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Good headphones/headsets?

Gervaise Brook-Hampster

Grizzled Veteran
Jun 20, 2011
484
18
Europe
I'm currently using the cheap-*** Creative Fatality headset, but it's terrible. So terrible in fact that every time I use it, my ears start to hurt. I even got this ear infection from the headphones because it somehow gathers all the dust and cat hair and other crap from the room and they end up in my ear somehow :rolleyes:

Does anyone know any good headphones with or without a microphone? What do you guys have and do you recommend them?

I'm ready to pay up to 200
 
Get a good set of proper Hi-fi headphones that wrap comfortably around the ears, and just buy a cheap clip-on mic from somewhere with a extension cord that matches the headphones.

All those plastic headsets with integrated mic for "leet gamz0r" are mostly just crap anyway.

Many will say "the Leetblaster XY4000 is the best" but when it comes down to it, it's all personal preference (and ear size). That's why I'd recommend getting proper headphones you can actually test on your head beforehand - in a STORE :)

I have the Sennheiser HD555 and they give a good neutral sound, not too much bass (like you get in the "gamer" sets) and lots of details. You'd get some really good quality for 200€.
 
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I am currently using Sennheiser HD 558 headphones and as microphone some cheap-*** Logitech headset I bought for 10€ long time ago. Easy to wrap around neck and with bit of audio tinkering it's passable microphone.

However, if you are looking for some Internet advice via google and eventually run into the question of headphone amplifier, while good low-impedance headphones will benefit from an amplifier it is not absolutely necessary contrary to common Internet advice. I honestly ceased counting "don't buy X if no amp" messages after few days when X could be as "high" as 50 when I looked up what is the rough idea when amplifier is necessary instead of being useful. Typical headphones\sets vary between 16 and 40 impedance in comparison, and you basically need to go around 100+ before amplifier will become necessary to produce meaningful sound instead of simply well, being useful for most headphones.
 
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Turns out the only store here in my place had nothing else than cheap logitech/sony office headsets and horrible looking razer and MLG marked headphones

After some strolling around online shops, I found these: http://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k_612_pro.htm I read some reviews about it around google and it sounds like it's quite good overall, but I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to look for open back or closed back headphones. Do the one's with open back leak out a lot of sound?

And yeah, I'll leave the gaming headsets out
 
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Open headphones bleeds audio but it sounds more natural and in general "better" than closed ones, but depending on quality of headphones it can vary from fairly subtle to very pronounced.

As for those you linked bear in mind, those headphones (and most studio headphones actually) pretty much require an amplifier and headphone specific cables to connect to most amps if you don't want it to sound like the audio itself is having a seizure\or something is just wrong. Cheap amplifiers - relatively speaking - are not too hard to come by, but that's easily another ~150€+ to the pricetag at very least.
 
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Fatality hardware is usually good, who is the manufacturer of those headphones. I have had 2 Fatality brand motherboards and they are great.


In any case I have been using razer piranha analog headphones for about 7 years now and have no complaints they still work great. Spending 200 euros on headphones seems ridicoulous to me unless your an audio engineer. These razers cost me 79$ and use sony audio drums and give perfect audio quality and are made for gaming.
 
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Alright, I paid a visit to a more proper store today and I ended up with this:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k272_hd.htm

The overall quality of sound and the structure of the headphones is amazing compared to the earlier cheap headset. No more annoying noises and fits my head quite good. Works really well without any amplifiers or anything, at least I do not hear any problems. Also I noticed that the closed back headphones seem to fit more for playing video games than open back ones, that's why I ended up with this. I've got to say I'm really happy with this purchase

Thanks for the tips everyone! Have an :IS2:
 
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Alright, I paid a visit to a more proper store today and I ended up with this:
[url]http://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k272_hd.htm[/URL]

The overall quality of sound and the structure of the headphones is amazing compared to the earlier cheap headset. No more annoying noises and fits my head quite good. Works really well without any amplifiers or anything, at least I do not hear any problems. Also I noticed that the closed back headphones seem to fit more for playing video games than open back ones, that's why I ended up with this. I've got to say I'm really happy with this purchase

Thanks for the tips everyone! Have an :IS2:
They look good and good thing they have analog connection. The ones that use USB bypass your sound card, analog on the other hand will use full sound card potential.
 
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Works really well without any amplifiers or anything, at least I do not hear any problems.

Strictly speaking it's perfectly possible to use - for example - 200-300ohm headphones even on a random laptop\PC and they probably work just fine as long as you adjust master volume to the sky, but since they are meant to be used with an amplifier it will sound just weird\wrong. As long as you remain (very roughly) under ~70 ohms amplifier is simply potentially useful than necessary.
 
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I'm using the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro. If I happen to need a mic, I just switch the cable out and plug the optional available Custom Headset GEAR in, which is a quite decent mic for VoIP.

For me, those are really comfortable, sound great and don't look like that they will fall apart very soon. They work just fine with my smartphone or tablet as well. I'd buy them again. Together with the mic I spent around 220€.
 
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I would say get a separate microphone and headphone. If your microphone is only to allow people to understand what you are saying in a relatively quiet environment (no need for noise cancellation) then even 5 dollar microphones should suffice. Pay a bit more for a proper shielded one with some nice cancellation and that leaves you with a bigger array of choice and quality for your actual sound with your headphones.

With headphones the next question is what sort of sound do you want and what is your environment. Is it for gaming? or listening to music? As with gaming you might care more for being able to hear all details or high impact, than things sounding balanced or non fatiguing. However if you are looking in the 200 euro price-range I assume you want a proper set of cans. (If you want bass boost still then as much as I hate the overpriced pieces of crap, the beats probably have the best bass boost implementation out there as they use a bass tilt which gradually increases the bass over the entire spectrum, instead of a regular filter which often got a sharp cut off point).

Do you have a street nearby or people talking, and do you want to block out sound, go for a closed headphone.

If you are in a quiet environment and nobody is going to get bothered by sounds coming out of your headphones. Then go for open headphone designs, as its simply easier to make them sound more controlled.

If you are trying to get a headphone for longer time use go for over the ear headphones. Anything that touches your ear can end up feeling painful over longer durations or can make your ears sweaty in longer sessions.

Want to plug your headphones directly into a computers audio port, or do you want to use an amplifier to amplify the audio. If you use a computers audio port, you probably want to get a relatively low resistance headphone of maximally something like 128 Ohm resistance. As otherwise the output of your port might get issues powering the lower end making it sound a bit shrill.

With your price range, If it was me buying I would probably look for a Sennheiser HD595, its easier to drive than say more traditional senns as the 580 600 650 etc. So it works well without a dedicated amp. But in general the sennheiser 595 is the most comfortable headphone I've ever owned. More comfortable than the 650 and 600 which do need an amp to drive it. And more comfortable for my ears than the Beyer 770 or 990 series. (I personally use a set of STAX headphones atm which are horrid for ergonomics :p)

But tbh when purchasing a headphone for a lot of money, best is to go to a store (go to a specialized store, but don't believe in the mumbo jumbo of special cables sales persons try to sell you with) and try some out. Just make sure you don't buy overpriced equipment with bas boosts etc in it. If you want adjustments do it yourself through software.

Check for things like how well you can separate instruments. If you listen to the bass does it start and stop instantly and can you actually listen to the tone of it, or is it more like boom boom. Does low to high flow over well, or do you feel like you hear a separate high, mid and low on the headphones. Does it sound like instruments are playing in your head or are they playing a bit more outside it.
If you hear a lot of "detail" make sure that what you are hearing is not sharp and metally when something goes up to the higher notes.
Have perhaps a bit of vocal heavy music, and if you play an acoustic instrument some music of the instrument you play. As then its often quite easier to discern if it actually sounds like how that instrument should sound.

When trying things out always watch out for headphones that immediately give you the feeling that there is a lot of "power" or "detail" as that can mean that it simply got a v-dip which will tire you out after listening for longer durations. Sometimes the headphones that sound more boring end up sounding better.

But the most important thing to think about when buying a headphone, is to remember that even very expensive headphones beside some luxury features, generally all have extremely low production costs (you often pay a lot for research and tuning with more expensive brands). Anyway because of this remember that a headphone that is 1/4th the price of another can still sound better, and even within a single brand some of the cheaper headphones in the range can be true gems, while more expensive ones can be utter crap. So if you decide to buy something without trying make sure you read some basic reviews (usually in cheaper ranges reviews are more honest than in the expensive ranges, but still beware as a lot of reviews earn their money from advertising for the brands they review). In my experience past 100 euros you quickly get diminishing returns with getting more expensive headphones, personally I often spend more but that often goes together with them being good at the exact thing you want them to be good at.
 
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