Help with sound equipment for PC

[SushiMan09]

Hello everyone, first time here.

 

I need some help getting some sound equipment. I am nowhere near a pro when sound is the subject, but I do like noise cancelation either passive or active. I used to have a headset (nothing too fancy, it was a cloud stinger, good bang for the buck at my unemployed and living with my parents moment) but I moved out of the country and I didnt want to bring it with me, so I kept my very okay jbl t210 (it does its job and it was like seven bucks), but now I'm working and I would like to improve my experience. I have a standalone mic (Trust Gaming GXT 232 Mantis I got that because the mic with my t210 didnt work at the time), a pc with a X570s tomahawk with realtek ALC4080 and I have been looking at the BD DT 770 pro / 990 pro and the 700 pro x / 900 pro x. I mainly play games like R6 (lots of footsteps involved), RDR2 and 7 days to die while on discord. I watch a lot of movies and listen to some music as well.

 

Currently I use NVIDIA Broadcast as noise cancelling, but my mic works weirdly with it (sometimes it sounds like im talking inside of  jar, sometimes it's really low volume), I dont know if its the mic, nvidia's app or both.

 

I have a budget of the lower the better, but around 350 euros would be my max for all the equipment, if its just the headphone, 180 euros would be ideal.

 

Which headphone would you suggest? (Could be something else, those were the ones that caught my attention)

Would you also suggest an amp, sound card, another mic, etc?

 

Thanks in advance!!

 

 

[Psittac]

So for well under $350 euro I could recommend the Rode NTH-100m, it's my go to when someone doesn't want to deal with a dac and amp.  I should say that a dac and amp will take up about $200 of that budget for anything good.  But the Rode sounds excellent on any source.  The M variant ad's a mic for a reasonable increase in price.  This is probably the cheapest way to get into what I would consider entry level audiophile vs budget audiophile.  I have two disclaimers, first the Rode had some growing pains in life with the manufacturing process but that has been sorted out and if you manage to get an early model and have a problem their customer service is top notch and they will replace it with zero cost to you.  Second, is that anything that shares a cable between the headphone and mic runs the risk of output/input bleed so if you want no possibility of that you'll need something with it's own cable like the modmic uni.

 

The rode is closed back and comfortable as all get out, plus it is noise isolating.

 

My other go to, in the "budget"' category is the Phillips shp9600 with a neego boom mic, it's a notch below the rode but proven as good.

 

I would avoid getting a dac or amp if you can find something that is respectable without it otherwise I gave you a ball park for a good dac and amp, leave $150 euro for a headphone and tack on another $50 for a mic, that's if you want to max your budget.

 

The other option to get a dac amp headphone and mic is by going with an all in one, or rather a wireless headset, however I believe that all of them are crap for your needs sans one.  Typical "gamer" headsets are one trick ponies and only game well but lag far behind when it comes to anything else.  I call these consumer grade gaming headsets.  I feel that you want to get into audiophile grade, whether that is budget or entry level.  The last recommendation I'll leave to @Cocococo because he has experience with it and can compare it to other audiophile products.

[SushiMan09]

First things first, thank you for your response friend.

2 hours ago, Psittac said:

Typical "gamer" headsets are one trick ponies and only game well but lag far behind when it comes to anything else.  I call these consumer grade gaming headsets.  I feel that you want to get into audiophile grade, whether that is budget or entry level. 

Thats precisely it, I want quality headphones, not ""gamer"" ones, they usualy have a 50$+ stamp just because it says gamer and I dont need RGB on my headphones, it has been proven that it doesnt improve impedance, even though it improves FPS.

 

Jokes aside, 

2 hours ago, Psittac said:

Second, is that anything that shares a cable between the headphone and mic runs the risk of output/input bleed so if you want no possibility of that you'll need something with it's own cable like the modmic uni.

So you dont recommend I get the m variant? Just an external mic?

 

And talking about the beyerdynamic ondes, do you think they are a good choice considering the budget? I got a lot of recommendations for them, mostly the dt 900 pro X, but it is quite expensive.

 

 

[Cocococo]

As an easy all in one solution the Audeze Maxwell is comfortably the best option for your needs, just needs a spare USB port on your PC and it does everything for you. As a plus the Maxwell is comfortably the best closed back headphone money can buy (you can count the number of better sounding closed backs with one hand) the only downside is that there tends to be a waiting list (it happens when your product is this good) rule of thumb, if you're only planning to use it with a PC and maybe mobile then the Playstation version is better (xbox version has dolby audio support and ngl it ain't worth the extra money unless you use an xbox) 

[SushiMan09]

8 minutes ago, Cocococo said:

As an easy all in one solution the Audeze Maxwell is comfortably the best option for your needs, just needs a spare USB port on your PC and it does everything for you. As a plus the Maxwell is comfortably the best closed back headphone money can buy (you can count the number of better sounding closed backs with one hand) the only downside is that there tends to be a waiting list (it happens when your product is this good) rule of thumb, if you're only planning to use it with a PC and maybe mobile then the Playstation version is better (xbox version has dolby audio support and ngl it ain't worth the extra money unless you use an xbox) 

Hello, thank you.

 

But unfortunately it is out of my price range, 400 euros for a headphone is too much for me, within that price range, can you recommend one?

[Cocococo]

Forgot about regional pricing, Rode NTH-100 is a pretty easy recommendation because of the boom mic, i guess a Sennheiser PC38/37X is a nice all in one solution as well. Shure 440A and 840A are pretty safe bets for good closed backs and you can just as easily get a boom mic for them (i don't play around much with mics so i'd ask on a different forum) tbh i just use a USB mic and then plug some headphones into my desktop amp

[SushiMan09]

4 hours ago, Cocococo said:

Forgot about regional pricing, Rode NTH-100 is a pretty easy recommendation because of the boom mic, i guess a Sennheiser PC38/37X is a nice all in one solution as well. Shure 440A and 840A are pretty safe bets for good closed backs and you can just as easily get a boom mic for them (i don't play around much with mics so i'd ask on a different forum) tbh i just use a USB mic and then plug some headphones into my desktop amp

And talking about the beyerdynamic ondes, do you think they are a good choice considering the budget? I got a lot of recommendations for them, mostly the dt 900 pro X, but it is quite expensive

[Cocococo]

1 hour ago, SushiMan09 said:

And talking about the beyerdynamic ondes, do you think they are a good choice considering the budget? I got a lot of recommendations for them, mostly the dt 900 pro X, but it is quite expensive

Oh i hate Beyerdynamic headphones, fixed cable, overly hard clamp force, hyper piercing treble and muddy overblown bass, there's a long list of headphones i'd rather use than beyerdynamic ones

[Psittac]

On 1/31/2024 at 1:28 PM, SushiMan09 said:

And talking about the beyerdynamic ondes, do you think they are a good choice considering the budget? I got a lot of recommendations for them, mostly the dt 900 pro X, but it is quite expensive

 

On 1/31/2024 at 2:50 AM, SushiMan09 said:

So you dont recommend I get the m variant? Just an external mic?

 

And talking about the beyerdynamic ondes, do you think they are a good choice considering the budget? I got a lot of recommendations for them, mostly the dt 900 pro X, but it is quite expensive.

 

 

The thing with the maxwell is that it's supposedly good (can't verify personally but from audeze.... yeah not going to second guess it).  But more over is that it's literally everything in one package, dac amp mic wireless..... it's all included in the price.  Don't get me wrong, it's not my style because I like old school stuff's like wires and individual components, but I can acknowledge how good of a package deal it is not to mention audeze..... yeah they are literally top tier audio in every respect so if they make a gaming headset..... yeah that's going to be the only gamer headset I would think about.  Let's just hope that the corporate peoples don't get involved at all and let the guys there do their thing, this is something I will watch personally.

 

As to the M variant.... I can't say because I don't know how prevalent this phenomenon is with the single cable solution.  I know that my personal system can get some feedback but it did the same thing with gamer headsets.  Honestly this is a complaint that I rarely hear about however I have experienced it and feel like I should warn everyone of the possibility.  It might just be my equipment or use case, but it's certainly in the cards.  For an extra $10-20usd you can get an antlion with it's own cable, which running two cables can be an issue.  So it's pro's and con's really.

 

As to Beyerdynamic as a brand, I truly love them, not as much as Rode or Sennheiser but as an ethos and company philosophy I think they're epic, and I love the BeyerDynamic sound signature.  Early on in my head-fi days I got my friend a pair of fdt770-80 and was so in love that I scowered the internet for some 880-600.... ran them on a power amp, blew up said power amp and settled on something far more powerful and meant for headphones.  To this day that headphone is one that can beat everything I own in at least one or two aspects.  I also have the 1990pro and love them too, however the Focals I have, while twice the price, are just a little more refined and I find myself wearing them more than the BD, though they both have very similar acoustic capabilities.

 

*edit: I have no experience with the new easy to power Beyerdynamic headphones like the 700x and 900x.  I wish I knew how to get review samples however I'm just a chicken pecker on a forum so that holds little sway.

 

Round about way of saying that I recommend the Rode, not only because I enjoy the sound signature and many thing's about them, but because for $150usd you are literally one and done.  Even the $70usd Phillips SHP9500 wants a $130 dac/amp to be reasonable and even then they fall far short of the nth-100 with onboard. (9500 is shrill without a dac/amp).

 

After 30+ headphones ranging from pure garbage to most of them being acceptable or better, I can't recommend the Rode enough.  As to whether or not to get the M variant, it comes down to personal preference.  Do you want a clean package that you could run into issues with higher volumes on your end, or do you want to deal with two wires and go with something like an antlion?