I recently bought the schiit magni and modi stack as a form of audio upgrade but my current headset broke and I wanted to upgrade after seeing a lot of audiophile videos on youtube. Main use would be for fps gaming (CSGO and warzone) with a few other types of games now and then along with music. I primarily want headphones that are good for directional audio so I can hear footsteps clearly but I don’t want the rest of the audio to sound garbage. If there are multiple recommendations then I’ll happily take note
Any recommendation I have in this case for explicitly competitive would be over on my competitive write up… while outdated its still extremely relevant. Would advise taking a look there but in this bracket if its explicitly gaming id say just grab one of the beyers dt 880 600 ohm or tygr 300r. You can find them used around $150 in mint condition or new at $200. Your magni can power the 600 ohm beyers just fine so no worries there.
Though you did mention music without mentioning what genres… so that has me a bit concerned… tygr is a warmer V shape and dt 880 is a more flexible neutral bright type signature. Tygr will have the better soundstage and imaging placements of the two and is also a bit lighter.
Feel free to check out the write up though, and if you have questions feel free to ask.
Sorry about that. I llisten to various types of genres but I’ll just throw rock and rap out there as main genres. When I tested them out for a few days I’m not sure if I didn’t set up the beyers right or whether I’m just use to sennheisers sound so it sounded a bit off and then one of the earcups seemed to be hurting the top of my ear as if it was squishing or touching the driver.
I certainly agree with @Falenkor. No surprise Beyerdynamic excellent choice. I’d probably recommend the Tygr’s I used to have a similar stack as @Dimey I never felt I ever got 100% out of those DT 880 600ohms. You’ll be easily able to power the Tygr’s with great results.
Make no doubt the DT 880 600ohm is very special but really needs a more power unless you’re looking to upgrade to a darkvoice 336se [OTL Tube amp(more ohms more power this amp delivers)]. I don’t know how competitve it would be for gaming but it is one of the cheapest ways to get between 500 and 600mw to 600ohm’s cheaply. [For music sounds amazing too] I feel this suggestion may be going off the deep end.
The magni has enough power to drive them well. There’s no headphone I’ve experienced that sounds as ‘open’ as the Sundara. Base slams, treble is clear, soundprofile is fairly neutral. The build on the 2020 models is way better than it used to be (minus the scratching issue but hey ho who cares).
As someone who loves competitive CSGO and OW these were a perfect set for me. Wide, open, clear, detailed, fast and great imaging!
Sennheisers sound very different to the beyers so it’s possible. If the pads were worn down this could lead to that comfort problem but you can get thick pads for them if needed through dekoni. Sennheisers would be fine if your okay with narrow staging you’d be looking at 660s and focal elex
I see sundara mentioned it’s another good one for sure provided you can get it without qc issues.
I will not say what you should or should not get. But I can tell you that I have been using the Sennheiser HD598 for over 6 years as my main gaming headphones. Interestingly enough, I have seen absolutely no wear on it… well, I kind of “screwed up” only one part on the ear-pads when I used a very hard brush to clean the dust off. But other than that, that thing is as good as new if you ask me.
It has its limitations when it comes to using it for music listening, but I have not found any other headphone that fits my needs for gaming as much as that one. I think that the warmer characteristic is greatly appealing since gunshots tend to be quite harsh, and quite easily you can damage your hearing with a set of cans that are particularly bright.
As you mentioned you played csgo I ended up ordering the Sundara but of course a UK website had issues with the supplier and took the money but decided to not even bother giving an estimated date. I’m still going to try getting some sundara’s but never again from that one particular website. Really hope they are worth the effort of finding them here lol
As long as you get a good working copy of sundara, please do check this headphone when you obtain it… wiring and everything as there is a lot of potential quality issues from this company, you should be fine… Sundara is very well loved as a headphone and is damn good on sound quality as a brighter planar…
for me as far as sundara is concerned, I dislike the lacking bass though this is fixable through a few methods, the pads felt a bit scratchy to me and there really isn’t a good alternative here without completely destroying the sound signature, and the build quality / quality control leaves much to be desired. Outside of that everything was fine… weight was fine, sound was exceptional, gaming was extremely good especially in terms of sound placements of competitive gaming. It was primarily casual gaming where it lacked mainly due to the lacking bass… it definitely could use an Equalizer bump. Do keep in mind though Sundaras are power demanding… they do take some juice even more so if your going to use EQ
Honestly the quality control issues are scaring the poop out of me. Didn’t realise they were that bad to be honest and that’s probably because of my lack of research. Just desperately trying to find a pair that’s not the dt 880’s as the sound seemed a bit off and for some reason one earcup was hurting my ear even though they were brand new. Wondering if they gave me a sketchy pair or if my ears are somewhat deformed lol
k702 is better due to less warmth and a bit more analytical. k712 is the more balanced warmer alternative… it works fine but it has some imaging inaccuracies that are noticeable depending on the game. Regardless, its a solid option especially for someone with a large ear size as its really lightweight with large ear cups made of velour and breaths well enough for gamers to use comfortably. K702 is one of the old recommendations for gamers from a few years back and still is plenty usable alongside k712 and k7xx
This might be dumb but what would you recommend in regards to the advanced audio tab on windows as in 12/16 bit and hz for either of the akg’s or both if they are the same in that aspect? I’d be using them through the schiit modi and magni stack
leave it standard 24 bit i believe it was 44k hz. Games don’t gain much if anything with higher bit rates you gain changes mainly from higher bit rate when listening to lossless / flac music files.
I ended up getting the k712 pro’s and for gaming, they were a much better option than the dt 880’s for me. Gunshots aren’t weird and painful sounding like on the beyer’s. I appreciate the help so thank you.
Sorry to be a pain yet again but are you aware of any good quality replacement earpads for the akg’s? I seem to have some weird ears as the right is fine but the top of the left ear seems to touch the driver and makes it uncomfortable on one side