Am looking for a new pair of headphones, mostly for gaming. The two aspects I care mostly about are comfort and good audio. Therefore wondering about people’s recommendations and experiences with headphones. What’s been your best headphones so far and why?
I’ve been using a pair of Sennheiser HD210s for closer to 10 years. Light and comfy and decent audio quality for the price.
I got the same pair many years ago for just 20€. They were amazing for the price, but sadly the rubber for the earpads and headband got flakey and i wasn’t able to enjoy them anymore… I’m using the HD569 now with replacable cables and earpads, but they are a bit pricey compared to the HD210.
Steelseries arctics 7
Reasonably comfortable, reasonably priced (if you catch a sale about $100usd), good mic with monitoring, wireless, but most importantly: they just work. I’ve had the same pair for 5ish years and have never had to troubleshoot.
Arctis 7 was truly the best headset, I have three pairs at this point. None of them broken - all were purchased because the headset was so good I wanted one for the office and for my wife.
However, Steelseries seems deadset on making worse versions of the Arctis with every iteration. The 9 was altogether disappointing and they are really trying to force all the features like the chat mix into Sonar software instead. Really disappointing.
Yeah. I’ve got an Artist Pro Wireless, and Sonar stuff has screwed it up in weird ways
I have a pair of these and I absolutely love them, so much so I convinced a few others to get them too.
Two of us have since had mic issues over he last couple of years where the mic is garbled and not clear. Not sure if it’s a uemser error or issue with them.
Other than that they have good batter, good ange from base, easy to setup, good audio quality, good controls, don’t weigh too much. Would buy again.
I’ve had mine for years and I really like them. The stupid band thing is all stretched out, and the poorly designed power button snapped internally so I had to drill a hole in the casing to turn them on now but otherwise working great!
I wish they had USB C.
Sennheiser pc38x if you want a headset, I’ve just been using monoprice bt600ancs with a vmoda boom mic on it. They’re fine, it’s ye old v shape in terms of frequency response.
The pc38xs were nice. They are open back so if bleed is a concern, be mindful. (The pc38xs were my friend’s headset, I just tried them when I visited)
I’ve been using my Sennheiser HD 598 s for over 10 years. I’d recommend anything the same shape/size: being large over ears means it doesn’t touch or squeeze your ears at all. Being open backed and velvet padded stop my ears getting hot and sweaty. Being wired saves weight, prevents lag/quality concerns and isn’t too big a deal in a stationary gaming situation.
I do need to use an external mic for chatting, which is not ideal if you’re gonna be always in voice chats when gaming. Dedicated gaming headsets tend to not sound as good for the same price, but can’t deny the convenience.
Here is a recent rundown of recommendations by audiophile youtubers for gaming headphones might be worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIwgVzSiZ68
I have a pair of HD 600. While I love them for music, I also am a bit sad for them to not have very good bass, which I think is very important for ambiance in a lot of games.
I just replaced my headphones with a set of these https://global.beyerdynamic.com/dt-770-pro-x-limited-edition.html
They’re so comfortable and sound incredible, they’re mostly intended for audio work which I do use them for but for gaming they’re so precise and clear too! Also incredibly comfy and loads of aftermarket stuff available for the dt700 pro x which are also excellent.
You’ll want a mic with these and I can also recommend this if you want a headset style mic rather than a standalone one on your desk: https://antlionaudio.com/collections/microphones
I would second getting a separate microphone/headphone instead of a combined headset.
All the headsets I owned over the years were significantly worse in audio quality and broke after a few years, usually something related to the microphone.
I went with a Sennheiser 598 with a Modmic for years, which was ok but switched to a beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro about 4 years ago.
So far my favorite out of all the headphones I owned. Very clear sound, comfortable, actually “Made in Germany”, and they still provide replacement parts on their website. Replaced my ear pads just a month ago or so.
The Modmic is decent but there is a lot of room for improvement, I was never able to find a proper alternative though.
+1 for antlion modmic wireless. It’s idiot proof, it sounds amazing, and it lets me use my Sennheisers.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned https://www.rtings.com/headphones
They specifically analyze headphones for comfort and audio quality among many other qualities.
They have a table view mode where you can filter down to exactly what kind of headphones you are interested in buying and then make a selection from the results set.
I just purchased a pair of these a few weeks ago, and I love them: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/philips/fidelio-x2hr
I specifically filtered down to headphones with a low latency wired connection by adding a column to the table view, and I didn’t need an included microphone.
If you must have a microphone included, the best headphones you can buy currently that have a low latency wired connection are the Astro A40’s, but they had less than stellar treble I believe. Check the detailed review.
That’s a great site. Thanks.
This website is exactly what I have been looking for! Thanks for sharing 🌻
I tried a bunch of different gaming headsets over the years but as I got older and gave up on online games, I grabbed a pair of AudioTechnica ATH-M50 and have probably had them at least a decade now. They’re closed ear studio monitor headphones so they sound great and are comfortable with long use. I’ve replaced both the cushions and the cable and they still work great.
I think the current variant is the ATH-M50x.
AKG K371. Affordable (although it’s gone up since the pandemic), comfortable, and follows the Harman curve closely so will be pleasing to most ears even without EQ.
I’ve had the HyperX Cloud for 3 or 4 years and really like them. It felt a little uncomfortable for the first week or so after switching from a crappy cheap SteelSeries headset because of how good the soundproofing is. I bought my brother the Cloud II and he also likes it.
I’m on my 2nd Cloud 2 headset, love them. The only issue is the plastic on the sides tends to crack after a couple years.
HyperX Cloud Alpha is the most comfortable I’ve used - could wear those all day, no pressure points. Sound quality is fantastic, largely due to the closed-back design.
And if you’re not already familiar with the difference between open- and closed-back headphones, definitely learn it! Something not often discussed in headset articles is how YOU sound when wearing them. It’s a bit weird to describe, but you ofc hear yourself when you speak, and something that alters how you’re supposed to sound can be jarring as fuck.
The you sound when you speak without having anything on your head or in your ears, would be most comparable to open-back headphones.
If you plug your ears and then speak, you’ll sound weird, and hearing yourself sound weird can make speaking feel weird.
…idk if I’m doing a good job putting this to words. For real, just stick your fingers in your ears and start saying a few sentences, you’ll hear what I mean.
I did NOT know the difference when I got my HyperX’s, and it took a while to get used to speaking with them on. Had I known the difference, I probably would have looked for an open-back model instead. I love em now, but again it did take a bit to get there.
KSC75 with yaxi pads and headband because it is light and comfortable even when it is hot. And it’s cheap.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 DAC, then any decent studio headphones, I use a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-m50x’s. I use a separate mic connected with an xlr cable to the dac. I could never go back to a combined “gaming” headset.
I’ve been running a pair of Sennhesiser PC 350’s for something like 10 years now? Not sure. I used to game a lot more than I do now and eventually the ear cushions started falling apart. I was dreading replacing them though, and ended up getting some replacement cushions from Amazon or something. Was super easy to replace and they’ve been like new for the last year now. I’m a hardwire all of the things type person, and generally a cheapass so yeah, overall happy with this purchase!
I miss my Siberia Icemats. Those things were great.
I had a Plantronics RIG I won in a drawing I didn’t even know I was entered in, but it wasn’t that comfortable. One of those over the ear styles, but the cups were small so it just squeezed your ears instead of sit comfortably around them. But other than that, they were pretty amazing. Even came with a DAC.
Currently I have a Sony WH-XB910N but it’s just headphones. It does technically have a mic for using handsfree with a phone, but even though it shows up on PC as an input device, it doesn’t actually pick anything up so I can’t use it as a headset when gaming 😮💨
Astro A50, can wear it all day wireless and I barely even notice I wear them. Also easy to mute your mic when you want to. The sound quality also seems quite in order to me including the mic. Though please cross check that only with the true audiophiles. If this one ever breaks down I will definitely by another one.
