Bottleneck in sound

[Helicobacter]

You listen to music with an average quality of 192kb/s and you play PC games. You have an onboard 7.1 chip on your Gigabyte motherboard (Realtek ALC888 8 Channel Audio Codec
) and you use a $60 headset from Creative fatal1ty MK II.

What is the likely bottleneck (i.e., where would spending $100 actually increase your sound experience): Quality of soundfiles, soundcard, better headset?

EDIT: Here a link to my other thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=31852631#post31852631

 

[mfenn]

Depends on the headset. If it's a crap "gaming" headset, that'll be what's killing the experience. Otherwise it'll be the MP3 bitrate.

 

[Helicobacter]

I assume after I've edited my post you will go with the former.

 

[stahlhart]

You listen to music with an average quality of 192kb/s and you play PC games. You have an onboard 7.1 chip on your Gigabyte motherboard and you use a $50 headset from Creative (fatal1ty MK II).

What is the likely bottleneck (i.e., where would spending money actually increase your sound experience): Quality of soundfiles, soundcard, better headset?

In decreasing order of importance: better headset, quality of soundfiles, soundcard.

 

[Helicobacter]

I should have asked the question in relation to money: If you had $100 to spend, where should I invest it?

 

[Helicobacter]

assuming you pick the best headset at each cost range, at what critical dollar value would it stop being worth it to spend more money on the headset?

 

[mfenn]

assuming you pick the best headset at each cost range, at what critical dollar value would it stop being worth it to spend more money on the headset?

If music is your priority, you aren't likely to find what you're looking for in a headset. Your best best is honestly to spend the $100 on a new pair of headphones for music and keep using the headset for gaming (where sound quality doesn't matter nearly as much).

If you can go to $115, I would recommend getting the Sennheiser HD 555s. At that point, you'll definitely be able to hear the poor quality of your audio files. The HD 515s at $55 will get you most of the way there though.

 

[Helicobacter]

I know you tell the truth but I don't like having multiple devices. Therefore a constraint is that it's a headset.

 

[Helicobacter]

Here is a link to my other thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=31852631#post31852631

 

[oynaz]

I know you tell the truth but I don't like having multiple devices. Therefore a constraint is that it's a headset.

Get a good pair of headphones, and one of the mini mics you can place on your screen. Best of both worlds.

 

[corkyg]

I know you tell the truth but I don't like having multiple devices. Therefore a constraint is that it's a headset.

In that case, you will generally have to accept compromise.

 

[mfenn]

Get a good pair of headphones, and one of the mini mics you can place on your screen. Best of both worlds.

I agree. You will either need to do this.

In that case, you will generally have to accept compromise.

or this.