your friend is right. a solid midrange pair of cans + zalman clipon mic is a tough combo to beat and honestly better than half the 'gaming' models out there.
normally i'd recommend the
audio technica ATH-M50s, and i still do, but their price has just skyrocketed to $160, which sucks because you used to be able to find them as low as $110 not too long ago.
so yea its out of your price range as of now but DEF worth it - my rec is setup a price alert on camelcamelcamel and just pray it drops, which it very well could, then pounce when it does.
good luck and happy listening man