To all those who utilize headphones for gaming and music I need some opinions. I recently (last night) broke my headset, Logitech H390's, by accidental cord destruction. That is, the USB connection was torn and separated from the cable itself.

Now I find myself on the quest for new headphones. What do you guys use, what do you recommend? My needs are that they be over-the-ear, decently rugged, and that they have a mic. I've a budget of 300USD, and so far am quite partial to the V-MODA Crossfade M-100's. They don't have a mic though.

Thanks

 

I'm more into the music stuff than the gaming stuff, so take this with a pinch of salt. Have a buddy with a pair of Sennheiser 598s, and holy shit, mindblowingly good. They run for 200 or 250, iirc.

 

http://www.head-fi.org/ is the first and last place I look for headphone information. They've got information on just about every headphone out there.

Their Headphone Buying Guide starts out with this gold: In general it's best to avoid products made by Skullcandy, Bose, Beats, or Monster unless otherwise specified in this thread. These companies spend a lot of money on advertising and looks rather than quality. That isn't to say these companies haven't put out headphones worth buying, the Monster Turbine Coppers are actually fantastic IEMs, it's just that a lot of the time you're paying a premium for the name.

This is another good comparison of 100+ headphones by price range: http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/

Good example: Open Headphones - Sennheiser HD598, $175-$250. Looks fantastic, good comfort. Warm laid back sound signature. Decent bass impact and extension, smooth mids, slightly rolled off highs.

I didn't see any reviews for Logitech gear, maybe head-fi are snobby towards them or I was just looking in the wrong section.

There's plenty of good discussions to. Example, one guy bought the V-MODA Crossfade M-100s, but his ears are too big for it so he was looking to sell them. Apparently V-MODA are releasing larger earpads for the M-100; so keep an eye on that if you want those 'phones.

 

Recently bought a Razer Kraken, and it's working very well.

 

I personally use a Sennheiser PC360. It's quite excellent. Though more oriented for gaming, it's still very good for music/movies.

 

I have Sony... somethings. Good sound, comfortable to wear, and considering how hard I am on them, very resilient.

 

I have a Turtle Beach X12 that's served me well for nearly two years. Good mic, long cord, compatible with 360 and PC. Only issue with them is that the sound quality is starting to go when I near the max volume threshold, but that's just a case of me playing them at max volume for too long at a time.

You can pick up a set for < $100, oftimes closer to $50.

 

I've got these. They were around $25 at Wal-Mart, they sound good and they've lasted three-ish years now even after dropping them a million times. No microphone though.

 

Ever thought about a good bluetooth headset? No fucking cable- salate anymore, no ripped out or broken strings of copper.

 

Ugh... you know, I tend to put my headphones through a LOT of wear and tear (used to go through a pair every six months), so I finally put some money down and bought some Bose IE2s that are suiting me fine for now.

But here's the thing: I know enough about audio codecs to know that if I'm using my headphones with my iPod and iTunes, there's a cap on how 'good' I'm going to be able to get the track to sound without shelling out ridiculous amounts on headphones - and given my headphone turnover rate, I can't justify that. If my iPod had the capacity to play FLACs, I'd be more interested or more careful with my headsets, but that's just not an option at this point.

EDIT: god, I fucking hate Bluetooth headsets. Not only do they continue to look stupid (honestly, I don't think they ever have NOT looked stupid), but I've never had consistent sound quality out of them.

 

1) There are enough bluetooth headsets that don't look "stupid". Many are actually quite stylish, like this one:

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/images/products/120000/124332/1.jpg

2) Consistent sound quality... well, if you are running around in your flat, problems with the connection shouldn't be a surprise. But just sitting still, listening or playing or whatever... just as good as cable, imho.

 

As an owner of a Beats Studio by Dr. Dre, I can say to you, don't buy them. The bass is shit, static problems near PCs and they don't muffle the sound at all. They are very pretty and cool, but are at most good gaming phones, any dialogue on them sounds excellent, the rest, not so much. And they are merely decent music ones, like I said, the bass problem.

Buy a Sennheiser, the quality is superb. Some say it's a fragile, but how I never owned one, just listened to them, I don't know.

 

Well for gaming I prefer the Logitech G9 Series. The G930 is wireless and is brilliant and the G35 is wired and brilliant. Though I am having some issues with the drivers I thoroughly recommend them.

 

I have a pair of Denon D2000s that I love to death. They sound great with the music I like, and they work well for games and movies too. Unfortunately, I think they discontinued them for a newer model.

If you get something without a mic, one of these should do the trick. Mine works great.

 

nvm.
/10 char

 

Recently bought my sister headphones and did a bunch of research for it. What seemed to consistently stand out in reviews were the Audiotechnica ATH-M50. They outperform a lot of headphones that are significantly more expensive (like my older Sennheiser HD555s).

Note that they are music headphones (no mic for gaming) and they're monitoring headphones (so expect a flat frequency response - no boost in bass like a lot of headphones have).

With a lot of the big brands (Bose, Sennheiser, etc), I feel their lower and mid end models aren't that great and very overpriced. It makes sense if you go for their $300+ stuff, but under that it seems like you can get better for half the price.

 

Thanks for your input guys. After a lot of shuffling through Head-Fi I came down to the Superlux HD681's which are cheap but with stunning reviews, some even proclaiming them better than the ATH M50's. The standard set is about 30$ while a slightly nice set of the same kind (EVO's) are about 60$. Now I am just trying to decide which one I like the look of better.

Superlux HD681

Superlux HD681 EVO

 

Huh, just when I busted my headphones today this thread shows up. I use mine almost solely for my ipod so all the ones I've gotten for years are ear-buds. I've used Skull-Candy mostly because there's alot of sales at the FYI in town and they show up alot.

So barring Skull-Candy, what would you guys recommend for ear-buds mostly for music?