steelseries arctis 3 vs samson sr850 vs sr950

[yousef fouad]

which one is better i will primarily be using them for gaming and does the samson work with the ps5?

[OfficialTechSpace]

Samson's are garbage, strange comparison. I guess the prices are similar, but they're two very different cans. I wouldn't recommend any of those three, my suggestions would be:

 

$20-$50

Koss KSC-75

 

$50-$100

Shure SRH440A

Philips SHP 9500

Takstar Pro82 / Cooler Master MH751

 

$100-$200

HiFiMan HE400SE

Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro / TYGR 300R

[Spuriae]

If your options are restricted to only things on that list, the SR850 is the best-sounding one by far. It's a rebranded Superlux HD681B, which is a decent, if over-bright, budget open back. In most of the world the Superlux is available cheaper, so don't pay extra for the Samson branding if that's the case.

 

Not knowing much about your use case (head size, voice usage, sound signature, ambient noise, etc.) beyond gaming, in general the KSC75 or SHP9500 is probably a better option around the same price depending on your preferences, though availability can vary.

 

I don't see why any of them wouldn't work with the PS5.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

HiFiMan HE400SE

OP is most likely going to be running the headphones off a wireless PS5 controller, so planars are probably off the table.

[OfficialTechSpace]

23 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

OP is most likely going to be running the headphones off a wireless PS5 controller, so planars are probably off the table.

Driver type is irrelevant to efficiency and their ability to be driven on lower-end hardware. Impedance for the HE400SE is low, at 25-ohms. Similar to that of the SHP9500, at 32-ohms. Both have a max rated power handling of 200-240mW, so they're not exactly power hungry either. Very sensitive actually. At that impedance, most jacks should be able to run them fine.

[Spuriae]

2 hours ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

Driver type is irrelevant to efficiency and their ability to be driven on lower-end hardware. Impedance for the HE400SE is low, at 25-ohms. Similar to that of the SHP9500, at 32-ohms. Both have a max rated power handling of 200-240mW, so they're not exactly power hungry either. Very sensitive actually. At that impedance, most jacks should be able to run them fine.

 

The HE400SE is 88dB/mW in ASR's measurements. The SHP9500 is specced at 101dB/mW. The HE400SE requires 20X more power than the SHP9500 to reach the same loudness.

 

Action movies (used here as an analog for gaming content) typically have peak-rms dynamic ranges between 25dB and 30dB (compare to the typical ~15dB for music). Dolby specifies a peak-reference offset of 31dB by default, and content is typically mastered for home consumption at 75dBSPL reference. Matching this reference level requires 106dBSPL peak. The Sony controller headphone out has not been measured, but given that it uses a Realtek codec, it is most likely ~1Vrms. Even assuming a 0Ω output impedance and no current limit (which is unlikely; Realtek mobile codecs typically have 33Ω outputs), the HE400SE would not be able to reach the 75dB reference for all content when powered from a game controller.

 

Efficiency is highly correlated with loudness (at 0Ω output impedance sensitivity is the same thing as loudness), and planars generally have lower efficiencies. Driver type overall is moderately correlated with loudness, and impedance is weakly correlated with loudness. Max power handling has nothing to do with (or at least no first order effect on) efficiency or loudness.

Spoiler

This graph plots Impedance vs. Loudness for all the planar and dynamic headphones measured on ASR, assuming a 1Vrms 33Ω output impedance source (analogous to what I expect the controller output to be). No planars or dynamics cross the trendlines for the other driver; i.e. there is no planar louder than the average dynamic and no dynamic quieter than the average planar at any given impedance in this dataset. The Ananda gets very close, and can be considered as loud as a dynamic.

Even at 0Ω output impedance the trends hold true, though the impact of impedance on loudness becomes more pronounced as expected.

You're right that I shouldn't have overgeneralized about planars vs. dynamics, though. The DT990 Pro is also a poor fit for this application, despite being a dynamic headphone.

[H713]

7 hours ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

Driver type is irrelevant to efficiency and their ability to be driven on lower-end hardware. Impedance for the HE400SE is low, at 25-ohms. Similar to that of the SHP9500, at 32-ohms. Both have a max rated power handling of 200-240mW, so they're not exactly power hungry either. Very sensitive actually. At that impedance, most jacks should be able to run them fine.

Low impedance doesn't mean easy to drive. There is a "sweet spot" when it comes to optimizing load impedances for maximum output. A load impedance of 25 $\Omega$ is low enough that the output power will probably be limited by the maximum output current.

 

In some ways this is worse than a high impedance driver, since distortion tends to climb with increasing output current, but doesn't usually increase significantly with an increase in output voltage until the amplifier gets very close to its voltage rail. 

 

The one saving grace that planars have is they are usually closer to a resistive load, as opposed to the reactive mess that are some dynamic and especially electrostatic headphones.

 

 

A good number of low-Z dynamic headphones also happen to be very sensitive, so they earn a reputation for being easy loads. A 25 $\Omega$ planar isn't an easy load for a cheap amplifier.