Headset Buying Help

[wildernesshobo]

Hello,

I'm looking for a headset for PC gaming, I've been looking at Razers, Plantronics and Logitechs.
I could care less about surround or stereo, as long as it's crisp and balanced I'm fine. Style means absolutely nothing to me, honestly. And I game for roughly 3-5 hours at a time rarely going beyond 4, but sometimes I do so comfort means allot.

Of the three brands I've picked one of each and seem to be at an impasse, so I need help deciding:

Razer; Kraken Pro (http/www.amazon.com/Razer-Kraken-Over-Music-Headset/dp/B009SJR278/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410404764&sr=8-1&keywords=razer+kraken+pro)

Plantronics: GameCom Commander (http/www.amazon.com/Plantronics-GameCom-Commander-Gaming-Headset/dp/B00GIAWTJG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410404861&sr=8-1&keywords=plantronics+gamecom+commander)

Logitech: g430 (http/www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Gaming-Headset-Technology/dp/B00CQ35C1Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410404922&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+g430)

Any thoughts or suggestions? I'd really like to keep it under $100. I'm leaning more towards the Plantronics, however the Razer is nice aswell, the Logitech is last on my list because honestly I don't care for it too much, but if it out performs the others than I can overcome my minor gripes

Thanks for any advice, it's all welcome.

~wildi

 

[MT6Anime]

I would recommend getting these until yesterday they used to come with all the extra stuff but now it's just the headset. They have true 5.1 surround sound not that virtual stuff(although they also have virtual 7.1) and I game for about 8 hours a day and balance college somehow. Point being they are very comfortable. I know this is an unheard of brand but there are plenty of reviews online for their products saying that people like them.
http/www.amazon.com/Harmoniq-Pro-GS-4840-Microphone-Retractable/dp/B00ICOE8KE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410406085&sr=8-2&keywords=sentey

 

[RazerZ]

What I would recommend
--------------------------------------

Headphones: Samson SR850 -$50

or Superlux HD668B -$30

Both are the same headphone; one's cheaper and has a different style.

For the mic you could look into getting a cheap clip on:

http/www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410406642&sr=8-1&keywords=headphone+mic -$8

Not going to copy/paste his whole review here, but I will post his section about the soundstage of these headphones.

Very detailed review by headfier MalVeauX: http/www.head-fi.org/products/sr850-professional-studio-reference-headphones/reviews/5573

Soundstage:

Soundstage is pretty good, it's an open headphone though, so you expect that. Instruments and vocals all had great separation from each other, not congested into a cramped clump of mush. The channels fade back and forth nicely and it's easy to generate a 3D field depending on what's powering them. I say that because these are excellent for movies & gaming where position is important and pleasing. In other words, here's a $59 headphone that is great for gaming that is less expensive than the common "gaming" headphones that get recommended left and right blindly. The difference on top of that is that these have plentiful rich bass, so they're great to listen to music and watch movies on too. Not just focus on little foot steps in a FPS game. Everytime I see "AD700 for gaming" I think "No, SR850 for gaming, AD700 for foot steps in FPS games only."

Razer products are definitely overhyped from my personal experience. Not too sure about Plantronics and other "Gaming" brands but I can imagine they are as well.

 

[MT6Anime]

Yeah I just made my new build and I was gonna get Razer but after looking at the price:value ratio I decided against it. I feel like they are too over hyped and just charging for the brand name kinda like beats.

 

[wildernesshobo]

I would recommend getting these until yesterday they used to come with all the extra stuff but now it's just the headset. They have true 5.1 surround sound not that virtual stuff(although they also have virtual 7.1) and I game for about 8 hours a day and balance college somehow. Point being they are very comfortable. I know this is an unheard of brand but there are plenty of reviews online for their products saying that people like them.
http/www.amazon.com/Harmoniq-Pro-GS-4840-Microphone-Retractable/dp/B00ICOE8KE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410406085&sr=8-2&keywords=sentey

Thank you, I was actually looking at those but the price tag got me. I can't see paying over $100 for a headset, even the ones I listed are top of my bracket right now atleast. Thanks though

 

[wildernesshobo]

Yes Razor seems to be over hyped, but this one seems good and has great reviews.
Plantronics on the other hand I know first hand that they make good quality headsets. My first one actually was a plantronics, a $30 one that was sturdy as hell, it was dropped, kicked, thrown, chewed on, soaked. Bottom line it stood the test of time for me, only thing was it eventually broke because I dropped it with the mic out and the whole mic/ear cup was broken. But it held up against the abuse while it worked for a long time.
I'll check out the links you sent me, thanks

After checking them out they both look good, I'll check them out some more tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[dirolas]

i'm reccomending you 100% go for plantronics 788 or 780 , i have 788 atm,just got them like 2 days ago,the 7.1 sound is fcking amazing compared to stereo !, it has decent bass,and i like it comfy,the headset is big , but light, also i had steelseries siberia v2 for 1 week, exchanged them for these plantronics,and even more hapyier now,compared to sound quality steelseries siberia v2 is like an ant vs tiger,it SUCKS ! plantronic's sound quality is super good,siberia's v2 ... i was really dissapointed,i'm owning philips shp1900 headset,that costs like 20$ and it performs quite well compared to steelserias that costed me 100$ , plantronics price was 70$,the mic quality of plantronic's is very clean,it's so smooth,my friend's told me that the voice from this headset is good compared to v2's.So i'm offering you to grab plantronic's ! trust me,u wont be dissapointed in audio/mic/built quality ! and btw u can disable the 7.1 surround sound,but i just wont do it ! the 7.1 is awesome !

 

[RazerZ]

7.1 or 5.1 surround sound coming from any headphone is a gimmick unless it actually has the appropriate amount of drivers on each side of the headset, not just one driver on each side. Even if they do have separate drivers, the difference heard from them would be negligible from the reviews I've read and the sound quality coming from those headsets isn't all that great. You would be better off getting a proper set of headphones and just using any surround sound program with them.

 

[wildernesshobo]

I've decided on the Plantronics, thanks for all of your help. The Samson and Superlux were good, the Samson would have been the one I got if not for the option between 7.1 AND stereo for $10 more.

"i'm reccomending you 100% go for plantronics 788 or 780 , i have 788 atm,just got them like 2 days ago,the 7.1 sound is fcking amazing compared to stereo !, it has decent bass,and i like it comfy,the headset is big , but light, also i had steelseries siberia v2 for 1 week, exchanged them for these plantronics,and even more hapyier now,compared to sound quality steelseries siberia v2 is like an ant vs tiger,it SUCKS ! plantronic's sound quality is super good,siberia's v2 ... i was really dissapointed,i'm owning philips shp1900 headset,that costs like 20$ and it performs quite well compared to steelserias that costed me 100$ , plantronics price was 70$,the mic quality of plantronic's is very clean,it's so smooth,my friend's told me that the voice from this headset is good compared to v2's.So i'm offering you to grab plantronic's ! trust me,u wont be dissapointed in audio/mic/built quality ! and btw u can disable the 7.1 surround sound,but i just wont do it ! the 7.1 is awesome !"


Yes I've used plantronics before and was very pleasantly surprised at how good the quality was. The thing that won me over with the GameCom Commander was the vel-cro strap on the top honestly, the Logitech and Razer were both good contenders, both with great reviews. However the ability to choose between surround and stereo was ultimately the defining feature of the commander.
The others had good features aswell, but the logitech feels weird (the last one I used did and they use the same design on all of them) and the Razer (everyone says*) sounds great with music but a bit washed out with games.

Thanks again for all the help.

~wildi

 

[RazerZ]

Yeah I just made my new build and I was gonna get Razer but after looking at the price:value ratio I decided against it. I feel like they are too over hyped and just charging for the brand name kinda like beats.

I've decided on the Plantronics, thanks for all of your help. The Samson and Superlux were good, the Samson would have been the one I got if not for the option between 7.1 AND stereo for $10 more.

"i'm reccomending you 100% go for plantronics 788 or 780 , i have 788 atm,just got them like 2 days ago,the 7.1 sound is fcking amazing compared to stereo !, it has decent bass,and i like it comfy,the headset is big , but light, also i had steelseries siberia v2 for 1 week, exchanged them for these plantronics,and even more hapyier now,compared to sound quality steelseries siberia v2 is like an ant vs tiger,it SUCKS ! plantronic's sound quality is super good,siberia's v2 ... i was really dissapointed,i'm owning philips shp1900 headset,that costs like 20$ and it performs quite well compared to steelserias that costed me 100$ , plantronics price was 70$,the mic quality of plantronic's is very clean,it's so smooth,my friend's told me that the voice from this headset is good compared to v2's.So i'm offering you to grab plantronic's ! trust me,u wont be dissapointed in audio/mic/built quality ! and btw u can disable the 7.1 surround sound,but i just wont do it ! the 7.1 is awesome !"


Yes I've used plantronics before and was very pleasantly surprised at how good the quality was. The thing that won me over with the GameCom Commander was the vel-cro strap on the top honestly, the Logitech and Razer were both good contenders, both with great reviews. However the ability to choose between surround and stereo was ultimately the defining feature of the commander.
The others had good features aswell, but the logitech feels weird (the last one I used did and they use the same design on all of them) and the Razer (everyone says*) sounds great with music but a bit washed out with games.

Thanks again for all the help.

~wildi

I'm not sure if you saw my post about the 7.1 being a gimmick, but there is software you can download to get the same 7.1 sound as "gaming" headsets.

Ex: http/www.razerzone.com/surround

You can't compare the audio quality of gaming headsets to good quality studio headphones. It's your choice in the end though.

 

[wildernesshobo]

Yes I saw that, and thanks for the link.

I know it's a gimmick unless it's got the individual drivers for each earphone, however that option still appeals to me, it's not totally useless though because I can hear things around me. Not sure if that's just a brainwash (not sure what the word is, but that's all that comes to mind) I don't however believe that it is. It does make some degree of a difference, and the option for $10 more is a good deal in my opinion. But who knows, I'm still looking at headsets even though I decided on the commander already
It's not over yet you could say :3

And it seems I've reached yet another impasse (this is why buying things sucks for me, especially over the internet)
, the Samson, it's looking better and better. I've been reading that a good set of headphones and a good sound card will give you a better experience than a great pair of cans and no sound card, this true?
You seem more qualified than me, and if the answer is yes, would you maybe be able to point me in the right direction on sound cards?

The commander seems to be lowering in price on amazon, usually when that happens the price is about to go up again, as I said above I don't see a point in spending $100+ on headphones, quality be damned. If they do go up in price to their full 200 USD then obviously I'm not buying it.

Will I notice a decent enough difference between sound card and no sound card in a game like Outlast?
What about Skyrim? Will be able to definitively hear the sound of Chris Walker's chains dragging while hes chasing me or a wolf growling on the other side of a bush?
I know that they're both capable, but the question that my frugal ass has, is which one would be better with a sound card, mix amp, or various other sound changing devices? I'm still leaning towards the gamecom, but the samson has been growing in the back of my mind since I initially clicked your link yesterday.

 

[RazerZ]

Yes I saw that, and thanks for the link.

And it seems I've reached yet another impasse (this is why buying things sucks for me, especially over the internet)
, the Samson, it's looking better and better. I've been reading that a good set of headphones and a good sound card will give you a better experience than a great pair of cans and no sound card, this true?
You seem more qualified than me, and if the answer is yes, would you maybe be able to point me in the right direction on sound cards?

For general gaming the onboard audio of your motherboard should work fine. If your motherboard has dolby/realtek audio there might already be an option for surround sound.

Whether you see an imrpvement from a sound card or not depends from the source you're using.... using a bad source can make nice headphones sound like crap. Currently have the Audio Technica ATH M50s and I noticed a huge difference using them in my laptop compared to my desktop. The laptop was able to push them to higher volume levels and the sound quality was a lot higher compared to my desktop.

So what I would recommend is to first buy the headphones only, test them with different sources, and see if you can hear a difference in sound quality. If you can hear a noticeable difference then you should look into getting a soundcard. Soundcards should also provide better simulated surround sound.

 

[wildernesshobo]

They came in today, absolutely amazing with everything.
Outlast was more terrifying, I can hear the distant echoes like they're right next to me, I jumped during a part I played already and even though I knew what to expect the random bucket being thrown in the distance added a whole new immersion.
On CS:GO I was able to hear someone walking on train tracks on the other side of the map, they were above me to the left and at about 7 o' clock.

Music sounds great, I don't know what people were talking about when they said there's more to be desired when it come to music. This is better than the $80 beats audio headphones I tried in the store. Bass and Treble are both so distinct and nothing gets muted by either of them. It's amazing all around and I couldn't be happier.
Thanks for all the help

~wildi

 

[RazerZ]

Glad to hear everything worked out well