For once Crin’s on point?..
Kinda. I want to make it very very clear that Crin, DMS, Resolve, and Zeos are all casuals. As someone that’s completed in FPS tournaments, audio is easily the biggest advantage you can have over someone. It’s not going to matter to casuals, but I seriously doubt any of those guys have any real accomplishments or skills at a high level in any games where audio would matter. I routinely get kills through walls (probably around 20-30% of my kills depending on the game) without ever seeing the enemy. Haven’t good gaming audio won’t turn a casual into a pub stomper, but it can significantly improve your awareness in situations. You couldn’t pay me to use HD800s in a tournament, they aren’t accurate for distance whatsoever and they still get congested in explosion heavy fights. They are by no means in my top 10 gaming headphones. If you have the skills to use all the information that audio gives you, great audio is significantly better than getting a high end mouse. It’s like having high refresh rate, if you’re too slow or unaware to use it, it isn’t going to benefit you. You could put all 4 of the reviewers I mentioned against me in call of duty and I’ll beat them 1v4 every single game.
What would be your top 10 gaming headphones? Just curious
Not in the market myself, eliminated early in competitive tournaments and lost my chance to go pro years ago, I’m past the point of a comeback redemption. I would use deep inserting IEMs, and that worked for me. Not sure if that was for the best, but it gave me just enough info to hear a sound from a general direction. Volume = distance, the specific sound of the footstep let me know what material the person was walking/running on, add map knowledge, might as well give me wall hacks
lol I am not even gonna get into this one again. As someone who competed in a ridiculous amount of tournaments and still goes these days off and on I am going to agree to this on a certain format… Audio will matter to casuals if you just enjoy sound not so much the requirement of imaging, soundstage, etc though. I would definitely say in mine… hearing the enemy is roughly maybe 40% for me depending on the game definitely higher for games like Tarkov. Going to have to agree with the 800s though as well here… it is by no means the “top dog” in many ways especially depending on the game you are playing… it has a wide amount of issues and I struggle like all hell to make use of it in any smaller fps with consistent heated gunfights.
There’s quite the amount to to the suggestions here and it of course will vary person to person since sound is heard differently for everyone and is also an extremely subjective hobby. While he isn’t wrong particularly on his recommendations… when you sit there and say, “this is the best headphone within this budget” I will just call bs even if your suggestion is one of the better options as there is no “best” and purely based on subjective and what fits for that particular person to perform well. You should prioritize comfort and ease of use first… followed by your sound performances as well
Top of that if were going by competitive standard, lets be clear that you do not ever use an open back headphone for competitive practice as this shoots yourself in the foot making you accustomed to a wider sound profile… you want to use a closed back or IEMS for this purpose