I recently purchased Audio Technica’s ATHM40x’s and Philips SHP9500’s for casual gaming/music/shows. First off, did I make a decent purchase? Are there any better for a similar price? I also would like to use a microphone with my headphones because I play with people most of the time and I am not able to find the VMODA BoomPro Microphone. I’m new to dac’s, amps, and decent headphones really, so any advice with this would be very helpful.
Hello welcome!
To be honest, I am going to take the generic response of only you can answer that question, especially if you are new. Don’t worry about receiving any confirmation. Plenty of people here come from different walks of life, priorities, and sound preferences. You’ll have your head spin so many times by just trying to get that confirmation.
I’d let your experiences speak for themselves. Try them for a week, see what you think. Why did you buy two headphones? With that being said, you can compare the two, see which you like better. Ultimately, you need to find for your own preferences too.
Do you prefer a lot of detail retrieval? Sound stage? Presentation? Timbre? Bass? etc etc.
Best of luck on your journey.
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In regards to mics for casual gaming, I liked ModMic for quite a while, but they can get up there in price. Eventually, I switched to a Samson Q2U by mounting it to the side of my desk. It is much clearer, but not as portable, obviously.
Thanks for the response. I bought two headphones to test open back vs closed back and everything in-between. Mics are what I was really looking for and I’ll look into your recommendation.
Only you can really answer this question really… as it boils completely down to you and your own preferences in sound. M40x is quite nice for a closed back once you swap the pads and a great cheap option as a portable multi use headphone. SHP9500 provided you bought it cheap enough is definitely worth it but is extremely entry level. Post modification to the shp9500 gives it the ability to change it’s signature to a good degree depending on the pads which gives you a bit more versatility and experience with different pads with their comforts and how they react to sound.
SHP9500 can be bought for $50. So, in my opinion? No. for that one. M40x can be bought for $70 so for that amount while subjective I would say potentially no. However, these are extremely subjective as there’s a lot of headphones to consider.
I suppose it will depend on where you live but finding the V-moda Boom Pro Microphone shouldn’t really be difficult. Modmics will be more expensive but they will work on any headphone. Go with USB or Wireless for modmics as the Uni runs quite a lot more sensitive and isn’t as good in my opinion.
Doesn’t really sound like you need a dac or amp at this point in time. Once you upgrade past the absolute bare bones of impedance then you may want to look into that.
+1 especially in this hobby, everything is extremely opinion based and full on subjective. There’s no definitive “perfect” solution or answer.
again +1 and the other mic I would suggest as well. Great budget option as a dynamic boom mic for the desk while also being USB and XLR. Great for someone who needs to hold off on getting the audio interface for now.