Audiophiles

[Forcone]

When I was younger, you could buy quadraphonic headphones. If you like I could get these for you and ship them to you in Finland???


http://cranbrook.kijiji.ca/c-buy-an...el-Quadraphonic-Headphones-W0QQAdIdZ428445049

Hehehehe, those would be cool!

But to be honest, I'm almost ready to click "order" on these Sharkoon X-Tatic Pro's I'm currently looking at. Soundwise they might not be on the same level as Astro A40's and such but those are way too expensive for me. These would cost me 159€, which is a bit too much compared to what I was going to spend, but I rather get at least a half-decent set than utter garbage. Opinions, anyone?

 

[saskman1950]

I justify any of my major purchases like this:
1. Am I getting value for the money? Some expensive items aren't worth the money.
2. How long am I going to have it? (Not counting the dog into the equation) Then if it becomes long term the value is definately there. Replacing three or four bad, cheap headphones may cost more, sound worse, and fail quicker.
3. AND most important does it make you feel better?

 

[Patro]

I have two flavors that work for me. First, when noise isn't a concern, I'm using my retired Yamaha RX-V1400 receiver. (The ONLY reason it's "retired" is it lacks any HDMI ports). It puts out a legit 110 watts per channel. I'm using 5 of them. Mid and highs are fed to 5 small Logitech Z-5500 satellites while the lows are sent to a Pinnacle dual firing 700 watt sub located behind the sim. What I like about this old amp is being able send only the frequencies I desire to each of the speakers, sub included. This works great in both Xbox and my computer gaming, and gives me the ability to specifically tailor my sound requirements to the environment surrounding the sim.

During times when rattling pictures off the walls isn't appropriate, I use Turtle Beach PX-5 headset. Since no headset can offer up what a good subwoofer can, I removed the amp from a Logitech Z-5500 I bought off Craigslist for 20 bucks (I needed the satellites) and installed it to the front of my sim and used it's 180 plus watts sub out to power a Clark Transducer mounted under the seat. With a 25 dollar patch cable from Ebay, I was able to bypass the blown Z-5500 control head and use all 500 plus watts it has to offer, though for now, I'm only utilizing a little over 180 of those watts. With the headphones and the transducer I can still "feel" the bump from a curb or road rage and for FPS games like Black ops it makes every explosion and gunfire really come to life. Why you ask would I do something so nutty? Well....That way I can have my cake and eat it too.

 

[JoRdY105]

Invested in a pair of Astro A50's after owning a pair of PX5's for a year and a half. I wasn't having a whole deal of trouble with then except they were too small for my ears, which men't long periods of gaming became physically painful!

It was about time for an upgrade I thought and boy was I right. The most comfortable thing I've ever had on my head, I forget they are there! And the sound quality.. Well lets just say the GT5 menu music even sounds interesting now. I don't think I've enjoyed the sound quality of much else compared to this set of cans, would never look back!

Definitely worth the extra penny's!

 

[LogiForce]

Setup:

TV: 32" inch Philips 32PFL9604H/12
A/V Receiver: Yamaha RX-V450
CD Player: Philips CD-600 (Twin DAC: TDA1543 – SAA7220. Laser: Philips CDM-4/19 )
Record Player: Sony PS-D707H
Record Pre-Amp: B-Tech BT26
Consoles (that play discs): xbox, xbox 360, PS2, PS3
Speakers A: Capella CP-3000 (engineerd by Bose USA)
Speakers B: Eltax Century 150
Center: Akai AE-C100
Rears: Akai SR-S70

Soundcard 1: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Championship Edition
Soundcard 2: Onboard Realtek ALC892 (for Simvibe)
Tactile amp: Buttkicker BKA-130-C
Tactile Speaker: Buttkicker Gamer 2
PC Speakers: Logitech Z-560 4.1 THX
PC Optical Drive: Samsung SHS223L

Headset: Sennheiser PC-360
iDevice Headphones: Bose Around-Ear

Car Radio: Alpine CDA-9881R
Car Speakers: 1999 Lancia Delta HPE - Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) speakers

Guitar 1: Epiphone SG G-400 Pro
Guitar 2: Behringer iAxe393
Guitar Amp: Line6 Spider III 15 watt

Keyboard 1: Yamaha Tyros 2 XXL
Keyboard 2: Yamaha PSR-230


I think I now have all the gear listed that produces sound. It could be better, but I am reasonably happy with it. Which is what matters.


I really love my CD player from the late 90's to bits though. It's got "digital filter 4 times oversampling" which is basically Anti-Aliasing for audio signals.
The audio feels so much more crisp and natural in the ears. Even when during a concert a woman screams in the microphone it doesn't sound distorted/intermitted. Love it!

Here's an example of what oversampling does:

 

[thehawk05]

Sony KDL-60EX500 HDTV
Onkyo TX-SR806 receiver
Oppo BDP-83 blu-ray
WDTV LiveHub
XBOX 360
PS3
Esoteric P-10 CD transport
Bryston BP-25DA preamplifier
Bryston 4BSST amplifier
Energy Veritas 1.8 mains
Energy AC300 center
Energy RVSS surrounds (x4)
SVS PB-13 Ultra subwoofer

 

[Nastradamus87]

Ok guys, my dog just ate my original Xbox headset, so I'll be needing a new one. I have been thinking of buying a proper headset for a long time but haven't spent any time on this "project" yet.

So basically what I'd like is Surround Sound (if it makes that big a difference, never tried?), a proper mic, decent sound quality and some comfort for the longer gaming sessions.

With these options, I'm looking at triple-digit prices, right? What if I want to spend less than say 100€, what would you suggest? Over 200€ on headphones is completely too much for me at the moment.

I'm not sure if surround sound is a "must have", you tell me!

I would be using the headset mainly on Xbox360, but also on PS3 and on PC.

EDIT: How about something like these: http://lb.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=65504&agid=264&apop=0 Price wouldn't be too bad!

EDIT2: Reading this thread more accurately gives me the picture that those X-Tatics should be pretty decent? How about that lack of bass everyones talking about? I couldn't live without decent bass tones from the headphones!

That is true...

I've been trying to do some research on this, but it is very difficult. I would have to try each set to see which suits me best, and that's kind of hard, because all these sets are a bit "exotic" here in Finland. At least in Jyväskylä, I think.

I viLe styLe I posted a pic of the Sharkoon X-Tatic Digital in his first post. I just now realized that there is quite a big difference with those and the S7's I was looking at. The Digital's have a "true surround" with multiple speakers, as the S7's only come with two speakers and the surround sound is only a "virtual surround".

Has anyone tested/heard if there's a big difference with this Dolby Headphone technology and a true surround sound? I would guess that there's a big difference??

This thread should answer many of your questions and has good general info:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad...ming-guide-updated-3-11-13-lcd2-entry-updated

From what I've read and based on what pro gamers use, it seems that true 5.1 and 7.1 headphones are not prefered over good stero headphones. Just going on what I've read though as I haven't owned surround sound headphones.