Evening folks. I've been playing a lot more games online (On PC) with a friend recently, and I'm losing my rag with the Hyper-X headphones/mic headset thing. Volume consistency on the mic is.. Non existent. Every session I need to fart around with it to make it work, and I'm bored with this now. The headphones themselves are still fine, though, which has put me in something of a dilemma. I don't fancy breaking the bank. To hand I have; Hyper-X headphones & all the sundries. AudioTechnica AT2020 mic, stand, and whatnot. However. Both of these are cabled, and I'd rather avoid cables where possible. Or at least make them less fugly. So I see several options. 1: A set of wireless headphones, and a desk mount mic stand for the AT2020 2: A wireless headset with built in mic - The field seems crammed with these, and they're all somewhat the same to me. 3: Another wired headset and suck up my cable hatred. Has anyone else had the same kind of dilemma and some sort of solution?
Surely there's the cheapest being just use the headphones with the AT2020? Cost £0 with the downside being cables like the 3rd option.
What would you class as breaking the bank? This is the main pair of wireless headphones that I use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/HiFiMAN-HE-400I-black-purple/dp/B00MULH672 I sometimes switch to my wired pair if I forget to charge my wireless ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-X2HR-Resolution-Headphones-Isolation-Black/dp/B01N5VHLUG Those are probably over the top for headphones for simple gaming though. I think out of those options I would probably go for Option 1 if you had to spend money to change something. You already have a decent quality microphone to make use of, so it'd be a shame to waste it. For my setup, I have my mic connected to an XLR an interface hidden under my desk (attached to the underside) so barely see the cables for my mic. My mic is on a boom arm on the far right of my desk and the XLR cable is hidden with the arm by being tightly strapped to it, so I see maybe 3-4" of cable where it exits the bottom of the arm and plugs into the actual mic.
I'd need to buy something to use the AT2020 - With it on the stand that the mic's provided with my keyboard and mouse clicks are unbearably loud when the mic's at a volume that makes my voice passably clear. The cheapest, of course, option would be to arm up the mic, slap it in a shock mount and throw a wind and pop filter at it, while using the same headphones. It's what I'm considering. But I would like to sod as many cables off as possible while faffing with all this. Those headphones definitely fall into "breaking the bank" territory At least, the Hifiman pair does. The primary use for any new or current headphones is definitely just to cut the echo of having aforementioned voice chat partner coming out of speakers, and since what we play tends to require verbal communication first and game sound second the need for really good headphones is.. Lower. I do feel like option one is my preferred route (Because the AT has sat there doing sod all for multiple years now), as you have, I can hide pretty much everything under the desk. Along with everything else..
One of the downsides of some of your work being audio production is that you tend to develop a bit of an expensive taste... These Sony wireless headphones are a bit more of a reasonable price and have a lot of positive reviews: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-XB950N1B-Cancelling-Extrabass-Headphones-Black/dp/B01N5MQX4N
Those are interesting. They're definitely not break the bank territory, they're about on par with some Sennheisers I looked at (HD 4.40 BT). Pondering required, having used both Sony and Sennheiser to my satisfaction.
