I’m looking for a semi-budget setup for listening to music and gaming on my desktop computer. What I mean by semi-budget is that I’m thinking about getting the Monolith M1060’s while the Monolith 1070’s would be somewhat outside my price range. What I need the most help with is figuring out if I need an dac & amp combo and if I do, which one, as well as the best solution for a microphone. ModMic 4.0 type of a cheap desk microphone?
Long story short, what dac & amp combo (if any) and microphone would you recommend with Monolift M1060 for someone who’s mainly gaming and casually listening to music?
Hey and welcome nullity if you use the search icon there’s loads of gaming set up advice for casual, competitive, headphones types closed/open at different price points plus dac’s and amps etc
#MON please can you sort a dedicated gaming section? or a least ask Zeo’s or DMS to start one because we keep getting the same old, same old, same old questions
I personally would not recommend the m1060 imo, it’s not that great anymore and for that price you can get much better imo. What type of music do you listen to, and what games do you play. If you know what sound you like that helps too
The games I play are mainly FPS games, but mainly Escape From Tarkov. I’d like headphones that sit somewhere in the middle of the filthy casual and competitive gamer. I’d like to be able to locate the enemy while still enjoying the sounds of the game. For music, mainly different genres of rock and metal and I’m not a massive fan of amplified bass.
I’m perfectly open to getting other headphones as well, so any suggestions are more than welcome.
The hifiman sundara sounds up your alley then, it’s a super refined neutral bright signature with really good imaging and soundstage. You could get a fiio k5 pro as a dac/amp and be all set
Something else which actually I would say is a better setup for the money would be the dt880 600 ohm. It has a neutral bright signature with great imaging and soundstage for games and music, and is much more reasonably priced than the sundara.
Assuming it would be your first higher end audio setup, I think the 880 600 ohm would be better to start off with and go from there in the future (if you even wanted to upgrade after this)
Sorry I was going off of the original price of the m1060 lol, I forgot it got cheaper
I have been wondering since I watched an older vídeo from Zeos, where he said that he wouldn’t recommend the DT880 for gaming, since they were too “neutral” (https://youtu.be/63BxrNuXnYg?t=1582 unless “800’s” is another model). Do you know if that was when they were more expensive and therefore not worth it or just in general?
Another thing that that made me wonder was that are the DT880 more for the serious gamer who only relies on footsteps or are they good all around headphones for people like me, who plays FPS games and needs to hear footsteps, but still wants to be immersed in the gameworld?
880 is great for gaming I do think k ow what he is on about. The treble bump it has is great as well for footsteps. Really good all rounder for music and gaming. But if you want something more strictly for gaming the DT 990 is great really good dynamics for footsteps explosions and gunshots it has enough bass slam to give you an immersive experience and treble to highlight footsteps over explosions. For super serious competitive gamers you generally want something closer to the 880 neutral but with a bit of a bump in thee treble. I like to have fun though so I use the 990
Do you know how do they stack up against the Sundaras M0N suggested earlier? And do you know if the Sundaras are more for serious gamers, filthy casuals or somewhere inbetween?
The sundara actually preforms pretty well for both comp and fun gaming, it’s a good medium imo.
Not sure what he’s on about here since imo you want something slightly neutral bright for most games these days since lots use audio queues throughout the range, in the past you would mainly just want bright and narrow, but most games are more advanced these days and having good spatial recreation with an even signature is important imo
Totally agree with m0n and rice. The 880s are my primary gaming headphone, their spatial recreation is pretty unmatched especially for the price. The only really footstep type game i play is cod warzone and they have been really excellent for that both distinguishing close encounters and distant sound directions. I also quite enjoy them for music, really enjoyable sound (subjective of course). I’m not sure why zeos would say they are too neutral for gaming especially considering he praises the 660s for gaming which is also a neutralish headphone, I own both and would take the 880 every time for gaming. The only reasoning i could maybe think of is he’d prefer a stronger bass presence to recreate explosions and impact but imo the 880 doesn’t really slack in that department either. If that is a concern maybe the 990 riceguru suggested would be better
sundaras have better front and rear imaging is more pronounced as in easier to tell if a sound is coming behind you or not. and present things pretty wide but one thing I find beyers tend to have over the hifiman ggear is their ability to present sounds closer than the hifimans can providing a bigger range of play. their left and right imaging also is much more precise. I can do flicks much more precisely with a beyer headphone. but eeither one you go with it all comes down to familiarity of how aheadphone presents which comes with experience. Ive had my 990 the longest out of my headphones and I know very precisely how a beyerdynamic presents sound.
For comfort and sound the 990 600 ohms are the best stock. People seem to like the Khanna better than the stock pros I have yet to hear it so I can’t comment
Just to throw another suggestion out there. I have Sundaras, DT770, and Philips Fidelio X2HR. I prefer the X2HR for gaming. I can’t compare it to the DT880, since I haven’t heard it (although I’d like to try it).
I think I might be going with either DT880’s or DT990’s. They seem to be very popular with people, especially when it comes to gaming and they’re bit more reasonably priced than the Sundaras. What I’m still wondering is what are the main differences between all the variants: 880, 880 Pro, 990 and 990 Pro. As far as I found out, it seems that the Pro versions are 250 Ohms, while most people seem to suggest the 600 ohms when talking about the standard versions. So is it better to get the Pros or the 600 ohm versions?
Considering that I’m hoping to get the FiiO K5 Pro, and my preferences considering music/gaming (stated at the beginning of this thread), which of those would be preferable or what would each of those models offer in this case?
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, they’ve been very helpful.
if you use the search icon there’s loads of gaming set up advice for casual, competitive, headphones types closed/open at different price points plus dac’s and amps etc 
