A/V Advice on a Headset or headphones + mic and sound card.

I've heard bad things about those but thanks for the opinion

Yeah i get your point about paying more for a brand. But am i right to be looking for accurate headphones for gaming and movies? or should i be looking at getting a sound card to get the most from games ?

 

Expensive HiFi headphones are nothing without a dedicated soundcard/amp to drive them.
I'd look into the Xonar (d2x) or the latest soundblaster offering for a decent discrete sound card, something with high SNr (Signal to noise ratio) as this helps with the ever present graphics card buzz on some unshielded soundcards when gaming.

Or you could go down the USB headset route, If you're after gaming you can probably get away with a decent price-point headset like the corsair vengeance 1500's or a roccat kave.

These won't give you amazing reproduction of the midrange/low frequencies and generally offer pseudo 5.1 over true 5.1.

If you're not interested in surround, and aren't an audiophile like me, you probably don't need anything more than a pair of cans with decent sized drivers and semi-accurate reproduction.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Sound-Judgement-Five-Gaming-Headphones-Reviewed/

My brother has the Corsair 1500's and they're not that great but are serviceable for gaming.

Must haves:
Big drivers for good powerful sound
Circumaural (covers around the ear) for unrivaled comfort
Long cables for accidental standing up and breaking everything incidents
Well weighted with decent headrest support

Optional:
Multi-Drivers for positional audio
Detachable/retractable Microphone
Noise cancelling / sealed cups

 

I see i'll look more into that then.

Great advice there thanks very much.