Looking for a gaming headset, recommendations appreciated

[izembo]

as someone else had mentioned too, Astro A40's(250ish unfortunately too, like they said) also has a mixamp, helping out with the sound quality a lot, especially if you only have an onboard.

[Boyiee]

You don't need to go too-too crazy, but the astros are a decent choice since they have an amp.

Newer motherboards have decent onboard, I was very pleased using my HD555's with onboard for quite a while.

I try to not to suggest too many things because I'm terrible with money, and I go absolutely overboard. There is a nice thread on headfi that will help you out with phone price brackets, as well as if ampage is needed for said phones. Obviously, you're going to get better sound if you grab a nice sound card, or if you grab an amp/dac, and if you spend more money. But this will always be the case. If you only spend $300, you could have gotten much more for $500, and if you spend $500, you would have gotten more from spending $1000. You should see this fucking tube amp I've been eyeballing for a while now. There will always be something better. Narrow down your price point, the amount of money you can spend on sound is astronomical. I know you mentioned a price, but really try to find a set amount you want to spend. There are fantastic products that will fit your needs regardless of your current setup at pretty much every price point. Some may want a sound card, some may want an amp, some may not need either! Name a price, and we or headfi will find you the perfect setup for it.

I wish someone would buy me some grados or a woo audio amp for Christmas, but no one loves me enough to blow 2 months worth of rent on me lol.

[Arkanna]

I have a pair of Corsair Vengeance 1500's and I love them. They're USB and come with their own sound processor, thus removing onboard audio from the equation. Never had a problem with them.

[Mellema]

You don't need to go too-too crazy, but the astros are a decent choice since they have an amp.

Newer motherboards have decent onboard, I was very pleased using my HD555's with onboard for quite a while.

I try to not to suggest too many things because I'm terrible with money, and I go absolutely overboard. There is a nice thread on headfi that will help you out with phone price brackets, as well as if ampage is needed for said phones. Obviously, you're going to get better sound if you grab a nice sound card, or if you grab an amp/dac, and if you spend more money. But this will always be the case. If you only spend $300, you could have gotten much more for $500, and if you spend $500, you would have gotten more from spending $1000. You should see this fucking tube amp I've been eyeballing for a while now. There will always be something better. Narrow down your price point, the amount of money you can spend on sound is astronomical. I know you mentioned a price, but really try to find a set amount you want to spend. There are fantastic products that will fit your needs regardless of your current setup at pretty much every price point. Some may want a sound card, some may want an amp, some may not need either! Name a price, and we or headfi will find you the perfect setup for it.

I wish someone would buy me some grados or a woo audio amp for Christmas, but no one loves me enough to blow 2 months worth of rent on me lol.

Boyiee, I saw your desk set up in the other thread, but had an amp question so figured it would be better here. Looks like you use a FiiO E9 with an E7 or E17 docked on it. How much does the E9 improve the sound over just using the amp/dac by itself?

[Boyiee]

The E9 pushes a lot of power, its great. I need a lot to push my headphones and this is one of the cheapest ways to do so. I'm looking to eventually move to a woo tube as mentioned. The E7 was not enough on its own for my setup, so I had to pair them together.

If you aren't looking to spend to much and want a decent setup, E9+E17 is a great way to go. I'm actually looking to grab an E17 to replace my E7 soon because I'm not ready to spend crazy dollar amounts yet.

[Deadgye]

I have a pair of Corsair Vengeance 1500's and I love them. They're USB and come with their own sound processor, thus removing onboard audio from the equation. Never had a problem with them.

I've loved my Corsair HS1 since I bought them as well. Use 'em at home with my desktop and throw 'em in my backpack to use with my laptop when I head up to school. I've used them for 12 hours gaming stints as well and they stayed comfortable. Only problem I ever noticed is that if I try to eat with them on it feels annoying.

[joshd]

I had also been looking at headsets recently so this thread caught my eye. Not knowing anything about mics I don't see a difference between this
Creative Fatality gaming headset $29.99 and
Corsair Vengeance 1500 $99.99
(Had a newegg comparison to link but because I lurk and never post I can't post links.)

[Gredival]

If you are choosing a headset, against Boyiee's advice, here are the things to keep in mind from someone who's been around the block with them.

1. USB Virtual 7.1 audio vs. Discrete Speakers. USB headsets come with their own integrated sound cards, either on the headset itself or somewhere on the cabling. USB is usually used to take advantage of "Virtual" Dolby Surround Sound in which the sound is modified to recreate a sense of directional space. Any regular headphones are actually able to do positional sound pretty well, but as someone who has owned a pair of "Virtual 7.1" headphones I will testify that you really do notice a difference. Besides the Corsair Vengeance, the SteelSeries 7h and the Siberias (USB version) support Virtual 7.1, as well as the Logitech G35 and G930. That being said, the alternative to "virtual" surround are multiple discrete speakers inside your headphones. This is the approach usually embraced by Razer, whose Barracuda sets have three speakers on each side (5.1) and whose Tiamat sets have four on each side (7.1). Having previously owned a Barracuda set, I can testify that here too you will definitely notice a difference in positioning. However since they are discrete speakers, you need a sound card that can handle the amount of inputs necessary. So if you have a nice sound card, it will go to waste on a USB headset. And if you buy a headset with discrete speakers, you need to make sure your on-board or sound card can handle it. Also keep in mind that the headset is bound by the limits of the sound card too. Generally if you aren't super picky about the sound quality, USB is the more convenient and safer option as you know it will work with any set-up.

2. Use and purpose. Headsets are generally made for gaming, and as such they aren't geared for the same highs/lows/mids/bass performance. Directional audio tends to be much more important, so you can tell relationally where something is happening from the noise. That being said, it goes to waste if you keep your music loud enough that you can't tell the subtleties about direction that the headset gives you. So don't both paying the premium if you blast your music. You're better off getting headphones that will produce better music, i.e. what Boyiee is recommending, than getting a gamer headset. Also what games do you play? Positional audio like this is a lot more important for games where such cues are relevant (FPS in particular) and a lot less for games with expendable audio (many MMOs). Also if you want a pair of cans for your MP3 player or phone, you'll need a set with a stereo plug. That discounts both USB sets and discrete sets because they will need more than one audio jack. Certain Plantronics sets and the SteelSeries Siberia USB version are the best options for multi-use headsets because instead of integrating the soundcard into the headset and having a USB plug, what they do is ship you a USB soundcard and you plug the stereo plugs from the headset into the card. That way if you want to use them for something without a USB port, you can.

3. Comfort vs. Sound. If you're getting a gamer headset, keep comfort in mind. Lots of us game for prolonged sessions, and one of my biggest problems with some headsets is comfort. Ears get hot, it gets sore, etc. For that reason alone, consider SteelSeries Siberias (again). Everyone I've EVER talked to has said they are some of the most comfortable headsets around. I used to have Grado SR-80's, which were fantastic in audio, but were not amp level like some other people have talked about here. But they plain out sucked for gaming because they started to hurt after a while, and because the open ear design made my roommate want to kill me when I was constantly gaming when he was trying to sleep or study. I switched out from the Grados because of these issues.

4. Durability/design. Related to the prolonged use, I like Boyiee went through a period where I would buy gamer headsets only for them to break within a year -- usually where the headband connected with an earpiece, the earpiece would snap off due to stress fractures. I have never had an RMA problem related to this, but it is extremely annoying to deal with and there's a limit which both I and a store are willing to deal with returns and exchanges. A lot of newer designs have swivel hinges in this area to address this specific issue, or some other type of compensatory design feature, and I highly recommend checking to make sure a headset has this. I know offhand that SteelSeries 7h/5h and the Logitech G35/930 lines do not encounter this issue due to built in swivels, and there may be more.

[Artemicon]

I keep seeing people boast about the Siberia v2s so I thought I would give my opinion on them after a few months of use.

The headsets sound is good and my opinion matches what people have said here they have nice directional sound for FPS and the music quality isn't terrible.

The comfort however I don't understand where people are coming from so I've chalked it up to it must just be my biology but these things hurt my ears after just a few hours of gaming and while I can postpone the pain by wearing a hoodie over my head and then using the headset it still catches up after a couple (2-3) hours. I also want to mention I have the Diablo 3 variant of the SS Siberia V2 and maybe they're designed differently than the normal ones?

I'll go ahead and point out I have relatively small ears also so I really doubt these things would be comfortable regardless of my head. I never had an issue with my old Logitech G35 aside from them being too fucking heavy which I can say is not an issue with the V2s they're light!

[Slott]

Thanks for even more advice guys. So I'm currently thinking the following - having a headset may actually be the most beneficial, since I intend to use it for gaming - not music really. Comfort will be a huge factor, and as Gredival was talking about, the direction sound is coming from can really help out in gaming (while I don't really play mmo's anymore, I mostly play HoN, some fps/rpgs and whatnot). Another added feature is that a headset (like the astro a40s) would work with my xbox (of which I'm still using the shitty given headset which...sucks) So I'm thinking the astros or the siberia's may be my best bet afterall, since having dual functionality with my bro-box would be pretty awesome. I can get a set of speakers (2.0) with a sound card to handle music and whatnot for when I'm not using skype

[Slott]

So I'm thinking mostly to go with the a40's and saw they just put out a new edition not long ago (a40 2013 ed.). If I go with this, will I need to purchase a soundcard or is onboard good enough?

[Boyiee]

You probably won't need one. Newer mobo's have decent onboard, as long as you aren't running on anything ancient.

[Jonny]

So I'm thinking mostly to go with the a40's and saw they just put out a new edition not long ago (a40 2013 ed.). If I go with this, will I need to purchase a soundcard or is onboard good enough?

Just make sure that the on board audio has optical audio out and supports Dolby Digital Live

[Slott]

I have an evga x58 ftw3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188065
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product...132-GT-E768-KR

Not sure of it's audio capabilities

[Jonny]

yeah looks like you will need to get a S/PDIF capable card that has Dolby Digital Live to use the Astro's Properly(5.1 surround).
so looks like going the Astro route with be a bigger investment, i had to buy a Asus Xonar DX to get up and running but it has been a good investment so far.

if you really don't want to spend that much go with one of the USB choices the others have posted.

[Slott]

Already bought the astros lol...so looks like I need to grab a sound card. Any recommendations for a decent one without breaking bank?

[Jonny]

Check ebay for a ASUS Xonar DX, thats where i got mine for around $50

[Caiyuo]

If you don't mind me co-opting, do you guys have any recommendations for wireless headsets? I don't tend to use headphones for audio that often, but it would be really nice to be able to make a call or chat during a game without the fucking wires for once.

[Kohan]

How much do you want to spend?

[Caiyuo]

Wanted to keep it around $60, but I'd rather get something comfortable than cheap. I saw these on sale at newegg for about $20, and they're well-reviewed, but that may be more because of the value: http://www.amazon.com/Kinivo-BTH220-...srch_res_rtr_1

A friend has these and recommended them also: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846