Expensive 7.1 or Budget Open Backs

[yayu]

Ive been really annoyed when my teammates can hear the footsteps but I couldnt, Just a week ago my Current headphone's foam started ripping of and its really annoying to use now so I decided its time to buy a new one.

 

I've been searching around yt for reviews on good gaming headphones, and Im stuck if I should go with the Arctis 5 because Im hearing alot of good reviews and I also wanna try 7.1 surround sound for the first time, but alot of people keep saying something about openbacks and I found out about Philips SHP9500 its way cheaper than the Arctis. What would you guys recommend? 7.1 or Openbacks. I mostly use it for Competitive fps (csgo) I have an adjustable budget of 120$, my current Headphones rn are the HyperX Stingers.

 

Are there any better options?

 

[KGGaming]

4 minutes ago, yayu said:

Ive been really annoyed when my teammates can hear the footsteps but I couldnt, Just a week ago my Current headphone's foam started ripping of and its really annoying to use now so I decided its time to buy a new one.

 

I've been searching around yt for reviews on good gaming headphones, and Im stuck if I should go with the Arctis 5 because Im hearing alot of good reviews and I also wanna try 7.1 surround sound for the first time, but alot of people keep saying something about openbacks and I found out about Philips SHP9500 its way cheaper than the Arctis. What would you guys recommend? 7.1 or Openbacks. I mostly use it for Competitive fps (csgo) I have an adjustable budget of 120$, my current Headphones rn are the HyperX Stingers.

 

Are there any better options?

 

I have the cloud 2 hyperx with 7.1 surround sound and the headset before was open back and I can really tell the difference for csgo sound wise but really depends on personal preference

[Stahlmann]

Personally i hate surround in headsets because it completely bricks the sound quality. Good stereo headsets/headphones will allow you to hear directions just as well.

[Tigerleon]

7.1 virtual surround sound implementation is just a marketing gimmick for gamers. That's how those companies earn money. Surround sound and rgb for literally double or even triple the money just because it says "gaming" in the name.

[Tigerleon]

There is good virtual surround sound but you have to pay a good amount for it. Like a soundcard or something.

[rice guru]

For your budget the PC 37x is available

[iBabySlapper]

When I game I usually use BeyerDynamic DT990s or Phillips Fidelio X2HRs, and I can soundwhore pretty effectively with either of them.

[HumdrumPenguin]

4 hours ago, Tigerleon said:

There is good virtual surround sound but you have to pay a good amount for it. Like a soundcard or something.

Can be done by software. Still sucks though.

 

2 hours ago, rice guru said:

For your budget the PC 37x is available

I second that if a mic is desirable on the headphone instead of having a standalone device.

[The Flying Sloth]

Just went and copied this from some of my previous answers,

"We tend to not recommend 'true' 7.1 headsets here because in real life humans only hear in stereo, two ears creating a binaural 3D image using the minuscule delay between ears (due to the speed of sound) and spectral pinnae cues to localise the audio. The much smaller, multiple, drivers in true surround headphones are each less accurate than the two single drivers in stereo headphones while driving up cost for no benefit in applications with binaural stereo (and given Windows sonic can turn any 7.1 source into binaural audio, many applications don't even need that)."
"Humans hear binaural stereo and can use spectral pinnae cues as well as the minute differences in time between a sound source hitting each ear to localise that audio. Virtualised surround sound emulates that process quite well and can enhance a listening experience greatly given the source material supports the format. Almost every surround sound headset out there is really just a stereo headset, the reason you don't notice a difference in movies is likely because the file you're viewing only contains stereo audio and the fancy software can't magically create more channels to serve you."

In short 'virtual surround' is actually more true to life (at least as far as headphones go) as 'true' surround sound. You can use audiophile headphones to hear virtual surround sound.

[an actual squirrel]

13 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Personally i hate surround in headsets because it completely bricks the sound quality. Good stereo headsets/headphones will allow you to hear directions just as well.

So, you actually can't hear directions as well with stereo. This is because in stereo, sounds are only broken up into left and right, and this creates problems with front and back. A separate problem is that speaker location isn't specified - headphones are side facing, but actual speakers are generally front facing. If the wrong layout is assumed because of lack of a headphone option, then moving objects won't have their sounds updated properly at certain points.

 

The good news in this situation is that CSGO is one of the rare games that has good audio options. If you select the "advanced 3d audio processing" option, that is a virtual surround sound option, and it will transform a regular headset into a surround sound one. In doing so, it allows you to hear front and back better, as well as avoiding problems with moving sounds.

 

This is also true with pubg, with the hrtf option. If you listen to the video, you will notice that no matter what headphones you use, the hrtf/virtual surround sound audio does a better job with directions and movement than stereo. 

 

To get these benefits in other games, say Apex Legends, Fortnite, or Valorant, you have to provide your own virtual surround sound processing on surround sound audio from the game. People tend to be pretty snobby about gaming headsets, but at least they can make this option pretty accessible to people. 

 

 

[Stahlmann]

6 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

People tend to be pretty snobby about gaming headsets, but at least they can make this option pretty accessible to people.

Haha you're right about that. I recently tried out the Sennheiser GSP 670, which is a 350$ high-end headset. I sent it back 1 day later because the sound quality is just horrid compared to 180$ DT990's + 60$ ModMic. And enabling the 7.1 surround feature just made it sound like i was holding a potato to my ear. Anyone who ever had a nice headphone + mic combo will not be satisfied with even high-end gaming headsets anymore.

[an actual squirrel]

1 hour ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Haha you're right about that. I recently tried out the Sennheiser GSP 670, which is a 350$ high-end headset. I sent it back 1 day later because the sound quality is just horrid compared to 180$ DT990's + 60$ ModMic

Ha, yea, when you get into the audiophile world, things get crazy and people will pay a lot for just a brand logo like sennheiser or beyerdynamic. It is like fashion with Versace.

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, an actual squirrel said:

Ha, yea,  when you get into the audiophile world, things get crazy and people will pay a lot for just a brand logo like sennheiser or beyerdynamic. It is like fashion with Versace.

I agree but not really my point. My point is, that in many instances you're much better off by going with a headphone + mic combo than with a headset. For ~200$ combined you can get a better setup than every headset on the market. Even the 300$+ ones.

[an actual squirrel]

8 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

I agree but not really my point. My point is, that in many instances you're much better off by going with a headphone + mic combo than with a headset. For ~200$ combined you can get a better setup than every headset on the market. Even the 300$+ ones.

Oh, I thought you were joking. Typically headsets are all in one solutions that are popular at lower price points. I am dubious about sound quality, but for gaming purposes I imagine it will be good enough. And sound quality itself is mainly frequency response, and that can be modified with equalization if people want to put the effort into improving that.

 

On the flip side, my fear when people use headphone+microphone or an analog headset with no processing is that they will be playing games in plain stereo, which I see as a needless loss of spatial information.

[Stahlmann]

1 minute ago, an actual squirrel said:

Oh, I thought you were joking. Typically headsets are all in one solutions that are popular at lower price points. I am dubious about sound quality, but for gaming purposes I imagine it will be good enough. And sound quality itself is mainly frequency response, and that can be modified with equalization if people want to put the effort into improving that.

 

On the flip side, my fear when people use headphone+microphone or an analog headset with no processing is that they will be playing games in plain stereo, which I see as a needless loss of spatial information.

When trying out 7.1 headsets in the past i not really noticed any better spacial awareness than with plain stereo headsets/headphones.

[an actual squirrel]

25 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

When trying out 7.1 headsets in the past i not really noticed any better spacial awareness than with plain stereo headsets/headphones.

If you look at the pubg video I linked earlier, it shows how audio processing can improve front vs back localization and eliminate dead zones.

[Letgomyleghoe.]

39 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

300$+ ones

https://www.amazon.com/beyerdynamic-Generation-Premium-Gaming-Headset/dp/B06WGVJ9GY#customerReviews

According to z reviews these are are =/> to argons mk3 which are similarly priced, if you buy a mod mic with the argons, but require a nuclear plant to power them which costs lots of $$ unlike these which can be powered by a potato.