Let's talk about sound

[Kvas]

I noticed a lot of gamers care much about graphics but they neglect the sound, so I wanted to share my experience I had with my recent purchase. Audio Technica M40X.

So, finally my Beats by dre Monsters gave up the ghost, mind you those were close to £250 and I hated them. Very uncomfortable, after 15 min. I wished I wasn't wearing them, it was a torture, and the sound was good but not great.

So I decided to get the best budget headphones, and I found this.

Not looking as sexy I must admit, but man! They sound terrific! and were only £75. here is a bit of blurb I got on their website:

"The M-Series ATH-M40x professional monitor headphones are tuned flat for incredibly accurate audio monitoring across an extended frequency range. Your studio experience is enhanced with superior sound isolation and swiveling earcups for convenient one-ear monitoring. Engineered with pro-grade materials and robust construction, the M40x excels in professional studio tracking and mixing, as well as DJ monitoring"

I am so pleased with those, that I must report it here. DON'T BUY GAMING HEADPHONES, buy something like this, and If you need a microphone get this ->

it's a modmic and it's got a magnetic bit that you glue to your headphones, job done.

I went a bit further and got replacement pads from ZMF Headphones (US) made out of cowhide (not that originals were bothering me, just wanted a premium pad), they smell like a couch and are super comfortable. I have big ears and still fit inside the cups.

Now the big question is, I got an integrated soundcard with optical (toslink) out, hooked to my 5.1 pioneer reciever, would I benefit from buying a dedicated sound card (must be external)?

What are your setups? Are you happy with sound?

 

[CMDR Goro]

Old (15+ years) hiend Creative 2.1 speakers with big wooden woofer.
Best pc related purchase i ever made.
On the go (handhelds) i use Philips FS3 foldable headphines. Were dirt cheap, have suprisingly good isolation and great sound (bass to ritch for my taste but im kinda strange bout that) and comfortable to boot!

 

[Kvas]

A lot of people say that m40x is lacking in bass but I found them adequate, I don't like boomy sounding headphones but I guess that depend on music you are listening.
Still on a quest to find a good portable solution because as much as I love my headphones... they kinda look ridiculous with the pads

aaaaaaaaaa by Pawel Grzonkowski, on Flickr

Are you using some kind of dedicated sound card? or just onboard? is there still a big difference between them if your onboard have a optical port?

 

[DNA-Decay]

it's a modmic and it's got a magnetic bit that you glue to your headphones, job done.
What are your setups? Are you happy with sound?

Can confirm: the Antlion ModMic is sufficient quality for comms if you are into nice sound.
Will not replace your large diaphragm studio condenser mic, but more than adequate.

Heat is a major factor in Darwin so in the mid priced cans range, I've gone with these ATs

Three years of wear and the cushions are still comfortable and not frayed.
Can't remember the model number. Not my "work" cans, but comfy and plenty of sticking spots for the ModMic.

I'm a grumpy old sound guy, so I've got Genelec 1029s with a sub from my editing days.
I'm too polite to annoy the neighbours, but I can if provoked.

The cans hang on a little retractable hook.
That's right - the little hook springs back neat and flat when you put them on.

The main problem with this rig is it's pretty intimidating for elderly house guests who just want to watch the news.

 

[CMDR Goro]

[...]
Are you using some kind of dedicated sound card? or just onboard? is there still a big difference between them if your onboard have a optical port?

That strongly depends on your motherboard type. Main reason why youd want separate sound card woud be to distance (and on fancier devices, shield) it from sources of RF radiation.
Now, on modern full sized ATX mobos onboard sound card is "good enough" if youre using either external amp or just powered speakers. (As output is to low to feed "good" ones).
If using headphones output gain is usually not issue at all.

Now if you have low end, or Dende forbid one of em ITX boards, there can be significant amount of interference from other components. To the point where there is audible humm in a background at all times. In that case eaven ceapest USB card will perform better.

 

[GTwannabe]

Recently bought these AIAIAI cans:

Super comfortable and they're fully modular so easy to fix if something breaks.

But I usually pump audio through an Onkyo receiver, Cambridge Soundworks satellites, and a 10" Klipsch sub.

 

[two quiet suns]

i play elite on my pmc studio monitors!! epicccccccc

 

[CAPT. Ho Chi Minge]

Indeed, i forked out for soundcard and a decent pair of cans. The difference in terms of clarity and stage is night and day, originally i picked them up for FPS games (arma and battelfield) the sounds i was noticing that simply were not present or audible was astonishing. Also great for placing where the footsteps were coming and how far

Ive always used them with elite so cant really comment on whether they improved the soundscape bit i would imagine so since the change in my FPS games was so noticable.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

I bought this:

 

[Valethar]

Had a pair of Razer Carcharias (the originals, not the crappy remakes that sucked). The volume control on those finally died after about 5 years (far too soon given what they cost) and I ended up picking up a pair of HyperX Cloud II's. The 'virtual surround' is sort of gimmicky, but I expected that. Even with that, the sound is so much better than my old Razer cans, to the point that I hear things I've never heard in game before.

We're all used to hearing the station announcements as we're doing our business. What I noticed immediately with the new cans is that there's near constant background chatter on comms, not unlike a police, fire or military net. I can't always make out what they're saying, but you can definitely hear chatter in the background, which is something I never got with my Carcharias cans.

A good headset can definitely make a world of difference.

OP has my condolences on those trashy Beats cans. PEople get suckered into them because they have 'dre' on them, and because Monster used to make some decent hardware. They're utterly overpriced garbage now, though. I worked in the electronics department at Target years ago, when these came out, and I always worked hard to set folks up with a good set of Bose, or a decent set of Sony's if Bose was too pricey. Those Beats cans were constantly broken on the display. You couldn't have paid me to take a set of those.

 

[Hellfire85]

nothing beats a pair of Sennheiser CX 3.00 in-ear plugs and a good EQ setting when it comes to immerse yourself into the game

 

[Whiterose]

£75 budget??? I got some off e-bay for £15 and they are absolutely superb.

 

[Zebaoth]

Headphones can sound pretty good and are a compromise if you don't want to disturb anyone while playing games.

Usually I prefer my 5.1 system which makes elite truly shine audio wise.

Settings on full range, amplifier two thirds up, and I am sitting inside that ship.

The amount of membrane area from the front and rear channels relentlessly forces the air around me to move,
makes cannon or hull noises palpable on the desk and hotas case.

The first time flying through a mailbox at wall shaking volumes nearly made me fall out of the chair, such a distinct and prominent sound, one of those rare gaming moments I'll always remember.

Having a 15" custom built subwoofer the size of a washing machine gives a whole other meaning to the famous 'honk'.
This sound has frequencies down to the mid-20Hz region and even lower, which can not be reproduced by headphones, not by that magnitude.

Every elite player owes it to the audio engineers in this game to at least try and find someone with a potent 5.1 system to play elite on it.

 

[babelfisch]

Headphones: AKG 612 Pro

Soundcard: ASUS Xonar Essence STX

Problem:
I always think someone is standing behind me...

 

[Straker]

...
Now the big question is, I got an integrated soundcard with optical (toslink) out, hooked to my 5.1 pioneer reciever, would I benefit from buying a dedicated sound card (must be external)?

What are your setups? Are you happy with sound?

Remember that these days a sound card is not always a necessity. I run non-lossy 5.1 digital audio through the HDMI from my video card into my NAD T758/Focal Chorus 5.1 setup and don't have an active sound card installed.

 

[two quiet suns]

RME Fireface UC here

 

[the100thmonkey]

For wired listening, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD555s. They're nearly ten years old, still sound brilliant, and flatly refuse to die.

For wireless, I have a pair of Sony MDR DS-7100. They sound acceptable, but I can't for the life of me notice the surround working.

For speakers, I use a pair of PreSonus Eris E4.5 active monitors with a Yamaha active sub (whose model number I can't recall right now). The discovery scanner is pretty awesome through them. They're currently taking their input from the onboard chip, because I can't find a decent soundcard that gives low enough latency for VSTis and has a separate .1 channel for the sub while not costing too much.

 

[CMDR MERANGO]

Can confirm: the Antlion ModMic is sufficient quality for comms if you are into nice sound.
Will not replace your large diaphragm studio condenser mic, but more than adequate.

Heat is a major factor in Darwin so in the mid priced cans range, I've gone with these ATs
https://i.warosu.org/data/g/img/0537/73/1459370637291.jpg
Three years of wear and the cushions are still comfortable and not frayed.
Can't remember the model number. Not my "work" cans, but comfy and plenty of sticking spots for the ModMic.

I'm a grumpy old sound guy, so I've got Genelec 1029s with a sub from my editing days.
I'm too polite to annoy the neighbours, but I can if provoked.
https://inara.cz/data/gallery/8/8931x1897.jpg
The cans hang on a little retractable hook.
That's right - the little hook springs back neat and flat when you put them on.

The main problem with this rig is it's pretty intimidating for elderly house guests who just want to watch the news.

You gots to play it LOUDDDDDDDDdddddddddddddddddddd

Love that rig, nice one.

CMIV

 

[Kvas]

Yup, I had hyperX cloud II's and are not bad, I think those are just a rebrand of Trackstar pro 80 if I'm not mistaken. Kingston had a great idea to market a decent headphones as a gaming headset and just changed the colours and slapped a mic on them, the amount of positive reviews those get is a proof that a quality wins over gimmicky bull, still even they had to include "surround" which sound horrible. I wish more gaming companies took notice of that, and gave gamers decent sounding cans, people don't know what they are missing.

The problem with those is the USB dongle, which broke after like 2 months, and fixed cable which started giving me problems soon after. For me since then a removable cable is a must. I was really off when I had to return to wearing beats again

I think I'll try creative sound blaster x-fi hd sound card and see if there is any difference. Even if there is none creative always had a suit of useful software.

Thanks for recommendation of Sennheiser CX300 plugs, I'll check them out.

 

[dognosh]

Had them all, from good stereo headphones(+mic) , to separate headphones+mic, to 5.1 headphones, to 5.1 EGG surround speaker set up,and many more.

Of all of those the one I have stuck with the most, and many years, is a fantastic BOSE stereo setup . I can't praise the sound on these things enough.

p.s. I am talking gaming, not music(though with decent track quality it does sound good)