Best sub $75 gaming audio solution

[CtW]

My sister needs a new headset and is being very stubborn about what she wants. I have tried to convince her to get a good pair of cans and a clip on mic, but she wants an all in one solution. In addition to that, her laptop only has a headphone mic combo jack on it for an audio input. The best solution imo is this mic http://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Gaming-Headset-Headphone/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=pd_cp_pc_1?tag=teksynd-20&tag=saved03f-20and a good pair of $40 headphones, but I don't know of any ones at that price that have a removable cable (the Superlux headphones that everyone loves wont work with this because the removable cable is female to male, not male to male) 

 

Is there any other solution besides the one I suggested that would be better than this? What headphones in this price range have a removable cable?

[XionEternum]

The best one I know is an ASUS DG (with UNi Xonar custom drivers) and an Arctic Sound P301. Absolutely wrecks most things up to ~$150.
EDIT: Apologies, no removeable cable, but it's certainly the best sound and mic I've found under $150 so far and fits what SHE wants.
EDIT 2: This may give you other ideas: 

[CtW]

The best one I know is an ASUS DG (with UNi Xonar custom drivers) and an Arctic Sound P301. Absolutely wrecks most things up to ~$150.

EDIT: Apologies, no removeable cable, but it's certainly the best sound and mic I've found under $150 so far and fits what SHE wants.

EDIT 2: This may give you other ideas: 

I ended up showing her the Razer Kraken Pro as a last resort (I've owned them, they're on sale for $53 and they are good enough for a 13 year old girl) and she likes them and is going to get them. So much for trying to get good audio! Well eventually she'll want good headphones she'll come to me once more. Thanks for the advice though! I definitely will keep all that stiff in mind for the future!

[NannerBeans]

I ended up showing her the Razer Kraken Pro as a last resort (I've owned them, they're on sale for $53 and they are good enough for a 13 year old girl) and she likes them and is going to get them. So much for trying to get good audio! Well eventually she'll want good headphones she'll come to me once more. Thanks for the advice though! I definitely will keep all that stiff in mind for the future!

Kingston hyperx is a good headset. It's a rebrand of the takstar 80 headphone with a mic.

[NannerBeans]

The best one I know is an ASUS DG (with UNi Xonar custom drivers) and an Arctic Sound P301. Absolutely wrecks most things up to ~$150.

EDIT: Apologies, no removeable cable, but it's certainly the best sound and mic I've found under $150 so far and fits what SHE wants.

You're real funny. Nothing you said is true.

[XionEternum]

You're real funny. Nothing you said is true.

Prove it. I'll even pay shipping to send anything you want me to try back to you.

[NannerBeans]

Prove it. I'll even pay shipping to send anything you want me to try back to you.

Lmao I'm not sending anything to you. You must be high.

[CtW]

Why you reply now?

[ShearMe]

Why you reply now?

 

[XionEternum]

Lmao I'm not sending anything to you. You must be high.

That's not proving it then. I will only attest to having personally tested most brand-name 'gaming headsets' as well as Modmic 3 and 4.0 and all Superluxe headphone models, the Monoprice DJ monitors, a few off-brand headphones, etc. nothing more than ~$400 in total. I've sampled but do not personally use the Mayflower Electronics DAC/AMP, along with a few cheap USB DACs from brands that no longer exist. I will whole-heartedly stand by my claim that for the mere $50 investment a properly configured and EQ balanced ASUS Xonar DG with the custom UNi Xonar drivers (installed w/o GX support) and the Arctic Sound P301 (which I bet you hadn't even looked up) are the best input and output for sound I have found thus far under $150. My current setup is a Sennheiser PC350SE and HT Omega using the same UNi Xonar custom driver since it's the same DSP chip as nearly all ASUS Xonar cards. On neither setup do I hear background hiss/distortion or any sort of EMI even with enabling the amp on either card with either headset. Same goes for the mic with a MUCH broader frequency response. I haven't heard a single headset pick up as much bass as the P301's mic can. Even the Modmic doesn't have the same bass pickup which just makes it sound tinny by comparison.

Now if you believe anything different; you're more than welcome to. But belief is based on personal experience and speculation. Your personal experience and mine are different. To call me a liar outright without any valid basis is just assinine. If you'ld like to suggest a <$150 setup I've not tested to challenge my $50 suggestion; please do. Comes off as genuinely polite and helpful rather than rude and trollish. I even tried to be close to as rude in my response, but outright calling someone a liar without citation? That's scummy on a whole different level.

EDIT: Oh and by the way I've never done recreational drugs. Proud of it too.

 

Why you reply now?

Because I'm not a social-junkie that visits forums daily... I'm only ever here once a month or so due to something potentially interesting left in the forums mentioned in an LTT video.

EDIT2: I'm sure by the other response in this post that you can see why.

[NannerBeans]

That's not proving it then. I will only attest to having personally tested most brand-name 'gaming headsets' as well as Modmic 3 and 4.0 and all Superluxe headphone models, the Monoprice DJ monitors, a few off-brand headphones, etc. nothing more than ~$400 in total. I've sampled but do not personally use the Mayflower Electronics DAC/AMP, along with a few cheap USB DACs from brands that no longer exist. I will whole-heartedly stand by my claim that for the mere $50 investment a properly configured and EQ balanced ASUS Xonar DG with the custom UNi Xonar drivers (installed w/o GX support) and the Arctic Sound P301 (which I bet you hadn't even looked up) are the best input and output for sound I have found thus far under $150. My current setup is a Sennheiser PC350SE and HT Omega using the same UNi Xonar custom driver since it's the same DSP chip as nearly all ASUS Xonar cards. On neither setup do I hear background hiss/distortion or any sort of EMI even with enabling the amp on either card with either headset. Same goes for the mic with a MUCH broader frequency response. I haven't heard a single headset pick up as much bass as the P301's mic can. Even the Modmic doesn't have the same bass pickup which just makes it sound tinny by comparison.

Now if you believe anything different; you're more than welcome to. But belief is based on personal experience and speculation. Your personal experience and mine are different. To call me a liar outright without any valid basis is just assinine. If you'ld like to suggest a <$150 setup I've not tested to challenge my $50 suggestion; please do. Comes off as genuinely polite and helpful rather than rude and trollish. I even tried to be close to as rude in my response, but outright calling someone a liar without citation? That's scummy on a whole different level.

EDIT: Oh and by the way I've never done recreational drugs. Proud of it too.

 

Because I'm not a social-junkie that visits forums daily... I'm only ever here once a month or so due to something potentially interesting left in the forums mentioned in an LTT video.

EDIT2: I'm sure by the other response in this post that you can see why.

You've very mistaken if you think I want to prove anything to you. Get your head out of your ass. If you think someone is going to send you headphones even though you don't know them then you're extremely self-conceited. 

[XionEternum]

You've very mistaken if you think I want to prove anything to you. Get your head out of your ass. If you think someone is going to send you headphones even though you don't know them then you're extremely self-conceited. 

Still trying oh so hard to make me look like the bad one here when you're the one who called me a liar without any proof or even suggesting alternatives. I fail to see how my response was any worse than yours. Keep in mind though; if you're trying to make me 'internet rage' then you can save your breath. I don't. But I do gladly and oh so easily shove bad logic and generally rude behavior back in the faces of those it belongs to. If you enjoy that then we may continue.

[NannerBeans]

Still trying oh so hard to make me look like the bad one here when you're the one who called me a liar without any proof or even suggesting alternatives. I fail to see how my response was any worse than yours. Keep in mind though; if you're trying to make me 'internet rage' then you can save your breath. I don't. But I do gladly and oh so easily shove bad logic and generally rude behavior back in the faces of those it belongs to. If you enjoy that then we may continue.

All I did was say your're wrong. If you can't handle that then get off the internet. 

[AliveGhost13]

HyperX Cloud.

 

It's one of the not terrible "gaming" headphones, it's actually very good for the price and one of the headphones (I think they can be called headphones) that have headphone grade audio quality, not crappy "gaming" grade

[XionEternum]

All I did was say your're wrong. If you can't handle that then get off the internet. 

No, you called me a liar. I said that the P301 and Xonar DG with custom drivers is the best solution I've found under $150 and only costs $50. Prove any of that wrong, and I am wrong. You didn't which means you're calling me a liar. If you can't or don't prove me wrong or at the very least offer suggestions I've not already tried, then you're wrong since what I said is based on my personal experience and you are saying that my personal experiences are invalid. Notice the circular logic trap you've put yourself in yet, or do I need to draw you a schematic?

EDIT: You said and I quote; "You're real funny. Nothing you said is true." Which by raw definition means you are saying I am lying. So even if you had said I was wrong, my point remains.

[BoredErica]

All I did was say your're wrong. If you can't handle that then get off the internet. 

You said and I quote; "You're real funny. Nothing you said is true." Which by raw definition means you are saying I am lying. So even if you had said I was wrong, my point remains.

I'm not jumping into your pissfest here and it doesn't really concern me except from this bit. I believe you're equivocating here.

 

If somebody is wrong, what they say is by simple logic, not true. There's no other way. It comes down to your definition of "lying". If your definition of lying is so broad it fits this situation, then your definition of lying includes people that were not intending to mislead. Then, accusing somebody of lying is no longer a very serious accusation, and anybody that ever says something out of ignorance is lying. This is not a version of the definition of the word that I think has many practical uses.

 

If you argue that Nannerbeans was accusing you of intentionally saying something you know not to be true, I find that argument a very tough sell in this context. There is very little reason to think you're out here to deceive people. I believe everybody on here is trying to tell the truth... or what they think is the truth. I've never seen anybody accuse another of deliberately saying things they know are not the truth when they're recommending things (except for obvious trolling) around these parts.

[NannerBeans]

No, you called me a liar. I said that the P301 and Xonar DG with custom drivers is the best solution I've found under $150 and only costs $50. Prove any of that wrong, and I am wrong. You didn't which means you're calling me a liar. If you can't or don't prove me wrong or at the very least offer suggestions I've not already tried, then you're wrong since what I said is based on my personal experience and you are saying that my personal experiences are invalid. Notice the circular logic trap you've put yourself in yet, or do I need to draw you a schematic?

EDIT: You said and I quote; "You're real funny. Nothing you said is true." Which by raw definition means you are saying I am lying. So even if you had said I was wrong, my point remains.

The Phillips SHP9500 is on sale on Newegg right now for $50. That plus onboard audio will blow your solution out of the water by about 10x. 

[zerge]

I would advise you to have a look at the HyperX Cloud gaming headset as it fits perfectly in the budget, and the sound is really good for it's price. The headphones themselves are a rebranded pair of Takstar Pro 80 with microphone, and they sound really good for the price. The microphone isn't the best, but it's good enough for Skype calls etc and nobody have complained about my microphone yet either.

 

http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-H3CL/dp/B00JJNQG98/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429978408&sr=8-2&keywords=hyperx+cloud

 

Head-Fi reviews for Takstar Pro 80:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/takstar-pro-80

[CtW]

[AliveGhost13]

I would advise you to have a look at the HyperX Cloud gaming headset as it fits perfectly in the budget, and the sound is really good for it's price. The headphones themselves are a rebranded pair of Takstar Pro 80 with microphone, and they sound really good for the price. The microphone isn't the best, but it's good enough for Skype calls etc and nobody have complained about my microphone yet either.

 

http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-H3CL/dp/B00JJNQG98/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429978408&sr=8-2&keywords=hyperx+cloud

 

Head-Fi reviews for Takstar Pro 80:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/takstar-pro-80

 

I thought they were rebrands of Q-pad QH-90s, hence HyperX saying they worked with Qpad on these

[zerge]

I thought they were rebrands of Q-pad QH-90s, hence HyperX saying they worked with Qpad on these

Well, yes, that's true but the Q-PAD QH-90's is a rebranded version of the Takstar Pro 80, hence I mentioned that instead of saying that it was a rebranded Q-Pad. The only difference between the Takstar Pro 80 vs Q-Pad QH-90 is that there's a microphone on the Q-PAD, and there's other kinds of accessories and the choice of material is a bit different.

[AliveGhost13]

Well, yes, that's true but the Q-PAD QH-90's is a rebranded version of the Takstar Pro 80, hence I mentioned that instead of saying that it was a rebranded Q-Pad. The only difference between the Takstar Pro 80 vs Q-Pad QH-90 is that there's a microphone on the Q-PAD, and there's other kinds of accessories and the choice of material is a bit different.

 

Ah interesting, never knew that - thanks!