Looking for headphones..

[FightingRooster]

I need some decent headphones for my computer. It doesn't need to have a mic (can't really use it because I share a computing space with others) so just some kickass headphones.

 

$100-200 is my price range. I won't go Bose because they're products are crap.

 

Thanks.

[Coffee Crisp]

Creative Fatl1ty is an awesome Headset. Bose products are awesome though? Who said they were crap. Out of all the speakers I've ever tested, I got the best sound quality from Bose's.

[Rogby]

Well, heres an okay one from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826289001

It's a little weak structurally on the outside, but, as with a load of things like this, can be easily fixed will glue and/or tape. It's cheap and good.

 

If you're willing to pay a bit more(within your price range), then I would recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826235005

Unlike the previous, it doesn't have a mic.

 

And then there's the Razer Barracuda Headset:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-barracuda-hp1

 

Things you might want to look for in the future are:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-megalodon/

 

If you're willing to go the extra mile and go a $100.00 higher:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-barracuda-ias/

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4256727&Sku=M339-2106

 

If you aren't interested in any of the previous, then look around sites like Newegg, TigerDirect,

and the smaller collection of Razer Gear.

[FightingRooster]

Well, heres an okay one from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826289001

It's a little weak structurally on the outside, but, as with a load of things like this, can be easily fixed will glue and/or tape. It's cheap and good.

 

If you're willing to pay a bit more(within your price range), then I would recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826235005

Unlike the previous, it doesn't have a mic.

 

And then there's the Razer Barracuda Headset:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-barracuda-hp1

 

Things you might want to look for in the future are:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-megalodon/

 

If you're willing to go the extra mile and go a $100.00 higher:

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-barracuda-ias/

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4256727&Sku=M339-2106

 

If you aren't interested in any of the previous, then look around sites like Newegg, TigerDirect,

and the smaller collection of Razer Gear.

 

Wow, great! Thanks, I'll check 'em all out.

 

Creative Fatl1ty is an awesome Headset. Bose products are awesome though? Who said they were crap. Out of all the speakers I've ever tested, I got the best sound quality from Bose's.

 

I've got:

 

Bose Companion Series 2

Bose In-Ear headphones

 

And as a family we've got:

 

Bose Wave CD Player

Bose full surround sound (7.1)

 

I love the Wave CD Player but other than that, not my favourite things (for the price). For the amount that we paid for the full surround sound, we expected a bit better.

 

Thanks for the suggestion though!

[Shadowex3]

No highs, no lows, it must be a bose! Sound is a complicated subject, it suffers more than anything else in the computing industry from bullshit and woo-woo. If half of what Bose or most similar companies (monster...) claimed was true then James Randi would owe them a check for $1,000,000 for breaking the laws of physics.

 

Lets get this out of the way early: "Surround sound" headphones are bullshit. Not only is it physically a ludicrous proposition but if the guys really were stupid/crazy enough to put several tiny earbud sized drivers in fullsized headphones it's probably going to sound like ass compared to REAL headphones. Following that is most things with "gaming" slapped on them.

 

Just about any "gaming" set of headphones is going to be inferior to a normal set. Gimmicky surround or gaming headphones also tend to "color" the sound, usually through having a poor frequency response. You get a lot of impressive sounding hot air at first but it fatigues your ear after a while and just doesn't hold up to something that can faithfully reproduce what you throw at it.

 

Empirical science is where it's at and legitimate measurable facts put Sennheiser HD555's and equivalent Audio Technica AD700 headphones are good quality phones that will last you a LONG time if you don't break them. I've got the 555's bigger brother the 595's and they're good too but also at the top end of your budget.

 

The frequency response is excellent, their THD is extremely low, they don't need specialized hardware but they will benefit from amps and the like if you want, and since they aren't USB you can use your soundcard with them.

 

TL;DR: $100 AD700, $90 HD555, and the big daddy $195 HD595.

 

[edit]

 

For the people who bought the hype and market-image of bose: A few reasons why bose sucks. There is a reason why bose sued consumer reports, and refuses to publish empirical data on their stuff. Look up the tests people have done on boses to see why they don't. Variations of +-10db aren't unheard of for boses stuff, try comparing that even to $60 sennheisers and you won't even be able to fit the bose speaker's response on the same chart. I don't even want to know what their total harmonic distortion is.

[ninjaz1337]

I have a plantronics headphone. Check out http://www.dealsofamerica.com and look for deals on gaming headphones (I bought this headphone there for 20 bucks)

[Josh]

Shadowex is right, Sennheiser HD555's or HD595's are a great deal for that price range. They go very well with an X-Fi sound card for sound positioning as well.

[Red]

As other have said the Sennheiser HD555s or the HD595

 

I have the HD555 and they are the best sounding headsets for gaming/computer use I've had.

 

I bought a separate mic so I could just get good headphones.

[Josh]

As other have said the Sennheiser HD555s or the HD595

 

I have the HD555 and they are the best sounding headsets for gaming/computer use I've had.

 

I bought a separate mic so I could just get good headphones.

Same lol. They are very comfortable headphones as well, they are well worth it imo.

[Shadowex3]

Oh yeha I forgot to mention that. HD555-595's are AROUND the ear headphones, I've got huge ears and they don't get pressed on or squeezed at ALL. They use a sort of fuzzy/felt type padding that breathes pretty well and doesn't trap sweat much or anything.

 

As for X-fi's you're best off getting a full-height Xtrememusic if you can find one instead of the xtremegamer or ANY of the cards that's half-height. The xtremeaudio is also not a real x-fi, it doesn't have the x-fi hardware on it. Wikipedia's X-fi article is a good starting place tbh.

 

If you do go the x-fi/headphones route your best bet for positional audio requires a little work. Source engine games naturally are a little wonky so what you need to do is desync the x-fi and windows control panels then set the x-fi to headphones and turn on CMSS and set windows to 5.1 surround speakers. Then ingame you set to 5.1 surround AND in pre-orangebox engine games (CS:S, some mods) you turn on snd_digital_Surround.