This is a timely thread as I am in the market for some new phones. I was an avid headphone user until my cat (when he was a kitten) chewed through the cable on my Sennheisers. It coincided with a decline in my PC gaming so I never replaced the cable and eventually got rid the headphones. These were then replaced with a Sennheiser wirleess set but they never fitted properly, would fall off my head and there was always a static hiss in the background so they have now been retired. I'm now playing a lot of BF3 so I want some new phones and a mic so I have been swithering between a headset or separate phones and mic. Use is predominately gaming with a bit of music while surfing. These look great and are currently a great price on Amazon at £85 which is much cheaper than I can find it else where. Consensus is great sound stage and very analytical phones but can be lacking in bass. I had been looking at the PC360's as I have most experience with Sennheiser headphones so they were the first company I looked at. They are expensive and trying to find decent reviews of them online is bloody difficult. Now that was a great link and the kind of information I have been trying to find. It looks like the PC360's are adapted HD595's or are certainly comparable sound quality wise. Although an Amazon reviews sternly refutes this. These are an all in one solution with good imaging and decent bass so would be more of an all rounder. Unfortunately they are £127 so a good bit more expensive. Ah!! Decisions! Currently I use on board audio so would I be better buying a sound card or an external DAC/Amplifier? The sound card would have to be PCI-E so any recommendations there would be appreciated. For an external DAC/Amplifier I have seen the FiiO e7 which gets good reviews or is there anything else you would recommend?
I decided to place an order for the AD700 since it was the popular choice amongst many gamers. Hopefully it'll be an improvement over my current set of Razer Carachias. They've served me well. @Da_Rude_Baboon: I would recommend the Asus Xonar Dg soundcard. It's great bang for buck and is better than on board sound.
a headphone amp is the way forward, ive a couple a baby FiiO E5 for when im out its aboutt he size of an ipod nano and a FiiO E7 DAC for when im at home. honestly the difference is night and day that with a decent set of headphones and you will wonder what else you can do to improve things. It gets pricey after that trust me!
Unless your really into music I would be careful about going too high, one can get carried away and gaming sound tracks are not that high quality anyway.
I would be interested to know what you think of the AD700's. I can't use the Xonar DG as my motherboard is PCI-E only so it would have to be the DX which is more expensive and I would also need a head phone amp... Yeah I know what you guys mean. The thing is i do enjoy my AV and I have a £1.5k home cinema amp gathering dust in the loft until I move house again to some where I can accommodate a surround sound setup again. I am put off buying a "gaming headset" and paying a lot for inferior sound. On the other hand apart from playing games how much would I actually use them. AHHH!!! It's the dreaded forumitis and upgradeitis! The budget is £150 for the head phones. On the subject of the headphone amp I have a Fatman Itube. Could I use that as the amp?
This is a "power amp", not an headphone amp. It doesn't mean that you cannot use it to drive your cans, but this won't be as good as a real headphone amplifier. From what I see, the preamp stage uses vacuum tubes (ECC85 are mostly use for that purpose, but they can be used for headphone too) and the power stage is some (J/MOS)-FETs based one. You might give it a try, do not know with high impedance cans ... this is worth the try. But even amplifiers costing thousands of pounds cannot match a dedicated headphone amp, unless they are integrated amp with a dedicated headphone stage, especially with high impedance or hungry cans (K701, HD800, etc.)
Thanks for that. I will go for a dedicated headphone amp. I have been looking at the DT990's as unfortunately the 880's are out of my price range.
I'm not sure yet but yeah I figured to drive 600 ohms it would need an external amp. What would you recommend and if you have any head phone suggestions I would be happy to hear them?
Instead of the dt990 which not a lot of people like. I would try to get a pair of sehninser hd558/598 (Dont get the hd 555/595 they are worse) or even a used pair of Sehn hd580/600/650(Same headphone just diffent looks) For the amp i guess it would be best to try to get a cheap little dot amp or something or a fiio e10 since the e7 would sound a lot worse than the e10(E10 is at same price point i think)
I used to use a pair of Sennheiser 350s for gaming, unfortunately they mic stopped working (I broke 'em....too rough with my gear!) but the directional sound quality was fantastic, never had a problem telling where the shot came from in game. Same with footsteps and realoads etc they were absolute quality and way better than anything I've had since. If I was playing as much as I used to I'd be grabbing another pair no hesitation. Just a word of warning ..... They don't sit well with wives and late night gaming as they can lead to accusations of you shouting at the other players!!
