Gaming with Headphones Opinion?

madcyantist

madcyantist

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I just purchased the xbox audio adapter so I can hook up my Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I've read some comments that a preamp would be needed to boost the volume of the input. I would like to have the ability to chat so I've been browsing Turtle Beach headphone models. Hoping that some fellow CAGs could clarify the neccesity to own a preamp and also which headphones they would recommend for 2.0 and 5.1/7.1 audio?
 
this is such an open-ended question. the bottom line is, what is your budget? sub $100? $100+? $200+? $300+? $400+?

If you're on a budget, a combo of the Turtle Beach X12 with DSS2 is great. I have that and love it. I got both on sale at separate times (got the X12's around Black Friday times and recently got the DSS2 on sale). If you can get the older DSS, a lot of people claim it's better than the DSS2 so that would be great as well.

You can use any surround sound mixer like the DSS2 or the Mixamp Pro with any stereo headset of your choosing but because every headset design is different, the result may vary.

a great midrange setup is the TB XP400's. it's truly wireless (even no chat wire!) with a good battery and good price at $189.

then going up from there, the A40's are great. the warheads are nice.

You're going to want to game in surround sound. While stereo headsets have great sound and you'll hear details that you didn't notice over external speakers, you won't be able to pinpoint noises.
 
[quote name='dirtyvu']this is such an open-ended question. the bottom line is, what is your budget? sub $100? $100+? $200+? $300+? $400+?

If you're on a budget, a combo of the Turtle Beach X12 with DSS2 is great. I have that and love it. I got both on sale at separate times (got the X12's around Black Friday times and recently got the DSS2 on sale). If you can get the older DSS, a lot of people claim it's better than the DSS2 so that would be great as well.

You can use any surround sound mixer like the DSS2 or the Mixamp Pro with any stereo headset of your choosing but because every headset design is different, the result may vary.

a great midrange setup is the TB XP400's. it's truly wireless (even no chat wire!) with a good battery and good price at $189.

then going up from there, the A40's are great. the warheads are nice.

You're going to want to game in surround sound. While stereo headsets have great sound and you'll hear details that you didn't notice over external speakers, you won't be able to pinpoint noises.[/QUOTE]

I would say $200 is my max price point. I did some further investigating and have decided against any Turtle Beach or 'gaming' specific headphones. The preamps are expensive and instead of purchasing one I've decided to just haul up my receiver from the living room into my gaming area and run video from the 360 via HDMI to the receiver (then obv insert the headphones into the receiver). My new aim is to decide upon the Grado SR-60is, beyerdynamic DT 235 or AT ATH-D700s and go with a modmic or a cheap clip-on mic from dealextreme. I found these two sources which I used for comparison and research.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad...-guide-updated-8-21-2012-hifiman-he-400-added

http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/sho...s-reviewed-panasonic-rp-htf600-added-04-29-12


Thanks for replying!
 
with a true dedicated receiver like Onkyo, watch out for lag due to audio processing. audio processing is great for movies and stuff but not so great for gaming.

also, a good mic is key if you have a lot of friends and chat a lot. I pretty much don't like many of the cheap mics that some friends use. they pretty much ruin the video recordings I make when you hear some people loud and clear and other people are barely audible.

the people that go for audiophile headphones value music, movies, and audio quality above all else. surround sound gaming is of secondary priority. by going with stereo headphones like the ATH-D700's, you're still only getting stereo sound and will still need a surround sound decoder like the Mixamp or DSS2. you can't just hook up your receiver and get surround sound through the headphones because the headphones are still stereo. a surround sound decoder is actually virtual surround sound that makes it sound surround without having true separate speakers.

lower quality surround sound headphones wins over high quality stereo headphones any time in my book for gaming. you're going to want to know that the enemy is sneaking behind you from above.
 
I do realize the D700s are stereo but haven't invested much time in surround sound headphones. I don't think I've ever played a game in surround sound. Years of counter-strike were always played with EAX enabled and 2.0 audio. I will have to look back over my links for reviews of headphones that offer surround sound and may check into a mixamp or dss2.
 
yes, I remember the EAX days. things have come a long way since then.

just be clear that the reviews on that head-fi link you provided were all done with a mixamp involved. they were not done with the headphones as-is which is stereo.
 
Thanks a lot for all of your input. Didn't even notice the disclaimer on the one review website about not being for stereo consumers.


lol I ran across a few of your posts on slickdeals :)
 
i got the cheap turtle beaches x11 i think. not wireless but the cord is really long. i normally use my surround sound, but they sound great when i choose to put them on. i like being able to leave them on and not worry about batteries.
 
[quote name='madcyantist']lol I ran across a few of your posts on slickdeals :)[/QUOTE]

haha. that means you're a dedicated bargain shopper! :D
 
The issue you're going to run into regarding using your receiver is voice chat. Using a standard receiver, there is no good way AFAIK to get your voice signal into the 360 controller. Or at least not without some very specific receivers (which likely need a mic input, and some kind of isolated mic output) or some convoluted wiring setups where your headset would be hooked to both your receiver and your controller via separate cables/adapters.

If you are just interested in audio and no chat, then headphones plus your receiver should work fine. They would work even better if your receiver supported dolby headphone 5.1 decoding.

I feel like the modmic is a good way to go (I am familiar with it but never seen/used one myself) or if you are looking for an all-in-one headset, maybe consider the Sennheiser PC360? They seem like well respected headphones, and are a headset so integrated mic. I have the PC360s and am very pleased with them. IIRC they are right there in your target budget too. You would also need to get a 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter and possibly an extension cable to run the mic jack on the PC360 into the 360 controller, then the headphone jack on the PC360 to your receiver.

If you want to up your ante some, you can throw in a decoder like the Astro Mixamp or Mixamp 5.8. This will give you the dolby headphone surround sound (it actually adds meaningful audio enhancement to your gaming IMHO) and possibly the convenience of a wireless setup.

Personally, I tried a couple of TB headset products (and purchased the PX5 for a time) and IMHO they were all garbage. Not just in sound quality but also in build quality. I ended up with the PC360+mixamp 5.8 combo and it was actually not all that much more than the TB XP500s in terms of cost, and miles ahead in terms of quality/value.

Lastly, one thing you will want to be aware of is that if you're buying a high end headphone solely for gaming, you may be overspending. If you hook up really high quality headphones/amps to your console, the limiting factor will quickly become the compressed audio files used in modern games. So while I can understanding wanting to invest in quality equipment, don't go too overboard because your source material can be far from ideal too. I experienced this myself when getting my headset, some of the things I thought were equipment deficiencies ended up being compression and clipping in the sound/music samples used in-game.
 
his budget cannot include the PC360 and the mixamp. his upper limit is $200. the pc360 is at $200 by itself. not including the $80-150 surround sound processor.

the surround sound decoders like the mixamp and the dss2 were designed with headsets/headphones in mind. an audio receiver is designed with external speakers that are widely spaced as the sound stage so you won't get the same surround sound effects. and most receivers do a downmixing so that the sound is full and deep but it's not positional.

the XP400's are $182 at Amazon. This includes the surround sound processor and is one of the very few completely wireless solutions. completely wireless. meaning no chat cable between the headset and the 360 controller. only the warheads, the xp400, the xp500, and the a50's are completely wireless.

I know A LOT of people are upgrading from the PC360/mixamp combo to above solutions because completely wireless is completely wireless.
 
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