PC speakers & headphones recommendations

[Sol_Badguy]

Hello everyone,

I would like some advice about some PC speakers and also some headphones.

The budget I would say around 100 € for each.

The motherboard I'm going to get will almost certainly have the Realtek ALC1220 codec (or possibly ALC4080) and I will use the onboard solution.
Maybe in the future I will bother adding a USB DAC or something if it's worth it, so I am aiming that the speakers and headphones are a notch above the onboard audio to have headroom for possible future upgrades.
Also the motherboard will almost certainly have the austere Line out, Mic In, SPDIF config on the rear I/O. And WiFi 7 + Bluetooth.

Usage: Everyday work on the PC, viewing YT, video editing, also listening to music and also from time to time I will watch some movies.
The video editing requirements are regarding my YT channel, I will need to narrate my videos and then listen to the recorded audio and other effects to make sure it sounds right (at least to me), so the quality of the speakers needs to be at least adequate for this task.
About the music, I listen predominantly to death metal if that has any relevance, the vast majority of my collection is 320 mp3 but I have no problem upgrading some stuff (I suppose I can't upgrade everything I have to lossless) to flac or other lossless formats.
About watching movies I don't have any home cinema demands, I just want something basic for when I need to download and watch a movie on my PC.

Okay from my research I found some options, I imagine there are more which are worthy so please share them, here they are:

Edifier R1700BTs - 108 €
M-Audio BX4 BT - 105 €
Creative GigaWorks T40 S2 - 101 €
Edifier R1700BT - 91 €
PreSonus Eris 3.5 2nd Gen - 80 €

These are the lowest prices I can get them at right now. I looked for the actual MSRPs and it seems that all of them are below that, some more some less.
About the quality from what I've gathered the Edifiers appear to be best (generally speaking not sure if they're ideal for me) and also price-wise they are pretty good compared to their own MSRPs and to the competition.
Now a small problem is that from this video it appears that there is an actual sound difference between the BT and the BTs and not just the sub-out connector.
So I'm not sure if the BT is a better choice or if the BTs is?
Anyway regarding format I like the Creative T40 the most for being taller and slimmer and with the top port it means that they can be placed close to a wall and be fine.
However I will not sacrifice performance for compactness, and it seems the T40 lose to the Edifiers, also being very close in price I guess it's no contest.

So that's about it if you have any other recommendations please share, and if perhaps one of these above is a no-brainer choice let me know.

About the headphones, the usage is exactly the same as the speakers with perhaps more focus on the music aspect because I highly dislike having any ambient noise when I'm focused on listening music.
But apart from that the headphones are secondary to the speakers because of the comfort aspect, I will mainly use them when the ambient noise is high enough to warrant their usage and when I don't want to bother others in the house (especially at night).
From what I've gathered I need closed-back ones.

Here's what I found:

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - 100 €
Sony MDR-7506 - 98 €
Sennheiser HD-280 Pro - 82 €
Audio-Technica ATH-M30X - 72 €

Based on the price history in my country (Romania) and their $ MSRPs it looks like the only ones with a discount are the Sennheiser HD-280 Pros.
A bit dissapointing to be honest, but if one of these is a good choice I have no problem waiting for a BF discount or something like that.

And of course if you have other recommendations please let me know, I'll check and see if they're available in my country.

Thank you!

 

[Jops]

Are headphones the only option or iems are also acceptable?

 

[Sol_Badguy]

@Jops

They are but if I say yes it could mean that I would pick one over the other, when in fact I consider them different tools for slightly different uses.
So I would have both options available, although I don't think I would buy in-ear for about 100 €, maybe for half of that.

https://www.reddit.com/r/iems/comments/1h04qyg

I went through the sub $100 and the sub $50 lists (assuming they're good info), and I wouldn't know what to pick.

 

[evernessince]

Hello everyone,

I would like some advice about some PC speakers and also some headphones.

The budget I would say around 100 € for each.

The motherboard I'm going to get will almost certainly have the Realtek ALC1220 codec (or possibly ALC4080) and I will use the onboard solution.
Maybe in the future I will bother adding a USB DAC or something if it's worth it, so I am aiming that the speakers and headphones are a notch above the onboard audio to have headroom for possible future upgrades.
Also the motherboard will almost certainly have the austere Line out, Mic In, SPDIF config on the rear I/O. And WiFi 7 + Bluetooth.

Usage: Everyday work on the PC, viewing YT, video editing, also listening to music and also from time to time I will watch some movies.
The video editing requirements are regarding my YT channel, I will need to narrate my videos and then listen to the recorded audio and other effects to make sure it sounds right (at least to me), so the quality of the speakers needs to be at least adequate for this task.
About the music, I listen predominantly to death metal if that has any relevance, the vast majority of my collection is 320 mp3 but I have no problem upgrading some stuff (I suppose I can't upgrade everything I have to lossless) to flac or other lossless formats.
About watching movies I don't have any home cinema demands, I just want something basic for when I need to download and watch a movie on my PC.

Okay from my research I found some options, I imagine there are more which are worthy so please share them, here they are:

Edifier R1700BTs - 108 €
M-Audio BX4 BT - 105 €
Creative GigaWorks T40 S2 - 101 €
Edifier R1700BT - 91 €
PreSonus Eris 3.5 2nd Gen - 80 €

These are the lowest prices I can get them at right now. I looked for the actual MSRPs and it seems that all of them are below that, some more some less.
About the quality from what I've gathered the Edifiers appear to be best (generally speaking not sure if they're ideal for me) and also price-wise they are pretty good compared to their own MSRPs and to the competition.
Now a small problem is that from this video it appears that there is an actual sound difference between the BT and the BTs and not just the sub-out connector.
So I'm not sure if the BT is a better choice or if the BTs is?
Anyway regarding format I like the Creative T40 the most for being taller and slimmer and with the top port it means that they can be placed close to a wall and be fine.
However I will not sacrifice performance for compactness, and it seems the T40 lose to the Edifiers, also being very close in price I guess it's no contest.

So that's about it if you have any other recommendations please share, and if perhaps one of these above is a no-brainer choice let me know.

About the headphones, the usage is exactly the same as the speakers with perhaps more focus on the music aspect because I highly dislike having any ambient noise when I'm focused on listening music.
But apart from that the headphones are secondary to the speakers because of the comfort aspect, I will mainly use them when the ambient noise is high enough to warrant their usage and when I don't want to bother others in the house (especially at night).
From what I've gathered I need closed-back ones.

Here's what I found:

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - 100 €
Sony MDR-7506 - 98 €
Sennheiser HD-280 Pro - 82 €
Audio-Technica ATH-M30X - 72 €

Based on the price history in my country (Romania) and their $ MSRPs it looks like the only ones with a discount are the Sennheiser HD-280 Pros.
A bit dissapointing to be honest, but if one of these is a good choice I have no problem waiting for a BF discount or something like that.

And of course if you have other recommendations please let me know, I'll check and see if they're available in my country.

Thank you!

I would highly recommended trying to fit Fiio FT1s into your headphone budget. They aren't that much more expensive (at least where I live) and they are vastly better than the listed headphones. I remember using ATH-M50s over 12 years ago and they weren't that good then, let alone now. Small sound stage, mediocre comfort. Pretty par for the source for closed backs in this price range. I cannot imagine M40x will fare much better given it's one tier lower.

Fiio FT1s compete with $400 - $500 headphones. You might not want to even want to bother with speakers in the $100 price range after hearing them.

 

[_roman_]

The budget I would say around 100 € for each.

I went also through the same phase.

I bought an used audio interface. That is another word for a better sound card from M-Audio AIR 192|6.
You need special cables. I was forced to buy them anyway because my ASUS mainboard is electrically junk and bad designed in regards of audio. I wanted to use first the mainboard audio. Now I have cables which are unuseable because ASUS is junk.

I bought two ADAM T8V speakers. They are called studio monitors. I think even the little bit smaller and cheaper ADAM T7V are sufficient.

my setup is in teh range of 700€.

I may recommend / suggest to look into the studio monitor and audio interface section.

PreSonus Eris 3.5 2nd Gen - 80 €

do not buy em. Mine died after one year and a few months. These were my speakers before I went to my current setup.

I would like some advice about some PC speakers and also some headphones.

Well - Speakers and headphone usually point to an audio interface anyway. Maybe you want also a microphone or a guitar?

 

[Sol_Badguy]

I would highly recommended trying to fit Fiio FT1s into your headphone budget. They aren't that much more expensive (at least where I live) and they are vastly better than the listed headphones.

Thank you. They're available at 160 €. That's MSRP if I got the info right, so perhaps I should wait a bit for a discount.
I don't have a problem with the current price, but I got the feeling that by upgrading here I would also need to upgrade from using the onboard audio.
So that's more money, otherwise the headphones would be semi-wasted with the onboard audio. Or am I wrong?

I went also through the same phase.

Yeah, it's called the "I can't afford audiophile-grade peripherals right now" phase.

Well - Speakers and headphone usually point to an audio interface anyway. Maybe you want also a microphone or a guitar?

Actually I do need a microphone for voice-over on my YT videos.
Okay so then I won't get away with using the onboard audio, I need a dedicated soundcard?
That sounds (pun intended) like I'm going to bleed some serious money by going down this rabbithole.

 

[evernessince]

Thank you. They're available at 160 €. That's MSRP if I got the info right, so perhaps I should wait a bit for a discount.
I don't have a problem with the current price, but I got the feeling that by upgrading here I would also need to upgrade from using the onboard audio.
So that's more money, otherwise the headphones would be semi-wasted with the onboard audio. Or am I wrong?

The ALC1220 chip is decent and should let you experience most of the prowess of the FT1. They are easy to drive so they don't really need an AMP either. A higher quality DAC would slightly improve detail and soundstage but the benefit is relatively small compared to simply having better cans.

Actually I do need a microphone for voice-over on my YT videos.
Okay so then I won't get away with using the onboard audio, I need a dedicated soundcard?
That sounds (pun intended) like I'm going to bleed some serious money by going down this rabbithole.

You don't need a soundcard for most microphones nowadays. Mics like the AmpliGame A8 are cheap, high quality (very close to $100 mics in tests), and use USB (so that won't use your onboard sound).

If you already have an analog mic or just want to get both high quality DAC and MIC, the Schiit Fulla is very high quality and very reasonably priced (although it various from region, it's $110 USD in the US).

 

[_roman_]

Actually I do need a microphone for voice-over on my YT videos.
Okay so then I won't get away with using the onboard audio, I need a dedicated soundcard?
That sounds (pun intended) like I'm going to bleed some serious money by going down this rabbithole.

I do not own an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer and high expensive microphones and probes.

I got a headache wiht my T8V speakers. I figured out some sort of distortions because the speakers also have protected earth connection. The mainboard is faulty or the psu. I say it is 99% the bad mainboard design. Usually it does not matter as headphones or speakers are used without external power connection (which has also a protected earth pin)

the audio interface and special cables reduce those issues a lot. I think it helps taht my audio interface = call it soundcard = only has a usb 2.0 connection and not an extra power supply.

In short the realtek audio chip = hda intel software = has issues with powered external speakers on teh mainboard ASUS Prime X670-P. I suspect this is also the main point why my previous presonus eris 3.5 which died did not had any protected earth connection on the active power connection.

The alc1220 and others are just trash.

The ALC1220 chip is decent and should let you experience most of the prowess of the FT1. They are easy to drive so they don't really need an AMP either. A higher quality DAC would slightly improve detail and soundstage but the benefit is relatively small compared to simply having better cans.

i do not know any mainboard which as "balanced" feature on the ports or any quality. the mainboard audio is just for the cheap garbage logitech or creative junk speakers.

I disagree with the small benefit.

-- I want to give you another viewpoint and something to look into. I would not buy some ASUS or other common cheap brand sound card - regardless if it is external or internal. Proper gear will not connect or work on a mainbaord soundcard anyway.

 

[Timbaloo]

As for mic, there are good USB options, but tbh if I were to get a desk mic, I'd go with and XLR mic (plenty of options) and get a Focusrite Scarlett (Solo probably) audio interface. No need to waste money on "audiophile" equipment, most of that is just a load of bollocks or shiit (pun intended).

 

[evernessince]

i do not know any mainboard which as "balanced" feature on the ports or any quality. the mainboard audio is just for the cheap garbage logitech or creative junk speakers.

I disagree with the small benefit.

You are entitled to your opinion but the objective measurements say otherwise:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/b8p9l8

Realtek ALC1220 - a look on PC sound

If you purchased new desktop PC in last 3-4 years you probably have one of those on your motherboard. Since I spent few last weeks trying to make it work as best I could, here are few findings: 1. Technical data about the chip were already summarized here...

www.audiosciencereview.com

-- I want to give you another viewpoint and something to look into. I would not buy some ASUS or other common cheap brand sound card - regardless if it is external or internal.

Price has little to do with the quality of sound output. The original o2 proved that as does the JDS Labs Atom Dac 2 at $150, which provides very near state of the art performance.

There do exist competent sound cards as well: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...u-audio-pro-review-internal-sound-card.19728/

Proper gear will not connect or work on a mainbaord soundcard anyway.

"Proper gear"? I've got $2,000 cans that will run off mainboard audio so this is simply false. Would I run them off mainboard? No because at that price point it 100% makes sense to get a high quality unit.

You are taking too elitist of an approach to this, at the price point OP is purchasing in the objective measurements (and from my own experience) they are not loosing much. The sound quality increase they get from having a decent set of cans is far greater than a DAC/AMP upgrade. They can upgrade those later if they want to. This is called giving them the most bang for their buck.

 

[_roman_]

I tried to explain how I came to my conclusion. Your opinion. My opinion.

You may have cheap stuff which does not go near the net frequency. Some cheap speakers can not go below 80Hz.

Those audio reviews. LOL. The output should be a straigt line on the horizontal logarithmic scale. This is from a technical viewpoint.

Feel free to disagree. I also made the point and explained the balanced stuff. some will never understand. I think some stuff can not really be understood for some people. Espeically for ... decent audio interface is not needed. DAC = digital analog converter => pleas keep it simple for the inital poster. Write sound card, and if you use audio interface, also explain in the post, it is another word for a fancy sound card. amp = amplifier -> keep it simple. it is just another part. and do not tell me you suggest an external amplifier and passive speakers. I have a reason why i bought a complete speaker, which is active speaker, which takes in the "audio signal" with an external power connector.

When you go for all the stuff. than go on and explain every tech term and word - especially as it is a topic for post #1.

you may look at topic 1. you may read what i wrote before you replied please again.

 

[mclaren85]

Razer and steelseries also make speakers for pc. You should try them

 

[evernessince]

I tried to explain how I came to my conclusion. Your opinion. My opinion.

I pointed out the numbers, like THD and SINAD. Those are objective and you can compare them relative to other products.

Your OPINION does not erase the FACTS presented. If you have an issue with the data in the links that state so, otherwise we are all well aware of your opinion.

My main goal here isn't to shove my opinion down OP's throat, it's to help them using the knowledge I have of the audio equipment landscape. There's a pretty broad consensus in the audiophile community for example that the FIIO FT1 punches well above it's weight and that the ATOM DAC 2 (and frankley many other DACs) are providing top tier performance at a great price.

You may have cheap stuff which does not go near the net frequency. Some cheap speakers can not go below 80Hz.

You might want to go back and actually read my last comment if you think I have low end gear.

Mind you, attempting character assassination on me instead of helping OP is just wasting everyone's time. I don't believe in gatekeeping people's opinions based on how much they spent on their gear.

Those audio reviews. LOL. The output should be a straigt line on the horizontal logarithmic scale. This is from a technical viewpoint.

You aren't understanding the purpose of the charts in the link provided. Those charts are used to measure SNR, aka Signal to noise ratio. Those spikes in the line are spikes in the noise floor at -110 to -120 dB. Not during normal listening conditions. The purposed is to measure the quality of a signal. The lower on the Y axis, the higher the resulting SINAD value. Y-axis is always scaled according to values received during testing. Every DAC will have these spikes near their noise floor, even high end ones: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-dx5-review-dac-hp-amp.32179/


In addition, the only charts existing in a link I provided were one's designed to illustration the influence of noise from other components. All internal components are subject to noise regardless of the quality. Heck even external DACs are subject to USB noise, high end or otherwise. This applies even if you connect via optical as line noise from power does creep in. Hence why JDS Labs and other companies sell isolation devices for USB. I personally have a Furman power conditioning strip that removes power line noise so I can vouch for their efficacy but that is far beyond the scope of this thread and extremely unlikely to be relevant to the OP.

The performance metrics were laid out pretty neatly in the reddit thread.

Feel free to disagree. I also made the point and explained the balanced stuff.

No you said "i do not know any mainboard which as "balanced" feature on the ports or any quality." which is just broken english that makes no sense. You could be talking about balanced output (to which I'd ask why) or balanced features (as in the feature set).

Mind you, even if that wasn't broken english where the heck would the explanation be in that to begin with?

some will never understand. I think some stuff can not really be understood for some people. Espeically for ... decent audio interface is not needed. DAC = digital analog converter => pleas keep it simple for the inital poster. Write sound card, and if you use audio interface, also explain in the post, it is another word for a fancy sound card. amp = amplifier -> keep it simple. it is just another part. and do not tell me you suggest an external amplifier and passive speakers. I have a reason why i bought a complete speaker, which is active speaker, which takes in the "audio signal" with an external power connector.

When you go for all the stuff. than go on and explain every tech term and word - especially as it is a topic for post #1.

you may look at topic 1. you may read what i wrote before you replied please again.

Or better yet, you can stop derailing this thread by trying to tell others what to do and attacking people for seemingly no reason.

 

[sam_86314]

I use the R1700BT (non-s) as my main speakers, and I think they sound great all around. I'm no audiophile, but they're easily some of the best speakers I've used.

For headphones, I use Samson SR850s with aftermarket sheepskin earpads from BrainWavz (right around $80-90 USD for both, not sure about pricing where you are). Again, to my ears, they sound great. They are definitely more balanced than other headphones I've used (not as much bass).

 

[mechtech]

Hello everyone,

I would like some advice about some PC speakers and also some headphones.

The budget I would say around 100 € for each.

The motherboard I'm going to get will almost certainly have the Realtek ALC1220 codec (or possibly ALC4080) and I will use the onboard solution.
Maybe in the future I will bother adding a USB DAC or something if it's worth it, so I am aiming that the speakers and headphones are a notch above the onboard audio to have headroom for possible future upgrades.
Also the motherboard will almost certainly have the austere Line out, Mic In, SPDIF config on the rear I/O. And WiFi 7 + Bluetooth.

Usage: Everyday work on the PC, viewing YT, video editing, also listening to music and also from time to time I will watch some movies.
The video editing requirements are regarding my YT channel, I will need to narrate my videos and then listen to the recorded audio and other effects to make sure it sounds right (at least to me), so the quality of the speakers needs to be at least adequate for this task.
About the music, I listen predominantly to death metal if that has any relevance, the vast majority of my collection is 320 mp3 but I have no problem upgrading some stuff (I suppose I can't upgrade everything I have to lossless) to flac or other lossless formats.
About watching movies I don't have any home cinema demands, I just want something basic for when I need to download and watch a movie on my PC.

Okay from my research I found some options, I imagine there are more which are worthy so please share them, here they are:

Edifier R1700BTs - 108 €
M-Audio BX4 BT - 105 €
Creative GigaWorks T40 S2 - 101 €
Edifier R1700BT - 91 €
PreSonus Eris 3.5 2nd Gen - 80 €

These are the lowest prices I can get them at right now. I looked for the actual MSRPs and it seems that all of them are below that, some more some less.
About the quality from what I've gathered the Edifiers appear to be best (generally speaking not sure if they're ideal for me) and also price-wise they are pretty good compared to their own MSRPs and to the competition.
Now a small problem is that from this video it appears that there is an actual sound difference between the BT and the BTs and not just the sub-out connector.
So I'm not sure if the BT is a better choice or if the BTs is?
Anyway regarding format I like the Creative T40 the most for being taller and slimmer and with the top port it means that they can be placed close to a wall and be fine.
However I will not sacrifice performance for compactness, and it seems the T40 lose to the Edifiers, also being very close in price I guess it's no contest.

So that's about it if you have any other recommendations please share, and if perhaps one of these above is a no-brainer choice let me know.

About the headphones, the usage is exactly the same as the speakers with perhaps more focus on the music aspect because I highly dislike having any ambient noise when I'm focused on listening music.
But apart from that the headphones are secondary to the speakers because of the comfort aspect, I will mainly use them when the ambient noise is high enough to warrant their usage and when I don't want to bother others in the house (especially at night).
From what I've gathered I need closed-back ones.

Here's what I found:

Audio-Technica ATH-M40X - 100 €
Sony MDR-7506 - 98 €
Sennheiser HD-280 Pro - 82 €
Audio-Technica ATH-M30X - 72 €

Based on the price history in my country (Romania) and their $ MSRPs it looks like the only ones with a discount are the Sennheiser HD-280 Pros.
A bit dissapointing to be honest, but if one of these is a good choice I have no problem waiting for a BF discount or something like that.

And of course if you have other recommendations please let me know, I'll check and see if they're available in my country.

Thank you!

Sometimes I have seen Senny HD 598/599/SE go on sale for $150cad aka about 100 euro. They typically have good reviews.

 

[evernessince]

I use the R1700BT (non-s) as my main speakers, and I think they sound great all around. I'm no audiophile, but they're easily some of the best speakers I've used.

For headphones, I use Samson SR850s with aftermarket sheepskin earpads from BrainWavz (right around $80-90 USD for both, not sure about pricing where you are). Again, to my ears, they sound great. They are definitely more balanced than other headphones I've used (not as much bass).

The SR850s are really good budget open-back headphones, similar to the HD681, although I do believe the OP mentioned they want closed backs.

 

[sam_86314]

The SR850s are really good budget open-back headphones, similar to the HD681, although I do believe the OP mentioned they want closed backs.

Missed that, guess I need to learn how to read.

Samson also has the SR950s, which are closed-back, but I have no experience with them.

 

[Space Lynx]

I would highly recommended trying to fit Fiio FT1s into your headphone budget. They aren't that much more expensive (at least where I live) and they are vastly better than the listed headphones. I remember using ATH-M50s over 12 years ago and they weren't that good then, let alone now. Small sound stage, mediocre comfort. Pretty par for the source for closed backs in this price range. I cannot imagine M40x will fare much better given it's one tier lower.

Fiio FT1s compete with $400 - $500 headphones. You might not want to even want to bother with speakers in the $100 price range after hearing them.

fiio ft1's have been dethroned. the best under 100 dollar headphone is now this one according to many reviewers who say its better than the ft1.

currently 68 bucks on amazon.

 

[evernessince]

Missed that, guess I need to learn how to read.

Samson also has the SR950s, which are closed-back, but I have no experience with them.

Don't be so hard on yourself, everyone slips up once in a while

fiio ft1's have been dethroned. the best under 100 dollar headphone is now this one according to many reviewers who say its better than the ft1.

currently 68 bucks on amazon.

Those look nice. Unfortunately for this thread though, OP is looking for closed backs.

 

[Space Lynx]

the best closed backs i have ever owned and still own (and i have tried over 300+ headphones at headphone conventions etc also i used to review headphones for head-fi) are the Audio Technica M40x, but they must have the stock earpads changed to some HM5 pads or similar sized pads. they are spectacular and surprisingly budget priced, i think 60 bucks used i paid for mine. and 25 for the new hm5 pads.

so my vote 100% goes to the M40x, these sound nothing like their bigger brother the famous m50x (which are garbage imo)

but for the M40X to shine it needs new thicker pads. i use HM5 pleather, its like 20 bucks on amazon for a pair.

 

[evernessince]

the best closed backs i have ever owned and still own (and i have tried over 300+ headphones at headphone conventions etc also i used to review headphones for head-fi) are the Audio Technica M40x, but they must have the stock earpads changed to some HM5 pads or similar sized pads. they are spectacular and surprisingly budget priced, i think 60 bucks used i paid for mine. and 25 for the new hm5 pads.

so my vote 100% goes to the M40x, these sound nothing like their bigger brother the famous m50x (which are garbage imo)

but for the M40X to shine it needs new thicker pads. i use HM5 pleather, its like 20 bucks on amazon for a pair.

Certainly you mean under $100 correct?

Best closed backs are going to be Dan Clark E3, Stealth, Focal Utopia, some of the ZMF headphones. Talking $2,000 - $4,000.

I used to have a pair of M50X like 14 years ago until I upgraded up the audio technica closed back line (all the way up to the flagship) and eventually to DCA headphones. Each tier above it is a noticeable jump in audio quality. Fiio FT1 are around that $400 - $500 tier, which is really good. If you like Audio Technica's sound signature, their higher end closed backs will be a straight upgrade for you. The treble on their flagship models used to be the best of any headphones, although it gets beat in detail retrieval, neutrality, and soundstage by something like the DCA Aeon Flow / Aeon X.

ATH-M50X (and I assume the M40X as well) have a very small soundstage and the imaging is not that fantastic. Music mostly sounds like it's coming from the sides whereas on headphones with better imaging sounds from the center sound like they are coming from the center. They are primarily good for music, not so much for games. To be expected given the price, although I do wish there were more improvement under $100. Best headphones for games I've ever tried are the VRZ model 1. The sound positioning on those is amazing. Other qualities were very competent as well.

 

[Space Lynx]

Certainly you mean under $100 correct?

Best closed backs are going to be Dan Clark E3, Stealth, Focal Utopia, some of the ZMF headphones. Talking $2,000 - $4,000.

I used to have a pair of M50X like 14 years ago until I upgraded up the audio technica closed back line (all the way up to the flagship) and eventually to DCA headphones. Each tier above it is a noticeable jump in audio quality. Fiio FT1 are around that $400 - $500 tier, which is really good. If you like Audio Technica's sound signature, their higher end closed backs will be a straight upgrade for you. The treble on their flagship models used to be the best of any headphones, although it gets beat in detail retrieval, neutrality, and soundstage by something like the DCA Aeon Flow / Aeon X.

ATH-M50X (and I assume the M40X as well) have a very small soundstage and the imaging is not that fantastic. Music mostly sounds like it's coming from the sides whereas on headphones with better imaging sounds from the center sound like they are coming from the center. They are primarily good for music, not so much for games. To be expected given the price, although I do wish there were more improvement under $100. Best headphones for games I've ever tried are the VRZ model 1. The sound positioning on those is amazing. Other qualities were very competent as well.

m40x with hm5 pads sound better to me than ZMF Ori's do. and I consider myself a planar fanboy. and yes i mean under 100 dollars in general sense. obviously utopias win or w.e i don't spend my time in this hobby anymore

they do have good soundstage and imaging with the upgraded hm5 pads, again as i said in my previous post, the m40x is nothing like its m50x big brother. audio technica is just shit at naming i guess lmao

 

[Sol_Badguy]

The ALC1220 chip is decent and should let you experience most of the prowess of the FT1. They are easy to drive so they don't really need an AMP either. A higher quality DAC would slightly improve detail and soundstage but the benefit is relatively small compared to simply having better cans.

I already knew of this article: https://www.igorslab.de/en/disadvan...ds-headphones-guide-and-background-knowledge/
That's why I was aiming for a mobo with this onboard audio.

You don't need a soundcard for most microphones nowadays. Mics like the AmpliGame A8 are cheap, high quality (very close to $100 mics in tests), and use USB (so that won't use your onboard sound).

Thanks for the recommendation, will look for it.

As for mic, there are good USB options, but tbh if I were to get a desk mic, I'd go with and XLR mic (plenty of options) and get a Focusrite Scarlett (Solo probably) audio interface. No need to waste money on "audiophile" equipment, most of that is just a load of bollocks or shiit (pun intended).

Thanks, the Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen is available for 118 €. The 3rd Gen for 95 €.

Razer and steelseries also make speakers for pc. You should try them

Thanks, I'll have a look at models around my budget.

I use the R1700BT (non-s) as my main speakers, and I think they sound great all around. I'm no audiophile, but they're easily some of the best speakers I've used.

For headphones, I use Samson SR850s with aftermarket sheepskin earpads from BrainWavz (right around $80-90 USD for both, not sure about pricing where you are). Again, to my ears, they sound great. They are definitely more balanced than other headphones I've used (not as much bass).

Thanks, the SR850s are available for 44 €. Even though they're open-back I won't write them off.
I opted for closed-back prioritizing more the isolation from external sounds (like when someone outside is mowing the lawn) and not necessarily because of sound leakage, it's not like someone from another room is going to hear the sound coming from the headphones with both doors closed.

Samson also has the SR950s, which are closed-back, but I have no experience with them

49 €, I'll see what the internet thinks about these, thanks.

Sometimes I have seen Senny HD 598/599/SE go on sale for $150cad aka about 100 euro. They typically have good reviews.

Thanks, the HD599s are available for 112 €. I'll look for reviews.

fiio ft1's have been dethroned. the best under 100 dollar headphone is now this one according to many reviewers who say its better than the ft1.

The $76 Miracle || Kiwi Ears Ellipse || Z Reviews
currently 68 bucks on amazon.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out just in case.

so my vote 100% goes to the M40x, these sound nothing like their bigger brother the famous m50x (which are garbage imo)

but for the M40X to shine it needs new thicker pads. i use HM5 pleather, its like 20 bucks on amazon for a pair.

Good to know I'll look for more info on these and also check prices to see what the total might end up.