Hello, I’m looking for new headphones, right now I’m using Logitech G935 wireless headphones, but I want to upgrade to open headphones for gaming, sine I’ve heard that they are both better for surround sound and music. I’m not a competitive gamer so accurate sounds are not that important to me, looking more to immerse myself into the game, my budget would be around 200-300 euros, I am willing to buy amps and dacs as well, thank you for your time and feedback.
P.S. I’m from Lithuania, but can ship from UK if need be.
So what kind of sound would you be looking for in your headphones? Some people have quite the preference… by this I mean things such as do you really like vocals? Basshead? You like cymbals and electronic sounds?
You mention music, what genres would you say you listen to the most?
You do mention your budget, is this seperate from an amp/dac purchase or all together with the headphone?
Lastly, do you prefer a wide open sound experience since your wanting an open back or would you prefer a closer intimate environment of sound? This is more along the lines of your soundstage.
Would recommend the Audio-Technica ATH-WS1100iS / 770iS, semi open-back headphones, with very good imaging. NO AMP is needed but would recommend up the fancy factor a bit. Very good for Music and Games if you are feeling for more of a punch in the drums and a rumble in the head, then a pad-swap would be nice. The 1100iS is a better choice because of the detachable cable and slightly better comfort but both sound great. And it is pretty cute ngl.
The BASS that is plastered all over the box is a bit misleading since it is not overpowering, it is just there… But is more or less present when you switch through different types of earpads
I can describe them as slightly warm, a bit open (sound LEAKS) smooth and punchy, not aggressive on the treble but can still kill you if overdone or if the bass hasn’t done that yet. It handles Amps pretty well and vocals are not very bright but warmer on them. Overall they are pretty amazing out of the box.
I tried that one… it was alright… it had slight bleed and quite a bit on the bloom, mids sounded a bit thin, and the highs sounded a little off to me and lacking in detail. Overall it seemed they completely prioritized the bass for the tuning as the mids didn’t have a lot of accuracy to them either. It’s definitely a bass lovers headphone first and foremost and they are like $130 new so can be found for less… can’t really complain too much considering it’s ampless(depends completely on the motherboard, phone, or whatever source your plugging into… lacking power makes these rather bass lite) and the price tag isn’t bad at all… Granted for close to that same price you can still get something like 58x jubilee, tygr 300r on sale, dt 880 250 ohm(ran off a cheap dongle dac), DT 770 80 ohm, among a bunch of others so it definitely has some competition. I think it will depend on just how much of a bass lover he is in that regard.
I do like to hear every single instrument played, but not overshadow the vocals, I mainly listen to Metal, everything from Nu-Metal to Death Metal, the budget, I’d say I’d just for the headphones would be 200 max and everything else for amp/dac and lastly I do prefer a closer intimate environment of sound.
I really like listening to metal on my monoprice retro’s + brainwaves pads. Not the most “precise” headphones, but very fun. And plenty accurate for the price of 50ish$ total. A lot of Metal music is not recorded well.
A lot of metal is recorded with the vocals not emphasized. If you want to hear the vocals better, I would look for headphones that emphasize vocals.
If you can wait and save more, I think something from sennheizer’s hd600 series would be up your alley.
If you can find them used, the hd58x or hd6xx, are great options. Unfortunately Drop does not ship to the EU anymore.
AudioTechnica ATH-AD700x might work for you.
Problem is the “headband” beind two flaps and the cups not articulating up and down. Unless they are somehow extremely different from my AD500x, they don’t have much in terms of bass.
I like my AKG K-712 for gaming a bit less, are awesome for movies and music though. They benefit from an Amp, is not super critical though.
I mean, fidelio x2hr is a thing with quite a bit of bass… it’s nice and quite cheap granted the bass is slightly muddy. There really isn’t a whole lot of bass lover headphones when I think about it till you start really getting up there in price, well… none that sound properly tuned as a lot of them are muddy or way over emphasized. Tygr 300r would be another that’s alright for casual no issues on the bass.
Honestly the big boys are from Fostex when it comes to bass lovers with every now and then another company coming out with a heavy bass headphone.
Hmm, maybe nighthawk Carbon if you can actually find one… they are discontinued but a rather unique headphone… quite bassy… dark treble but really good mids.
The big one for you in the bass department if you can get one would definitely have to be the Argons from Modhouse. It’s a mod of the T50RP but you may be able to swing getting one from someone out of the UK or your own location they do float around. Probably the only headphone in up to $300 with that much low end without terrible tuning. Pads will matter big time on this headphone though so keep that in mind… the pads will alter the signature to varying degrees.
If your looking for vocals though, not gonna find many bassy vocal headphones unfortunately. Sennheiser is great for vocals but they are very neutral all the way around in sound, beyerdynamic has the DT 880 but this is rather bright and needs something like a pad swap to really bump up that bass, audio technica and akg do have mid centric headphones but they have heavy recessed low end outside of maybe K712 or K7xx from AKG to my knowledge of their lineup, most of the other brands that come to mind are outside of the budget
9500 is rather bass light, next to no head clamp and can slide depending on your head size, but can be modified though the modifications can drag the price up to around $150 depending on what you doing to it. You can pad swap them and get a rather nice amount of signatures out of it… but honestly I really only say they are worth it if you can snag one around $50 and mod them up.
X2HR is a warm signature, much more padding, more headclamp, not as light as the 9500, better pads, you can still pad swap them but it’s not so much needing ring adapters you just need them to fit over the big cups. can get it like $90
x2hr definitely has more bass than shp9500 less you swap 9500’s pads in which it becomes quite the warm headphone . Swapping the pads on the x2hr for more bass and it becomes completely uncontrolled and from my ear overwhelms the mids so it’s good out of the box just not so great for a pad swap in my opinion
just depends on what signature… I just use suedes for the heavier handed bass. Issue will be that you need the pad adapters… which is either a seperate purchase or you have to scrape off the original pads as they are glued on to the adapters
Should have reiterated a bit on that… that was included in the mod costs I mentioned above… the adapters are like $10 and just pop in place. still x2hr may work for you
If you don’t mind closed back headphones but with decent soundstage, clear as hell mic, comfortable ear pads and just overall good sounds not just for gaming, the Cooler Master MH751/2 are there for you to grab. I mean for that price I think it is already a steal, for me, it already has all of the features that I need from a so called gaming headset like that, even though it should be a studio headset (it is one for it is a rebranded Takstar Pro 82 and those are good as well.) and I am saying that because it is not your shitty “gaming” headsets with RGB on but only to sound like a trash can with electronics on it, in fact it is much higher up on the list to those who own one and I am one of those who own one.
