Gaming headset to use with Xonar Essence ST

niuserre

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Aug 6, 2011
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18,510
I have a Xonar Essence ST sound card in my PC. I need a new headset for gaming. It seems dumb to buy something with a USB soundcard etc. but all the gaming reviews recommend these types of headsets. Any headset recommendations for me please? Or what should I be looking for?


  • ■Currently I have a Steelseries 7H, one side has stopped working, otherwise I was fairly happy with it.
    ■I like the look of the Logitech G430 (because blue mainly) and the Steelseries Elite Prism (because lights). If I didn't have the sound card I'd probably just have bought the G430 already.
    ■ I would prefer to spend under £75.
    ■ Whilst I have quite a nice sound card, I'm not really an audiophile. I just want reasonable sound for CS:GO and WoW, with a good enough mic for voice comms (inc Skype). I do listen to music sometimes.
    ■I'm 100% PC, I don't care about compatibility.

Thanks!
 
if you have the xonar st, it would be extremely silly to buy a usb headset since by going usb you are completely bypassing the soundcard and using the cheap onboard soundcard inside the headset. given your situation i'd avoid looking at any usb headsets.

what you want is either a headset with analog 3.5mm connectors or even better yet some decent headphones paired up with a separate microphone. the hyper x cloud or pc320 would be an example of a cheap headset although it would be far better going with something like the sennheiser hd518 or ad500x and just spending a bit extra picking up a microphone like a modmic, moovmic, zalman clip on, other lavalier mic or cheap desktop mic like the snowball.

a bit strange that you have an audiophile level soundcard yet do not seem to be much worried about quality other than it isnt trash.
 

niuserre

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Aug 6, 2011
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Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I think I was in a 'buy all the best things' phase or something, no idea.

I've got the HyperX Cloud at the top of my list now but also considering the standalone mic option as I do have some reasonable Sennheisers I could use for a few months before upgrading them too.