The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Well the ie800s are 4 times more than A50s and have no gaming stuff...
So they sound incredible, I've yet to hear anything better (and I've tried a lot of headphones). Their sound signature is a gentle V shape so everything sounds balanced. Bass is easily the best I've ever heard from iems. They are actually open back so the sound stage is great too.
The Astros may be better for you though if you love bass, gaming headsets tend to be bass heavy. Explosions do sound better out of my actual speakers because they can sound more rumbly.
I actually preferred ie800s to HD800S' though which surprised me.
Using the same good ol' Corsair Vengeance 2000 I have been using for > 4 years now. It is used exclusively for voip, I have a decent pair of speakers which I use for other sound and if I need headphones, sennheizer HD598 it is.
+1 on the Corsair Vengeance 2xxx. Been using mine for years and they've always worked great and lots of bass for a headset.
I had a Logitech G93x? before these and I hated them. The ones I had, had zero bass so I sold them to a friend. He said they sounded fine to him. Maybe I had driver issues or something but no matter what I tried they sounded worse than the cheapest sounding earphones that I'd gotten for free. Gave up and moved to the Corsair and never looked back.
Oh and
@Tanner@XoticPC if you get into the higher end of audio stuff you should think about the quality of music files your listening to. Not really important when gaming, but good god, I only recently switched to Tidal instead of Apple Music and Tidal's lossless FLAC audio sounds incredible compared to Apples 256kbps stuff. Cant go back.
Those A50s could be nice enough to tell, but I can't say for sure I'm not too familiar with them. Just something I wish I'd taken more seriously earlier.
Yeah Apple is an awful company. Unfortunately I'm forced into the iPhone, but I kinda like it tbh. Apple music worked well enough, I liked it more than spotify for the better integration into iOS. But that in itself is another reason to dislike Apple lol.
Can't stand their desktops or laptops. Or like anything else they sell in an Apple store that's triple what it should be.
I bought the headset around last week of Dec. and only charged it 5-6 times since then. So far I have no issue charging and it takes 2-3 hours to full charge. The mic works fine but I did notice a delay of my voice when I tested it during a LAN party. Being wireless, I kinda expected the delay. I haven't tried it in a more competitive gaming hopefully it doesn't bother me or affect the game that much. One of the reason I bought it is because it has an option to be wired but I haven't tried or tested it yet. Have you tried it (using the other wires/jacks that comes with the box)? Does it also include the use of the mic?
I don't use headset too much but when I do, I wear Razer Blackshark. Unlike many other it is wired, uses a 3.5mm jack and has no virtual surround system but just two speakers.
Speakers do fine until I'm playing some fps where hearing opponents footsteps is a big advantage. Mostly that game has been BF4.
I have yet to try that, I just use the USB while charging. One of these times I might hook up the AUX cord and the USB cord and see if that helps my cutting out while charging.
BTW not to shill or anything but I highly recommend giving the Senn GSX 1000 a try, its virtual surround blows away anything else I've heard including CMSS-3D, THX, DH, Razer Surround, and SBX on the X7 that I had. GSX 1000 headphone output is a bit weak tho for more demanding cans (and its line-out is stereo only) so I'm double-amping with an Objective2.
I do use a Woo Audio wa22 for music, regular gaming the x7 has enough juice. I generally keep it in Scout mode for the type of games I play. I might give the Senn gsx 1000 a shot. Thanks for the tip.
Akg K550, with a separate, cheap mic when I need it. I'm actually using them more than the stereo speakers when I'm home, but that's because of game chat mostly. I still prefer speakers than headphones, but the K550, while being closed type, have a great soundstage.
I have tried also wireless senheiser (RS160), but I've found them uncomfortable for medium to long periods.
I personally use the Bluedio T3 Turbines and my Blue Yeti mic... I picked the cans up while abroad in Australia for a couple months since I was living in a small flat and needed cheap bluetooth headphones to enjoy wireless, quiet listening, instead of my noisy neighbors. Haven't put them down yet!
I would obviously upgrade once the money/time is right...
i use the hyper X cloud 2 ive been using them since mid last year and really like them, ive owned cheaper and more expensive but feel really happy with what these offer vs the price-point.
I have the tiamat 7.1 can say its more gimmic than real sound, specially these days with positional audio....also bit loose and doesnt sit well on the vive for me....so its now gathering dust
Sennheiser Game One, for its fantastic sound and ease-of-use with the mic. Both headset and mic sound quality are fantastic.
Or, go the route of entry-level audiophile headphones, and add an Antlion ModMic to it. Beyerdynamic 990's are a good choice; as are Audio Technica ATH-M50x, and Sennheiser HD558.
Either option, you're looking at about ~$150-$200 ballpark pricing for the best bang-for-your-buck. Spend any more money, and you're hitting diminishing returns. Spend any less money, and you're sacrificing construction and sound quality.
As a general rule, buy your audio gear from companies that make audio gear (Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Beyerdynamic, etc). Don't buy audio gear from companies that specialize in putting shiny RGB lights on keyboards and mice (Razer, Logitech, Steelseries, Kingston, etc)
I think Kingston is also making fantastic headsets, for example their HyperX Cloud Stinger doesn't go far behind than those of Sennheiser's mid range models. The sound, mic, and build quality of the HyperX Cloud Stinger is also great considering its a $50 headset, compared to other $50 headsets in the market which are all cheapo-looking-shiny plastic materials, poor sound and mic quality.
I might also add that their flagship headset (HyperX Cloud Revolver) the mic quality is almost identical to Sennheiser GAME ONE, considering the HyperX Cloud Revoler only cost $89.99 in Amazon.
Logitech is also quite good too, I agree about those RGB/Macro buttons nonsense they put in their headsets to be unnecessary but I would like to try their wireless headset (Logitech G533) with 7.1 virtual surround sound but without those RGB/Macro buttons nonsense. However, the mic with a pop filter is not that great but its passable imo.
Hi
If you're getting a headset (attached mic) get a set of Sennheiser's, the PC350/360/363 and the G4ME series are all basically the same and are the best "headset" for the money. With a decent amplifier they are actually kind of ok for music, at least as far as gaming headsets are concerned.
If you don't care about having an attached mic and have a little more money to spend then you should get some HD headphones and an amp/dac to run it. I like the Sennheiser brand a lot so I'd recommend the HD598 or HD650, but there are a lot of good headphones out there like the AKG 700 series, the Beyerdeynamic DT880 or DT770, etc. For amp/dac a cheap Fiio is the entry level, a schiit magni/modi stack or JDSlabs o2+odac are the step up.
Keep in mind with headphones that open design is MUCH better for soundstage (better for gaming)
BUT it means they aren't going to block much noise and people around you will hear your game/music (bad for porn, just saying). Closed design are what most gaming headsets are, they will block more noise but it muddies the sound a lot and makes for a smaller soundstage.
Oh, and forget "virtual surround sound" it's a load of **** and it's completely worthless. A good set of HD headphones with an amp will DESTROY any gaming headset or any surround sound without even breaking a sweat. What matters with audio is clarity of sound, soundstage and precision/accuracy. That's what will allow you to hear things other people miss, soundstage is what makes positional audio work and no virtual processing (crosstalk) will ever do a better job of it.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
