The price on these aren't so hot either. I nabbed the ABS AZ-1 (link) for $30 when they were on sale, and they're going for about $50 at the moment. They're not a great headset but they seem better than these Tritton phones as I don't have a problem determining direction in 5.1 surround sound.
I'd like to get a better pair of head phones though, so this review was quite helpful.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
This article is well done, but left me wanting more. After reading this, I wanted to take my existing headphones and chuck them. I would really be interested in seeing some side by side comparisons, or your version of a buying guide based on price. As soon as you talked about listening fatigue I knew right away what you were talking about because I can only go for so long before I have to take these monsters off... I'd like a pair of headphones that I can game with, and listen to music with when I'm not gaming, but not greater than $500 U.S. I've always wished Bose made gaming headphones.
Anyway, nice job on the review, easy to understand, credible.... I'd buy what you recommend.
What other type of headphones do you test out? I'm wondering if you've got your hands//ears on any Skullcandys. I've also been waiting on a professional response on them.
Yeah great article i wouldnt pay more than 40 for a headset for yuor very lucky to get 6 months use if your a everyday user of them i go threw headsets like crazy and i tried a lot of difrent brands soem good some bad some last longer some dont dont waste yuor money on high end ones they do not tend to last past 6 months if they do your lucky i use mine like crazy and they seem to last 6 months on the dot
I am not after any headphones currently but if I was I would want her to review them! We need more gaming peripherals articles and this woman is a safe bet for anything audio.
As I have not been exposed to a broad range of headsets, my current recommendation range for under $200 headphones is small: Razer, Sennheiser and the up and coming NOX - which I am currently reviewing.
Sadly when i saw this review, it was pretty much exactly what i was expecting. Overall a good headphone, but with horrible sound quality. I honestly think most of these companies just assume gamers are idiots with fat wallets who buy stuff "cus it looks ub3r l33t !!!" and don't actually research their purchases like most consumers.
I've had a bunch of crap headsets (MS, Logitech, Plantronics, etc) until i found out that Sennheiser actually made pc headsets, and not just PC, but PC Gaming headsets. I own a set of the PC165's, and my roomey has the PC350's. Both are great in different ways, especially if you do or don't like circumaural's. The price is a little high for most gamers wallets, but they're sturdy, comfortable, and most importantly, fantastic sounding.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
Woah, awesome. Could we please have more technical hardware reviews here? Hey, Jon, that could bring new people to the website. When folks are shopping for computer stuff they'll often google for reviews. I know I have looked over and over for good headset reviews and found little to nothing useful.
Carolyn, maybe you would be interested in doing part 2 with some other headsets? Razer headsets are popular, so are the plantronics Gamecom series (cause they are so cheap). I also have heard great things about the Sound Blaster Arena headset.. thats currently the one I have my eyes on. I am curious to see how they stack up to your thorough testing.
Awesome review Carolyn! I hope to see more reviews that are as objective and cut and dry as yours. It really is refreshing to have a reviewer that is not trying to appease and is willing to tell it like it is! Perhaps next you can review some of the Plantronic headsets, such as the GameCom 777.
Incanus Prime - Artifact Creature - +5/+5 to all Autobots and Ents.
I, too, am interested in hear your opinion on the Plantronics headsets. I've had two of them so far (ripped the cables out of the first set), and I have no complaints as to their quality or longevity. Awesome headset, especially when you factor in the cost of them.
I also had the Razer Carcharias for about 6 months, but then something shorted out in it I believe. Can't get a full range on it anymore without fiddling with the audio jack.
Fantastic review Carolyn! It's obvious you know what you're talking about and are very thorough. Your pros and cons are well put together to allow the reader to come to their own conclusion and you appear to be very fair in the review. I can't wait to see more reviews from you.
I'd love to see a piece covering preexisting headphones and which you recommend for each pricing tier. I'm also interested in which headphones you use for personal use.
I use an Astro A30. Great sound, comfy . Also have a (cheap! ) but reasonably comfy with surprisingly good sound Logitech Clear Channel Pro ( $30ish) I use as a backup.
Guess I am in the minority hear. I have had the AX720s for over 6 months and absolutely love them lol. I never have a problem hearing people trying to sneak up on me in my FPS games, so the directional sound seems very nice to me. Overall I feel the $129.99 I spent on the head set was well worth it, but hey I own them already so I might be biased hehe.
Until you get higher end headphones/headset you think you aren't missing anything. WRONG. I can't even imagine going back to noname crap. Sennheiser ftw.
Until you get higher end headphones/headset you think you aren't missing anything. WRONG. I can't even imagine going back to noname crap. Sennheiser ftw.
Well to me these are the highest end headphones I will ever want or need. So I guess thinking I would be missing anything would be WRONG lol. I'm not saying your comment was directed at me, I just felt the need to respond.
Really good headphones are worth the price investment (I have sennheiser, myself). Not only for the personal comfort, soundstage and reproduction, but for quality and return on investment. I've had my sennheisers for over eight years with nearly daily use of 2+ hours at a time (ranging from gaming to music to movies). In that same time I've had friends go through several headsets with varying reasons from comfort to upgrades to hardware failure.
Thanks for the review, Carolyn. I'd love to see one with higher-end equipment so people have a better idea of what kind of difference there is between budget and quality.
Funny, I turn off the sound completely most of the time. Spending that kind of money on headphones just seems ludicrous to me. I suppose some MMO is going to come along with good sound and music, but have not played on yet that has.
The world of headphones needs more critical reviewers who are willing to specifically point out weak points in what's being offering on the market, and there's far too much stuff being offering these days that's nothing more than dross wrapped in pretty colours. And failing on the most basic level - listening fatigue and soundstage? That should be priority number one for any "gaming" headset, not an afterthought.
One thing I would have liked to see more info on is the quality of the microphone - while even the best mic can be ruined by the subsequent audio processing/Vent server/end-listener's hardware/etc, it's nice to be able to start with a good source when you're trying to tell people something.
Looking forward to more reviews from you, thanks!
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs: That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Reviewer, you forgot to mention what soundcard you used for the review. I have found the soundcard makes a huge difference. When I was listening to music or playing games with my built in VT2020 sound I was having a bad time getting good surround decoding on my headset and so much was missing even though it was technically working. About a week ago I got the Asus DX and the it blew me away with how my Xtatic 5.1 headset sounded with that card instead all of a sudden the sound was full and beautiful. Especially when using the Dolby Digital live setting through the optical. When I used the PCM output through the optical it was not so good except if enabling Dolby headphone setting in Asus audio center program. So a bit more technical explanations would be nice for others in the next review so they might learn something. It did and does take a long time to get the right sound from different headphone soundcard settings.
Personaly, there hasnt been much of a change in general music production for the last 15 years you know. Most games have 96kbps - 192kbps tracks. This means Intergrated sound works great for processing that without trying to layer it with equalization and effects like most sound drivers do today.
The major difference between 2 headsets is their internal DAC and how their processing works.
If you want a decent test, hear the music from Quake 3 Arena with the sound drivers bypassing your sound card and working off the Headset Internal DAC for processing. Listen to the music through Foobar2K as Q3Arena had full Quality Wav tracks to what gaming technology allowed back then. You can also hear an 80s to early 90s music CD with its .wav ripped as a full wav track to your desktop and then analize the true performance of your headset and its ability to stand on its own. ^_^
Looks like a very nice headset, I bought a creative Fatal1ty HS-800 set a while back for half that price and after a year or so it's still working perfectly. I can't reccomend anything else, comfy earphones, detachable boom mic and it doesn't break after a few weeks!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
As for my take... I have read enormous amounts of info on hundreds of different headsets/headphones over the course of a year. I have been trying to find the 'best' pair to listen to music/movies and do gaming with on my PC. So far, the best reviews I've read (as in, not one single negative comment anywhere on the entire internet) come from Sennheiser HD 485.
Now Sennheiser makes a truck load amount of phones/sets and everything in between. Why only these specific ones get the best reviews, I may never know. But they are also the hardest to find. I've searched Ebay, to Newegg to everything there is. Not one person or company is selling them. That must tell you something. Not that they are outdated or are bad, but they are so good that no one will part with them. I want to get some but don't know of anyone on personal means that have them or tried them. I am as sceptic as they come, so I must usually need to have tested something myself or one of my close personal friends before I make a purchase. Word of mouth is always the best policy, because gamers in general wont lie about the things they are passionate about.
So does anyone have any Sennheiser HD 485 or has ever had or used or tested these specifically? Or name a model made by the company that 'took over' after the 485 were retired. I'd like to get something that will last daily (careful) use and not break do to random occurances. Such as a neighbor's visit and maxing the volume... In my current case, both of the headphones I've had recently were broken by my little brother... One he ripped the cord right out - beyond repair and the other he maxed the volume on a movie that had loud explosions and I believe he damaged the headphones, as now there is static on all Highs.
The now cordless one by the way offered something I have never seen/heard of since I got them. They are made by IceTech Group USA. They are 'Mega Bass' type. What that means is, they have 2 levels of bass they can produce using a slider on the volume control thing. The max setting makes the bass thump very deep and also the headphones then Vibrate, or THUMP on your head. It is a unique experience to say the least. As you can really FEEL the bass. I got these for $15 or so at a local Big Lots. Sadly, I've never found them again. I wanted to invest in like 10 of them lol. They do tend to eat batteries pretty fast, if you don't get the GOOD kind of batteries. Anyway, my current headphones are by Sentry, HO800 Wireless. They are hard, uncomfortable, and hurt like heck after 4 hours. They have practically no bass at all, and now have distorted highs as aforementioned.
Anyway, I am now looking for some good bass type headphones that don't suck or cost a fortune. I generally am not looking to put more than $70 maximum toward headphones. So if anyone has any info on the Sennheiser HD 485, please let us all know.
Comments
That was a damned good review.
The price on these aren't so hot either. I nabbed the ABS AZ-1 (link) for $30 when they were on sale, and they're going for about $50 at the moment. They're not a great headset but they seem better than these Tritton phones as I don't have a problem determining direction in 5.1 surround sound.
I'd like to get a better pair of head phones though, so this review was quite helpful.
I am happy with my Gamecon Plantronics headphones I bought from Walmart online for $25. No reason at all to be spending $50-$200 for a pair of headphones. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Plantronics-GameCom-367-Closed-Ear-Gaming-Headset/11050044
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Carolyn,
This article is well done, but left me wanting more. After reading this, I wanted to take my existing headphones and chuck them. I would really be interested in seeing some side by side comparisons, or your version of a buying guide based on price. As soon as you talked about listening fatigue I knew right away what you were talking about because I can only go for so long before I have to take these monsters off... I'd like a pair of headphones that I can game with, and listen to music with when I'm not gaming, but not greater than $500 U.S. I've always wished Bose made gaming headphones.
Anyway, nice job on the review, easy to understand, credible.... I'd buy what you recommend.
Carolyn,
What other type of headphones do you test out? I'm wondering if you've got your hands//ears on any Skullcandys. I've also been waiting on a professional response on them.
Yeah great article i wouldnt pay more than 40 for a headset for yuor very lucky to get 6 months use if your a everyday user of them i go threw headsets like crazy and i tried a lot of difrent brands soem good some bad some last longer some dont dont waste yuor money on high end ones they do not tend to last past 6 months if they do your lucky i use mine like crazy and they seem to last 6 months on the dot
Awesome review Carol, would the MMO staff PLEASE let this woman do more reviews on PC hardware used for gaming?!
Current MMO: Aion
MMO Watch: Warhammer 40k Online, SWToR, GW2.
Played: Planetside, SWG, EQ, EQ2, L2, WoW, RFO, KAL, MxO, Voyage, RO,Vanguard,Tabula Rasa, Horizons, CoH/CoV,, Lotro, FFXI
First MMO: Everquest (Tunare Server, Ronin/Tide Guild)
I am not after any headphones currently but if I was I would want her to review them! We need more gaming peripherals articles and this woman is a safe bet for anything audio.
What do you think of Beyerdynamic?
Sadly when i saw this review, it was pretty much exactly what i was expecting. Overall a good headphone, but with horrible sound quality. I honestly think most of these companies just assume gamers are idiots with fat wallets who buy stuff "cus it looks ub3r l33t !!!" and don't actually research their purchases like most consumers.
I've had a bunch of crap headsets (MS, Logitech, Plantronics, etc) until i found out that Sennheiser actually made pc headsets, and not just PC, but PC Gaming headsets. I own a set of the PC165's, and my roomey has the PC350's. Both are great in different ways, especially if you do or don't like circumaural's. The price is a little high for most gamers wallets, but they're sturdy, comfortable, and most importantly, fantastic sounding.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Woah, awesome. Could we please have more technical hardware reviews here? Hey, Jon, that could bring new people to the website. When folks are shopping for computer stuff they'll often google for reviews. I know I have looked over and over for good headset reviews and found little to nothing useful.
Carolyn, maybe you would be interested in doing part 2 with some other headsets? Razer headsets are popular, so are the plantronics Gamecom series (cause they are so cheap). I also have heard great things about the Sound Blaster Arena headset.. thats currently the one I have my eyes on. I am curious to see how they stack up to your thorough testing.
Awesome review Carolyn! I hope to see more reviews that are as objective and cut and dry as yours. It really is refreshing to have a reviewer that is not trying to appease and is willing to tell it like it is! Perhaps next you can review some of the Plantronic headsets, such as the GameCom 777.
Incanus Prime - Artifact Creature - +5/+5 to all Autobots and Ents.
I, too, am interested in hear your opinion on the Plantronics headsets. I've had two of them so far (ripped the cables out of the first set), and I have no complaints as to their quality or longevity. Awesome headset, especially when you factor in the cost of them.
I also had the Razer Carcharias for about 6 months, but then something shorted out in it I believe. Can't get a full range on it anymore without fiddling with the audio jack.
Fantastic review Carolyn! It's obvious you know what you're talking about and are very thorough. Your pros and cons are well put together to allow the reader to come to their own conclusion and you appear to be very fair in the review. I can't wait to see more reviews from you.
I'd love to see a piece covering preexisting headphones and which you recommend for each pricing tier. I'm also interested in which headphones you use for personal use.
Can't wait for more!!!
Very nice read ..
Good comparison's on usage, and interesting background technical stuff .....
Ended with a very reasonable conclusion.
Can we have some more please.
Interesting artical. Love to see more!
I use an Astro A30. Great sound, comfy . Also have a (cheap! ) but reasonably comfy with surprisingly good sound Logitech Clear Channel Pro ( $30ish) I use as a backup.
Guess I am in the minority hear. I have had the AX720s for over 6 months and absolutely love them lol. I never have a problem hearing people trying to sneak up on me in my FPS games, so the directional sound seems very nice to me. Overall I feel the $129.99 I spent on the head set was well worth it, but hey I own them already so I might be biased hehe.
No signature, I don't have a pen
Until you get higher end headphones/headset you think you aren't missing anything. WRONG. I can't even imagine going back to noname crap. Sennheiser ftw.
Well to me these are the highest end headphones I will ever want or need. So I guess thinking I would be missing anything would be WRONG lol. I'm not saying your comment was directed at me, I just felt the need to respond.
No signature, I don't have a pen
Really good headphones are worth the price investment (I have sennheiser, myself). Not only for the personal comfort, soundstage and reproduction, but for quality and return on investment. I've had my sennheisers for over eight years with nearly daily use of 2+ hours at a time (ranging from gaming to music to movies). In that same time I've had friends go through several headsets with varying reasons from comfort to upgrades to hardware failure.
Thanks for the review, Carolyn. I'd love to see one with higher-end equipment so people have a better idea of what kind of difference there is between budget and quality.
Funny, I turn off the sound completely most of the time. Spending that kind of money on headphones just seems ludicrous to me. I suppose some MMO is going to come along with good sound and music, but have not played on yet that has.
Good read.
The world of headphones needs more critical reviewers who are willing to specifically point out weak points in what's being offering on the market, and there's far too much stuff being offering these days that's nothing more than dross wrapped in pretty colours. And failing on the most basic level - listening fatigue and soundstage? That should be priority number one for any "gaming" headset, not an afterthought.
One thing I would have liked to see more info on is the quality of the microphone - while even the best mic can be ruined by the subsequent audio processing/Vent server/end-listener's hardware/etc, it's nice to be able to start with a good source when you're trying to tell people something.
Looking forward to more reviews from you, thanks!
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Reviewer, you forgot to mention what soundcard you used for the review. I have found the soundcard makes a huge difference. When I was listening to music or playing games with my built in VT2020 sound I was having a bad time getting good surround decoding on my headset and so much was missing even though it was technically working. About a week ago I got the Asus DX and the it blew me away with how my Xtatic 5.1 headset sounded with that card instead all of a sudden the sound was full and beautiful. Especially when using the Dolby Digital live setting through the optical. When I used the PCM output through the optical it was not so good except if enabling Dolby headphone setting in Asus audio center program. So a bit more technical explanations would be nice for others in the next review so they might learn something. It did and does take a long time to get the right sound from different headphone soundcard settings.
Personaly, there hasnt been much of a change in general music production for the last 15 years you know. Most games have 96kbps - 192kbps tracks. This means Intergrated sound works great for processing that without trying to layer it with equalization and effects like most sound drivers do today.
The major difference between 2 headsets is their internal DAC and how their processing works.
If you want a decent test, hear the music from Quake 3 Arena with the sound drivers bypassing your sound card and working off the Headset Internal DAC for processing. Listen to the music through Foobar2K as Q3Arena had full Quality Wav tracks to what gaming technology allowed back then. You can also hear an 80s to early 90s music CD with its .wav ripped as a full wav track to your desktop and then analize the true performance of your headset and its ability to stand on its own. ^_^
Looks like a very nice headset, I bought a creative Fatal1ty HS-800 set a while back for half that price and after a year or so it's still working perfectly. I can't reccomend anything else, comfy earphones, detachable boom mic and it doesn't break after a few weeks!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
As for my take... I have read enormous amounts of info on hundreds of different headsets/headphones over the course of a year. I have been trying to find the 'best' pair to listen to music/movies and do gaming with on my PC. So far, the best reviews I've read (as in, not one single negative comment anywhere on the entire internet) come from Sennheiser HD 485.
Now Sennheiser makes a truck load amount of phones/sets and everything in between. Why only these specific ones get the best reviews, I may never know. But they are also the hardest to find. I've searched Ebay, to Newegg to everything there is. Not one person or company is selling them. That must tell you something. Not that they are outdated or are bad, but they are so good that no one will part with them. I want to get some but don't know of anyone on personal means that have them or tried them. I am as sceptic as they come, so I must usually need to have tested something myself or one of my close personal friends before I make a purchase. Word of mouth is always the best policy, because gamers in general wont lie about the things they are passionate about.
So does anyone have any Sennheiser HD 485 or has ever had or used or tested these specifically? Or name a model made by the company that 'took over' after the 485 were retired. I'd like to get something that will last daily (careful) use and not break do to random occurances. Such as a neighbor's visit and maxing the volume... In my current case, both of the headphones I've had recently were broken by my little brother... One he ripped the cord right out - beyond repair and the other he maxed the volume on a movie that had loud explosions and I believe he damaged the headphones, as now there is static on all Highs.
The now cordless one by the way offered something I have never seen/heard of since I got them. They are made by IceTech Group USA. They are 'Mega Bass' type. What that means is, they have 2 levels of bass they can produce using a slider on the volume control thing. The max setting makes the bass thump very deep and also the headphones then Vibrate, or THUMP on your head. It is a unique experience to say the least. As you can really FEEL the bass. I got these for $15 or so at a local Big Lots. Sadly, I've never found them again. I wanted to invest in like 10 of them lol. They do tend to eat batteries pretty fast, if you don't get the GOOD kind of batteries. Anyway, my current headphones are by Sentry, HO800 Wireless. They are hard, uncomfortable, and hurt like heck after 4 hours. They have practically no bass at all, and now have distorted highs as aforementioned.
Anyway, I am now looking for some good bass type headphones that don't suck or cost a fortune. I generally am not looking to put more than $70 maximum toward headphones. So if anyone has any info on the Sennheiser HD 485, please let us all know.
Thanks
FOX