Gaming headset Suggestions(Non competitive FPS gamer)

[brightgamer]

I am currently in the search for a new pair of PC headset, unfortunately my recent pair took a fall and broke. I would love some suggestions on finding a great pair and I do have things that can help narrow the search. So my previous headset that I'm coming from are the HyperX Cloud Orbit S and I don't mind spending up to around $400 for my new pair. Like the title says I do NOT play competitive FPS, a lot of the headset reviews I come across have FPS as the main focus with gaming(hearing footsteps, etc.), and so for me I will mainly be using them playing story driven or coop games. I do play some FPS but again NOT for the PvP modes(Destiny 2, Back 4 Blood, Cyberpunk, etc.) With that I am also not interested in the Astro headsets. And I am looking for one with a mic as well. Any help and suggestions is appreciated.

[Brooksie359]

Epos has some really good gaming headphones. Also I think hardware canucks does some good gaming headset reviews. 

[191x7]

Sennheiser HD 560s + an AntLion ModMic or a lavalier lapel microphone or a compatible cable with an inline microphone.

And there's even money for a SybaSonic AMP/DAC.

[brightgamer]

2 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Sennheiser HD 560s + an AntLion ModMic or a lavalier lapel microphone or a compatible cable with an inline microphone.

And there's even money for a SybaSonic AMP/DAC.

So I don't know much about AMP/DAC but do they make the sound of any headset better or are they only required for specific headset? And I always thought they was mostly something only people who stream needed.

[191x7]

1 hour ago, brightgamer said:

So I don't know much about AMP/DAC but do they make the sound of any headset better or are they only required for specific headset? And I always thought they was mostly something only people who stream needed.

Imagine an AMP/DAC as being a decent external soundcard that requires no additional drivers or software to work and imagine it provides a clean and strong signal for the headphones or the headset.

It's not that it makes the sound better, it just allows (most) headphones to sound closer to the best they can than a regular onboard audio solution (integrated soundcard).

Also, it's not that streamers need those (streamers usually use audio interfaces; those are like a AMP/DAC that has microphone imputs and other additional stuff), it's that everyone who treasures good audio from their decent headphones should use a decent amp/dac or separate amp and dac units.

[Psittac]

With that budget there are several ways to go about this.  All of them would be using an antlion modmic uni or some other sort of separate solution.

 

My favorite solution and the cheapest would be $150 headphones with $55 antlion, call it a day and pocket $200.  Or you could use that left over budget for an amp and dac.

 

Onboard audio has come a long way and depending on the solution your computer has the gains won't be night and day.  A quality dac and amp can make your sound quality better by using higher end design/components/capability as well as getting all of the circuitry outside of the computer.  If you want to look into a test I did with budget dac amp combo's along side onboard audio while using a $600 dac amp setup for a baseline you can read it here.  The TLDR is that you open up nuances like dynamic range, controlled bass, cleaner treble etc with a dac amp setup as well as being able to drive more difficult headphones.

 

For headphones I would recommend either the fidelio X2HR fidelio X3 or Rode NTH-100 (Rode NTH-100 non-amazon)

 

I have two of these headphones and can highly recommend them, they will run just fine with onboard audio but will make use of a dac/amp upgrade.  For a dac/amp I would recommend the schiit fulla hel or a stack with magni and modi 

 

That's my go to recommendation for $200-400usd, there are other options but those are ones that I can vouch for.

 

The only thing I mentioned that I don't have first hand experience with is the Hel (exact same as fulla but more power) and the X2HR (predecessor to X3 and some prefer X2HR over X3)

 

 

7 hours ago, NastyFlytrap said:

I like my HyperX cloud alpha's

They look cool with the holed headbands, they are gamery without being too gamery, and they dont sound bad


Although they probably dont compare to 400$ headphones. For that price i'd get a fostex T60RP. That wood looks sexy as all hell and fostex makes great, natural sounding stuff, or so i am told

T60rp isn't going to run very well with onboard and I'd highly recommend a good dac amp for that which would put it over budget.  I have the T50rp and it's pretty tough to drive.

[brightgamer]

So far I have been leaning towards these:

Audeze Mobius

Steelseries Nova Pro

HIFIMAN SUNDARA (no mic so I'm on the fence)

Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro Open Studio (also no mic but also out of my range but heard good things so considering)

 

I would like something with a USB-C or at least 3.5mm so I can use USB-C cause sometime I do use my headset when talking in long meetings on my phone.