Hello, I’m new to this hobby and don’t know anything about non-gaming headphones.
For the majority of my life I used gaming headsets, like the Arctis Pro from SteelSeries, until they broke due to bad plastic quality…
Now, because I care more about sound quality (I started to listen to music a lot recently) I want to buy headphones with the best sound quality for 200-$300. I’m still playing games actively and they have to be ok for that purpose as well. Wired headphones are preferred, I don’t own a DAC and my motherboard sound card is terrible… Do I have to buy one to get nice sound on these headphones?
Any advice is greatly appreciated, because I’m really lost in the world where I can choose from so many products from different producers I don’t know.
I currently think about the Bayerdynamics Tygr 300 r without the FOX mic, I’d buy a modmic or a blue yeti mic + the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter… Is that a good idea?
this seems a like a good start. you don’t really need anything too powerful to drive them the apple dongle dac should be fine for now and really hard to beat it at $10 if thats al you can afford. but I wouldn’t get ayeti personally it’s a prettty sub par piece of kit. and the snowball IMO sounds better. but I would also point you towards dynamic usb mics cheaper than a yeti and for most use cases will sound better than a condenser especially if your room is not treated or you run a mechanical keyboard. EXamples of mics are the samson q2u or the ath 2005.
Thanks for the answer, I thought about buying the Samson q2u as well. Would you buy an AMP or/and DAC (instead of the Apple adapter) for that setup, because they’re quite expensive at ~100$ and I don’t know if it would make a difference. I had a DAC from the Steelseries Arctis Pro headset and they sounded better with it.
depends on the headphone really, but if it’s really that bad like some I have seen… yes you will need an amp and dac.
well it depends, casual gaming isn’t so limiting like FPS competitives are… pretty much just depends on what kind of sound signature you prefer when you play games or listen to your own music
Have not been able to confirm if the Apple USB-C adapter works to power the tygr 300r properly, take this method with a grain of salt… make sure you have return policies in place just incase. As for the tygr, it’s a warm kind of signature with touches of treble. Very good well rounded set of cans and a great choice
Respectively disagreed, snowball is sensitive as hell as it is and they sound pretty close to even. If your in a soundproof room then sure snowball it.
It’s all about what your satisfied with personally. For just comp gaming the apple dongle dac will do me fine. I could spend a bit more Ona Meizu hifi pro or a creative dongle dac. But the apple dongle dac ain’t too far away. You will get better results using better gear but if you can’t afford it the apple dongle dac or even the dac for the arctis pro will do fine till you feel it’s time to move on to something better
The Ona Meizu hifi isn’t available in my country sadly (Germany). Do you have any other suggestions in the DAC category below 100$? Maybe I should just buy a different soundcard?
Thank’s for the detailed answer! You seem to know much about mics… and I’m not sure what I should buy, because I need a mic only for discord calls and multiplayer gaming, not studio-level audio recording. Isn’t a mic like the Blue Yeti a bit of an overkill? If yes, could you maybe suggest some budget options that fit my needs?
Should be able to get them loud enough. The tygr isn’t super hard to drive but does benefit from power. The apple dongle dac sounds good enough for $10. It’s an easy recc just cause its the “good enough” category it sounds good and has a bit of power and should theoretically be enough for the easy to drive tygr. For reference I drive 58x’s on my apple dongle dac when I’m too lazy to get out of bed to get in front off my stack
For a $100 for the tygr. Most things should be able to drive the headphone. The fiio k3 should be enough. Depending on the price I’m tempted to point you towards the creative sound blaster x6 not because of the gimmicks but more so it just being imo a better unit than the k3 due to having some decent features like having more power than the k3. Whether or not it beats the k3 in sound is highly debatable. But like I said an apple dongle dac will be enough for the most part . But it won’t really get you there 100% in regards to getting the most of the tygr’s. A sound blaster x6 having more power to play with does open you up to more options like the DT 880 or990 250 ohm.
Yes for the use case a blue yeti will be overkill. Why I suggested the much cheaper imo better sounding Samson Q2u, ath2005, and I believe thinnman has a usb mic as well. I remember @MazeFrame mentioning the budget usb mic in the past from thonman
Marantz Pod Pack 1 comes to mind.
Problem with that comes from the fact of it being a large diaphragm condenser, so it will pick up a lot of room sound.
For communication use, it should be alright though.
No personal experience with the following, should do better for untreated room/desk use:
If mic was part of OP’s budget id have to recommend the antlion modmic uni + usb DAC for 55$
I also own a blue yeti which sounds much better and with a sound gate works perfectly but for price and versatility it’s hard to beat.
Modmic usb would be another option.
I use the antlion dac for mic only and atom stack for headphone using voicemeeter to route everything for games / voice chat