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Help With Audio Choices for my PC

Minithril
Go to solution Solved by rhyseyness,

Thanks to everyone who's replied!

A question I forgot to ask is how important would surround sound be? I've been iffy on it, but it sounds like a cool thing to have while playing games.

 

Don't buy "surround" headphones.

You have 2 ears, you only want 2 speakers.

Software will make it sounds like surround anyway, much better than "7.1 virtual surround headphones" will.

I use the ATH-M50, and I love them.

I consider myself not as an audiophile, but someone who does appreciate good audio.

I don't spend hundreds on cables or anything like that, but I like decent sound, and I can't stand cheap headphones.

Highly recommend the M50's, and it sounds like they'd be ideal for you too :)

I'm pretty new here, so I don't know know much about this forum. But I've been looking for help about a specific element that I had overlooked in my PC build. Audio.

I'm going to be blunt and out rite say that I am no audiophile, I don't know much, if anything, about acoustics. Is that the right word to use? I'm going to mostly game on my PC, but I know I'm going to listen to music every once in a while and I want to have good sound while doing both of these.

Now, I don't know if this is just speculation or has evidence to support it, I've been looking into headsets to buy and I keep running into the same argument that so called "Gaming" headsets don't produce nice sound quality or something to that degree. As I said I don't know how true it is, but I want to be on the safe side and ask for some opinions.

As for sound cards, I don't really know where to begin.

So a good pair of headphones and a sound card for under $200? I don't know if that's reasonable, but I'm shooting in the dark here!

Edit: I didn't know if this was the correct place to post, but is the Blue Yeti a decent mic?

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You don't need a sound card if you motherboard is fairly new. You are better off putting as much as you can into headphone. I suggest looking at something like sennheiser G4me ones or G4me zeros or maybe pc 350d. Which are all about 200 I think? But certainly have audiophile type of listening experience. I have heard many time that audio technica's ath m50x's are great too but they don't have a microphone where as sennheisers headset' debatablely have the best microphone that will ever come with a gaming class headset.

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So, what you really want, if you can afford it, is an external DAC (digital to analogue converter) and an amp and a good pair of headphones.

The DAC will take the digital sound from your PC, convert it to an analogue signal, which then gets amplified (by the amp (NO WAY!)), and is then output by your headphones.

Using an external DAC and amp (rather than an internal one) will reduce unwanted noise.

The reason you'll need the amp is because your headphones will likely be relatively high impedance and so will require a "louder" signal to make them sound loud enough.

Depending on where you are in the world, the Mayflower Electronics objective 2 amp and ODAC is meant to be a pretty good combo for good money.

You're better off having someone else advise you on which specific headphones to buy, but you're right in that "Gaming" headphones do not tend to have good audio quality or frequency response.

Sorry this is brief, but I'm at work, so can't do a proper reply.

Hopefully someone with a bit more time on their hands can help you out in a bit more detail.

I hope this helps regardless :)

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If you aren't an audiophile the PC350D is probably the best choice for you. "good enough" everything. 

You'd be better off, of course, with a $250 amp/DAC and $400 headphones with a modmic attached to them, but if that's out of your budget get the PC350D. Hook it up to the back audio ports not the front. Front audio suffers from major crap quality. Never use it. 

Intel Inside. Overweight guy in his 30's outside.

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You don't need a sound card if you motherboard is fairly new. You are better off putting as much as you can into headphone. I suggest looking at something like sennheiser G4me ones or G4me zeros or maybe pc 350d. Which are all about 200 I think? But certainly have audiophile type of listening experience. I have heard many time that audio technica's ath m50x's are great too but they don't have a microphone where as sennheisers headset' debatablely have the best microphone that will ever come with a gaming class headset.

Thanks for the reply!

I took a look at the Sennheisers and wasn't a fan of how they looked. But, the M50x looks incredible, I'll look more into it, but is it worth the extra $30-$60 to get the m50x over the m50?

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Thanks to everyone who's replied!

A question I forgot to ask is how important would surround sound be? I've been iffy on it, but it sounds like a cool thing to have while playing games.

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Thanks for the reply!

I took a look at the Sennheisers and wasn't a fan of how they looked. But, the M50x looks incredible, I'll look more into it, but is it worth the extra $30-$60 to get the m50x over the m50?

Honestly I couldn't tell you about the difference in sound as I never had the m50's but if a mic is important to you I would say it's worth a little more. The micrphones on their headset are great. 

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Thanks to everyone who's replied!

A question I forgot to ask is how important would surround sound be? I've been iffy on it, but it sounds like a cool thing to have while playing games.

 

Don't buy "surround" headphones.

You have 2 ears, you only want 2 speakers.

Software will make it sounds like surround anyway, much better than "7.1 virtual surround headphones" will.

I use the ATH-M50, and I love them.

I consider myself not as an audiophile, but someone who does appreciate good audio.

I don't spend hundreds on cables or anything like that, but I like decent sound, and I can't stand cheap headphones.

Highly recommend the M50's, and it sounds like they'd be ideal for you too :)

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Don't buy "surround" headphones.

You have 2 ears, you only want 2 speakers.

Software will make it sounds like surround anyway, much better than "7.1 virtual surround headphones" will.

I use the ATH-M50, and I love them.

I consider myself not as an audiophile, but someone who does appreciate good audio.

I don't spend hundreds on cables or anything like that, but I like decent sound, and I can't stand cheap headphones.

Highly recommend the M50's, and it sounds like they'd be ideal for you too :)

Thanks for the help everyone!

I think I'll get the Blue Yeti and a pair of ATH-M59Xs.

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The M40x is much cheaper and sounds similar but with a bit less bass. If that's what you're looking for (or to save some money), you can go that way too. Tell us what you think of your new cans once you get them, will you?

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