Convincing myself to get some decent headphones

T

Trombe

Gawd
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
891
To be short, I've pretty much went my entire audio life using nothing but $10 generic Sony/other earbuds, and I'd like to move on up to something better for once. I'm planning on using whatever I get for PC gaming, console gaming (RCA to stereo adapters or whatever's necessary), music, and movies in that order, but with all the offerings around I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed on what to pick out.

I'm looking at a budget of $120 or so. Comfort is a high priority for me. As for open VS closed, I'd only have a problem with open ended sets if it's really noticable. They're going to be used strictly in my room, but if the sound is loud enough that someone about 8-10 feet away can hear it, that's something I'd like to avoid. Inline volume control would be neat too, as consoles don't offer any way to curb the volume themselves, but not a neccesity as I think there's accessories that can do this anyway.

I assume that continuing to use onboard audio (Realtek) wouldn't do any new headphones justice either, though I'm not really sure what I should get or if I can even budget out the money to get an X-Fi or other card. Would splitting the budget between a new set of headphones and a new sound card offer a better overall benefit? I don't mind waiting for sales either to get my money's worth. Lastly, I don't have the slightest clue how amps work, but they seem too expensive for me to even consider them right now anyway.

If there's any suggestions you guys can make based off of this info, it'd be greatly appreciated.
 
I have some HD485's and i'm always recommending them for this price range. You could probably manage a set of HD485's and an xfi card for 150 if you can spare a bit of cash :)

i wrote a review on here....quick search should bring it up.
 
for gaming, check out the "icemat" or "icemats" get hte more high end model (75$?ish at newegg)...

my fiance loves them but they are delicate, so youd want to keep them on one system. they come with an option usb soundcard so you might want to take that part off if you got a better card
 
Stay away from any so-called 'gaming' headphones. They put more money into style than the sound. If you really want to find a decent pair of headphones, navigate over to head-fi.org and look around there. Those guys know what good audio is.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264935&highlight=rp-21

Audio technica A(closed) or Ad700 (open) or Audio Equation RP-21

These two and an X-Fi that is NOT AN EXTREME MUSIC or some Koss + an X-Fi now. I use sportapros which are about $20 and they are damn good. Koss makes the best cheap headphones period.

It is that simple. Anything else does not do it and any "gaming" headset should be avoided for music at all costs.
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=250314601&pf_rd_i=B0001FTVE0

Sennheiser HD555's. I have the 595's (and about 3 other phones as well) myself, they are a bit out of your price range though.

The two headphones are very similiar, I found the 595's to be a bit better at representing higher frequency sounds though.

The comfort on them (once you get past an initial break in period) can't be beat. The earpads are made out of a velour material, and since they are open-air, you can wear them for hours.

(these things when you first get them, can be like clamps on your head. It's just from a general stiffness of the headband really. Most people will put some books or something in between them for a couple of days to loosen them up)

I don't mean to say that to scare you away from them, but I'm very much a headphone fanatic, and I'm very familiar with this style of headphone. Every one has observed this. After a day or two of being wrapped around a couple of books to loosen them up, they are exdceedingly comfortable.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Used 595's maybe? I sold mine for $130+shipping after a few uses so that would fit his price range if someone else was selling.
 
Thanks for suggestions so far, I'll take a look at them when I have free time.

This is kind of random, but I've been looking at the X-Fi too, and was wondering if it's possible to enable CMSS headphone mode for sound coming through the line-in/optical-in?
 
It still wouldn't work even if I immediately output the source instead of recording? Line-in/optical-in -> CMSS-3D/other filtering -> line-out? That's a shame, would've liked to do some fancy stuff to game console audio, and save the headache of having to use so many splitters/other funky routing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top