Falenkor what features do you look for in a good gaming headphone?
Depends on the use case really. Comfort for hours use, specific sound traits that sync well with use case whether it be casual gaming or competitive or even mixed bag, build quality as gaming headsets are always built cheap as hell I prefer my stuff to actually last, ideally no ridiculous requirements on the amp and dac and if possible be driven off the stronger motherboards
sound traits very dramatically.
Ideally this is what I would look for and grade respectively
How long can I use this headphone for before I have to take it off my head due to fatigue? Does it have pad swaps that can help comfort further without destroying the sound?
How does this headphone perform in competitive gaming, how are the placements, how is the soundstage, how is the signature overall, is it too bassy? Too bright? too mid forward? inaccuracies?
If I drop this headphone is it going to potentially bust? if something happens maybe the cable gets tugged on fairly hard is it going to break the headphone or cause it to become defective? How are the build materials themselves are they going to break apart after a few months? few weeks? Is there easily accessible replaceable parts or some form of cheap repair service?
How demanding on power is this headphone? Does it need an amp and dac? how does it respond to lower grade equipment such as the cheap g6 or fulla? is it demanding of more power than a fulla? Can it just be driven off a high grade motherboard? not all gamers like the idea of an amp and dac let alone spending such funds on these units.
does this headphone excel in some fps games but not others? how does it also perform in casual games? is the bass lacking? is the signature good for a mixed use or just competitive?
how is this headphone for musicality? Is it clear? how is the detail? does it make many genres sound good? what genres? etc
lots and lots of factors that I sit down with when I contend with what makes certain headphones good. For strictly competitive we can narrow it down quite easily but when you involve other areas it becomes rather complicated to narrow a headphone down
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Complete aside, but seems like it could be relevant to this thread: I stumbled across this - https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Boom-Microphone-Playstation-Controller/dp/B08JTFQ3GW
Possibly a very convenient solution for AKG / DT1990 owners. DT1990 requires a small rotation of the XLR jack for use.
Iām going to take mine apart once it arrives and see about refitting it to 4 pin XLR so it will work with balance modded beyers etc.
Thatās rather interesting. Iāll have to check that out on the 1990. You can get an adapter for the akg and 1990 to turn it 3.5mm giving you access to v Moda boom pro too
I know you own a pair of Clear MG. Have you tried making them work for competitive gaming with some form of EQ (warzone)? I normally use PC38x for gaming but I like the comfort (and sound quality) of the clear much better.
Clear mg is marginally better than elex in gaming competitive itās just not so splashy on the treble. They are of a very similar frequency as well which makes it hard for me to feasibly recommend the clear due to its price. Though for music and casual use its fantastic
Pc38x is terrible at music, rather flabby in signature, slightly above the average stage, good air, decent imaging. Its just kinda average but very good in competitive for a headset.
Clear is wellā¦ clear to be honest theres no haze everything is very detailed and comes through rather transparent. Imaging is extremely accurate. Soundstage is a bit less but not a deal breaker, mg has bass tones but are controlled, depending on the focal treble can be splashy or have some sibilance tones, clear mg has the more balanced signature. Elex is very aggressive in that it slams your head into the sound, clear takes a step back but has a metallic tone, mg has a warmer bassier tone but more balanced overall.
Clear however is EXTREMELY picky on amp and dac. I cannot stress this enough to not even bother with clears without the setup as it just doesnt sound right. You lose a ton of quality
To those wonderingā¦ yes I do consider a focal one of the few endgame headphones here but if your playing tarkov or something similar it wont outpace the 1990 and t1 and definitely not the hd800s or arya
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Thanks for the reply.
I actually already own the Clear MG though (bought for music). Just wondering if you have made them work for competitive gaming with some kind of EQ. The sound quality and comfort is better than my 38x so I would like to keep using these when I go from music to gaming. Feels like such a waste to have the MG on its stand while wearing the 38xā¦ I have tried the MG when watching twitch streams but they are hit or miss sometimes. Sometimes they are so accurate and sometimes they are quite blurry in terms of positioning. Might be warzone sound engine thoughā¦
As for electronics, I got an SMSL SU9 and a Singxer SA1, pretty happy with that combination. Getting a second hand G6 tomorrow so I can use my PS5 USB output and feed it into the SMSL SU9 via optical (it will essentially just be an USB bridge). Since the G6 can also do EQ I was wondering if that could make the Clear MG a good gaming headphone, since EQ is normally unavailable for console gamers.
I have been able to make them work really without any EQ. The positioning can get weird depending on the game due to the more below average stage and a mix of bad sound enginesā¦ warzone being god awful is definitely a thing. I did not experience really any issues in games like Tarkov though less they were like above me but the headphone isnt the best for verticality. Then again, I wouldnāt particularly recommend the use of a clear with the g6 but worth a try
woo, my inbox has been blowin up lately. Net again as of next week supposedly so I should be able to finish the update(gotta find the doc or rewrite it but that shouldnāt take long).
as usual I am still around here, been building my GMMK PRO I got in which is a monster of a keyboard.
If you guys have questions please dont hesitate to ask, had a few here who actually thought I wouldnāt respond to them. I will be more than happy to help you guys if you have questions that I can help you with. Also you can always make a respective thread that asks the others, as of course there is a limit to how much my opinion covers to begin with for example not the most knowledgeable on speaker setups.
hope you guys are taking it easy out there and I should have the update done soon enough provided google doesnāt get all stupid about it in the doc format
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I will be using the G6 just to get USB audio from PS5 to my SMSL SU9, as an USB bridge. The PS5 canāt work with any modern USB DACs sadly.
I will dable a bit with EQ (this video peaked my interest Warzone - Get Better with Audio - YouTube). But what you describe as the not so wide soundstage + warzone crappy engine describes pretty well my experience so far.
I do hope this gets addressed soon in some fashion. Not to many dacs are capable of being ran to the new gen consoles at the moment, more than likely due to how hard it is to even get new gen right now. I know of only a small handful of dacs that run to them. Thankfully JDS over there now has firmware for this issue so units like the Atom are still available.
its worth a shot to dabble into EQ but if anything youd more than likely get more out of something like hesuvi or atmos and their 7.1 software only because its warzone really.
Boosted 125Hz +6 dB and it made a huge difference for warzone. First time I heard footsteps so clearly. Imaging with the Clear MG was always great when listening music, but in warzone it really needs that bump.
Sadly canāt send 5.1 over USB either on the console (its a mess lol). So no VSS either. That is fine though, I have learned it to be not needed nowadays.
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Do anyone know if there an audio interface thatās compatible with consoles?
closest I can think of is the sound blaster gear and the schiit hel and fulla but you can only use mics with 3.5mm for them
May i ask how the DT1990 compares to a focal elex in COD for competitive gaming?
[quote=āselim, post:667, topic:13863, full:trueā]
Hi Falenkor, since you tried some different headphones I would like to ask you for some advice. Im looking to buy my first studio quality headphones to use while gaming (FPS) and occasional music listening. I have been researching for some headphones and these are what i have come up with as alternatives:
Beyerdynamic dt 770/880/990
Sennheiser HD6XX
Sennheiser HD560s
Philips X2HR
Is there anything you would recommend within the price tag of 290 USD? Not to use an amp would be nice, however it is something i could purchase if needed.
Hmm, those two are toughā¦
For just cod alone either one is going to work well but lets look at some intricate details between the two.
Soundstage and presentation are key differences here. Elex presents itself as a very mid forward and treble high headphone while the 1990 is a very aggressive neutral bright. Elex has a rather bubble like soundstage while 1990 sounds like there is a slight wall at some point on the staging. Elex is going to have more air to its sound overall due to how it presents itself this will allow the Elex to have an easier time with vertical sound placements over the 1990. The 1990 however is laser accurate on its imaging in response and can place sniper shots from miles out with very little effort. Both elex and 1990 really have no issues with separations but the air does give elex a small edge depending on the skill of the person in game. Comfort wise I found the elex a bit more tiresome as the builts a bit weightier. Build wise focal are typically built very luxuriously and I love that fact but they do hold onto dirt and grime with a hefty replacement cost for partsā¦ the 1990 on the other hand is built like a tank with steel all around it and a flexible sound signature through many different comfortable pad swap options. Note that the elex is not friendly to pad swaps so this makes it a bit more locked into its signatureā¦ if your looking for a headphone capable of more than just cod and like something like maybe a bassier headphone the 1990 would be a better choice to adapt to this through simple pad swap changes.
Elex does also have some quality control problemsā¦ it goes without saying that many here have been afflicted with driver failures, mismatch signals, among other thingsā¦ there is typically a warranty on the elexās and can get this resolved but its a bit of a pain since all this stuff is through drop instead of Focal themselves. Meanwhile 1990 also will have a warranty, dont typically have many issues with qc, and even out of warranty something extreme such as duel driver replacement is around $189 which to be quite honest isnāt bad when you think about it.
Price pointā¦ I think this will depend on how you shopā¦ but the elex is indeed more expensive than the 1990 by a pretty good margin. On the used markets the 1990 over there can be found as cheap as $350-$400 meanwhile elex is usually $450 and up. Price for parts on Focals will always outpace a beyer too so if anythings wrong even if its just the padsā¦ the focal pads are $200 less you buy elex pads which are like $50-$60.
Sound signature and youā¦ so something to note on is that a headphones sound signature really needs to fit with you yourself. Not everyone is comfortable using a headphone as bright as the 1990 and if you havenāt tried lesser headphonesā¦ I caution with jumping this far down the rabbit holeā¦ I would say try out the dt 880 or 990 if possible before going straight to the 1990 as its quite unforgiving and can cause discomfortā¦ The elex can be quite bright as well just to a lesser degree which is another reason I would recommend somehow testing out a cheaper brighter headphone if you have not. Elex is favorable to those who love vocals and highs while maintaining a good balance much like a sennheiser meanwhile beyer has its own house sound with the treble being quite splashy and usually they are quite impactful in the bassā¦ however mids for beyerdynamics arenāt particularly a strong point outside of the 880 and T1.
If you had to choose one for my use case? 1990ā¦ but since its just codā¦ just an 880 at 600 ohms plus the respective amp is really all you need thereā¦ Cod really doesnāt have demanding requirements. Warzone can make use of larger stages than an 880 for sure but I canāt really say they were exceptionally better to be quite honestā¦ I can use an 880, elex, and T1.2 and yet they all have very similar results just to varying degrees in cod.
I should note also, that you will still need an amp/dac for either one of these headphonesā¦ do make sure thats available to you. It will need to be something of good power and sound quality otherwise something like a Focal headphone definitely wonāt sound all that great since they are a pickier headphone
Hey there thanks for chiming in,
What genres of music. Any other genres of gaming? PC or Console? What FPS Titles? If this is PC since you mention ampless what motherboard?
if its fps related you can drop the x2hr. The shp9500 would be better for that from phillips. X2hr is bassy as hell and definitely isnāt good at fpsā¦ I know many claim otherwise and use itā¦ you can use whatever you want but with how heavy the rumble and bleeding is from the low end of an x2hr its going to cloud a lot of fps sounds up.
with the headphones listed above you will most likely need an amp for themā¦ not a deal breaker for sure but it may require some careful shopping around if you really want the best setup per dollarā¦
I canāt really make any recommendations till I have more information hence the questions above.
Apologies for giving little information. The genre I normally listen to is Hip-Hop music and Iāll probably play some open-world games but mainly FPS such as Call of Duty/Warzone and Battlefield. I play on PC. However, gaming would be my first priority. As you mentioned Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser are those headphones from what I understand stand out within my budget of 290 USD. I have also seen your review on TYGR 300R and PC38X if those would be a choice as well. Thank you!