Good HEADPHONES for gaming and music

[yourilevoye]

Hello!

The last days I was looking for a new decent pair oif headphones. Currently I am using the Philips shp6000. I have those for 4 years now and they have a lot of tear and wear.
When I was looking for a new headphone I found out that a lot of gaming Headsets advertise with Dolby 7.1 and virtual 7.1. When I was looking for "regular" headphones they did not advertise with that.

I am wondering what would be a good pair of headphones. I do not want a headset since I have a external mic.
I would like to have the following things:
- Removable cable
- Removable earpads
It is not really nessecary, but it would be nice to have.

I would use my headphones for gaming (like arcade games. Not that competetive stuff) and a lot of music/movies.

My budget is under 120$ (under 100 euro's since I live in the Netherlands).



Anyone advice?

 

[therealduckofdeath]

Sennheiser HD 518 is the obvious choice for you!
I have a pair and they're great for gaming, music and media. They're "open back", which means they do let a lot of ambient sound in. The open design is what gives you a much wider sound stage, which in my opinion is a lot less straining on your ears and gives a more natural sound to everything.
You can often find them for quite a bit less than 100 bucks.

Sennheiser headphone model numbers and pricing is majorly confusing. For instance, there are more expensive models called HD 558, HD 598 and such. They don't necessarily sound better, they just sound different. (It gets even more confusing when you look at different ranges like their 6, 7 or 8 series.
In the HD 500-series, the HD 518 is the one with the wider sound stage, which I think works best for gaming and media. You might lose a little detail in specific small sounds, but you get a lot better sensation of the sound "filling the room", which is preferred for gaming.
For virtual 3D sound, Windows 10 has built in spatial sound mixing for headphones, both a free one and a paid one tuned by Dolby (15-ish bucks to cover all your PC's). That works perfectly fine for me.

The earpads and cables are replaceable on them.

 

[yourilevoye]

Sennheiser HD 518 is the obvious choice for you!
I have a pair and they're great for gaming, music and media. They're "open back", which means they do let a lot of ambient sound in. The open design is what gives you a much wider sound stage, which in my opinion is a lot less straining on your ears and gives a more natural sound to everything.
You can often find them for quite a bit less than 100 bucks.

Sennheiser headphone model numbers and pricing is majorly confusing. For instance, there are more expensive models called HD 558, HD 598 and such. They don't necessarily sound better, they just sound different. (It gets even more confusing when you look at different ranges like their 6, 7 or 8 series.
In the HD 500-series, the HD 518 is the one with the wider sound stage, which I think works best for gaming and media. You might lose a little detail in specific small sounds, but you get a lot better sensation of the sound "filling the room", which is preferred for gaming.
For virtual 3D sound, Windows 10 has built in spatial sound mixing for headphones, both a free one and a paid one tuned by Dolby (15-ish bucks to cover all your PC's). That works perfectly fine for me.

The earpads and cables are replaceable on them.

Hi! Thx for the detailed info. Unfortunately the HD 518 are too exspensive in my country. Because it is the eu... Maybe you have something else?

 

[therealduckofdeath]

They go up and down quite a lot in price. Check for quick sales and you might get lucky and get them for €80-90. Sure, this isn't really sales season, so it might take a while
You can maybe add the AKG 701's to the watch list. I think, they're AKG's equivalent in the same price range. Though, those are probably not likely to get down towards €100.

You can set up price alerts on sites like pricerunner.com.

It's hard to find a brand that ticks all the boxes with removable cushions and cables under €100. A third option is maybe to buy a pair of used headphones and a new pair of cushions from Amazon? Just to get that new headphone feel?

 

[yourilevoye]

They go up and down quite a lot in price. Check for quick sales and you might get lucky and get them for €80-90. Sure, this isn't really sales season, so it might take a while
You can maybe add the AKG 701's to the watch list. I think, they're AKG's equivalent in the same price range. Though, those are probably not likely to get down towards €100.

You can set up price alerts on sites like pricerunner.com.

It's hard to find a brand that ticks all the boxes with removable cushions and cables under €100. A third option is maybe to buy a pair of used headphones and a new pair of cushions from Amazon? Just to get that new headphone feel?

Currently looking at AKG. I love the headband style in some of them. AKG 701 doesnt same the one tho. It does not have to have th removal things, it would be nice. If it will make it that exspensive I do not need it.

 

[yourilevoye]

They go up and down quite a lot in price. Check for quick sales and you might get lucky and get them for €80-90. Sure, this isn't really sales season, so it might take a while
You can maybe add the AKG 701's to the watch list. I think, they're AKG's equivalent in the same price range. Though, those are probably not likely to get down towards €100.

You can set up price alerts on sites like pricerunner.com.

It's hard to find a brand that ticks all the boxes with removable cushions and cables under €100. A third option is maybe to buy a pair of used headphones and a new pair of cushions from Amazon? Just to get that new headphone feel?

I found the AKG K-271 MKII for 85 euro's. Would these do the job? Or would the AKG K-240 Studio for 60 euro's be better?

 

[therealduckofdeath]

I've not looked at those two so I can't say myself. Manufacturers usually use labels like studio or monitors to emphasise they're neutral sounding (toight and clear (hard?) instead of wide or warm). I personally don't think that works particularly well for gaming as it sacrifices the spatial sensation. Though, in this day and age studio and monitors are also often use purely for marketing.
I'm not an expert on this myself, but I do get a feeling that AKG generally tries to make more neutral sounding headphones while Sennheiser has their Sennheiser sound, a bit warmer and soft/stronger bass. You can always check communities like head-fi.org to see what others say.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

If you like your current SHP 6000s you might want to look at the SHP 9500s. They're considered quite good for the price.

https/www.philips.com.hk/en/c-p/SHP9500_00/hifi-stereo-headphones

 

[yourilevoye]

If you like your current SHP 6000s you might want to look at the SHP 9500s. They're considered quite good for the price.

https/www.philips.com.hk/en/c-p/SHP9500_00/hifi-stereo-headphones

I am not able to get them anywhere. Neither on the official site. On the link u posted they wrote that the product won't be available anymore.
It just does not excist anymore, neither can I get one here.

 

[yourilevoye]

I found these 2:
AKG k-271 MKII (CLOSED)
AKG K-240 MKII (SEMI-OPEN)

I just don't know which one would suit me better.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Amazon doesn't have them?

https/www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500S-Precision-Over-ear-Headphones/dp/B00ENMK1DW

 

[therealduckofdeath]

I'm guessing those two headphones are fairly similar sounding? They look like that at least. One tuned to a slightly more open sound and the other with a closed cup. What you'd prefer only you know, I think. Personally I only like closed back headphones when on the move, like on my on-ear mobile headphones. At home I don't mind getting the ambient sound in, to create a slightly more natural(?) sound.

 

[yourilevoye]

I'm guessing those two headphones are fairly similar sounding? They look like that at least. One tuned to a slightly more open sound and the other with a closed cup. What you'd prefer only you know, I think. Personally I only like closed back headphones when on the move, like on my on-ear mobile headphones. At home I don't mind getting the ambient sound in, to create a slightly more natural(?) sound.

I bought the closed ones. I was doing a lot research, but the closed ones are good for everything. The semi-open not.( Like leaking sound and stuff). With the closed ones I could decide to take them somewhere and listen to music.