Thank you. Like I said, imma n00b. Well, I was hoping maybe for something like more separation, less congestion. I’ve just read some high praise of the 900X coming from a bunch of audiophiliac fps players having a long conversation in the comments under one of them’s blog post. Others chimed in. Kinda looks like something keeps drawing people back to the Audio-Technicas, even though they tend to be somewhat critical when describing its properties or technical quality. It was honestly confusing, because the same people emphasize transparency but also say the separation is lacking, and I’m like ugh… my brain doesn’t have the kind of resolution to differentiate between clarity, transparency and separation.
Indeed. The 660s would be way closer to it if I could get it for a good price. But when I saw the 650 and that little amp both together at 240 bucks total, my eyes lit up a bit. Still, gotta learn to rein in those urges because I’ve already been there with mechanical keyboards and ended up owning more than 20 simultaneously at some point. I’d rather not head down there with headphones before sorting out a couple of larger and more pressing expenses. I work in a profession that’s dying and won’t last till retirement while competition is tough, so I need to both crank up a serious marketing budget (a total waste for a one-man company) and an exit budget while it would be nice to go on holidays or upgrade the GPU every now and then, so I can’t splurge out too much. That’s making me both jump at clearly good bang-for-the-buck bargains but also very mindful that I can’t have it all. Maybe one, maybe two, definitely not more. Maybe if I end up having a nice amp/dac I’ll start zeroing in on sweet jackpot deals in the $80–150 range whenever I feel like having an extra birthday.
Thank you. My intuitive feeling was to not even look at those lower in line than the 6.
Oh man, that helped a lot. Thank you. With my budget it’s like well, I can afford them, per se. What I definitely can’t afford is replacing them every half a year if buying used, waiting a month on an RMA if buying with warranty, etc.
Probably inevitable.
Thank you. That’s comforting to hear, in a way.
Indeed. Too much work for a trip downtown (some 60 hours’ worth with an early Monday deadline), but there are at least one or two tech markets within walking reach. Nobody cares if you listen to the exhibition pieces, no letting down of a helpful salesman-owner like in a smaller specialized shop. At least I’ll update my ideas of what sounds like what by looking up reviews on the phone as I try them on.
I see. Thank you. Well, no mike for me. I have a long backlog of single-player RPGs and car rallies before I go back to multiplayer. So we can definitely skimp on the mike.
Gotta nail mine down then. I came in thinking I knew what it was, but the more I learn the less certain I am. Objectively speaking there’s a good chance I’m just a casual acting like a princess. I know I want cannon blast, let alone a broadside (though I don’t normally play the pirate gehre), to sound qualitatively and quantitatively more serious than just another handgun. I definitely enjoy the bassy moments with dragons and catapults and massive spell effects in the games I play, where in some cases the ground’s really supposed to be shaking and my desk was shaking under my hands when playing on desk speakers (and resolution, clarity, separation, etc. was certainly lacking, but the atmosphere was there). But there are a lot of those angelic/elven female vocals too, and the full gamut of medieval instruments or the kind of orchestral stuff that comes to mind when you think of Daniel Hope processing Vivaldi and other baroque tracks in his airy sort of ways (‘airy’ as in my subjective feel, most likely not the proper use of the technical term).
It’s kind of like… if needs to be crisp, then let it be crisp, and if it needs to be velvety, then let it be velvety, when it needs to be airy, then let it be airy and let it show perfect detail, separation etc., but when it has to be congested, then that’s what it should be, and if some rumbling and thumping bass or shrieking treble is supposed to leak into the mid range, then let it do so, but not of its own accord, not because of the headphone’s design or workmanship defect, not because of its individual signature or the manufacturer’s house sound but only because of the game developers’ intention. Which is obviously subjective and open to interpretation and those guys’ equipment definitely must have had some ‘house sound’ to it too, plus quite possibly most of the creators themselves probably didn’t overthink it like this but just used whatever they liked, processing it on whatever equipment they could affort, which obviously must have been a bigger budget than my house budget but certainly not unlimited, not even in AAA titles.
So this probably sounds like having a neutral signature/tuning per se, like no house sound, but being able to do everything well across the range and actually knowing what to do and, again, doing it well. Let’s say an even 8 out of 10 quality across the range (thinking lows, mids and highs, each further split into 3, for a total of 9 basic bands, maybe 27 or even 81 following the same principle but not necessarily 2187, as 729 would already be a blast), as opposed to 7/10 here and 9/10 there, and definitely not a mix of 6/10s with 10/10s, however tempting the 10s might be.
So perhaps we’re down to neutral and even but with the ability to both rumble/thump/roar and shriek/pierce, depending on what’s objectively needed right now in the game.
And good fidelity for metal vs plastic vs wood vs rock vs sand vs water (environmental) vs normal music instruments. With not too much distortion such as sounding metalic or plasticky due to the headphones’ build (cheap build comes to mind).
And something that would be — and please ignore this if it’s not helpful — let’s say, the acoustic equivalent or counterpart (and good companion) of playing in 2560x1400 @ high-ultra 45–50-ish fps (not the buttery smooth 60 or extended 120/144), with no artifacts (when playing for fun I’d rather my GPU/driver corrected them even where the devs had screwed up, no desire for ‘as recorded’ there, as opposed to when reviewing the game), and with some lag spikes or fps drops to 25–30 in the most demanding moments but not too much of that (the less than smooth experience at times is the price to pay for all the image quality). And visually I tend go for neutral ‘signatures’ with no unnatural gamma presets, no oversaturation (other than legit HDR, which obviously looks different from fiddling with RGB on 8 bit), etc., although VA’s natural perfect blacks and whites and high contrast tend to have a sort of appeal that IPS rarely can deliver (though my current monitor gets close). I wonder what approach to sound and music would be the best fit for this approach to the visuals.
Also, I’ve found Devas for $240 vs HE400SE for $171. Should I consider them?
One Polish reviewer refers to the Nighthawks as not actually that far from neutrality while of course already a little idiosyncratic, and he says the tuning is close to Sennheiser in a way, but more ‘royal’ in the presentation, while the polar opposite of Grado PS500e. He claims messy, chaotic recordings acquire a romantic, sentimental sort of mood. Less dynamics, less detail, more cohesion and more harmony. Good legibility without garishness, even with a little discreet shading. No nervous jumpiness, no stinging, no metalicity. Elegant spatial ordering, good blending (as an alternative to the modern focus on separation, I guess), everything complements each other. And just 25 ohms. And unmatches luxurious feel according to some other reviewer who claims to know a thing or two about luxurious cars most people can’t afford. I’m not a collector, but my wallet is already itching. Anybody want to give me the final push?
I’m relieved.
