Headphone upgrade question.

[NoobMeister]

Hi, I have been wanting to upgrade my headphones to a high quality one for a while now, I currently have the arctis pro with gamedac, is sennheiser 660s worth it for $350 (i get a 30% off from sennheiser hence the price) and does it really sound way better compared to the arctis? i found the arctis pro with game dac to be really good compared to other gaming headphones i have used before so im kinda hesitant to buy the 660s, I was going to pair the 660s with schiit hel (schiit hel because it has the mic slot) or is there other better option for dac/amp for it?

 

thanks.

[Tigerleon]

31 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

Hi, I have been wanting to upgrade my headphones to a high quality one for a while now, I currently have the arctis pro with gamedac, is sennheiser 660s worth it for $350 (i get a 30% off from sennheiser hence the price) and does it really sound way better compared to the arctis? i found the arctis pro with game dac to be really good compared to other gaming headphones i have used before so im kinda hesitant to buy the 660s, I was going to pair the 660s with schiit hel (schiit hel because it has the mic slot) or is there other better option for dac/amp for it?

 

thanks.

That wouldn't be worth it unless you are an audiophile snob listening to songs in a sound dampened basement drinking some fine wine. But seriously, IMHO no. The HD 58X or HD 6XX from drop.com is a better pick in terms of value for what you get, this is based off of what other reviewers has said. Unless you have the money, then go for it. Since you've only tried gaming headsets before, I can tell you it is miles better. Any good studio headphone even under 200 dollars will sound as good or if not better than a 300 dollar gaming headset. There are other options for headphones as well. It doesn't have to be Sennheiser. Also do you game or listen to music or just both? What music genres do you listen to?

[NoobMeister]

12 minutes ago, Tigerleon said:

That wouldn't be worth it unless you are an audiophile snob listening to songs in a sound dampened basement drinking some fine wine. But seriously, IMHO no. The HD 58X or HD 6XX from drop.com is a better pick in terms of value for what you get, this is based off of what other reviewers has said. Unless you have the money, then go for it. Since you've only tried gaming headsets before, I can tell you it is miles better. Any good studio headphone even under 200 dollars will sound as good or if not better than a 300 dollar gaming headset. There are other options for headphones as well. It doesn't have to be Sennheiser. Also do you game or listen to music or just both? What music genres do you listen to?

I do listen to music, watch movies more often than gaming, for music genre i mostly listen to pop and edm type of music.

 

edit: what other good open back headphones do you recommend that is comparable or better than the 660s? I just thought of the sennheiser because i get a discount and people says they are good and last longer.

[Psittac]

20 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

I do listen to music, watch movies more often than gaming, for music genre i mostly listen to pop and edm type of music.

 

edit: what other good open back headphones do you recommend that is comparable or better than the 660s? I just thought of the sennheiser because i get a discount and people says they are good and last longer.

There are so so many choices and it's up to your desires.  For me it's a hobby and I just like flat out experiencing different thing's so I have multiples of everything in the chain except for dac.

 

Since you mentioned $350 as a potential price point, I have the HarmonicDyne Zeus in the mail right now and am excited to get it.  It's another one of Zeos' go to headphones and DMS agrees, it's headphone that measures poorly but greatly delivers on the fun aspect.  As DMS said in his review, if you get something that the two polar opposites can agree on it's going to be good.  What I like about these over something like the dt880-600 and t50rp, they are easy to drive so I'll be able to properly recommend them to people in your situation, you want some good mid-range headphones but don't want to sink a boat load into the entire chain. (another link to purchase Zeus)

 

With that said, there is ALOT of options for a budget of $550, the one I mentioned just fit's your budget and dac/amp + mic requirements.

[Tigerleon]

28 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

what other good open back headphones do you recommend that is comparable or better than the 660s? I just thought of the sennheiser because i get a discount and people says they are good and last longer.

I'd seriously recommend the ones I am using right now. Review below btw. The X2HR's. They are easy to drive, extremely open back. Balanced sound with good bass and treble and not too forward mids. Sennheiser's usual signature is vocal presentation with mids elevated with almost no bass. I am not that type of guy TBH. But if you want comfort and bass go for X2HR's. If you want vocals and mids, basically any HD 6-something.

[NoobMeister]

42 minutes ago, Tigerleon said:

I'd seriously recommend the ones I am using right now. Review below btw. The X2HR's. They are easy to drive, extremely open back. Balanced sound with good bass and treble and not too forward mids. Sennheiser's usual signature is vocal presentation with mids elevated with almost no bass. I am not that type of guy TBH. But if you want comfort and bass go for X2HR's. If you want vocals and mids, basically any HD 6-something.

i know you can run x2hr without dac/amp but what you recommend a good dac/amp with mic input? do you know if the creative soundblaster g6 is any good?

[Tigerleon]

5 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

do you know if the creative soundblaster g6 is any good?

Funny you asked. I love Sound Blaster. Psst, everyone here knows... why am I whispering? Anyways. Yeah. That is a great little DAC/amp with great software for sound customization and just ease of use for switching games and music etc. 

[CTR640]

4 hours ago, Tigerleon said:

That wouldn't be worth it unless you are an audiophile snob listening to songs in a sound dampened basement drinking some fine wine. But seriously, IMHO no. The HD 58X or HD 6XX from drop.com is a better pick in terms of value for what you get, this is based off of what other reviewers has said. Unless you have the money, then go for it. Since you've only tried gaming headsets before, I can tell you it is miles better. Any good studio headphone even under 200 dollars will sound as good or if not better than a 300 dollar gaming headset. There are other options for headphones as well. It doesn't have to be Sennheiser. Also do you game or listen to music or just both? What music genres do you listen to?

Don't forget the winephile. You are not a winephile if you don't have the most old and expensive wine and you must have a nose that's 10 times better than a Rottweiler nose or DEA dawg to spot drugs from miles away up the smuggler's pooper. If your audiocable is not made of unicorn fur, you're trash.

 

In all seriousness, the "audiophile" world is completely full of nonsense. Get the headphones and gear that you're really interested and want. The XHR2 are very well praised and I wanted it too but the fuckers here sells it at €349! That's the launch price.

 

If a mic is required, maybe Beyerdynamic Tygr Team. The Tygr may be advertised as gaming but it's not even close. It's a great allrounder. HD58X, XHR2, DT990 and Tygr 300R are all very well praised headphones. As you can see, it doesn't have to be expensive at all.

[Psittac]

I'll add another thought, why put your mic through the dac/amp?  I'm running external and 3rd party for everything but the mic.  Granted I haven't dipped my toes into better mic solutions, but I've found that a mod mic running through onboard is satisfactory at worst.  With onboard in mind, I'm learning that it's not half bad, have done a couple A/B/C/D test's with onboard, amp, balanced amp, tube amp and have to say that at the least onboard is a great starting point/stop gap and given the needs can even be end game.

 

What you're going to find is that a lot of people in the audio community are trying to justify their purchases while at the same time tearing down other's and I'm not free from it.  All I know is that I enjoy changing up my experience on a regular basis but honestly I don't have the snooty ears for it but I'm trying.  My own path lead me to ignore onboard but my desire to spend time in this sub-forum forced me to go back and try it.  I was bashing everyone with their onboard comments then thought..... well do I really know that or is it my ego?

 

My biggest pet peeve in the audio world is people who point at one thing and scream "this is why this thing is better"  For me that's chart's graph's and stat's.  I think that so much is variable in this hobby that you can't pound your spoon and exclaim unchallengeable knowledge.  Every ear brain mood and person is different so there is no benchmark for sound.  But, in my books, you can try to relate to accepted terms.  Now I understand when someone says that the 6xx is intimate and mid/vocal focused.

 

*edit: oh and the source is important for a few reasons, mainly that certain tracks sound amazing on certain hardware.

[NoobMeister]

27 minutes ago, Psittac said:

I'll add another thought, why put your mic through the dac/amp?  I'm running external and 3rd party for everything but the mic.  Granted I haven't dipped my toes into better mic solutions, but I've found that a mod mic running through onboard is satisfactory at worst.  With onboard in mind, I'm learning that it's not half bad, have done a couple A/B/C/D test's with onboard, amp, balanced amp, tube amp and have to say that at the least onboard is a great starting point/stop gap and given the needs can even be end game.

 

What you're going to find is that a lot of people in the audio community are trying to justify their purchases while at the same time tearing down other's and I'm not free from it.  All I know is that I enjoy changing up my experience on a regular basis but honestly I don't have the snooty ears for it but I'm trying.  My own path lead me to ignore onboard but my desire to spend time in this sub-forum forced me to go back and try it.  I was bashing everyone with their onboard comments then thought..... well do I really know that or is it my ego?

 

My biggest pet peeve in the audio world is people who point at one thing and scream "this is why this thing is better"  For me that's chart's graph's and stat's.  I think that so much is variable in this hobby that you can't pound your spoon and exclaim unchallengeable knowledge.  Every ear brain mood and person is different so there is no benchmark for sound.  But, in my books, you can try to relate to accepted terms.  Now I understand when someone says that the 6xx is intimate and mid/vocal focused.

 

*edit: oh and the source is important for a few reasons, mainly that certain tracks sound amazing on certain hardware.

im trying to put the mic through dac/amp just for simplicity, nothing against onboard, its just easier for me to put the entire headphone/mic setup to one place instead of having the headphone in the dac/amp and mic through onboard then dac/amp through the pc, thats all.

[Psittac]

3 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

im trying to put the mic through dac/amp just for simplicity, nothing against onboard, its just easier for me to put the entire headphone/mic setup to one place instead of having the headphone in the dac/amp and mic through onboard then dac/amp through the pc, thats all.

I understand that, there is a reason people do simple all wireless setups.  I'm the opposite direction.  Anyways I would think about a 3.5mm audio extension cable and run it up to the side of your dac/amp.  Nothing wrong with the solution you're looking at, just trying to give you options.  Eliminating the mic in would free up your selections for dac/amp's

[NoobMeister]

5 minutes ago, Psittac said:

I understand that, there is a reason people do simple all wireless setups.  I'm the opposite direction.  Anyways I would think about a 3.5mm audio extension cable and run it up to the side of your dac/amp.  Nothing wrong with the solution you're looking at, just trying to give you options.  Eliminating the mic in would free up your selections for dac/amp's

what dac/amp would you recommend for the x2hr, the reviews says that you dont need dac/amp for it but wondering if the x2hr will sound better with it, i was eyeing the sound blaster g6 or the schiit hel (leaning more towards hel).

[NoobMeister]

1 hour ago, CTR640 said:

In all seriousness, the "audiophile" world is completely full of nonsense. Get the headphones and gear that you're really interested and want. The XHR2 are very well praised and I wanted it too but the fuckers here sells it at €349! That's the launch price.

 

If a mic is required, maybe Beyerdynamic Tygr Team. The Tygr may be advertised as gaming but it's not even close. It's a great allrounder. HD58X, XHR2, DT990 and Tygr 300R are all very well praised headphones. As you can see, it doesn't have to be expensive at all.

after reading and watching a lot of reviews i decided on the x2hr, the 6xx are good but well, you cant get those ti'll end of april and same for the hd58x and the bass less compared to the x2hr based on the reviews, i listen to mostly pop and edms so i wanted the bass. 

[Psittac]

14 minutes ago, NoobMeister said:

what dac/amp would you recommend for the x2hr, the reviews says that you dont need dac/amp for it but wondering if the x2hr will sound better with it, i was eyeing the sound blaster g6 or the schiit hel (leaning more towards hel).

In my book anything internal is a waste but I have no real reason for it.  To me an amplifier should be substantial and external.  With that said I have been learning to appreciate smaller solutions that aren't trying to drive literally the hardest to drive headphones.  But if you think about it what's the difference between an external board and an internal one?  Well I mean there are many if you are on an elitist path but in practice there isn't much.  If a company can compensate for a noisy PC power supply and provide the correct juice it's kind of a mute point.  And don't think that external solutions are exempt from noisy PC's, I have a hard time with noise even running external USB.

 

When it comes down to it you're going to run into two issues, noise and power.  If your solution produces enough power for the volume you desire then there is no need for more.  Noise is another problem that I have yet to find a silver bullet for.

 

Example:  There is a $4500 dac, yes just a dac, that goes to every extent imaginable to do everything a dac can possibly do.  It has a power supply just as large as the dac which is not small by any means.  At that point it's susceptible to the weakest link in the chain be that a cable or source etc.

 

You can go to exorbitant lengths to reduce noise and improve sound quality, and don't get me wrong, there is something to be had with every dollar spent.  However there is a point you'll reach that your own biomass can't tell or your wallet won't allow it.  My theory is that you should start small and only upgrade what you think is holding you back when you realize what it is.  And that would be X2HR running onboard, get some time on it then think about an upgrade.  Amp and mic input in one will drastically limit your choices but if you need/want to do it then do that.

 

[NoobMeister]

23 minutes ago, Psittac said:

You can go to exorbitant lengths to reduce noise and improve sound quality, and don't get me wrong, there is something to be had with every dollar spent.  However there is a point you'll reach that your own biomass can't tell or your wallet won't allow it.  My theory is that you should start small and only upgrade what you think is holding you back when you realize what it is.  And that would be X2HR running onboard, get some time on it then think about an upgrade.  Amp and mic input in one will drastically limit your choices but if you need/want to do it then do that.

 

i will do that, thank you!

[Tigerleon]

7 hours ago, CTR640 said:

but the fuckers here sells it at €349

Wait really!? Where?

[CTR640]

1 hour ago, Tigerleon said:

Wait really!? Where?

Netherlands!

[Tigerleon]

14 minutes ago, CTR640 said:

Netherlands!

Even from amazon.de?

[CTR640]

1 hour ago, Tigerleon said:

Even from amazon.de?

No, on Amazon.de it's €185. Sometimes it gets as low as €140 or like that. Amazon.nl is usually more expensive than .de, which is entirely bullshit.