Fenestrated or just keep them at velour would be best in regards to the stock signature… Hybrids will keep the brightness but amplify the bass, suedes and leathers will drop the treble and really bring up the bass and some in the lower mids
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I basically just made a user to say thank you for the guide @Falenkor - great information, so thank you very much!
I’m going to invest heavily into a new high end gaming setup and was researching which kind of audio setup I should go for, and based on your recommendations; the 1990 pro or T1 looks like the choice for me, since I play games like PUBG where sound cues are very important. Hope to find out when your new update will come out soon!
I have a couple questions I hope you can help me with:
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Do I need a dedicated sound card + amp + dac or is it fine with just the onboard motherboard audio + amp + dac? Which provides best value? And which dac + amp would you recommend? I’m not on a budget
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Since the 1990 or T1 are open back - can you recommend a good microphone which will cancel out the noise leaks? Since I play in a team, communication is vital.
Cheers!
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thank you so much for stopping in then, glad I could help you out!
well, it was supposed to be this weekend but life happened so I have to delay it a bit longer lol. It’s almost done, I have… I think 4 more headphones to add to there some rewrites, ratings, and then I have to adjust the hardware explainations around so they stop hitting the character limits of the site. As for the 1990 and T1, I would advise some caution on these. They are very bright sounding and everyone has their own tolerance to treble. I just happen to have no issues with very bright headphones but to those who do have sensitivities it can lead to a lot of issues such as ear pain, heavy fatigue, or major discomfort. Tygr 300r is one of those that exists for this exact reason and is one of the reasons I believe the T1 3rd generation was creation with it’s signature but the 3rd gen over there is terrible for competitive gaming due to how much bass it has
So the thing is for us gamers, if you really aren’t looking for the best sound quality, in other words your an audiophile wanting the best sound from your games and music like me, then you don’t always need an amp dac or soundcard unit. However, it also of course depends on what headphone your looking at. Let’s take the T1 for example… this is a 600 ohm headphone because of this being so demanding this headphone demands an amp and dac to run properly as even the higher grades of motherboards struggle with it. Now the 1990 on the other hand can be ran off a high end motherboard as it’s only 250 ohms but again… only one of the higher ends such as Asus’s S1220A audio codec which drives up to 600 ohms but struggles on the 600 ohm and very heavily demanding planars.
If I were to recommend an amp and dac… if it’s entry level just the monoprice stack(or monoprice liquid spark + D10 would work too) as these will add some warmth but roll in the treble. A step up from there would be the Schiit stack Asgard 3 + Modius or an Asgard 3 + It’s internal multibit dac. The internal multibit will lose a little bit of headroom power but both work fine. They will however have to use a lot of power to drive 600 ohm headphones still but at the least they will be fully driven on either the spark or asgard 3 unlike the motherboard. step ups from there depend solely on your headphone and how far you want to take your sound quality. For DT 1990 the RNHP is exceptional but expensive… but for the T1 I am extremely partial to the Liquid Platinum but you will have the added expense of needing a balanced cable purchase for the T1. You don’t need the higher ends whatsoever and can go with the entry levels just fine. just like you don’t need the 1990 or T1 as the Tygr works exceptionally well in this regard it’s just that 1990 and T1 have a higher quality of sound, cleaner, more clarity, better on the mids or vocals, but definitely brighter meanwhile T1 is capable of so much amp scaling its absurd not to mention you can equalize the hell out of it and is one of the reasons it’s my absolute go-to for my own fps.
So, The thing about open backs is it just depends on the headphone itself. You can generally use any microphone for any open back and be okay. However, headphones such as for example the Hifiman Sundara leak an absolute ton of sound so it takes some editing on the sensitivity of the microphones as I have had the modmic and a condensor mic subtly pick up the Sundara. I do not have these issues with 1990 or T1 for that matter so any of the modmics will work in this case… if you want better audio quality you can just grab one of the USB condensor mics such as the Blue yeti, AT2020 USB, Hyperx Quadcast, rode, etc that all work just fine… if your environment is loud though and you need a dynamic mic you can start like I did with the samson q2u which is a hybrid usb / xlr dynamic mic… dynamic mics are designed for live concerts meanwhile condensors are designed for soundproof rooms meaning the dynamic mic will naturally cancel out more background noise. From the samson you’d have to invest in an xlr audio interface(around the $100 range is fine so something like the focusrite scarlett or motu m2) and pick up a higher grade xlr microphone of your choice which will take some research on your own end. XLR microphones will have the best audio clarity and sound reproduction but aren’t necessary for gaming. pretty much any streamer for gaming will be using a condensor mic so it’s not a deal breaker at all as I use one these days as well and rely on my Blue Yeti for gaming. Any of these mics will work just fine for you.
Hopefully that helps you out, if you have any further questions please feel free to ask. Thanks again for stopping by!
Beyerdynamic EDT 770 VB vs Hm5 velour vs Dekoni velour. Which one is best for soundstage and by how much? (also how do the dt 880 pro 600ohms conpare to the beyerdynamic custom studio 80 ohm in soundstage and imaging? is there a big difference? is either one of them clearer? Are they almost very similar?)
Custom studios are bass light till using the slider… very flexible signature. Dekoni velours will be better than hm5 for quality and potentially air on the sound… the thickness of the two having closer to equal stage benefits.
Cant particularly compare the 880 to the customs… 880 train wrecks them in details and sound quality but build quality the customs are better.
Think of the custom series as an adaptable variant of the 770s but each having there own signature style. 880 bests them in both imaging and soundstage. 880 are definitely a clearer more balanced sound
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which Dekoni pads do I want for a bigger soundstage - Leather, Suede, Elite Hybrid, Elite Sheepskin, or Elite Velour? What are the benefits of each pad? Which one would be best for gaming? Which one is best for classical music? which one is best if I wanted more bass?
Ive had my hyper x cloud 2 for about 3 years now. They are dying so I want to upgrade my headphone game. I normally play FPS games mostly Warzone and Valorant. I dont need a mic I have a yeti. I recently bought a Senheiser HD 599 SE on Black Friday and while I like the sound of them I find them uncomfortable(My ears touch the inside) and after a couple of hours of Use I find that my ears hurt. Im looking for something under $200 for the headphone and If I need an amp I can get one.
hey jan, sorry for late response. You gain soundstage from air in the pads and thickness of the pad which puts your ear further from the driver… however, if the headphone already came with velour as stock you won’t be able to gain much more air as it’s designed to be that way already. Each pad however, gives a very different sound to one another… it depends on what your trying to emphasize. if your just wanting to add bass than it’s between leathers, hybrids if you want to keep a bit more on the treble presence and add a lot of bass, and suedes if you want to really dial in the treble and increase the bass by a lot… Dekoni has measurements for all this on their site.
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Noticed you have created 2 threads on this question… please relax. don’t go creating multiple threads or blowing up others you will get answers on here by being patient…
That kind of budget makes things rather limiting. would the amp be a separate budget? Alot of headphones I know your ears can touch parts of the inside of the driver so just a simple pad swap can relieve that
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Amp budget if needed is separate from the $200 for the headphone
if you like the sound of the Sennheisers you could just grab the 58x jubilee and pad swap it to something from Dekoni… brighter headphones you can grab DT 880 and do the same. Both will require an amp. Tygr 300r would be a warmer signature and work just fine as well…
58x jubilee and 300r can technically be ran ampless if a motherboard is strong enough but it needs the proper audiocodec… these will not properly run ampless on consoles
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I see, my motherboard is a b450-I ROG Strix, dont know if its good audio wise
I do not believe that one can run ampless that would need tested… if it handles the HD599 and gets loud around… I want to say 50% then you should be able to run Tygr. 58x would need tested, I can run that one off my phone rather well.
Holidays got me all busy lol, update should be either later today(if I can get it finished up it’s almost done) or this weekend, I will be making smaller adjustments after the update as well as I want to restructure it a bit more and maybe upload this to google.doc so I can skip the websites character limits. Zeus WILL NOT be on the list for right now because I cannot get my hands on one at this moment…
I will probably also add the FR frequency graphs to go along with the headphones to help those who prefer to see the measurements later on
Edit: apparently theres a time limit on edits on here… I will be taking a bit more time out to put this into a google.doc from here on
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Hello! Using a pair of DT 990 pros with dekoni elite velour pads. Kinda wanted to get a new headphone for a while now and I have my eyes on the X2HR’s. What are your experiences with them and how good do you think they’ll work with competitive gaming, casual and music listening? I don’t listen to classical music or any similar. But I do like bass. Not too much or too little. I’ve EQ’d my 990’s treble down a bit and I am looking for headphones that aren’t too analytical and are just enjoyable. I also want huge soundstage and still pretty good imaging. So far, every headphone I’ve looked at, X2HR of course, HE 4XX, 400i 2020 version, HD 58X. I am very stuck choosing at the moment. I have a good amp/DAC to drive planars I just don’t know if they’ll suit my taste. Same goes for the HD 58X’s. I am not used to mid forwarded headphones such as them and I don’t really listen to the music that they excel at.
Casual is really good, music it depends the bass is rather muddy and bleeds a bit into the mids which is a hit or miss for some, competitive is a definite no go as the soundstage may be large but the imaging isn’t the greatest plus that bass definitely is an issue as theres quite a lot of rumble.
Why not switch the 990s pads to suede then? This depletes the treble by a large margin, keeps your imaging which the 990 is very good for, and adds to the bass. Can also use hybrids. Step up on the 990s from beyer is definitely t1.2 as far as soundstage is concerned and imaging is great too but these are rather expensive
In order, warm and muddy, on the neutral bright side quite a bit lacking in bass, reference grade neutrality, and sennheiser neutral balanced with some warm tonality and pleasant mids. All but x2hr would work decently in competitive
I’m not a big fan of mid forward but it wouldn’t hurt to try them out. 990 is mid recessive so you’d be trying the opposite. Dt 880 is more mid centric too if you’d prefer a beyer instead. He4xx is also more in the mids and treble.
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Which headphones would be great in competitive except for the DT 990s? Also. I’ve never really known but exactly which factors affect imaging? Is it the angled drivers? The bass, mids and treble? What makes a headphone good at imaging?
Check the write up theres a few others but that has alot of the ones I’d say. As for imaging… treble can help sharpen it as well as the amp and dac as well but it’s mainly in the driver’s tuning… that requires a bit of explaining… I’d suggest maybe asking m0n on that in particular… he could definitely explain that better than me
Dear @Falenkor, do you have experience with the Audio-Technica ATH-PDG1 headset? The ATH-ADG1X has been discontinued, is the ATH-PDG1 up to snuff? Thanks!
In my opinion, not particularly but I didnt like the previous one either… just seems to cater more towards casual ended users not so much on the competitive front. Would take mh752 over it any day of the week, plus pads on mh752 are much much better imo and comfort for me is pretty important lol. Those audio technica headsets are just… boring sounding and like just comparing it to the alternatives they don’t seem to hold up
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