Author Topic: New Headphones and Microphone  (Read 2652 times)

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Offline Mitchellderp

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New Headphones and Microphone
« on: Sat, 28 January 2012, 10:08:34 »
Well, today my Corsair HS1 decided to finally throw in the towel and snap in half, meaning that I'm in the market for a new set of headphones and a microphone.

I stream Starcraft and I'm pretty much always talking on skype, so I need things that are fairly high quality, if not too high.

Unsure of my budget right now, but I was looking at getting some HD558's and an Asus Xonar DG. Not too sure about the mic at this moment, as everything looks cheap and nasty.

Based in the UK and would prefer to buy from Amazon due to their amazing customer service.

So, good people of geekhack, what say you?

Offline no_mates

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 28 January 2012, 11:00:12 »
I bought a Zalman mic from Amazon uk and it seems to work well with my Xonar DG and HD595's.  It was a tenner delivered.

Offline sinis

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 30 January 2012, 10:26:27 »
Cant go wrong with Xonar DG and Zalman Mic. Going for Sennheiser is a mistake imho. Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro is the best you can get imho. Its open. A Closed is DT770 Pro. You have to know which one for yourself, closed or open. Open is more comfortable. Closed isolates sound better to inside and outside. AKG K601 is also open and second best in this price range >100 bucks

Offline laffindude

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 30 January 2012, 20:53:44 »
AT2020USB + HD25-1

Offline Parak

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 31 January 2012, 07:03:22 »

Offline commandercup

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 31 January 2012, 15:40:45 »
Quote from: Parak;504098
ATH-A900 + ModMic

OMFG THANK YOU! I had horrible experiences with the Zalman and my Logitech Desktop mic picks up too much ambient sound. You are my hero.

Offline nineteensc2

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 31 January 2012, 19:42:17 »
Steelseries Siberia is decent and has been popular in the past (as well as now) by progamers.

Offline Mitchellderp

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 01 February 2012, 13:44:44 »
Quote from: sinis;503188
Cant go wrong with Xonar DG and Zalman Mic. Going for Sennheiser is a mistake imho. Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro is the best you can get imho. Its open. A Closed is DT770 Pro. You have to know which one for yourself, closed or open. Open is more comfortable. Closed isolates sound better to inside and outside. AKG K601 is also open and second best in this price range >100 bucks

As wonderful as those headphones look, I doubt my parents would allow me to spend that amount of money...

Oh well, might as well ask!

So overall this is looking at costing me something like £250, which, put simply, is 5x what the Corsair HS1 cost me in the first place...

EDIT: OK so I asked about the whole £250 thing and the answer was a definite NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Which still leaves me in the position of what to get. Any reason why I shouldn't get the Sennheisers? This time I'd like to actually think through what I buy instead of going OO SHINY AND CORSAIR.
« Last Edit: Wed, 01 February 2012, 13:51:03 by Mitchellderp »

Offline laffindude

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 01 February 2012, 14:19:43 »
Why not 558? Because it is cheaply made with bad design. The piece where the headband meet the ear piece part pretty much cracks as soon as they're out of the box. Shoddy material and the whole 5x5 and 5x8 series is like that. There are still many 990s from the 80s in good working order just to give you some perspective. Sennheisers are ok, just not this line (they sound ok though).

Offline Mitchellderp

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 01 February 2012, 14:41:46 »
Quote from: laffindude;505469
Why not 558? Because it is cheaply made with bad design. The piece where the headband meet the ear piece part pretty much cracks as soon as they're out of the box. Shoddy material and the whole 5x5 and 5x8 series is like that. There are still many 990s from the 80s in good working order just to give you some perspective. Sennheisers are ok, just not this line (they sound ok though).

On saturday I went to a friends' house, him being the owner of a nice new pair of 558's. They seemed to be pretty robust, if anything they were more durable than my old HS1 (which isn't saying much...).

They seemed absolutely fine in the way of build quality, so I am confused by what you say.

Looks like I'll be going for these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynamic-DT770-PRO-Headset-250/dp/B0006NL5SM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328127440&sr=1-1

Offline laffindude

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 01 February 2012, 14:54:02 »
Look on the sides where it says Sennheiser. I bet it has cracked already. It is a known design flaw. If you get the Beyer, I think you'll understand why I say those Senns are cheaply made. People may not like the aesthetics or the sound signature of the 770-990 line, but no one can dispute their robustness.

Offline Mitchellderp

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New Headphones and Microphone
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 09 February 2012, 11:55:35 »
Dear god, this is so wonderful...

Ended up getting one of the Logitech USB microphones, an Asus Xonar DG and a pair of Beyer DT770's.