Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Captain Ned
just brew it! wrote:Have you verified that the left/right balance issue is a problem with the headphones, and not a problem with your soundcard or with the left/right balance setting in Windows' audio control panel?
morphine wrote:Can I talk you out of buying "surround" headphones?
They don't really do much about the whole back/front issue that surround imaging doesn't, and you get to pay more for much inferior audio quality.
Firestarter wrote:I would recommend that you don't buy 'surround' headphones
Forge wrote:Just about anything by Sennheiser will give a decent balance of quality for the price.
If you want actual good stuff, start looking at Grado SR-1s. I think they're still the hotness.
morphine wrote:Forge wrote:Just about anything by Sennheiser will give a decent balance of quality for the price.
If you want actual good stuff, start looking at Grado SR-1s. I think they're still the hotness.
I feel insulted. Sennheiser is equally Good Stuff and has the bonus of not looking like your great-grandfather's headphones at that.
Forge wrote:Just about anything by Sennheiser will give a decent balance of quality for the price.
If you want actual good stuff, start looking at Grado SR-1s. I think they're still the hotness.
southrncomfortjm wrote:I liked my old surround sound headset. First game I used it with was Splinter Cell: Double Agent and they made it all too easy to play as a merc since I could pretty easily pinpoint where the spies were in the rafters. I'm also constrained in that I can't just attached a surround sound system since I need to keep the volume down for others in the house. Do you all just recommend stereo headphones?
ludi wrote:This.Basically, you only have two ears...
JustAnEngineer wrote:ludi wrote:This.Basically, you only have two ears...
So-called "surround" headphones are a gimmick. At best they add nothing. At worst, they create a bizarrely distorted sound stage with messed-up delay times. Get a good pair of stereo headphones and set your game to use stereo headphones. It should manage all of the signal processing in the PC to create positional audio.
I use a Sennheiser PC151 headset for gaming with Ventrillo. For music or non-team gaming, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD580 headphones if I don't need a microphone.
southrncomfortjm wrote:JustAnEngineer wrote:ludi wrote:This.Basically, you only have two ears...
So-called "surround" headphones are a gimmick. At best they add nothing. At worst, they create a bizarrely distorted sound stage with messed-up delay times. Get a good pair of stereo headphones and set your game to use stereo headphones. It should manage all of the signal processing in the PC to create positional audio.
I use a Sennheiser PC151 headset for gaming with Ventrillo. For music or non-team gaming, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD580 headphones if I don't need a microphone.
The HD 580 is no longer available unfortunately. How about a HD 439, HD 449 or HD 518? Since I will probably be skipping the surround sound headsets, I'd also want whichever headset I buy to be good for flights since I travel a couple of times a month. Active noise cancelling headsets from Bose or others are a bit steep. Will these headsets help drown out some of the ambient airplane noise? More or less than in ear buds? Seems like the HD 518s would be less ideal for airtravel because they are open.
DancinJack wrote:http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50S-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B004ZG9TMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1364476656&sr=1-1&keywords=athm50s
They'll be a little big, but they have great sound and will provide the noise isolation you want.
southrncomfortjm wrote:Will these headsets help drown out some of the ambient airplane noise? More or less than in ear buds? Seems like the HD 518s would be less ideal for airtravel because they are open.
Forge wrote:Sounds like you're in the same range as me. I would like to hear greatness, but every time someone has tried to demonstrate, it isn't exceptional. Probably just lead ears.
I have a set of Sennheiser HD457s on at work right now, they're comfy, sound good, and I've had them almost a decade without issue, despite constant abuse and neglect. Whatever's current in Sennheiser's 50-75$ range will probably suit your purposes just fine.
Prestige Worldwide wrote:Get a good set of Stereo headphones and an X-Fi or a Xonar.
I have an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional series and Sennheiser HD-555 stereo headphones and they have been providing me with great sound in my games since 2008.
FEAR or COD4 with CMSS-3D (their "surround" mode for stereo headphones) is a very good surround simulation on stereo headphones. I can hear people's exact location at a distance and it helps a lot.
BFBC2 or BF3 with CMSS-3D off and Headphone mode selected in the in-game audio settings is great too. Since they have their own headphone virtualization in-game, CMSS-3D just makes it sound muddy.
I would recommend getting a sound card that has a built in headphone amp though, like the Auzentech X-Fi Forte, Xonar DX / DGX / DSX depending on your budget.
JohnC wrote:There's no reason at all for getting an outdated junk like X-Fi series.
just brew it! wrote:JohnC wrote:There's no reason at all for getting an outdated junk like X-Fi series.
It's not like PC sound card tech has progressed much in the past decade (give or take). For the vast majority of users, the current crop of cards isn't going to sound appreciably better than the "outdated junk" like X-Fi.