Help with buying headphones

[HalfOfALifeLeft]

My older headset broke and i was looking for suggestions on better headphones or headsets. I am no audiophile and I need something with a mic or at least something that accommodates something like the antlion modmic or something like that. my current price range is around 150-170 USD. I was looking at the HyperX cloud revolver S as it has 7.1 surround and looks comfy.

Does anyone have suggestions for headphones/headsets? I mainly use them for online multiplayer gaming (OW and CS:GO). 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can offer.

 

EDIT (June 11th): Its late so I might not respond if I end up falling asleep while doing something.

[dany_boy]

I can definitely vouch for the hyper-X cloud II and even cloud 1. They offer excellent value, very good sound, a nice mic, and are very confy. I have not tried the revolvers though, but they seem to be very good as well:

 

[Tacanacy]

[deleted]

[PatrickK]

Go for the hyper x, i got the hyper x cloud 2 msyelf and it's incredible!

[HalfOfALifeLeft]

9 hours ago, Tacanacy said:

Headphones: 

• AKG K701
• AKG K612 Pro
• AKG K550
• Audio-Technica ATH-AD900x
• Audio-Technica ATH-AD700x
• Audio Technica ATH-MSR7
• Beyerdynamic DT990
• Beyerdynamic DT880
• Beyerdynamic DT770
• Sennheiser HD598
• Sennheiser HD558
   

People are probably going to recommend HyperX Cloud / Cloud II / CloudX, but I recommend not getting them because they have a small soundstage, bad imaging, and sound very muddy. For a similar price with an Antlion ModMic, you can get much better audio with Superlux HD668B + velour earpads from HiFiMAN.

 

Most of the headphones I recommend are open-back, which means sound will pass in and out, so outside noise can be easily heard and people around you can hear much of the sound coming from the headphones. The benefit to this is generally a big or even a huge soundstage. Closed-back headphones largely isolate sound from passing in and out. These should be considered for gaming only if isolation is needed.

Other important properties for gaming are accurate imaging, good separation, and high detail retrieval. Soundstage is how well distance to sound sources is portrayed. Imaging is the location of sound sources across the soundstage. Separation is filtering out individual sound sources from a range of sounds. Bass is good for immersion but diminishes detailing and awareness.

If you get headphones with a big soundstage, there's no difference to little difference in how in how three-dimensional the environment/space sounds like when comparing stereo to virtual surround sound. And due to compression, virtual surround sound degrades the fidelity and diminishes detailing and separation.

 

 

With open backed headphones you said I could hear whats going on around me, would that be distracting if I have a slightly noisier environment?

Similarly, if closed back headphones isolate the noise would that not be better because then outside noise would have no impact on the in-game noise?

sorry for responding late and thanks for the reply!

[kokakolia]

Well, if you're shopping online you may as well build your own headset:

 

Just buy

 

- Philips SHP 9500 (from Newegg or Amazon) if you want open headphones

- Status Audio CB 1 (from Amazon) if you want closed back headphones

 

Then add a mic

 

- Vmoda Boom Pro (from Amazon)

 

Then you have something better than a Kingston Hyper X Cloud for around $100 or less. And it's so easy to use because you just plug the mic into the headphone and you have no cable mess like with the Mod Mic. 

[HalfOfALifeLeft]

3 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

Well, if you're shopping online you may as well build your own headset:

 

Just buy

 

- Philips SHP 9500 (from Newegg or Amazon) if you want open headphones

- Status Audio CB 1 (from Amazon) if you want closed back headphones

 

Then add a mic

 

- Vmoda Boom Pro (from Amazon)

 

Then you have something better than a Kingston Hyper X Cloud for around $100 or less. And it's so easy to use because you just plug the mic into the headphone and you have no cable mess like with the Mod Mic. 

with the philips headphones how would you plug in the mic? I dont see anywhere on the headphones to plug it in. Also how is the mic quality of the Vmoda Boom Pro?

[kokakolia]

21 minutes ago, HalfOfALifeLeft said:

with the philips headphones how would you plug in the mic? I dont see anywhere on the headphones to plug it in. Also how is the mic quality of the Vmoda Boom Pro?

The Philips has a 3.5mm headphone jack. It comes with a removable wire with the same connector. So you just have to remove the the wire and plug the mic. 

 

The boom pro is pretty decent, good enough for gaming. It's not as nice as the Mod Mic but it's also half the price. 

[HalfOfALifeLeft]

Just now, kokakolia said:

The Philips has a 3.5mm headphone jack. It comes with a removable wire with the same connector. So you just have to remove the the wire and plug the mic. 

 

The boom pro is pretty decent, good enough for gaming. It's not as nice as the Mod Mic but it's also half the price. 

alright so I'll consider those after watching a few reviews like all the headphones that were suggested (that are also in my price range). Thanks for the suggestion!

[kokakolia]

You'll be watching a lot of reviews LOL. 

 

Keep in mind that although the Philips has really clean, solid bass, it doesn't have that much bass (it's the drawback of open-back headphones). However, what you lose in bass you gain a lot in detail and "airiness". 

 

If you want more bass (for music) get closed back headphones instead. 

 

I gotta say that I'm still floored by my Philips. They're so comfy and sound amazing for the price. The highs can be a little sharp at times, and I'd like a little more bass (but the bass is super clean and well done). But these issues are so minor. I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon.