First of all I want to say that I’m a beginner and just started learning thing or two about audio equipment thus I need help finding headphones for fps gaming, specifically Hunt: Showdown (a first person shooter which is practically designed to play around sound clues triggering around you).
Years ago I fell into a trap buying 7.1 surround sound Siberia v2 gaming headset when I was playing competitive CS, and couldn’t be more wrong about gaming headsets. When it broke on me, I bought HyperX Cloud stinger because I just didn’t want to spend much money on gaming headsets and also I didn’t feel the quality that I should be getting for price when I bought Siberia years ago. Right now, I’m having trouble pinpointing footsteps around me, all I hear is a lot of background/ambient noise and I really need to stop moving and focus to hear players walking in proximity.
Anyways, what I need - a good set of cans:
List item closed back headphones, sometimes I can hear a TV going off in living room
List item not bass heavy, quality of explosions and gunshots is not important at all, just want to know the direction and hear players
List item if possible emphasis on treble, allowing me to hear footsteps more clearly
Also I don’t know if I would need dac/amp so you can maybe recommend me one to combo with headphones.
My budget is around 200$ but can go more if its worth it
Within your budget the best headphone that meets all your requirements without a doubt is the dt 770 250 ohm. It has really good seal so passive noise isolation. Impressively wide Soundstage for a entry level closed back, and has the great imaging characteristic of most beyer headphones that matter. It also has that treble emphasis your looking for. The bass is there but won’t be a distraction as it’s rather neutral just digs deep. It’s $160 right now. If you can stretch your budget a bit for a dac/amp the soundblaster g6 is really decent . Or you can use your motherboard as a dac and a $100 amp the magni3+ is my pick if you wanna keep the treble emphasis.Most here would reccomend the liquid spark as that amp is pretty magical for beyerdynamics but does color the sound adding more warmth and smoothing out the treble beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO: Closed studio headphones
Reality is most pro competitive gamers are using headphones like hyperx cloud II, which are cheap around $80. i personally use cloud alpha and they are really good. If best players in world are using those, it means they are good enough.
Look up your favorite player on this website and you can see gear they using.
This honestly hurts to read. Just because we use gaming headsets does by no means make them good enough. We use what we are given and stick to cheap trash as that’s what we have to deal with. Add that onto if you hit some kinda sponsor and your expected to use that stuff. Hyperx is decent… comparing that to a beyer? Hyperx gets maybe 10% of the performance depending on which headset with alpha being quite a bit better than the others. Steel series, hyperx mainly alpha and orbit, cooler master mh751 and 752, audeze penrose, and beyerdynamic mmx300 are what can be considered the top of the line headsets… of course pc38x is in there too now but it’s so bad for music and large scale fps it’s hardly what I consider passing…
Most pro gamers use what’s comfortable to them… many pros outside of the venues will he seen using other audio equipment such as ninja with his dt990.
The main thing to be wary of though is that using something better than the headsets market while planning to attend venues is that while the headphones such as dt 770 are massively better you cant use them in the tourneys so you wont be accustomed to the different sound profile and placements that comes with that which can lead you to playing rather poorly.
Other headsets such as the one shroud uses during streams, hyperx flight, are so bad for competitive as they are rumbling bass cannons…
If you dont plan to attend the big leagues… theres no harm in upgrading your audio to the best it can potentially get so you get the best experience from your games… it can definitely make things better or just more fun.
I would absolutely agree on this rice but hes more than likely going to need an amp… 770 is pretty ridiculous for soundstage and imaging for a closed back. I’ve used it in hunt it performs quite well albeit it does have some slight bass problems this can be fixed through simple eq… 770 is probably the best case on this price range
its not too difficult to power though for $50-60 a fx audio dac x6 is just enough its not the cleanest solution in the world but has the power required to run them pretty well
Honestly I’d say to see if he can snag one in mint off the used markets… you can find 770s at $100 which is pretty awesome… he can spend the leftover cash getting a proper amp to fully drive them.
I mean if the best players are using those gear, its proven that it works. Sure you can use more expensive one and claim its better, but like still the best players are using those “trash gaming headsets”. And if you look at the site or even watch shroud stream, he isnt using “hyperx flight”. Bro he is sponsored by logitech he is using the logitech g pro x that you also probably consider is “trash”. Your comment on shroud kinda hurts to read to tbh
Last I checked he still uses his flight I’ll check his twitch later it’s been a while. he uses the logitech for more competitive uses which as I said earlier flights a bassy headphone so it makes sense he’d switch
The best players use them for multiple reasons
Using better as mentioned earlier can gimp you hard during the big venues
Sponsorship deals… not uncommon really
Budget… why spend a few hundred on a full setup when you can just go grab a cheap headset… the ones in venues aren’t really that good to begin with so it makes sense to cut higher cans out
Familiarity. As gamers we get to hear all the time how “amazing” the headsets are with their bs claims left and right… we typically grow up with them as they are cheap and people usually stick with what they know works for them
Venues refusing to use higher grade equipment. This reasoning though is obvious… it’s cheaper to grab cheap aviation cans + iem or headsets .
Failure to really do their homework. This really isn’t a jab more along the lines of people just dont realize that headsets are just redone headphones… let’s take mh751 or hyperx clouds as example… these are just redone up variations of the takstar pro 82 they aren’t anything special.
Finally, let’s end this here. I’d rather not derail op thread… however here its common knowledge and acceptance that most the headsets are junk especially for music
OP wants advice on
1)“Close back headphones for COMPETITIVE advantage”
2) He plays FPS games like CS
3) Does not want to spend more than budget of $200 if possible.
4) Does not know if you need a dac/amp
recommend website that shows what CS pros are using, headsets like hyperx cloud II as evidence of what competitors are using
link to CS pros equipment
budget is $200, I am trying to show OP that no, he does not need to spend that much since everyone is using $100 headsets and he can save money if he wishes
People are using $100 headsets plugged into there computer, so no a dac/amp is not needed
I am simply answering his question in a concise manner and have a differing opinion.
Wow, thank you @Falenkor@RiceGuru !!
Also thanks @Blackrao, no offence but I’m not going to be satisfied with “If best players in world are using those, it means they are good enough”.
Falenkor, I’m not planning on playing tournaments, but I still have competitive mindset so that’s why Im here lol
Seems like DT 770s have everything that I was looking for in a headphones. Found ones for $130 in my country (brand new) so I still have some money to spare for a dac/amp to combo with.
Do you maybe have a recommendation for a dac/amp? I still have $70ish spare but it really isn’t a problem to stretch my budget since I’m not planning a upgrade anytime soon.
Also, Im gonna check out soundblaster g6 for now as RiceGuru recommended.
was going to say this same amp/dac combo unit honestly… as its like a gamers best friend early on for budget friendly builds… its capable of driving the 600 ohm beyers and tends to be rather cheap… while it doesn’t offer the best of the best sound qualities it gets the job done and makes a good entry level. It also has a built in equalizer on its software and if using a 3.5mm mic input it does come with voice morph as well as 7.1 dolby and scout mode… though it relies heavily on its software so its best if used on the pc.
of course, glad to help. Just keep in mind that 770s are as mentioned a bit on the bassier side… they are a V shape signature headphone… the mids will be a little pushed in the back and bass will be brought up. You can easily tinker with this if using g6 or you can grab the peace apo equalizer program(its free) and use that to fix the bass and mids if you wish…
The 770s sound like depression - all the bass and treble your ears can handle and 20% on top of that and a midrange that sounds like it’s under a pile of mud
depends entirely what 770 your on about the 250 ohm 770 can sound very good depending on the stack you put them on and eq very well if you are having issues with tuning. the 80 or 32 ohm on the other hand have issues. the 770 250 ohm bass is very neutral and only really wants to come out when it’s needed, has excellent bass extension, the high impedance makes it nice and tight. the mids are neutral nothing special but its a good enough midrange. the treble is more controlled than the lower impedance models . harsh to badly recorded tracks but for the price really hard to beat especially in the soundstage and imaging sector in respect to closed back heapdhones
only got that from the lower ohm variations… though if mids are your jam I can see you not liking the beyers like 770 and 990…
Overall the signature of the 770 is exceptionally well tuned provided its properly powered and only the mids I can see are blatantly lacking but this should be obvious considering how the headphones signature is… this is easily fixed through very minor EQ.
A lot of people try to run the beyers off of like… motherboards or some cheapo soundblaster like g3 or a usb sound card or something… which makes them sound just dreadful… beyers use older drivers… they are picky as they are power demanding… 250 ohm beyers do scale to some degree and 600 ohms scale to ridiculous lengths but there is no longer a 600 ohm 770 sadly…
considering you can grab a dt 770 at 250 ohms at a price tag of $100 minimum in mint condition? good luck actually finding a closed back with that much soundstage, imaging, and level of detail retrieval… if you find one hell I am all ears…
