Headphone enthusiast thread! - Page 97

On October 09 2011 17:45 GotTheLife wrote:
hello people, I am looking into buying a new set of headphones. I bought the Razer Carcharias some months ago, and these were the first headphones I've bought. I used to just use random ear buds or a crappy mic for like $20 lol. I was super impressed by them, and I despise using ipod headphones or anything like that now. Anyway, I'm looking into buying some good quality headphones, but I'm not too sure what I want, so I'll ask a few questions.

Would you people recommend a gaming headset, or just get a clip on mic and a good quality pair of headphones?

If you recommend a gaming headset, I know that Steelseries and Razer are the two main companies, but what about Soundblaster? They sponsor Complexity if you didn't know, and I really like the way they look and how they have a detachable mic. Does anyone have experience with this brand, and are they good?

I listen to a lot of music, mostly metal, so lots of distortion and heavy chords. Idk if this should affect my decision on what type of headphones to get. (MY BUDGET IS ABOUT 100$!!!!)

OH and one more question: is it better to get analog or usb?

Sorry for all the questions guys, but it would help me a lot if you guys could answer! :D TY!~~

On October 10 2011 04:37 aepal wrote:
Could anyone give me advice on a good headset with a better then average mic on it? I need good sound but the microphone plays a big role as well. Does anyone have confirmation on what headphones are being used in IPL 3? I heard they are the ASTROA40. If this is the case i will go for this one. Please advise <3

On October 10 2011 01:44 Brian333 wrote:
I know these are ear buds so it might be out of place in this thread, but I was thinking about getting the Ultimate Ear TripleFi 10s but I'm wondering why there is such a huge price variation? And, if that price variation has anything to do with quality?

On October 10 2011 04:28 GotTheLife wrote:

Anyone? Please? T_T

On October 10 2011 04:52 Myrmidon wrote:


It's because week by week, the quality goes up and down!

No really, it's the same for most higher-end audio playback stuff...

• Relatively high profit margins (compared to stuff like food, many other electronics, and so on)
  
• Quality and value of one product versus another is highly subjective
  
• Relatively low volume of product manufactured, sold, and kept in stock, so availability and demand don't match up consistently

A couple things to keep in mind when buying expensive IEMs. Many including the UE TripleFi 10s are multi balanced armature designs with two key traits that make them relatively challenging:

• low impedance that varies a lot over the frequency range
  
• really high sensitivity

The extreme variations in the impedance over frequency mean that out of sources with higher output impedance, you can get significant (generally undesirable) changes in the frequency response. Compared to most other headphones, there is a higher level of interaction between the source and load (the IEMs).

The high sensitivity means that given a certain source and volume level, they will be significantly louder than even most IEMs and earbuds. Of course, they can't differentiate between the signal and the noise, so the noise of some sources will be plainly audible with such sensitive IEMs. And you may be stuck using say volume 1-5 out of 50 of a hypothetical volume control, to get reasonable levels.

Why not use an inline impedance adapter to mitigate the noise? That's just adding output impedance to the source, thus mucking up the frequency response, as described earlier.

So make sure your source is not too noisy and hopefully has low output impedance, or be prepared to use an external amp with low output impedance and low noise. Many people say that the sound quality is well worth the trouble. And it's not that much trouble if your source is good.




Depends on your priorities. If you want better sound quality, I'd go with the better headphones and separate mic. A lot of cheap consumer-level (including gamer-marketed stuff) headsets are not so durable, particularly in the mic. The more retractable/bending/whatever adjustments the mic has, the more prone it is to dying. At least with quality headphones and a clip-on mic, if the mic dies, you can just replace the mic.

There are lots of headphones suggestions around. Some people say Grado is great for metal, but the earpads and design are really not for everyone. They're also not suitable if you want some closed headphones with some level of passive noise attenuation.

edit: if you'd really prefer something with a microphone, and don't mind headphones that sit on the ear, and don't already have a quality sound card, I'd recommend the Beyerdynamic MMX 2 (about $80):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/580472-REG/Beyerdynamic_485896_MMX_2_Digital_Gaming.html
http://www.amazon.com/Beyerdynamic-MMX-Multimedia-Digital-Microphone/dp/B001BYOY42

The headphone-only version is the DT 235, a pretty good ~$50 headphone.

On October 10 2011 09:03 HuggyBear wrote:
Yep the SRH-440's pretty good for the price. If you can stretch a bit the SRH-840's are a good step above

On October 10 2011 04:44 Fishgle wrote:


http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=126262

Headset =/= Headphones

Here we will always advise you to get a good set of headphones, and get a clip on mic.
It'll cost you about the same, and have better sound quality.

Edit: MLG uses the A40s, i don't know what the IPL uses. They're sponsered by razer, so i'm guessing its the Barracudas