Recommend Good Budget Headsets?

[Brama]

Budget (Highly Prefer $100 and below, but if it's really worth it $150?)

 

Features Seeking

• Something with good spacial awareness would be nice, however I realize that may be unlikely due to budget
• Good Mic
• Comfortable
• Durable / Solid Build Quality
• Colors Preferred: Black, Black w/ red or white. (But if it looks nice it's considerable)

 

I am open to wired and wireless options as well as Headphone & mic Combos within a similar budget

 

 

 

 

[Max Caulfield]

Kingston HyperX Cloud II are among recommendations and they cost around $100 too.

[Aytex]

Hyper X alpha

[Himommies]

12 minutes ago, Max Caulfield said:

Kingston HyperX Cloud II are among recommendations and they cost around $100 too.

You remind me of dexxterlab

[Max Caulfield]

Just now, Himommies said:

You remind me of dexxterlab

Who? I just joined so I am new to this forum

[Brama]

24 minutes ago, Max Caulfield said:

Kingston HyperX Cloud II are among recommendations and they cost around $100 too.

I had a pair of HyperX Cloud II the mic wasn't good on them and from how I felt they didn't really have any of the features I mentioned

[Max Caulfield]

1 minute ago, Brama said:

I had a pair of HyperX Cloud II the mic wasn't good on them and from how I felt they didn't really have any of the features I mentioned

Most people said the Cloud II are really good though.

[Brama]

Just now, Max Caulfield said:

Most people said the Cloud II are really good though.

Yeah I know, which why I was surprised I disliked mines so much. Perhaps I just had a bad pair. Idk

[Max_Settings]

Personally I am against all gaming headsets. Headphones with a modmic is the way to go.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-Professional-Headphones-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B016YKB8ZU/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1506819874&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=m40x&psc=1&smid=A9VBWN1Q1U6E6

 

https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-Modular-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B01MCYRKY3/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1506819893&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=modmic+5&psc=1

[LienusLateTips]

2 hours ago, Max Caulfield said:

Who? I just joined so I am new to this forum

A person who really loved Life is Strange, had over 30,000 posts I think, he posted that much in 1 year 1 month, and completely wiped his account

[Spuriae]

2 hours ago, Max_Settings said:

Personally I am against all gaming headsets. Headphones with a modmic is the way to go.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-Professional-Headphones-Certified-Refurbished/dp/B016YKB8ZU/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1506819874&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=m40x&psc=1&smid=A9VBWN1Q1U6E6

 

https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-Modular-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B01MCYRKY3/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1506819893&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=modmic+5&psc=1

HD558 or perhaps SHP9500 would be much better if the intended use is gaming; M40X's have a compressed soundstage even compared to most closed-backs. 

[Max_Settings]

4 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

HD558 or perhaps SHP9500 would be much better if the intended use is gaming; M40X's have a compressed soundstage even compared to most closed-backs. 

558s over the 9500s. 9500s also have narrow soundstage and very little bass.

[Brama]

6 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

HD558 or perhaps SHP9500 would be much better if the intended use is gaming; M40X's have a compressed soundstage even compared to most closed-backs. 

Those Phillips seems to be very nice and good. Nice Suggestion. 

[Tacanacy]

[deleted]

[Spuriae]

11 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

558s over the 9500s. 9500s also have narrow soundstage and very little bass.

Definitely HD558's over SHP9500's. Soundstage on the 9500 isn't that much worse and the bass can be boosted, but they're just overall not very resolving. For the price though (~$55 vs ~$80) they're not a bad option, and standardized cable means that going with a cheaper boompro style mic instead of the modmic is also an option.

[System Error Message]

the kingston hyperx cloud 2 is good if you dont use the included usb DAC. Creative cards have the same feature as the USB dac but at much higher quality. Even on realtek soundcards the sound quality is better. Its the headset you want, the usb DAC is good for compatibility and you at least have a USB DAC handy incase of bad onboard audio.

 

My hyperx cloud 2 however just failed with audio disappearing from one end. It is old though as i bought it a few years ago. The sound quality if you plug the headset directly to your card rather than via usb is really really good because the headset itself has good drivers. The mic is decent too if you dont use the USB DAC.

 

If you want the best experience, use the hyperx cloud 2 with a good soundcard rather than the included usb dac or realtek audio (feedback on mic). On creative cards i had issues with the mic volume being too low but thats just creative cards being crap when it comes to software.

[xtroria]

Hd558 with modmic and honestly thats all you need for gaming only headset

[System Error Message]

3 minutes ago, xtroria said:

Hd558 with modmic and honestly thats all you need for gaming only headset

as long as its a sennheiser rather than a rebrand that doesnt use a hardware equaliser (flat response cross frequency range) than it is very good.

 

For any headset regardless for gaming or not, flat response is very important so when you tweak the equaliser for a specific application it will be a lot easier to tweak and you'd get better sound. A lot of headsets tend to bias the bass or highs.

[kaisei]

SHP9500 ($50-55 depending on if on sale at newegg) with V-MODA Boompro ($29) is your best bet right now.

 

Or you can get the HD558 ($70-80 depending on sale) with Modmic 4 ($50-55). It's a bit clunkier because of the extra cable for the modmic, but I think this combo is slightly higher quality. Just my opinion, though.

[Dackzy]

14 hours ago, System Error Message said:

as long as its a sennheiser rather than a rebrand that doesnt use a hardware equaliser (flat response cross frequency range) than it is very good.

 

For any headset regardless for gaming or not, flat response is very important so when you tweak the equaliser for a specific application it will be a lot easier to tweak and you'd get better sound. A lot of headsets tend to bias the bass or highs.

Oh lord. Find me a flat response headphone, I can tell you right now that no sennheiser headphones has that and to EQ a headphone a lot is outright idiotic, because then you get distortion and that basically fucks up the audio quality, a EQ should only be used to do very minor tweaks.  You should NEVER buy a set of headphones that you plan to EQ,  at that point you should have bought a different set of headphones end of story, this is why we also have headphones that all sound different. A flat response is not important, nor is a "neutral" one,  the only thing that is important is that you get a headphone that fits your taste. You know we all hear things differently.

[System Error Message]

5 hours ago, Dackzy said:

Oh lord. Find me a flat response headphone, I can tell you right now that no sennheiser headphones has that and to EQ a headphone a lot is outright idiotic, because then you get distortion and that basically fucks up the audio quality, a EQ should only be used to do very minor tweaks.  You should NEVER buy a set of headphones that you plan to EQ,  at that point you should have bought a different set of headphones end of story, this is why we also have headphones that all sound different. A flat response is not important, nor is a "neutral" one,  the only thing that is important is that you get a headphone that fits your taste. You know we all hear things differently.

exactly, minor tweaks not for the headphone itself but for the sound. EQ should never be pre done in hardware.

 

Bigger headphone drivers tend to help the response too.

[Spuriae]

1 hour ago, System Error Message said:

exactly, minor tweaks not for the headphone itself but for the sound. EQ should never be pre done in hardware.

 

Bigger headphone drivers tend to help the response too.

Your hardware should be as close as possible to your ideal sound signature because EQ isn't magic. HD650's don't extend terribly low. EQ subbass onto them and you just get more distortion. EQ doesn't help with sibilance problems because the issue is ringing and not pure FR. Adding more lower mids in software doesn't fix timbre. There's so much more to sound signature than a simple 2D frequency response, and unfortunately that's the only thing EQ can fix (at the expense of other things in the process).

 

Driver size doesn't necessarily mean anything. Many of the best dynamics (Focal Utopia, HD650, SRH1540) use 40mm drivers.

 

[System Error Message]

20 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

Your hardware should be as close as possible to your ideal sound signature because EQ isn't magic. HD650's don't extend terribly low. EQ subbass onto them and you just get more distortion. EQ doesn't help with sibilance problems because the issue is ringing and not pure FR. Adding more lower mids in software doesn't fix timbre. There's so much more to sound signature than a simple 2D frequency response, and unfortunately that's the only thing EQ can fix (at the expense of other things in the process).

 

Driver size doesn't necessarily mean anything. Many of the best dynamics (Focal Utopia, HD650, SRH1540) use 40mm drivers.

 

Im not talking about EQ to fix said problem, im talking about EQ to tweak the sound source to your liking. Beats audio for example does it in hardware which is bad which is why i call beats audio fake.

 

The whole point is you want your sound output to have as flat response as possible so when you use an EQ to tweak the sound or add effects it wont get distorted or work differently.

[Spuriae]

Just now, System Error Message said:

Im not talking about EQ to fix said problem, im talking about EQ to tweak the sound source to your liking. Beats audio for example does it in hardware which is bad which is why i call beats audio fake.

 

The whole point is you want your sound output to have as flat response as possible so when you use an EQ to tweak the sound or add effects it wont get distorted or work differently.

What's your idea of a neutral headphone that produces better bass after EQ than a headphone designed to produce good bass natively? I provided the example with the HD6X0 family; adding bass increases distortion without providing extension. Digital EQ will always increase distortion or decrease dynamic range (or both).

 

The original Beats was just a poor headphone in general. The fact that it happened to not be neutral isn't an argument for neutral headphones (not that there are any truly neutral headphones out there).

[System Error Message]

Just now, Nimrodor said:

What's your idea of a neutral headphone that produces better bass after EQ than a headphone designed to produce good bass natively? I provided the example with the HD6X0 family; adding bass increases distortion without providing extension. Digital EQ will always increase distortion or decrease dynamic range (or both).

 

The original Beats was just a poor headphone in general. The fact that it happened to not be neutral isn't an argument for neutral headphones (not that there are any truly neutral headphones out there).

the point is a lot of software mixes their own sound, so for a gaming headset if it is not neutral it can cause distortions, or some frequencies can be too low.