PC Headphone Advice

[RoboX]

I need some advice on buying a headset for PC (not expensive), for use mainly gaming, and then also for music and movies, regardless of my personal tastes:

1. what is the most suitable among AKG K511 and K44?


2. between one of the two previous ones and these? (Sennheiser HD418 - Denon AH-P372 - Audio-Technica ATH-SJ11)

3. in general, is it better an audio headset than the previous ones or a gaming headset? (so, one of the previous or Creative Fatal1ty)

 

[GeForce Junky]

Generally gaming headsets are designed for FPS gaming, so they are very low on bass so that you can hear directional footsteps very well. This means they are pretty poor for watching movies and listening to music. Headsets either use virtual surround (just one driver in each side) or a number of smaller drivers in each side for surround. Virtual surround works better IMHO as you have better quality larger drivers and they are lighter. I'm not a fan of any surround sound settings, to me stereo is just as effective for hearing footstep locations.

Using a good set of headphones with an additional mic tends to be much nicer for varied use, although not quite as good for competitive gaming. Open back headphones have a wider sound stage, but they leak more sound and don't noise cancel so well. Closed back headphones are the opposite, better noise cancellation and less noise leakage but less wider sounding soundstage.

I personally use Audio Technic ATH-50x (£110) with a ModMic V4 (£40) which works very well. These are closed back music headphones. The budget version of this would be the ATH-30x (£62) with a Zalman clip on mic (£7). If you can stretch to that budget that is a very good start into the world of good quality sound.

 

[erixx]

Robox: you should define "not expensive"....
Then, those computer (skype or gaming labeled) headphones normally are lower quality then low and midrange HiFi music headphones.
Then you have (one of) the favorite of the Spanish gamers, unbeatable in price and performance: http://www.pccomponentes.com/auriculares-superlux.html
English review http://www.head-fi.org/products/superlux-hd-668-b

 

[RCoon]

Don't buy the creative fatal1ty, they're one of the most uncomfortable headsets I've used, cheap and tacky.
I've always been a fan of open back headsets for the better audio. Unless you're living next door to an airstrip, I've not found many cases where I've needed specific noise cancellation to drown out background noise, when game/music audio already does the job. Not sure what your budget is, but I lean towards the Sennheiser gear for a mixture of gaming and musical audio decency, though the headsets I go for are usually quite pricey.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Generally gaming headsets are designed for FPS gaming, so they are very low on bass so that you can hear directional footsteps very well. This means they are pretty poor for watching movies and listening to music. Headsets either use virtual surround (just one driver in each side) or a number of smaller drivers in each side for surround. Virtual surround works better IMHO as you have better quality larger drivers and they are lighter. I'm not a fan of any surround sound settings, to me stereo is just as effective for hearing footstep locations.

Using a good set of headphones with an additional mic tends to be much nicer for varied use, although not quite as good for competitive gaming. Open back headphones have a wider sound stage, but they leak more sound and don't noise cancel so well. Closed back headphones are the opposite, better noise cancellation and less noise leakage but less wider sounding soundstage.

thanks for that info, i didnt know that.

 

[RoboX]

not expensive like 30 euro (the price of models in my first post)
no need noise reduction or isolation
i have a decent sound card