Beyerdynamic DT 880 or Steelseries Arctis Pro ?

[Sminka]

I want to buy new headphones/headset. I found the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition and the Steelseries Arctis Pro + Gamedac as headset.

If I would buy the DT 880 I would have to buy a Modmic or similar + dac or sound card. If I bought the Arctis Pro I wouldn't have to buy anything else.

Does anyone have experience with the Arctis Pro + Gamedac? Which combination would be better

[light-v]

I would pick the DT880 any day. Better scaling with good hardware, cleaner sound, bulletproof build quality, great comfort and looks better in my opinion. Gaming headphones come with way too many gimmicks that aren't that useful and might even break after some time but that's just me. I'd trust a reputable German audio company over anything gaming really but that's just my 2 cents. 

[Sminka]

5 minutes ago, light-v said:

I would pick the DT880 any day. Better scaling with good hardware, cleaner sound, bulletproof build quality, great comfort and looks better in my opinion. Gaming headphones come with way too many gimmicks that aren't that useful and might even break after some time but that's just me. I'd trust a reputable German audio company over anything gaming really but that's just my 2 cents. 

Do you recommend any soundcard for the 880 ? I would take a soundcard instead a dac because i need the card for the microphone too.

[light-v]

3 minutes ago, Sminka said:

Do you recommend any soundcard for the 880 ? I would take a soundcard instead a dac because i need the card for the microphone too.

You don't have to get a combo unit for the headphone and microphone. Only the headphone would benefit from a good dac/amp setup. USB is best in this case because it avoids interference from the components within the PC.

 

I'd suggest getting the Fiio E10K which pairs pretty well with the DT880. If you prefer a colder more analytical sound then the Schiit Fulla 2 is a good fit. Obviously you are not limited to those two but they're good entry in the realm of quality audio. 

 

The Modmic will run perfectly fine on your motherboard audio (unless it has some major hissing issues, which is fairly rare these days). If you're just using the mic for voice chats you don't really need dedicated hardware actually. 

[AAJoe]

While we have some workarounds for EMI (https://antlionaudio.com/blogs/news/removing-background-noise-with-equalizer-apo-and-reapers-reafir) the safe bet is always to get a simple USB stick for the ModMic (Currently sold out directly, but you can get the Syba CM-UAUD as a backup, which is 5 dollars on Newegg last I saw). 

 

But generally speaking the DT880 doesn't require a DAC/AMP if its the 32 ohm version. Or at least the same USB stick can easily run both the mic and the headphones. If its the 250 ohm version you'll want to look into the two suggestions above.

[Froody129]

I'd stay away from Steelseries headphones. They have pretty meh build quality and never sound good. Their customer support is also HORRIBLE. They are very overpriced for the sound they give and have no real redeeming features. Go for a pair of actual headphones with a non-crap mic.

 

Signed- a Steelseries Siberia Elite owner (I got these for free even...)

[EsaT]

On 7/18/2018 at 12:03 AM, Sminka said:

Does anyone have experience with the Arctis Pro + Gamedac? Which combination would be better

As rule there's zero reason to trust really any gaming brand headset to be better than shoe string budget Superluxes.

With rare exceptions those are bling blinged cheap production trinkets.

 

How did you think gaming brands are able to afford all that legalized lying called marketing?

Any Asus ROG, Razer, Roccat, Steelseries would be the least trustworthy ones.

This is what kind bass boom garbage frequency response very advertised Shitberia v3 has:

https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6080/17/13-headsets-review-listen-in-higher-quality-testresults---frequency-response

With most of the mids being 15dB below bass and treble couple spikes, only immersion it can likely give is head in bucket under water.

That Turd Beach Z60 with less horrible frequency response sounds that compared to lowly Superlux HD-330, which is step below DT990.

Didn't even know there could be that bad sound, until having chance to test that Turd Beach.

Instead of good directionality and even feel of distance with binaural sound (on good headphones) sound collapses to having head in bucket, with everything coming from next to ear and other sounds just being more ambiguous/muffled than others.

 

 

But audio maker product or gaming trinket, do you have quiet or noisy environment?

Isolating noises of loud environment needs closed ear cup design.

Which as downside isolates also heat especially with (p)leather pads increasing risk of ears sweating, which is bad for comfort of long gaming sessions.

 

Also would you prefer to have some above neutral bass punch for good "fun factor" or neutral bass, which can feel "shy"/lacking impact?

Knowing your current headphones could give some kind reference.

Though from gaming garbage there's very little actual measurements.

 

On 7/18/2018 at 12:19 AM, Sminka said:

Do you recommend any soundcard for the 880 ? I would take a soundcard instead a dac because i need the card for the microphone too.

What motherboad you have?

Some of them have actually usefull stuff bundled for headphone gaming.

For gaming or movie watching with headphones most sound cards have even more important features than microphone input:

Algorithms simulating binaural sound.

Assuming your head shape is close to average and game producing good surround output, you can get good directionality and even feel of distance when using good headphones.

 

And good sound cards use top quality digital to analog converters (that DAC) and some have very good headphone outputs enough for most headphones except worst power hogs.

[EsaT]

6 hours ago, AAJoe said:

If its the 250 ohm version you'll want to look into the two suggestions above.

Standard Realtek chips drive at least DT990's 250 version well past hearing safe volume.

Once tested that in Sandy Bridge era basic motherboard with ALC892.

 

Impedance doesn't tell even half of how demanding headphones are.

In fact worst combination would high power needing low impedance headphones, because those need very high (in terms of headphones) current.

And it's current draw which can stress/overload outputs.

Just like in case of attaching 4 ohm speakers into amplifier designed for 8 ohm speakers.

[Sminka]

9 hours ago, EsaT said:

As rule there's zero reason to trust really any gaming brand headset to be better than shoe string budget Superluxes.

With rare exceptions those are bling blinged cheap production trinkets.

 

How did you think gaming brands are able to afford all that legalized lying called marketing?

Any Asus ROG, Razer, Roccat, Steelseries would be the least trustworthy ones.

This is what kind bass boom garbage frequency response very advertised Shitberia v3 has:

https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6080/17/13-headsets-review-listen-in-higher-quality-testresults---frequency-response

With most of the mids being 15dB below bass and treble couple spikes, only immersion it can likely give is head in bucket under water.

That Turd Beach Z60 with less horrible frequency response sounds that compared to lowly Superlux HD-330, which is step below DT990.

Didn't even know there could be that bad sound, until having chance to test that Turd Beach.

Instead of good directionality and even feel of distance with binaural sound (on good headphones) sound collapses to having head in bucket, with everything coming from next to ear and other sounds just being more ambiguous/muffled than others.

 

 

But audio maker product or gaming trinket, do you have quiet or noisy environment?

Isolating noises of loud environment needs closed ear cup design.

Which as downside isolates also heat especially with (p)leather pads increasing risk of ears sweating, which is bad for comfort of long gaming sessions.

 

Also would you prefer to have some above neutral bass punch for good "fun factor" or neutral bass, which can feel "shy"/lacking impact?

Knowing your current headphones could give some kind reference.

Though from gaming garbage there's very little actual measurements.

 

What motherboad you have?

Some of them have actually usefull stuff bundled for headphone gaming.

For gaming or movie watching with headphones most sound cards have even more important features than microphone input:

Algorithms simulating binaural sound.

Assuming your head shape is close to average and game producing good surround output, you can get good directionality and even feel of distance when using good headphones.

 

And good sound cards use top quality digital to analog converters (that DAC) and some have very good headphone outputs enough for most headphones except worst power hogs.

Of course i know that the headphones are better but it will be a lot more expensive than the gaming headset :D. My Mainboard is an Asus Strix Z370-F. And i would take 250Ohm

[aliquis]

Sad you didn't got better replies.
 

On 7/17/2018 at 11:13 PM, light-v said:

I would pick the DT880 any day. Better scaling with good hardware, cleaner sound, bulletproof build quality, great comfort and looks better in my opinion. Gaming headphones come with way too many gimmicks that aren't that useful and might even break after some time but that's just me. I'd trust a reputable German audio company over anything gaming really but that's just my 2 cents. 

This reply comes of as just groundless assumptions and not facts. Yeah, the DT880 has good reputation. All the DT770-DT990 phones have a treble bump around 6 kHz or whatever and then how they drop above that and at the base end is a bit different. That doesn't say anything about the Arctis Pro though. There exist actual frequency charts for it and then it come off as very neutral and stable and in that case with very small difference between the left and right driver which may have been luck or possibly quality control.

On 7/18/2018 at 6:45 PM, Froody129 said:

I'd stay away from Steelseries headphones. They have pretty meh build quality and never sound good. Their customer support is also HORRIBLE. They are very overpriced for the sound they give and have no real redeeming features. Go for a pair of actual headphones with a non-crap mic.

 

Signed- a Steelseries Siberia Elite owner (I got these for free even...)

The Elite is a completely different headphone. I have no idea who actually design these headphones or if any of them was designed by Steelseries themselves and who manufacture the drivers and what not but it's not at all the same product so it's completely irrelevant how some other headphone sold under the same brand behaved.

Also there's plenty of suggestions that they actually do sound good so that's also wrong.

On 7/19/2018 at 12:42 AM, EsaT said:

As rule there's zero reason to trust really any gaming brand headset to be better than shoe string budget Superluxes.

With rare exceptions those are bling blinged cheap production trinkets.

 

How did you think gaming brands are able to afford all that legalized lying called marketing?

Any Asus ROG, Razer, Roccat, Steelseries would be the least trustworthy ones.

This is what kind bass boom garbage frequency response very advertised Shitberia v3 has:

https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6080/17/13-headsets-review-listen-in-higher-quality-testresults---frequency-response

With most of the mids being 15dB below bass and treble couple spikes, only immersion it can likely give is head in bucket under water.

That Turd Beach Z60 with less horrible frequency response sounds that compared to lowly Superlux HD-330, which is step below DT990.

Didn't even know there could be that bad sound, until having chance to test that Turd Beach.

Instead of good directionality and even feel of distance with binaural sound (on good headphones) sound collapses to having head in bucket, with everything coming from next to ear and other sounds just being more ambiguous/muffled than others.

 

 

But audio maker product or gaming trinket, do you have quiet or noisy environment?

Isolating noises of loud environment needs closed ear cup design.

Which as downside isolates also heat especially with (p)leather pads increasing risk of ears sweating, which is bad for comfort of long gaming sessions.

 

Also would you prefer to have some above neutral bass punch for good "fun factor" or neutral bass, which can feel "shy"/lacking impact?

Knowing your current headphones could give some kind reference.

Though from gaming garbage there's very little actual measurements.

 

What motherboad you have?

Some of them have actually usefull stuff bundled for headphone gaming.

For gaming or movie watching with headphones most sound cards have even more important features than microphone input:

Algorithms simulating binaural sound.

Assuming your head shape is close to average and game producing good surround output, you can get good directionality and even feel of distance when using good headphones.

 

And good sound cards use top quality digital to analog converters (that DAC) and some have very good headphone outputs enough for most headphones except worst power hogs.

Haven't got anything to do with the Arctis Pro.
Rtings about Arctis Pro with GameDAC:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/steelseries/arctis-pro-gamedac
Compensated frequency chart: https://www.rtings.com/images/graphs/headphones/steelseries/arctis-pro-gamedac/frequency-response-graph.png

So up to 5 dB higher bass up to 30-40 Hz, a dip of around 8 dB at 3.5 kHz and then a bit of a drop in the 8-20 kHz range.
DT880:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/beyerdynamic/dt-880
-5 db almost 10 dB on one of the drivers below 20 Hz drop of base up to 60-110 Hz.
2-3 dB peak at 2-3 kHz, ~2 dB drop at ~5 kHz.
~10 dB exaggeration at 9 kHz.
Then a slop up at the very high frequencies.

So the Arctis Pro do have a bit of exaggerated base at the very lowest bass frequencies and then a bit of a drop at 3.5 kHz most headphones have some weirdness in the treble regions I don't know if it's due to resonances or whatever and then a bit of a fall-off at the highest frequencies.
The DT880 instead has weak bass, a bit more flat in the upper mid/lower treble regions whatever 3 kHz is and then an even higher exaggeration at the highish treble and still some exaggeration even higher.

So neither is completely flat.

DT770 looks more neutral from their charts: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/beyerdynamic/dt-770

DT990 https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/beyerdynamic/dt-990-pro also have a bit of bass drop in the lower bass but then a tiny exaggeration around 100-200 Hz and also an exaggerated treble.

All these charts are relative though. How it actually sound to you is affected by the sound pressure / volume too, the higher volume the more you notice the bass for instance. So play at loud volume and maybe the arctis pro sound too exaggerated there and the DT880 and DT990 sounds ok, play at low volume and maybe the arctis pro sound ok and the others lack bass.

 

 

Personally I have a hard time finding something which looks perfect, the Audeze Mobius maybe was claimed to sound like Sine I don't remember but the Sine looks pretty flat and the Mobius is also a gaming headphone but it cost quite a bit more. It may still be totally worth the money relative the competition but it's definitely more expensive. Hifiman Sundara cost a similar amount of money.
Sundara pretty flat: https://www.rtings.com/images/graphs/headphones/hifiman/sundara/frequency-response-graph.png
Bit less treble than the BeyerDynamics, still drop in lower bass.
Seem like Rtings had Mobius too: https://www.rtings.com/images/graphs/headphones/audeze/mobius/frequency-response-graph.png
Exaggerated lower bass, dip to a similar extension as the Arctis Pro at around the same frequency.
So maybe it's not worth the money, it cost like 1.5-3x as much depending on what the current prices are here.
Also very hot on the ears.
HD 600 very weak bass especially lower and otherwise pretty flat: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/hd-600-hd600

HD 650 not all that different from HD 600: https://www.rtings.com/images/graphs/headphones/sennheiser/hd-650/frequency-response-graph.png
HD 599 not all that far from the DT990 maybe? https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/hd-599 lower 10 kHz and up treble than the 990 but I can only hear up to 13-13.5 kHz so for me the response up there may not matter much.

 

Anyway, the point is that just because you feel hifi headphones should be or typically are better than gaming headphones or some other gaming headphone has been bad doesn't mean some specific model or gaming headphone actually is worse or is the game as the one you tried. It would likely be good to listen and hear what kind of style of sound you prefer. Also of course something which is easier to drive may be more useful if you say don't have to buy a dedicated amp for instance.
 

[Brewnasty]

If cost is the issue and these little details do not concern you, don't waste your time and get the Arctis Pro. But realize it wont be as good IMO as a pair of Beyerdynamics with a proper DAC. (I've tried both)

[Exaco]

Get the Arctis Pro if you want to someday smash them into a wall without having any regret for breaking good product.
DT 880 hands down ( the fact alone that they're semi-open will destroy the sound quality of Arctis )