Headphones

[pirred908]

What are the best headphones for gaming around $150. Thank you.

 

[Treyshadow]

I would suggest a pair of open air / semi open headphones for gaming as that widens the sound stage making the game that more realistic. However, if you are in a noisy area (friends, lan party...) then closed phones remove you from the rest of the world.

Here are my choices at the <$150 price point

Open / Semi Open

Audio-Technica ATH-AD7
Great cans with awesome detail. Audio-technica is known for bass in their phones, so these are much more bass heavy than most Semi transparent phones

Sennheiser HD580's
Another great set of cans. Might be slightly more than your price point. These are more neutral than the Audio-technica's, so better for Jazz and voice types of music. For in game I would take the Audio-technica's

Sennheiser HD555
New Cans and they are good. not on the order of the ATH series from audiotechnica IMO. Very nuetral and a bit laid back for my tastes

Closed

Audio-Technica ATH-A700

I have heard these after extensive time with the ATH-W100's. I would not say they are any better than the ATH-A500's, so I would not suggest them over the 500's, but they are within your price point. I would suggest getting the 500's and using the extra money on a headphone amp like a cmoy.

Audio-Technica ATH-A55
Slightly older model of the ATH-A500's, but I liked these better than the 500's and they still can be found on the net at Audiocubes.com

Beyerdynamic DT770
Again slightly more than your price range, but sometimes stores like guitar center have these on sale. Great studio class can that is very accurate and has great sound. These are like a closed version of the beyerdynamic flagship DT990 Pro. Nonetheless, incredible phone.

All of these will best the Sony's, pioneers, and Koss cans in their price range. I would suggest however that you try out each that you can and let your ears be the judge

 

[pirred908]

Thanks alot man. The reason I'm getting headphones is to drowned out the sound comming from my comp, so "Closed" headphones are definitly the best buy for me.

 

[pirred908]

So do you suggest I get the 55's and a "cmoy"? Could you tell me more about a cmoy?

 

[Turkish]

noise cancelling = a must

 

[Treyshadow]

cmoy's are little amplifiers for headphones.

They can be used with Batteries, or a wall wart plug in power supply.

There is a moderator at hard forums named Mister X that makes them, and their is a guy on ebay that has made and sold 250 of them. I haver heard many amps and these 2 are some of the best for the money and will really make your headphones shine.

With a cmoy amp the 55's will sing.

Electric Avenue

 

[konakona]

extend your budget just a tad bit, get a used hd-580 and an inexpensive amp like pimeta. if you got some soldering skills, make a DIY replacement cable with something like canare starquad (mine is some gepco brand based). its simply impossible to beat this combo for price/bang, unless you really hate lush/laidback/midbass-humped senn sound. personally i love it, much more than what my cd3000s can do for me.

 

[shortylickens]

Bose has a nice line if you want to drop some mad money.
The tri-ports and quiet comfort 2 are great.

Sonystyle.com has good stuff too.

Generally, the more you spend the better it gets.

Many Best-Buys and Circuit-Cities will let you experiment with headphones.
Some of the employees actually give good advice too.

 

[konakona]

the only two sonys i would recommend are cd-3000 and r-10 which are completely out of your budget range. v-6 is ok but you can do better with same money :|

 

[CSMR]

If you want to get rid of noise completely, you could try etymotic. The ER6 is below your budget; the ER4 a tad above. Don't fit everyone well but great sound and complete isolation.

 

[Killrose]

Anyone try these Zalman 5.1 capable headsets?

Zalman 5.1 headset

Was thinking about getting these.