aguywhoplaysthief on 12/6/2009 at 05:23
There is one major issue with headphones that cannot be ignored, and that is comfort. Do not buy headphones over the internet without having put them on your head.
While they are way out of your price range (and discontinued), I use Sennheiser 590s, and they are fantastically comfortable, but headphones just as comfortable can easily be found for cheaper. A few things to consider:
- Full ear coverage, not the ones that sit on top of your ears.
- Adjustable and padded headbands.
- Avoid pleather for headphone pads, unless you enjoy moisture collecting inside your headphones and on your skin. Go for velour if at all possible, although this may be impossible at your price range. Or you can get A/C - I've heard that works as well.
- Open v. Closed. There are great closed headphones, but open headphones will generally be cooler.
I would try out the HD280 Pros if you can find them locally. I've never tried them, but they fill the most important criteria, and they are right in your max price range.
Eva is right about gaming headphone being a ploy to sell crap to people for too much money, but unlike Eva I understand that most people couldn't give two shits. I would compare a decent set of $100 phones to a 5.1 set in real life (hopefully you have some friends that own some), and I'm fairly confident that you will find the good standard headphones to be a much better deal. Normal good quality headphones have excellent soundstaging, including when playing games - don't believe any hype otherwise. I play FPS games all the time with my cans, and I can hear where people are coming from with fantastic accuracy.
What I do for playing L4D (only time I need a mic), is use a cheap pair of heaphones (some cheap ass Sennheisers that a friend gave to me after they broke within 3 months) with a decent mic on them around my neck plugged only into the mic port, and I have my good headphones plugged into the audio port. Sure it's bootleg, but it works great.
EDIT: Alchemist: Always go for Open unless noise is a problem where you will be listening to them, or you don't want to disturb others around you. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but you're almost always going to have better sound and comfort with an equivalent open set than with a closed set.
I don't know about those specific headphones (I don't follow it much when I am not looking to buy a new set), but the headphones you want will be completely dependant upon the sort of music that you listen to primarily. I find that my Sennheisers are absolutely perfect for classical music, but if you listen to Hip Hop then they are not for you. My Beyerdynamic DT250s (which I use for work and portable applicatins) are much better for more bass-loaded music.
Aja on 12/6/2009 at 06:14
HD280 pros sound nice and don't cost too much. For a listening at home I like Grado SR-60s or SR-80s. They're all pretty cheap. As for open vs closed, closed headphones will give you greater isolation (i.e. the people around you won't be able to hear them as well). Open headphones sound wider and airier but you can't listen to them in public without letting everyone around you in on what you're hearing.
I have a pair of SR-80s myself, and so long as I plug them into something with decent output power (NOT an ipod, and not directly into the soundcard), they sound great. Try to find something with a headphone amplifier. You'll get better bass response and more detail.
Bjossi on 12/6/2009 at 15:16
My Logitech Z-2200 2.1 system has a headphone plug on the front of the volume pad but I'm not really sure whether it works as an amplifier (though it would be odd if that big ass subwoofer wasn't amplifying the audio signals). And with my cheap set of Panasonic RPHT225 I can't really tell a difference from the sub output and the direct soundcard output, they are very low impedance and easily crack up the sound when there is too much bass (in this context 'too much' is not enough).
