one. They have a couple of decent options. Also, the quality of your voice through that 10$ zalman clip on mic is quite good. I know tons of people in cod/wow that use this same exact setup, and the clarity is amazing. Plus, you probably won't get better audio until you pass the $200 plateau. Best headphones for less than 100$, best gaming setup for less than $100, and probably the best below $200.

edit: the hd555's are fucking $85 right now which is the cheapest I've EVER seen them. I've bought a few pairs for 90-95.

edit2: razers are shit. I bought one of their headsets for my sister trying to save money off of ebay, and swapped it for a brand new one in bestbuy. The earpieces wore out after a couple months and started to feel like straight plastic cutting your ears, and the audio jack failed every month and needed to be plugged into a different port. Razer is one of the worst brands you could be looking at - they need to stick to mice/keyboards/mousepads. Also a steelseries headset I owned failed miserably after 3 months, waste of like 70$.

edit3: this question is asked twice a month, should sticky it someday or add it to one of the compendium threads.

edit4: if you must get a "headset" then I would suggest http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-.../ref=pd_cp_e_3

I've heard alot about sennheiser and know about their quality, If you insist on the zalman mic being good then I can pair that with a nice headphone, I noticed you can attach the mic to the headphone wire so thats a plus. The HD555 looks promising, i looked at some videos on youtube on the mod you are talking about and it's funny how they placed a foam in there. I don't mind trying it but they are already expensive and I'm not sure about screwing around with the inside of the thing right away. I might give the headphone a go. What would the difference really be between these and the razor orca's in terms of sound quality though? The specs look identical.

[Boyiee]

The difference is that razers are shitty razers, and the senns are senns. There should be no discussion or questioning.

The mod is a joke btw. 3 tiny screws.

Razer also has some of the absolute worst customer support as well as very low quality products. Their mice wheels squeek, the padding in headphones is crap, and they generally fall apart.

[jinkazama]

Razer also has some of the absolute worst customer support as well as very low quality products. Their mice wheels squeek, the padding in headphones is crap, and they generally fall apart.

something I noticed the other day, I hate my works mouse so I brought my deathadder and for some god forsaken reason the wheel makes some sound over the actual computer speakers. any clue what that could be lol

[Olo401]

I have a Turtle Beach Ear Force HPX and it fucking rocks. Comes with your choice of connection (PC Stereo or 5.1 Surround) for $75.

[GentaiShinigami]

Just want to say DO NOT buy the Creative Fatal1ty >USB< Headset. The drivers are shit and are no longer updated and still don't function correctly. There's just so many problems it's not even funny.

However, outside of this, I will say they have superb sound and I enjoy the built in sound chip (it does have a nice sound and options, but you have to use their drivers to use this function which is a problem). They are also very comfortable, and seem well enough built, but I just can't recommend anyone actually buy them due to the driver problems.

Go to the creative forums and look under gaming headsets and see for yourself how many issues are being had with creative USB headsets.

[Elites]

I ordered a pair of 555's and wondered if my computer soundcard would be efficient enough to hear the quality of it. The sound card on mobo is a Realtek HD audio.

Would something like an external amp such as this one make a difference? http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headph...=pd_rhf_shvl_3

[richardd]

@Boyiee and everyone who can answer:

i have a habit of being a loud talker. i would MUCH prefer to buy anything senn's related when it comes to a headset, especially if it can be modded. but would those clip on mic's hinder my loud voice at all? i think my friend had one, and it was annoying because you had to CONSTANTLY adjust his vent volume

[Talint]

I ordered a pair of 555's and wondered if my computer soundcard would be efficient enough to hear the quality of it. The sound card on mobo is a Realtek HD audio.

Would something like an external amp such as this one make a difference? http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headph...=pd_rhf_shvl_3

I don't know what this does, but I feel like I should get one...

Since we're speaking about headphones, what about something to transport them? I constantly bring mine from home to work, and it really runs my headphones ragged.

[CoronA1979]

I have an AT set of cans and use the Zalman mic that was linked, it works well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826402014

The cans I have now are deactivated but I love the sound - They're the lower end of the AT's iirc, though. My only complaint is there open so if I blast my music you can hear it outside of them. Not a big deal really though considering no one else is in the room with me, /shrug.

[Boyiee]

I ordered a pair of 555's and wondered if my computer soundcard would be efficient enough to hear the quality of it. The sound card on mobo is a Realtek HD audio.

Would something like an external amp such as this one make a difference? http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headph...=pd_rhf_shvl_3

Amps are really wonderful, however integrated sound is leaps and bounds from where it used to be. Normal users won't notice or care for or need a difference. If you listen to a LOT of high quality audio/lossless, then yes, get one (but spend around 100 and get one with a DAC too). I can almost promise you that you won't need one unless you have a huge library of lossless. Yes, it will make a difference, but one you probably won't need. It's really only good for music.

@loud talking, I wish more people knew about Vent Normalization but first off you should be using that. If you are too loud, move the mic further away, and once you add a volume/compressor to someone in vent and alter their volume you should never have to do it again. There was probably something that dude was doing on his side of vent to make him annoying.

[camdyn]

I'm getting these. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...adset_review/1 they got great reviews

[Kerberoz]

No such thing as a good headset, at least not for the price. Get good stereo cans and a $10 mic instead. Software is more important than hardware for mics, unless it's like a dollar-store model or something.

Just want to say DO NOT buy Creative

Fix'd. Everything CreativeLabs makes is shit tier, and they have nonexistent support.

[Yousir]

My main contribution is do not buy anything from Turtle Beach. Their QA on their products is shit. For every platform. One brother has gone through 3 sets of PC headsets. Another brother has gone through another 3 XBOX 360 headsets. All of which have just broken for no customer side reason.

Secondary contribution is that I recently bought the Logitech G930 Headset and I love it. It's got built in 7.1 surround sound. Good bass. No echoing. There are 3 built in hotkeys on the sides to instantly switch between a voip program to use (Teamspeak, Ventrilo, etc.) but some programs aren't supported yet however they are adding to them. They are also wireless but are rechargeable and has a small connection station where you can continue to use them while they are charging again. I'm pretty satisfied with them. Only thing is they are a bit more than you are willing to pay. I got mine on sale for $120, but I have seen them dip close to ~$110 but on average they are $130-150.

[Cheerios]

Don't buy shitty "gaming headsets"

Sennheiser HD555 $85-100 + Zalman mic $10 and you'll never go back.

Thread hijacking, but are there any clip-on mics that have a mute switch/button located on it?