HeadPHONES for gaming (Counter Strike)

[Hybrid7x]

I play CS:GO a lot, and have a overpriced mech keyboard and mouse, but my headset is kinda crap. Now I'd like to upgrade to something better. Not a crappy "gaming headset" but some actual headphones. The only gaming headsets I've considered are the HyperX Cloud and SS Siberia V2s (The Cloud II has a useless dongle, and the V3s have worse sound quality than V2s as far as I've heard). What headphones (mic included) for gaming for about 80$ do you recommend?

 

[ssddx]

if your budget was a little flexible you could go with some actual headphones like the hd518 or ad500x which would be better off than gaming headsets by far. both are open designs with large soundstages for good positional audio. open designs leak sound in and out however are better for gaming than closed designs. if you wanted virtual surround you can either use the free razer surround software, onboard virtual software if your motherboard has it or eventually get a soundcard which has it. as for a mic, you can pick whatever suits your budget and needs.

hd518- fairly neutral sound with decent soundstage and just a splash of bass.
ad500x-huge soundstage and great positional audio. more treble/mids focused without any real low end bass output.

the zalman clip on is a cheap mic though its not stellar. the moovmic boom is a little better but still not high end. other choices are clip on lavalier mics. the sony ECMCS3 perhaps. not sure how much you care about your voice quality compared with your sound quality on the headphones.

if you absolutely needed a "headset" (all in one type solution) then for $80 your best bet is the hyper x cloud. or if you stretched your budget the pc320 wouldnt be terrible. from what i've heard the usb soundcard issue was fixed on the hxc2. i've heard siberia headsets are fairly fragile and break easily.

 

[skoadro_lekip]

if your budget was a little flexible you could go with some actual headphones like the hd518 or ad500x which would be better off than gaming headsets by far. both are open designs with large soundstages for good positional audio. open designs leak sound in and out however are better for gaming than closed designs. if you wanted virtual surround you can either use the free razer surround software, onboard virtual software if your motherboard has it or eventually get a soundcard which has it. as for a mic, you can pick whatever suits your budget and needs.

hd518- fairly neutral sound with decent soundstage and just a splash of bass.
ad500x-huge soundstage and great positional audio. more treble/mids focused without any real low end bass output.

the zalman clip on is a cheap mic though its not stellar. the moovmic boom is a little better but still not high end. other choices are clip on lavalier mics. the sony ECMCS3 perhaps. not sure how much you care about your voice quality compared with your sound quality on the headphones.

if you absolutely needed a "headset" (all in one type solution) then for $80 your best bet is the hyper x cloud. or if you stretched your budget the pc320 wouldnt be terrible. from what i've heard the usb soundcard issue was fixed on the hxc2. i've heard siberia headsets are fairly fragile and break easily.

ssddx put it said it perfectly, but just as a recommendation if you REALLY REALLY need headphones then i would suggest the gamecom 780, i find them to have the best mic i have heard on any headset i have ever used. My friends tell me on skype and teamspeak that the gamecom 780 mic is better than my blue snowball... otherwise it does have surround 7.1 (which honestly is never good in any headset) and has really good audio quality. Completely underrated head set!

 

[Hybrid7x]

I listen to a lot of metal, so 7.1 is out of the question. The mic is very important and also it must be comfortable.