Considering New Headset

[Cold Storm]

Yeah, from what I've read at headfi, they are a great set of cans, just didn't see what it was all about.. I should go and grab them now since it was before I even had my Auzen Sound card.. Maybe they sound like they should.. He tried to sell them but there was never a bite over here or there..

 

[Kursah]

This keeps up we'll have to change the title to TPU's Gaming Headset Help Thread or something lol! Good info, that's not the first report of Medusa pro gamer's sounding like they had an echo...my LTB's had a hollowness, but the largest drivers were 30mm iirc...that set was horrible overall..though placement of sounds was ok.

I'd still like to also try out the Astro A40 full dice kit, mixamp and all, I've heard those are a force to be reckoned with, but at $250...they better be! BumbleBee, in a couple weeks I think I'm still gonna pick up a set of those Cyber Snipa's just to try em' out. I have a friend who'd probably buy em off me if I don't wanna keep em, I'm not doubting the JVC's, but I've read so much good about those Snipa's I just feel I gotta try em. It'll give me a good reason to do a comparo for sure.

 

[Cold Storm]

NO, if this keeps up, maybe we can get the sub forum.. lol...

if you willing to go used, I might suggest going to headfi and seeing what they have in the line of stuff.. You may find something you've wanted cheaper... That is if you don't mind used... But, that is My Opinion.

 

[BumbleBee]

http://www.medusa-usa.com/medusa-nx....html?osCsid=49cfca4a06d6bb047fdad78a066aa56d

pretty expensive even for Americans. not sure what improvements they made but the frame is different the cups rotate and microphone is non detachable that might seem like a con but it is a pro. I mean what are you guys going to do buy a professional studio microphone and hope your voice sounds like Frank Sinatra *wipes tear from eye* maybe your opponents will lay down their arms and forfeit the match.

 

[Cold Storm]

Yeah they are pretty nice. I gotta say I'd pick up the NX if i didn't have the Equations.. I'm more of a bassy person..

Lol... I try and not have to speak much when I'm in game.. I hate talking as it is... lol.. Going for a record of edit's BumbleBee? j/k

 

[BumbleBee]

don't underestimate some of the 5.1 headsets my Cyber Snipa Sonar will shake the fillings out of your gums. same with the eDimensional AudioFX. I keep my bass low I like to hear it but not be overwhelmed or look like i'm having a seizure [insert clip from Tropic Thunder - Seizure Dance]

 

[Kursah]

NO, if this keeps up, maybe we can get the sub forum.. lol...

if you willing to go used, I might suggest going to headfi and seeing what they have in the line of stuff.. You may find something you've wanted cheaper... That is if you don't mind used... But, that is My Opinion.

I don't mind used, but I have JVC HA-RX700's on the way, so I'm pretty stoked there, it's been a while since I had actual cans, I've been using gaming headsets for soooo many years. I still have a place for those HPA2's, and I'm really on the edge about getting the Snipa's, plug em in the usb when I wanna use em', unplug em when I don't, she can keep the HPA2's, both of us are happy.

I might try the Astro's in the future, though I wouldn't mind that mix amp, I'd like some sort of external volume control that at least doesn't kill the sound...so I'll probably end up getting some sort of amp, I was thinking a FiiO E5 for my first one, leave it plugged in the USB since it'll never leave my desk, but Gary's PA2V2 amp looks pretty nice and rates decently, plus I like it's volume knob and setup. I just have no experience here, and it's tough to get answers...not many on head-fi responding to my posts...dunno if it's eletist bs or if noone has suggestion on parts for my budget lol, or if it got overlooked...so I'm hoping for an Audio sub-forum here instead.

 

[BumbleBee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALmTlcAxKa4

 

[Cold Storm]

Nice Tropic Thunder BumbleBee.. Yeah, I get what your saying on the 5.1's.. I looked around at the Cybers and might even throw them out to try... I love the bass, but I hate to have something on my ears and not know whats going on around me... I even gotta take the dust off my Equations every now and again..

Glad you got the cans Kursah, it's a start to a loving future!

 

[Kursah]

Nice Tropic Thunder BumbleBee.. Yeah, I get what your saying on the 5.1's.. I looked around at the Cybers and might even throw them out to try... I love the bass, but I hate to have something on my ears and not know whats going on around me... I even gotta take the dust off my Equations every now and again..

Glad you got the cans Kursah, it's a start to a loving future!

You think I'll need to worry about amping them? From what I've read my X-Fi should power them just fine, but I'd really like to have a master volume control in-line...even if that means getting an amp (which seems to be the only good and affordable way). I'm sooo used to it from my headsets I will hate using my KB for volume control. That's one thing that's got me irked about the new cans. I'm sure after burn in they'll sound good, but I prefer to keep my X-fi at about 60% volume, and set games/media to about 70-100%, then use the external volume control from there. Maybe I'm just being overly picky, but it was a nice convenience the headsets had for sure.

 

[bpgt64]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106328

Own em, Love em. I don't think I'll ever waste any money on headphones ever again because of how durable, and amazing sounding these are. Got mine on sale for 100 bucks

*DAMN YOU NEWEGG*!!!!! and your awesome shellshocker deals!!!

 

[Kursah]

Own em, Love em. I don't think I'll ever waste any money on headphones ever again because of how durable, and amazing sounding these are. Got mine on sale for 100 bucks

Reason I didn't get those HD280's is so many people replaced them with the JVC ha-rx700's and said hands down for less money you get better sound and way better bass and bass response (after a good 100+ hour break-in tho). If you look a page or two back though, I was seriously considering them. It's hard believing a $33 set of cans can match or even beat a $100 set, but I've seen many claims and comparos of these JVC's compared to many on [H] and Head-Fi to sell me on trying them out. At worst I sell them and go with senns as I initially planned..but time will tell for sure.

 

[BumbleBee]

the only issue with the Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 is the default presets in the drivers are terrible it will take you a while to set it up to your liking. a lot of the issues have been fixed in driver updates like sometimes when you used to use the microphone it would give you a BSOD. some people claim USB Power Problems because it takes up a lot but I have never experienced that and I have a Mouse and MP3 Player plugged in. it's the most comfortable headset or headphones I have ever worn the inner cups are made out of velour not pleather, vinyl or even leather and the cups are open so your ears can breathe but it comes at a cost of audio leakage inside each cup is 4 drivers front, center, surround and subwoofer for a total of 8 drivers which are actually pointed away from your ear to give you that extra surround sound experience. the in-line controller is light weight and comes with a 3 meter cord so you have enough slack to enjoy a round of Team Fortress 2 and strangling your younger sibling at the same time, bright power and mic led, volume up, volume down, headphone mute, microphone on and microphone off. the drivers resemble creative drivers and are flexible. I had pretty low expectations when buying them I knew the quality wasn't going to be the greatest but I didn't buy them for that I bought them for audio positioning but I have to say they did surprise me in music. I don't really have anything bad to say about them they don't make me a better gamer but they give me a leg up. I definitely recommend them to people who have laptops, suffer from constant turn around paranoia in-game (you know who you are!) or just meat heads with big ass heads.

 

[bpgt64]

Reason I didn't get those HD280's is so many people replaced them with the JVC ha-rx700's and said hands down for less money you get better sound and way better bass and bass response (after a good 100+ hour break-in tho). If you look a page or two back though, I was seriously considering them. It's hard believing a $33 set of cans can match or even beat a $100 set, but I've seen many claims and comparos of these JVC's compared to many on [H] and Head-Fi to sell me on trying them out. At worst I sell them and go with senns as I initially planned..but time will tell for sure.

I have had mine since last November, easily put 200 hours on them, and haven't noticed a difference between out of the box and now. Whats more, I am not so sure how sturdy a 33 dollar pair of headphones are in comparison to the Sennheisers..but heh if it gets the job done, it gets the job done. All that matters is whether your happy with em ya know?

All I know, and I will go ahead and admit this. I spend so much time at my desktop, I tend to kill headphones and headsets in general by dropping them...sitting on them...heh...and lets just say these bad boys have survived all those tests...hell I bruised my ass the first time I sat on em..So Sennheiser has a permanent client in me.

 

[BumbleBee]

Sennheiser looks cheap, feels cheap but it takes a real Boo Boo the Foo to break them but other companies in the same price range use better materials. I have owned the HD201, 202 and currently own the HD515. if for some miraculous reason I need to buy another stereo headphones like I slip on a banana peel and squash my HD515 I think I will be looking at Audio Technia or Beyer.

another stereo headset to consider is SteelSeries very popular in Europe.

 

[Kursah]

I have had mine since last November, easily put 200 hours on them, and haven't noticed a difference between out of the box and now. Whats more, I am not so sure how sturdy a 33 dollar pair of headphones are in comparison to the Sennheisers..but heh if it gets the job done, it gets the job done. All that matters is whether your happy with em ya know?

All I know, and I will go ahead and admit this. I spend so much time at my desktop, I tend to kill headphones and headsets in general by dropping them...sitting on them...heh...and lets just say these bad boys have survived all those tests...hell I bruised my ass the first time I sat on em..So Sennheiser has a permanent client in me.

Well take some time to thumb through these threads, my HPA2's are pretty tough, they've had their fair share of drops, kicks, stepping on, sitting on, etc. The JVC's seem to be pretty tough overall, no complaints of them falling apart I can remember reading tbh. I really hope I'm as happy with them as many seem to be, I gotta be patient for the break-in, hell I even noticed break-in on my HPA2's after about 50-60 hours things were a lot more cleared up than when I first used them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! But at $33 bucks, I'll take a chance!

JVC harx700 - a poor mans ath-a900!! - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1353088
Same thread, just on Head-Fi, different responses tho - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/jvc-harx700-poor-mans-ath-a900-369863/

JVC harx700 vs JVC harx900 - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/ha-rx700-vs-ha-rx900-388535/

JVC HAR-X700 and 900. Two of the best dynamics? Am I nuts? - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/jvc-har-x700-900-two-best-dynamics-am-i-nuts-375575/

 

[BumbleBee]

cheers... you just layed bpgt64 out like jesus. least you didn't kick him when he was down you gave him a toast. I like that. they seem pretty good for the price.

http://www.truveo.com/Fight-Scene-Happy-Gilmore/id/2351268717

 

[Kursah]

Not trying to smack anyone down, those are just a small portion of the reading I've done over the last 2 weeks or so. Those threads helped me decide to go JVC and then decide to go with the cheaper 700's. I'm a habitual toaster here on TPU, I tried to get the smiley for my custom phrase, but W1z said it probably wouldn't work. Oh well! \

I figured I'd also add some of the stuff I've learned, there's a ton out there and I'm barely scratching the surface, I don't plan on going all hardcore audiophile, can't afford it...but if I can do well on a budget, I'm there! With music and gaming as my preference that leaves me with lots of choices that get better every year!

Edit to Bumblebee's edit above: Haha, I haven't seen that in so long! Good call sir!

 

[bpgt64]

Testing or no testing, It's difficult from my perspective to imagine anything better than Sennheisers after using them for so long... maybe that's my own complacency or lack need for huge amounts of bass when using headphones. More than likely the headphones are incredibly close in quality, possibly even better than Sennheisers, BUT untill mine break I'll be sticking with the 500+ more newegg.com reviews that like them over the JVCs. I couldn't be happier, atleast I don't think so with anything other than the Sennheiser Maybe I'll get my Wife a pair as an excuse to test em out

And just for clarification I am talking about the HD 280s not the 201/202/505s

You do completely have a point when it comes to price however. I more than likely would have gone for the cheaper pair at the time, however I got the Sennheisers on sale for half-off of 200 bucks.

 

[Kursah]

The 280's are a good set from what I hear and have been out for quite some time, so they do stand the test of time yet I just couldn't find enough good to justify them for what I wanted and how I wanted it and when I'm reading of people replacing them with those damn JVC's that were much cheaper I had to fall sucker for it! Also, my JVC's showed up and I'm just amazed right now. They're quite large in comparison to what I thought was an already somewhat large HPA2 headset...not even close lol!

Just about 10 minutes into listening to them, and I gotta say they sound great, tight and low bass, I had to turn it down a bit from what I used on the HPA2...these draw so much deeper it doesn't need to boom for good sound, mids are a little rough now though which I hear will open up as I use em. Hi's seem ok, but need to grow too. Gotta say for what I paid, they're definately amazing, I think I'll grab another set eventually, but I might look at getting the HA-DX3's later on as an upgrade to these. So far, I'm extremely impressed. The x-fi drives them quite well, and the sound is damn good so far...looking forward to getting them broken in and doing the boom mic mod to them! If they improve from how they sound now I definately give them two thumbs up and a recommendation.

 

[Kursah]

Update: Well after a day and a half of break-in and music listening, I can't even stand my HPA2's...that should say something. These JVC's literally rock, a little EQ tuning and bass boost (for my personal bass-head needs) and I'm so impressed it's almost rediculous. Again I haven't tried games and will report back when that happens, but I can say that some lower Q MP3's definatley show their ugly face while better Q ones benefit greatly by these just driven off my X-Fi. I'm planning on getting the Auzen X-Fi Forte as it has all the stuff I'm used to + headphone amp here shortly too, but I gotta say...damn...these trump my HPA2's in every respect musically...it's not even funny.



Edit: Tbh, this headset in X-fi gaming mode + headphone mode with CMMS-3D enabled really doesn't make me miss my beloved HPA2's for gaming either...wow...can't believe I just aid that...but damn, the sound stage is much larger even though the RX700's are a closed headphone compared to the smaller HPA2's being an open 5.1...no contest...gaming, they're solid too...wow.

 

[Frederik S]

The JVC RX700s are definitely a good set of headphones heard them at a local electronics store. Not a set that totally wowed me but for $33 they are damn near unbeatable plus they will work fine being powered by just about any sound card around today.

The PC-350s are way overrated. If you want the best sound quality you should always buy a decent set of headphones and then add a mic to it. The omnidirectional Zalman clip-ons work great.

When it comes to the HD-555 vs HD 280 Pro. You should always get the HD-555s sound quality wise they are lightyears ahead of the 280s. If you absolutely need the attenuation the 280s are the better bet but otherwise they are simply not worth it.

 

[Kursah]

Nice info man, I'm completely happy with the RX700's, I might go to a set of HA-DX3's in the future, a buddy said he could sell me a set for about $60...so I might consider them. But after breaking-in my 700's and removing the felt, they perform quite well, though i still need bass boost to get decent bass out of them for the kind of music I listen to. I've vastly depleted my bank account and increased my music collection with lossless goodies now as I can hear a difference quite easily.

I'm considering a few options for better sound output though...one is the Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1, has the X-Fi goodies I'm used to, better components for the primary front channels, dedicated amp for headphone output, it's price is the biggest issue I have at this point.

I've also considered a dedicated desktop headphone amp, but at the same time...bleh, I'm not that kind of audiophile and to get anything decent or what would be considered worth while, I'll either have to go used and take a risk, or buy new at $200+++ and take a risk, too many variables and opinions.

Another option is finding a reciever and using it for a monitor shelf too, which would actually be nice to have. Though, I wouldn't necessarily want to power it using SPDIF from my X-Fi and lose my mic-in, which is required for my clan gaming. But I suppose a 3.5mm to RCA for input would work out. Use the line out for my X-230's and be good to go. Right now this sounds like the best option I have atm, unless I can find the forte for under $100...I just can't justify buying it...plus it'd be nice if the X-Fi Titanium front panel had amped headphone output too (i've read that it does and doesn't...so I dunno what to take from that, plus at 80 bucks..not a good value imo), but instant switching to Game mode and Cmms-3d mode plus volume/gain control on the headphone and mic circuits would be handy as hell.

I know there's much better than my current JVC's, but I'm so damn happy with them, and some EQ tuning, I can't believe the difference between these and the HPA2's....not even funny. She can keep them damn HPA2's...I didn't know what I was missing lol, and that's an a cheap set of cans.

 

[Duxx]

Nice info man, I'm completely happy with the RX700's, I might go to a set of HA-DX3's in the future, a buddy said he could sell me a set for about $60...so I might consider them. But after breaking-in my 700's and removing the felt, they perform quite well, though i still need bass boost to get decent bass out of them for the kind of music I listen to. I've vastly depleted my bank account and increased my music collection with lossless goodies now as I can hear a difference quite easily.

I'm considering a few options for better sound output though...one is the Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1, has the X-Fi goodies I'm used to, better components for the primary front channels, dedicated amp for headphone output, it's price is the biggest issue I have at this point.

I've also considered a dedicated desktop headphone amp, but at the same time...bleh, I'm not that kind of audiophile and to get anything decent or what would be considered worth while, I'll either have to go used and take a risk, or buy new at $200+++ and take a risk, too many variables and opinions.

Another option is finding a reciever and using it for a monitor shelf too, which would actually be nice to have. Though, I wouldn't necessarily want to power it using SPDIF from my X-Fi and lose my mic-in, which is required for my clan gaming. But I suppose a 3.5mm to RCA for input would work out. Use the line out for my X-230's and be good to go. Right now this sounds like the best option I have atm, unless I can find the forte for under $100...I just can't justify buying it...plus it'd be nice if the X-Fi Titanium front panel had amped headphone output too (i've read that it does and doesn't...so I dunno what to take from that, plus at 80 bucks..not a good value imo), but instant switching to Game mode and Cmms-3d mode plus volume/gain control on the headphone and mic circuits would be handy as hell.

I know there's much better than my current JVC's, but I'm so damn happy with them, and some EQ tuning, I can't believe the difference between these and the HPA2's....not even funny. She can keep them damn HPA2's...I didn't know what I was missing lol, and that's an a cheap set of cans.

Im about to test out these JVC's alongside a zalman microphone for 11$ since you love them so much

 

[Kursah]

Sweet I hope they treat you well! I was gonna grab that zalman mic, it would've been faster, but I ended up ordering a boom mic similar to the HPA2's, and about 9ft of 3.5mm extension, I'm gonna do a zip-tie mod to mount the boom mic to the LH ear cup, in similar fashion to the HPA2...I loved that mic, it recorded loud and clear, sounded very good, here's a link if you decide to try something different, but be warned, shipping takes a couple of weeks...:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/dt...can-work-other-headphones-312405/#post4027549

Don't get me wrong, they're not total pwnage, but they have gobs of bass, the felt mod and break-in bring out the mids and hi's, music is just great on them, gaming is also damn good. For the price, I can't believe how good they really are. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! Be warned, they are quite large, they make my HPA2's look small in comparison, and those made my old plantronics and logitech headsets look tiny lol.