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Denver, 4:32 PM
Mon Nov 30
39 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/27/09
11/27/09
11/27/09
Was perfect for my new computer. Since I don't have a sound card it seemed like a good time to give USB a try.
11/26/09
11/26/09
Is that right?
[www.amazon.com]
[www.newegg.com]
11/26/09
11/26/09
I like the pluses a lot, and being an audiophile, I'm willing to pay the price for quality sound
11/27/09
Honestly for the same amount of money you can get the Tritton AX Pro's with the in line decoder box for a gaming product, that's the best you can get without spending around $250 for an enthusiast product like the A40.
True audiophile gear will cost around a thousand and I'm big into sound but that's ridiculous.
$250 for the Astro Gaming A40 is going to be the best all in one package that won't break the bank but for about the same amount of money you can cobble together a $450 setup.
You can get the Audio Technica A700's which typically retail for $300 on sale through Amazon for $110. You can get the Astro Gaming Mixamp for $130 and then you can get a Zalman ZM Mic-1 for $15.
The problem with "gaming" market headsets is typically they use speaker components with a lower dba threshold resulting in distortion and pop if you crank the volume beyond halfway to two-thirds so without some form of amp they could be on the quiet side otherwise you risk blowing them.
The Tritton AX PC Pro's are very acceptable for the price, their downfall is the USB cable and the average person's chipset. It's going to be driven by your on board sound chip like any other headsets in the sub $100 price range versus the the $130 mixamp that drives the A40. So it behooves you to invest in a good pci soundcard for your audio source at some point.
The best bang for the buck in this price range is going to be the AX Pro hands down. Anything less and you're playing on borrowed time within a couple months or a year they'll likely fail. I've had better luck with some Sennheiser headphones and a logitech usb stem mic than many headsets, good brand headphones are just built better.
11/27/09
11/26/09
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11/26/09
HeadRoom has a package that includes their Ultra Micro Amp and Ultra Micro DAC. See [www.headphone.com] It comes with a good pair of audiophile headphones.
I have the Denon AH-D5000 at work, and the Sennheiser HD650 at home, both with the Ultra Micro Amp and DAC. Personally, I vastly prefer the sound of the HD650. Both for music and gaming. Note that these are audiophile headphones, so there is no mic. This situation hasn't arisen for me yet, but for those who require a mic, my understanding is there are decent clip-on mics that work really well. That's the recommendation I've read any way. If you don't have optical out on your sound card, you can use USB, but personally I'm using optical.
I listen to a ton of music at home and at work, plus I play a lot of games in the evenings at home on my PC. A setup like this is such a massive leap up in the gaming experience, I just can't describe it to you.
This kind of setup is not cheap, and there are certainly diminishing returns. For those who aren't satisfied with the audio quality from SteelSeries, Zalman, Bose, Razer, Plantronics, etc., consider a serious investment in your gaming enjoyment with a high-end audio package like this. Obviously not for everyone, but I wish I had known years ago about this kind of option.
11/26/09
How are you liking the D5000? I remember looking at a pair a while ago but ended up purchasing some AKG K-501 cans instead. I probably should've waited for the 701s Mio to drop in price, as I wasn't too happy with the 501 pair.
My experience with Senn cans is limited, though, but when play games, I hook in my ATudio-Technica ATH-900s. It's got an enormous soundstage, and the actual headphones are cool to the touch and very comfy.
11/26/09
The HD650 are open, and the Denons are closed which is necessary for my work environment. I'd scare people with some of what I listen to, which ranges from J-Rock to opera.
Unfortunately where I live there is nowhere I could demo anything, so I had to go with what I read online. Kinda feel like the D5000s get more praise than they deserve, but maybe it's just how my preferences are. Not everybody raves about the HD650s, and to me they are just so incredibly wonderful. If something were to happen to my HD650s, I would probably get the HD800s just purely because I've been so happy with the HD650s.
I don't have any experience with either AKG or AT. Generally seemed like reviewers favoured the Senns and Denons though, so that's why I went that route.
Bose... well... :-) I really like my QuietComfort 2s for on the airplane. Quite pleased with their noise cancellation. That environment isn't conducive to good listening anyway, so they're sufficient.
11/26/09
USB headphones and soundcards getting a bad rap should be a thing of the past. The concern was that back in the day when we all had hardware soundcards, a USB soundcard meant that most sound processing would be done in software.
However, the industry has since moved to onboard audio (barely anyone buys soundcards these days, even hard-core gamers). That's mostly done in software. So at this point your choice is between onboard audio processed in software, and USB audio processed in software.
USB will add some CPU overhead for USB itself, but even for 5.1 audio we're talking about ~516 KB/s, hardly enough to cause any significant CPU load.
In fact, it's made increasingly irrelevant by the fact that there's a bit of a trend in game engines to do all the sound mixing and effects in-engine. Engines like Source do it all in software and pass off the final channels to the sound drivers.
There are three APIs used by games for passing off 3D sound mixing:
DirectSound3D: EAX is built around this. This was discontinued and is no longer supported by Vista and higher. A stereo-only compatibility layer is still provided for compatibility sake. It supported hardware acceleration.
OpenAL: Usually provided by the sound driver itself. Still in use by some engines. Supports hardware acceleration. Many audio chipset manufacturers provide drivers that capture DirectSound3D calls and translate them to OpenAL, allowing hardware accelerated surround DS3D in Vista/Win7.
Universal Audio Architecture: The new audio subsystem in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Everything is done in software, which allows complete hardware abstraction; the goal here is to pretty much solve once and for all any and all audio compatibility problems. UAA-compatible chipsets don't even need drivers, although non-compatible hardware can be made compatible via drivers. All computers get a pretty nice base set of functionality. Obviously, no hardware acceleration is supported.
11/26/09
Great review as always Crecente.
11/26/09
@Covert_Knight: Crecente always gives good reviews, but I'm disappointed that he didn't show us how to rotate the headset though.
11/26/09
Sure the audio quality is great, and the large earcups go over my ears instead of feeling cramped, but I found the headset to be kinda heavy, maybe its because the headset I normally use, one of the early fatality headsets, has this large padding thingy on top, but the Arena got really uncomfortable after some intense gaming(over the hour and I had to take pauses because it "gnawed" on my skull)
Also I had a few issues with the software, and some troubles with getting the headset to be the main sound source when plugged in.
And I could never get the damned virtual 3d fake surround or what have you to work. All it did for me was generate lots of echo.
I tried the settings I could find, and googled a bit, but eventually gave up on it. Which is a damned shame, I really want a surround headset.
TL;DR
I tried it, did not like it, maybe you will.
11/26/09
Plain stereo headphones already vastly improve my fps game - actually it's more like I don't play without them because they're so invaluable.
How's the bass response? What I've seen in other surround sets is that they look like nice headphones, but they cram them with several sets of Liliputian speakers, resulting in tinny sound from any direction.
11/26/09
11/26/09
A nice set of headsets would solve this problem, and would sound better. I like the fact these are light.
11/26/09
11/26/09
Can't really swear by them when it comes to watching porn. That is what you were talking about, wasn't it.
11/26/09
11/26/09
EDIT: Free fucking shipping.
[www.newegg.com]
11/26/09
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11/26/09
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11/26/09
Yea, I'm a CS:S player, best FPS for PC imho. I use a Razer Barracuda headphone. They're pretty sick.
Using sound to your advantage though can also get you accused of hacking, alot...