Am looking for a new pair of headphones, mostly for gaming. The two aspects I care mostly about are comfort and good audio. Therefore wondering about people’s recommendations and experiences with headphones. What’s been your best headphones so far and why?
Steelseries arctics 7
Reasonably comfortable, reasonably priced (if you catch a sale about $100usd), good mic with monitoring, wireless, but most importantly: they just work. I’ve had the same pair for 5ish years and have never had to troubleshoot.
Arctis 7 was truly the best headset, I have three pairs at this point. None of them broken - all were purchased because the headset was so good I wanted one for the office and for my wife.
However, Steelseries seems deadset on making worse versions of the Arctis with every iteration. The 9 was altogether disappointing and they are really trying to force all the features like the chat mix into Sonar software instead. Really disappointing.
Yeah. I’ve got an Artist Pro Wireless, and Sonar stuff has screwed it up in weird ways
I have a pair of these and I absolutely love them, so much so I convinced a few others to get them too.
Two of us have since had mic issues over he last couple of years where the mic is garbled and not clear. Not sure if it’s a uemser error or issue with them.
Other than that they have good batter, good ange from base, easy to setup, good audio quality, good controls, don’t weigh too much. Would buy again.
I’ve had mine for years and I really like them. The stupid band thing is all stretched out, and the poorly designed power button snapped internally so I had to drill a hole in the casing to turn them on now but otherwise working great!
I wish they had USB C.
I’ve been using a pair of Sennheiser HD210s for closer to 10 years. Light and comfy and decent audio quality for the price.
I got the same pair many years ago for just 20€. They were amazing for the price, but sadly the rubber for the earpads and headband got flakey and i wasn’t able to enjoy them anymore… I’m using the HD569 now with replacable cables and earpads, but they are a bit pricey compared to the HD210.
Sennheiser pc38x if you want a headset, I’ve just been using monoprice bt600ancs with a vmoda boom mic on it. They’re fine, it’s ye old v shape in terms of frequency response.
The pc38xs were nice. They are open back so if bleed is a concern, be mindful. (The pc38xs were my friend’s headset, I just tried them when I visited)
AKG K371. Affordable (although it’s gone up since the pandemic), comfortable, and follows the Harman curve closely so will be pleasing to most ears even without EQ.
I tried a bunch of different gaming headsets over the years but as I got older and gave up on online games, I grabbed a pair of AudioTechnica ATH-M50 and have probably had them at least a decade now. They’re closed ear studio monitor headphones so they sound great and are comfortable with long use. I’ve replaced both the cushions and the cable and they still work great.
I think the current variant is the ATH-M50x.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned https://www.rtings.com/headphones
They specifically analyze headphones for comfort and audio quality among many other qualities.
They have a table view mode where you can filter down to exactly what kind of headphones you are interested in buying and then make a selection from the results set.
I just purchased a pair of these a few weeks ago, and I love them: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/philips/fidelio-x2hr
I specifically filtered down to headphones with a low latency wired connection by adding a column to the table view, and I didn’t need an included microphone.
If you must have a microphone included, the best headphones you can buy currently that have a low latency wired connection are the Astro A40’s, but they had less than stellar treble I believe. Check the detailed review.
This website is exactly what I have been looking for! Thanks for sharing 🌻
I miss my Siberia Icemats. Those things were great.
I had a Plantronics RIG I won in a drawing I didn’t even know I was entered in, but it wasn’t that comfortable. One of those over the ear styles, but the cups were small so it just squeezed your ears instead of sit comfortably around them. But other than that, they were pretty amazing. Even came with a DAC.
Currently I have a Sony WH-XB910N but it’s just headphones. It does technically have a mic for using handsfree with a phone, but even though it shows up on PC as an input device, it doesn’t actually pick anything up so I can’t use it as a headset when gaming 😮💨
KSC75 with yaxi pads and headband because it is light and comfortable even when it is hot. And it’s cheap.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 DAC, then any decent studio headphones, I use a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-m50x’s. I use a separate mic connected with an xlr cable to the dac. I could never go back to a combined “gaming” headset.
I’ve been running a pair of Sennhesiser PC 350’s for something like 10 years now? Not sure. I used to game a lot more than I do now and eventually the ear cushions started falling apart. I was dreading replacing them though, and ended up getting some replacement cushions from Amazon or something. Was super easy to replace and they’ve been like new for the last year now. I’m a hardwire all of the things type person, and generally a cheapass so yeah, overall happy with this purchase!
I have a set of Hifiman HE1000s. A little overkill, but damn, Tetris Effect is so fun to play with these headphones.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the Koss KSC75 are a favourite since they’re compact, comfy, and sound great. Also, $20. Can’t go wrong. Great for pretty much anything with a headphone jack, like the portable audio players that everyone has in their pocket nowadays, haha! Yeah.
I used Audeze Mobius for years until the yoke inevitably cracked. I exchanged it for a Maxwell which I’ve mostly left in the box since I also acquired a VZR Model One. It has a metal headband and is a passive, analog headset so very few digital parts to go wrong.
I’ve been using AKG Q701s for well over a decade. They’re hard to drive, but extremely comfortable and the sound quality far surpasses anything under $500. I like that they’re open-ear and breathable - I forget that I have them on. I’ve gotten to the point of buying several backup sets on Ebay any time a good deal pops up, just to make sure I’ll be able to use this same model for the rest of my life in case something happens.
The Q701 model is technically no longer produced, but K702 is identical other than the headband style. They retail around $150.
Astro A50, can wear it all day wireless and I barely even notice I wear them. Also easy to mute your mic when you want to. The sound quality also seems quite in order to me including the mic. Though please cross check that only with the true audiophiles. If this one ever breaks down I will definitely by another one.
I recently got myself a Teufel Zola on a sale and am really satisfied with it. It has good audio (as far as I can tell), is comfortable and looks nice.