NEED HELP CHOOSING HEADPHONESs

[shiftyape]

want some nice headphones, mainly for gaming, music, and video editing.

dont need to have surround sound
dont need to have microphone
doesnt need to be noise isolating or noise cancelling

needs to be very high quality sound, will last a long time without degrading
needs to be under $200

true 5.1 surround sound is preffered but not at the sacrafice of quality.
NO VIRTUAL SURROUND SOUND

thanks guys

 

[ttimberlak443]

Everybody has a different preference when selecting headphones. We all have our favorite kind of sound. Some great brands that you can start looking into are Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, AKG, etc.

Let us know what kind of sound you're going for and we can help you out from there.

 

[shiftyape]

Everybody has a different preference when selecting headphones. We all have our favorite kind of sound. Some great brands that you can start looking into are Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, AKG, etc.

Let us know what kind of sound you're going for and we can help you out from there.

not really sure what you mean... i listen to mainly dubstep, rock, electronic if that helps... not a bass junkie but i like my bass low and deep, but not too much. vocals: dont really care much.

 

[ssddx]

you also need to list what you will be using to power them. onboard sound? a soundcard? an amplifier? a portable device? be specific.

if you like deep powerful bass without getting to the bass cannon level and sound isolating headphones... you might like beyerdynamic dt770 pro's

if you like a wide soundstage, fair but not deep sub-level bass, clarity and a good high end you might like the beyerdynamic dt990 pro's

you may need an amp or soundcard depending on what you want to connect to them though.

if you wanted to get something cheaper for say $100-120 i would have a look at the audiotechnica ath-m50s (not to be confused with the m50x). bass is good, quality is good, they are built like tanks. the only negative is the extremely small soundstage. i personally have owned a pair for years and have pushed thousands of hours of dubstep, electronica, rock and jpop/kpop through them.

the previous cans are going to sound better but are also more expensive and may require amplfiication while the m50 does not.

 

[shiftyape]

you also need to list what you will be using to power them. onboard sound? a soundcard? an amplifier? a portable device? be specific.

if you like deep powerful bass without getting to the bass cannon level and sound isolating headphones... you might like beyerdynamic dt770 pro's

if you like a wide soundstage, fair but not deep sub-level bass, clarity and a good high end you might like the beyerdynamic dt990 pro's

you may need an amp or soundcard depending on what you want to connect to them though.

if you wanted to get something cheaper for say $100-120 i would have a look at the audiotechnica ath-m50s (not to be confused with the m50x). bass is good, quality is good, they are built like tanks. the only negative is the extremely small soundstage. i personally have owned a pair for years and have pushed thousands of hours of dubstep, electronica, rock and jpop/kpop through them.

the previous cans are going to sound better but are also more expensive and may require amplfiication while the m50 does not.

power them? i will most likely never be disconnecting them from my desktop. no soundcard... just the one built into my motherboard. (its pretty good (ive been told)) all i want to buy is the headphones no amps or anything unless i need to.

 

[ssddx]

many high end headphones are high impedence which means they require more power to drive them. basically if you connect them to a source which doesnt output enough power the volume output will be very low. the benefits to high impedance is how the drivers can be controlled much more accurately which means better clarity to sound.

generally headphones under 50ohm will be powered by portable devices and onboard sound fine but anything higher can be an issue.

the dt770pro is available in 32, 80 and 250ohm flavors. the 990pro is 250ohm. the m50 is 38ohm. this means that only the m50 and 770-32ohm can be driven without an amp in the list i made above. the rest would require an amplifier or soundcard to use. as a comparison generally the 80 and 250ohm 770's are considered much superior to the 32.

the only case where you would not need an amp or soundcard upgrade to use them is if your motherboard had a powerful headphone amp built in (it would make special note of this and state what ohm headphones it can power typically).

by ignoring anything above 50ohm (anything which would require an amp) you limit your options.

i suppose we could add the sennheiser hd558 (50ohm) to this listing since it doesnt require an amp but its not going to have the bass presence of the m50 or dt770 for sure (low end bass compliments your choice of music) and likely not even as much as the 990's which are below the first two as well. the 990 is going to have more clarity and high end then the 558. the 558 will have more soundstage than the m50 or dt770 but not as much as the 990.

--

if you dont want an amp or soundcard.... i'd say perhaps look at the m50, dt770-32 (the 80 and 250 are better though) or the hd558.

i would at least give some thought to getting a soundcard or amplifier though. again, some (rare) motherboards have decent onboard amps which can power better than average headphones. since you made no mention of this (and did not mention your motherboard model number) i'm assuming (which could be wrong) that your motherboard doesnt have such a feature and can only handle standard headphones.

completely your choice as to which path you'd like to take. i'm just laying out a few options for you to take a look at.

 

[shiftyape]

i really have to thank you for this. it has been very informative, and as the highest quality sound ive ever had is from a 60 buck soundbar, it really helped me out. my motherboard definitely does not have an amp built in. again, thanks.
i will review your list of headphones.
by the way, how much would an amp set me back?

also: i have had a couple of recommendations from other sites as well:
beyerdynamic custom one
Sennheiser HD 598

can you verify that these are good?

 

[ttimberlak443]

I haven't used the Beyerdynamic's, but the Sennheiser HD 598's are highly regarded. They aren't exactly bass heavy (and some may feel that they are too light on the bass), but I feel that they are fine. They are capable of a lot of low end if the song calls for it.

 

[ssddx]

the sennheiser 598's have what is called mid-bass and it is rather tight and punchy but not so large in quantity. at a certain point though the bass just drops off since they are not capable of sub level bass (the deep stuff)

i agree, they are good headphones. the reason i didnt mention them is because it seems he may want more than average bass.

 

[shiftyape]

well im not really a guy who needs serious bass actually it ruins some songs completely...
im not a bass head. i like detail in my music rather than skull rattling bass.