Hi there! New to the site and audiophile stuff. As the title suggests I am trying to find the most ideal set of cans for my setup. I have tried quite the many headsets labelled in the “gamer” category and none of them, except maybe the steel series arctis pro + gamedac and hyperx orbit, really fit the bill. I came to find that I prefer open backs for starters and went out to try and find a more ideal sound. Recently, I tried the Beyerdynamic dt990 pro 250ohm and the Hifiman 400i and while I like them both I feel that the 400i seems… I guess the proper description would be to aggressive especially on the mids and snares while the dt990 250 ohm has a fantastic sound and I find great in gaming I noticed, at least to my taste in sound, it is very weak or docile in some key areas. Mind you I have been told that using a liquid spark amp can help the dt990s smooth out a bit more and help with the highs and treble but I feel the low end and mid are a bit lacking for my taste more so the mid line. Mind you I am not just into competitive gaming but I play immersive single players as well as listen to a lot of music primarily in the Rock, Electronic, and Alternative genres. I tend to rely on the 990s cause I just prefer their sound and it seems like that prefer the more “bright” side of sound. I am by no means an expert on this as like I said I am new but I began to try searching for perhaps a fix to the sound and also considered the 600 ohm dt990s or even a further upgrade down the road to the dt1990s. I definitely could use some advice on all of it as it’s pretty confusing for a newcomer to the audiophile world especially when you add gaming capability to the mix. I tried Planars as I liked their sound but while I had the hifiman suggested to me as a brand it just didn’t work out. I have the other very popular gaming headset on order to try out too which is the Sennheiser 58x as I have never tried a more flat style headphone like that and have heard great things. Look forward to speaking with everyone and hopefully I can find what I am looking for. Thanks all and I know it was a long read!
I would not call the 58x a gaming headset at all… Good headphone for music and a amp at least for me helped it…Not a particularly large sound stage. Great mids for sure. What kind of sound are you looking for and what kind of budget are we talking here. These are the questions that need to be answered first.
Sure, around the $350 would be ideal that’s excluding a price of an amp or a microphone as I can worry about that seperately. I tend to gravitate more towards “bright” sounding headphones. I really enjoyed the sound of the planar but they just didn’t quite fit and I really like the sound that the beyerdynamic headphones can provide. I need something that has great imaging and large sound stage nothing to extreme but good enough for gaming. since I play competitive fps as ya know footsteps and overall sound placement is important so a player can pinpoint the location it’s coming from. At the same time I like a good deep bass as I like to listen to rock and when I hear gunfire or explosions go off I prefer a good thump to them if that helps. I tried the 990s out of a previous recommendation and they are very close to what I am looking for they just aren’t quite there yet. The recessed mids feel a little lacking to me and the lows arent as sharp as I like while the treble is an extreme and could really use some tweaking… overall the highs are good though. As for the bass… I feel the 990s have a great bass but it just isnt deep especially not compared to the hifiman I had tried which just seemed better for rock music but not as good for gaming purposes.
From what I read here a lot then The Beyerdynamic 880 600ohm would be the recommendation… I am not that type of gamer as I sim race instead. But it is the most common set I hear tossed around. Do you have access to Amazon ?
I do have access to amazon. I was considering the higher ohm 990s with a liquid spark amp as a replacement for my 250 ohm with focusrite scarlett solo as I read this may help a lot. I thought the 990s were a direct upgrade to the 880 so whats the difference?
I do not own them and do not have specific knowledge of them . But everytime I read a post here about gaming and good headphones for it then this is the “one” that is suggested. I am sorry I am not much help but believe me someone with more knowledge of them will chime in any minute.
the problem with the 880 compared to the 990 is you lose out ton the midbass and treble bump the 990’s offer. best thing I can really reccomend right now is to try out the 600 ohm or grab an amp for now as a good power source should bring more control to the 990 pro and with a warm amp like the magni 3+
or the liquid spark the mids may improve much more.
well… thought I was helping… I will shutup now…
I agree with rice here, from what it sounds like you do like the 990, so I would wait for your liquid spark and see what you think. From there on, it might be worth it to grab the 600 ohm and get another bump in performance imo
well the lows and highs arent to much of the issue. It’s more the recessed mids… so the liquid spark and 600 ohm will tweak that then?
Without an amp, you can have issues with a recessed midrange
to quote myself earlier, I have the dt 990s hooked up to a focusrite scarlett solo gen 3 currently.
its a possibility that the it very well may help as a more refined or controlled bass that a higher impedance and proper amping can introduce better mid performance. if you just want that little bit more out of the mids
The focusrite is a very weak amp, only slightly better than motherboard audio in terms of power and drive
Would the blon b20 be good? it has a lot of treble. its still on sale 6 more hours lol
I realized that insanely quick as it definitely doesn’t amplify enough. I did order an ma400 but it has yet to come in. Perhaps I should cancel that and directly order a liquid spark.
I would def prefer the spark to the ma400 imo
The problem I have with drop is the overall return policy. They don’t do returns if you open the box it has to be new and unusued condition. So testing a headphone from them is complicated. Less they fixed that or theres a way around that I am unaware of. I do like the sound that planars manage to push out but none of the planars I had quite fit the bill… The only one i seen with a proper V signature like the dt990s was aeon open x and thats way beyond my price range. @Antpage2
not great for gaming unfortumntately the sendy clones tend to lean on too much agression. the sundara or edition XX would be a better direction if OP wanted a Planar as they hence a wider sound and IMO just overall better for gaming due to that wider soundstage
pretty sure sundara and xx are more of a balanced sound too… Not quite sure how they would perform in gaming. If i recall the XX is outside my price range and sundara is like the 400i and 4xx just slightly upgraded correct me if im wrong on that. When I tried the 400i compared to the 990s I was able to easily pinpoint sounds with the 990s midgame with atleast 3x more accuracy while the 400i overall gunshots were just simply immersive… I would say good for single player not good for competitive.