Best Gaming Headphones

Ezonics ESound 5.1 Headphones

Hmm...care to explain why you like them?

3 Years Old... 7/10 on that website...and fairly mild reviews on newegg

I heard these are pretty nice
Razer Headset

Or anything by Sennheiser

Turtle Beach's EarForce HPA 5.1 surround headphones with removal mic. Run around $70, but well worth the money.

Well said indeed... awsome sound and one of the best mic's I have tried.

It took me 3 pairs to find a good set... the razor hp-1 owns... doesnt smash your ears... very comfortable and the mic is tiny and doesnt get in the way... I'd suggest it to anyone!

Those Razer's Look Really Nice...If I did get those...what sound card would one recomend

I have the Zalman 5.1 headset and Sennheiser HD555's and I prefer the HD555s. The EAX is great and simulates as good as true 5.1 speakers. Besides I find the sound from those tiny drivers in 5.1 headsets to be paltry compared to good cans.

~_~ Highly doubtful.... I'm using pretty much the best pair of 2 speaker headphones available...and sound quality is...meh.

The HD555s don't have a mic though do they? Know of any good stand alone ones?

the Sennheiser headsets are meant to be one of the best...at least they are here in europe. :?

medusa 5.1 is hardcore

I have been looking at these. Might be worth a look.

http://www.steelseries.com/products/steel_sound/steelso...

I know there is an option for Senns 280 pros to be used as a headset.

I got this one's

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?...

8O and I tell you once you hear the sound quality of the sennheiser products you wont go back to others, they even put to shame the bose headphones. :twisted:

I would recommend buying very good quality 2.1 headphones over average 5.1 headphones.

My advice to you is this:

If you have $220 to spend, but truly want an amazing audio quality, get this combo:
- Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
- Sony MDR V600 Studio headphones
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-V600-Monitor-Headphones-...


I have both of these items, and trust me,
with the X-fi's CMSS3D headphones ability and the Sony headphone's spectacular quality, you're in for a treat. Of course, I have always been a Sony fan as far as headphones are concerned (the down side to Sennheiser sometimes being the price)

However, since you mentioned $200 might be a problem, I still recommend buying these headphones. If you are going to buy headphones other than this one (or Sony MDR VX00 series) or the Sennheiser mentioned above, be sure to look at the fine print. Sometimes headphones with a lot of publicity offer lower quality than headphones you've never heard of...

Also, reviews are ve
I too was looking for comfortable headphones, and from Amazon's reviews,
and my experience, I guarantee you will not feel anything even after hours of either gaming or mixing. Their comfort truly is remarkable.

the sony headphones look...so so... the sound card looks pretty nice...

i could get the razer headphones, the XtremeMusic soundcard...

then i need a new case cuz my peice of shit xion II, the front broke off today... ~_~

then....buy F.E.A.R. =]

Well, I use them for recreational purposes, not gaming specific.

If you're going to be using the headphones for studio work, get a better Sony series or a Sennheiser.

If you're going to be using them to game, it's really up to you. With the X-Fi (which is really night / day gaming audio, comparing to anything else) 5.1 is not really a MUST.

However, hooking up 5.1 headphones to an X-Fi might cause some problems, since on mine the speaker configurations are as follow:

headphones
2/2.1 speakers
4/4.1 speakers
5.1 speakers
6.1 speakers
7.1 speakers

As you can see, no ''5.1 headphones'', so you might have to put it as 5.1 speakers. The X-fi being the best available however, maybe the ''headphones'' configuration is auto-adjusting, depending on your headphones.

Most video reviews, show them setting the config to 5.1, even though they are using headphones.

I'm not sure what you are saying is highly doubtful? That my HD555's sound better than the Zalmans?

I use the zalman mic that came with my headset, just clipped it on to the HD555 wire.

Well, as long as they work to their full potential...

Have you had sound cards before? If you have, the X-Fi will make your jaw drop, I went from a 24Bit Live! and was amazed by the quality. If you have always been using on-board audio, prepare to be blown away...

I recommend the Fatality card by Creative, it has X-ram. That is, if you don't want to slow your system down at all with a card. It should buy you 1-5 FPS maybe. There are plenty of good other cards out there though. As far as high-quality boomsets, I'd recommend Sennheiser over all. Ultrasone is a close second. Just because something says 5.1 or 7.1 doesn't mean it's better. In fact, the Sennheiser HMD280's might just very well be the best headphones on the planet. I'm looking at their HMD280-XQ's and HMD280-Pros and I don't know if I'll find a better boomset out there. These are a "great for every application" headset that should last you a LONG time.

honestly i dint need a mic...i wouldn't be using the headset mic anyway... i have an amazing mic that can pick up a whisper from across the room..but not the TV noise..

if im gaming... im really gona want the 5.1 ...

mmk...i think im going to go with the razer hp-1, the XtremeMusic sound card, and a thermaltake armor jr. =]

Lets keep this thread going just in case something amazing gomes up.

Excuse my ignorance, but is there any difference in the Creative Xi-Fi Extreme cards (i.e. between gamer, music and fatality)? They are all 32 bit, but all different prices ... I know very little about sound equipment......  

from what i hear....no.. one has the front panel and the 64mb of memory..which is supposed to keep your fps up...but i hear that only 2 or 3 games actually take advantage of this memory


mabey this will help:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/18/creative_x/

I'm happy with my Icemat Siberia's. As far as I know - the Razers are crap that have zilch for bass power, although in theory for most people this isn't a problem. But in reality it sounds wrong.

In my opinion surround headphones are a joke and any good headphone can place sounds in any direction around you.

What I'm saying is that many people get the effects of 5.1 with better sound...5.1 is rumored to be a bit of a gimmick.

Sennheiser is pretty much top of the line as far as headphones go...and I'm not sure if they even offer a "5.1"

A direct quote from that article...

"Four X-Fi cards are being launched simultaneously"

There are more current articles.

If you're just looking for a good solid 24-bit sound card...there are many other options apart from Creative that are nearly as high quality for a much much lower price. The Fatality is the cheapest card they offer with the X-Ram, and is probably the top card you can buy today with everything on it. If I weren't buying a card for a high end system I wouldn't have bought the Fatality. There are better ways to spend money and get more out of it. A lot of the power of these cards goes to conversion and upsampling, which in a few years may not be that pliable anyway, as we make the switch from analog to digital. I would look at sound cards from companies like Turtle Beach and Hauppage, who also make some top quality cards. (there are also others) The reviews on the Razer cards and headphones aren't bad either, it seems they're best bought as a set, as they work best together. They're based on some of the latest Dolby tech, and the same tech can be found in other brands as well. Read some reviews on google on products you want to buy. There are plenty of other sites out there besides Toms. :-)

Here in the UK I can only really get Creative, Terratec and one Razer cards. Prices are:

Razer:£152

SB XiFi Xtreme Gamer Fatality FPS:£135
SB XiFi Xtreme Gamer Fatality Pro:£82
SB XiFi Xtreme Gamer:£56
SB XiFi Xtreme Music:£50
XiFi Xtreme Audio:£31

And a range of Terratec Audio cards. This seems like a bewildering array, but to confuse matters further, my motherboard (ABit AW9D) comes with an add-in sound card thing, which usefully they provide no real information about. Basically I'm just wondering if its worth buying a new soundcard and if so which one I should go for....? Not too worried about losing a few FPS as I have quite a high end system anyway (E6600 @ 3.2GHz, 8800GTX, 2GB DDR800 cas4). Thanks for the help.

Some mobos have pretty darn good onboard sound now days. AC97 for one are pretty good for basic use, but Intel's HD audio is even better. All onboard sound will use some system resources, but it's really rather minimal on a powerful system.

Read this for more. http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/hdaudio.htm
There are a few other sound chipsets, but Intel's are the most widely used.

If a system has at least AC97 and includes support for 5.1 then you don't necessarily need a sound card to get good sound. It depends on how much of an audiophile you are, every person hears sound differently.

Your mobo has 7.1 HD sound by Intel, so you should be good anyway. With today's processors and 2 gigs of ram becoming standard, I'd agree with you and say you'd be better off putting money into a great set of speakers or headphones or a better video card. Then again, you could always save your money and start accruing interest for a future build.

Yeah....... saving up for a quad and vista (for Alan Wake and Crysis), so i'll just hang on to the cash. Thanks for the advice

Who ISN'T waiting for Crysis? :-) I want to get Far Cry for PC, I'm running XP X64 and it's got a patch to make use of the 64 bit for higher frames. I played Instincts a bit on Xbox and it was pretty good. If Crysis is better than Instincts is then it's surely worth buying. I just hope it has a really advanced physics engine. I love blowing $hit up.

Me too.... seen any videos of it? Destructable environments look amazing. Check it out at IGN.........

Me too.... seen any videos of it? Destructable environments look amazing. Check it out at IGN.........

Will do. :-)

I have the x-fi gamer soundcard

I just replaced my senn 280pros with razer barracuda and can honestly say that barracuda is much better. For one it has a detachable mic and the headset is sooo comfortable, I can wear it for hours without my ears hurting. Also, the bass is strong enough to make my ears vibrate. 5.1 may be a gimmick but with the x-fi gamer soundcard and the barracuda headset my sense of direction has improved. In counter strike source i can hear a lot more of the subtle sounds.

audio technica makes by far the best headphones for anything. end topic. razer is a stupid fanboy company and they make POS equipment that looks cool.

Get these powerful devices right on your ears, and enjoy the complete illusion of whatever video game you might be wielding your digital ax in. http://www.Gamingheadphones.net is absolutely the best avenue for all your personal audio video gaming needs.