EvaUnit02 on 10/6/2009 at 10:19
Quote Posted by "Kuuso"
As far as I know, this thread is called "What gaming headsets are you using?"
Did you bother reading the body of the original post? The OP is wanting purchasing advice, this isn't simply one of those non-entity list threads that have been popular lately.
Steelseries 5H v.2 in particular are notorious amongst the audiophile community for being over-priced garbage, with poor sound quality.
"Gamer" headphones just are marketing buzz to sell cheap overly-inflated crap to the ignorant, (just like Bose, but that's a point for another thread.).
Sound quality matters. It blows my mind how the sheer number of people who spend hundreds on graphics cards, but then settle for on-board sound.
Quote:
Besides, I don't think the difference between headphones matter when you step into a mystical garden in bloody Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
No, it's entirely a myth that compressed audio doesn't benefit from better audio hardware.
I initially upgraded from an on-board Realtek codec to a low-end
true Creative X-Fi sound card (I can go into the specifics of this if requested). Even with cheap arse PC multimedia speakers things like 128Kb/s encoded MP3s noticeably had greater clarity that I had been missing out on. The down-side to this is that it revealed just how poor 128Kb/s MP3s are.
Quote Posted by "Thirith"
EvaUnit02: This may be hard to understand, but not everyone has the same needs and expectations of audio equipment. What you consider a piece of crap might be someone else's 'perfectly adequate'.
It's good virtue for a community to look out for the well-being of its members. I'm not one to sit idly by whilst people dole out horrible advice. You might be a lost cause to the druggie needle of shit hardware, but I'll be damned if I'll let you freely spew your bile unopposed that gets others hooked on an addiction to excrement, without at least putting up a fight.
Matthew on 10/6/2009 at 10:41
It's not necessarily the things that you post Eva, it's the way that you post it. You make everything you disagree with sound like an assault on civilization itself. Spewing bile? 'Addiction to excrement'? Really?
Kuuso on 10/6/2009 at 10:50
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
No, it's entirely a myth that compressed audio doesn't benefit from better audio hardware.
I initially upgraded from an on-board Realtek codec to a low-end
true Creative X-Fi sound card (I can go into the specifics of this if requested). Even with cheap arse PC multimedia speakers things like 128Kb/s encoded MP3s noticeably had greater clarity that I had been missing out on. The down-side to this is that it revealed just how poor 128Kb/s MP3s are.
Yeah, the point kind of was that you are stepping to a mystical garden. The heighened sounds won't really take your gaming experience further.
Fair enough, I wouldn't recommend buying these headphones, because they are really overpriced, but they aren't the evil that bible speaks of.
steo on 10/6/2009 at 11:24
Quote Posted by Brian The Dog
I'd like some advice please on these gaming headset things. I'm thinking of buying some 5.1 headphones, but noticed that they often come with a USB connector. Presumably this then installs it's own "mini-soundcard" rather than using the soundcard currently on the PC (either PCI or on-board). So my question it how to carry on using my 2.0 desktop speakers with the PC soundcard I am currently using, and switching to surround-sound headphones at times.
I know I can change the soundcard currently used in "Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio", but will it remember that one soundcard is for 2.0 and the other for 5.1?
Thanks in advance!
My Razers have both a USB connector (for more power, I believe) and four 3.5mm jacks for my X-fi Xtreme Gamer. If you get 5.1 headphones, make sure they are true 5.1. That is, make sure they actually have multiple sets of speakers in each ear, and don't just use some remixing software like Creative's CMSS-3D to give an illusion of 5.1 sound. Anything that doesn't connect directly into your sound card should probably be avoided like the plague.
Thirith on 10/6/2009 at 11:50
Quote Posted by Matthew
It's not necessarily the things that you post Eva, it's the way that you post it. You make everything you disagree with sound like an assault on civilization itself. Spewing bile? 'Addiction to excrement'?
Really?Ditto. As an opinion, Eva's posts may be useful - but the moment they're formulated like something out of the
Malleus Maleficarum, people tend to dismiss their author as an opinionated loon and ignore them... which means that the whole "looking out for the well-being of the community's members" backfires.
steo on 10/6/2009 at 15:18
I did see that logitech headset when I bought mine, and was put off entirely by the fact that it only uses a USB connector. Given that I paid £50 for my sound card, I wasn't going to get a headset that bypasses it, but I really don't know how the logitech software would compare to onboard sound, other than using more system resources (could well be a pretty insignificant amount though).
I haven't used any of those headsets, so I couldn't vouch for the quality of any one over another, and ebuyer isn't exactly great for item descriptions. If I were you, I'd find a decent set of specifications and reviews for whichever headsets you're considering buying.
gunsmoke on 10/6/2009 at 16:54
God, I remember when I first experienced a dedicated sound card. I had always gone with onboard audio. Some (like my laptop which actually has incredible audio) onboard solutions were pretty decent. But when I bought my first dedicated card, a Creative 24-bit Soundblaster Live!, I was blown away. I have 2.1 speakers, they have a nice subwoofer under the desk, and the difference was amazing. Even on an entry-level Creative card.
Later on, getting into the more expensive cards I was again blown away. Once you get into high-end PC audio hardware it is near impossible to go back without feeling like something is missing from the experience.
I have actually been looking into an external audio card for the laptop just for shits and giggles, to see if I can pump some extra OOMPH into my game audio and music (I listne to 90% of my music at home through my laptop).
june gloom on 11/6/2009 at 18:58
Quote Posted by Thirith
EvaUnit02: This may be hard to understand, but not everyone has the same needs and expectations of audio equipment. What you consider a piece of crap might be someone else's 'perfectly adequate'.
This. From what I've gathered, EU02 is a huge audiophile and like many audiophiles he's also a bit of a zealot about it. Any useful advice he may have to give is completely overshadowed by his FUCK YOU YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT discourse. Not to mention that his insanely high standards means that he has to basically declare everything unuseable shit that isn't what
he uses.
Disclaimer: For what it's worth I'm using a $20 pair of JVCs. They're good enough for me. I don't care about sound quality, I only care about 3 things: price (I won't buy anything over $30), durability (I won't buy anything under $10), and type of headphones. Some of you know I'm hearing impaired, and due to that I can't use earbuds or those awful behind-the-neck headphones. They pretty much have to be specifically the classic over-the-head style, and they can't have the big leather padding. Unfortunately finding headphones that fit this criteria is a
pain in the ass- I like Sony's, except they're getting rare. The JVC pair I have came with the awful leather padding, and was entirely too tight as well. So I pulled off the padding and replaced it with the old, thinner earpads from my previous pair of headphones (Sony) and forcibly bent the plastic, and now they're pretty good headphones.
The Alchemist on 12/6/2009 at 05:10
I'm rather pleased this thread popped up just now, I was looking into getting a new home theater system and was just about to drop a grand on one when I realized it would probably be a terrible waste, as I'll never have the opportunity to actually use them as such, due to neighbors and what not. So I figured I should get myself a really nice pair of headphones instead.
I've been looking at the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 and ATH-A500, both look pretty interesting but I don't know the difference between open and closed or whatever. I want them mostly for music, but also for gaming and movies. Which one should I get? What I'm really hoping is to get a pair that can really produce some impressive bass while retaining the audio quality. Also, while I'm sure headphones that block out all other sounds can probably produce better quality as such, I tend to prefer not going completely deaf to the outside world while wearing them. Just makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.
