Sennheiser vs Audio-Technica?

I'd recommend not getting a headset. Just get a regular pair of headphones. Plug that into a sound card, onboard headphone amp, or external USB DAC.

For the microphone, use a webcam if you have one, or get a Blue Snowball or Yeti.

This will give the best of all worlds. The best mic for online gaming, and no mic when you just want music. Also look for headphones with a detachable 3.5mm cable. When it breaks just get a new one for a few dollars. No soldering required. A good company like Seinheiser, Shure, Grado, AKG, etc.... will allow you to get replacement cushions in the future as yours wear out. I have no worries with Seinheiser, they are huge and will always have replacement parts available. I have a couple of DJ friends that love Seinheiser. I use AKG personally and like them.

If you decide to get a USB DAC, you loose the virtual surround sound that comes with soundcards (Either Dolby headphone or Creative CMSS). Just use Razer Surround to get it. It's free with the full version only $19, and gives you the same virtual surround razer headsets use. Also when buying headphones there is open back and closed back. Open back allows you to hear outside so if your wife is yelling at you, you hear her. Closed back is great for airplanes when you don't want other people to hear your music. I like open back because I can hear stuff outside like the phone ringing, doorbell, wife yelling, etc... And supposedly open back sounds better but I doubt that's true. A good closed back will sound better than a cheap open back. It's personal preference really.

Also headsets must be purchased through computer stores. Headphones can be bought at music and guitar stores at really good prices.

A soundcard will get you better sound quality, but most motherboards nowadays have pretty good sound output. Are you talking about virtual 7.1 or real 7.1? Headphones are stereo meaning 2.0, but with some tweaks to the equalizer that virtual software does, it can seem like you have 5.1, 7.1 etc. There are some headsets that claim true 5.1, but the small drivers in it makes up for low audio quality.

The M50X is not that good for gaming, its a monitor headphone and is very flat, so you wont get that punchy bass, etc. Its also a closed back headphone meaning you wont have a wide soundstage, whereas the AD500X is, and a wide soundstage will greatly help with positional audio. Not to mention that closed back headphones don't have air circulation making them heat up in long sessions.

If you are wondering about a mic the Blue Yeti and Snowball are great (I have a Snowball), but I'd preferably buy a Audio Technica AT2020 USB.

Hope this Helps!

Motherboards usually have just a basic Realtek audio chip. Higher end motherboards will have better components for audio and an onboard headphone amp. Not all soundcards have, but many now have headphone amps as well. Without a headphone amp it's hard to drive the headphones to any good volume, unless you have very sensitive headphones. Headphones can be low impedance around 32 ohms or as high as 600 ohms and they are harder to drive. Headphone amps are desired to give you that volume with 600 ohm headphones.

A DAC (digital to analogue converter) takes the digital signal from the computer over USB, converts it to analogue, and send it to your headphones through a headphone amp. The only difference between a sound card and onboard sound is nothing. Usually a sound card is better quality, but some motherboards have very good sound nowadays. The difference between these and a DAC is the soundcards are sontroled in Windows through software. This gives you virtual surround sound for headphones for gaming. The software will give you an EQ, etc... A DAC doesn't have any of this. A DAC jsut gives you an output device under sound in control panel and that's it. If you want surround sound through your headphones you need Razer software or a more expensive option that does exist. If you want an EQ you do it through your music player such as Foobar or Winamp. Also the DAC will be of much better quality sound wise than the soundcard. SOundcards just give you the software that isn't very valuable to begin with.

You can play 7.1 through headphones, but it's virtual surround sound. The sound is changed to simulate surround sound. Most motherboards and soundcards use Dolby headphone which is not rated too good. Some use creative onboard and creative soundcards have their own version called CMSS and it's rated better. And the free Razer surround is a download and it's rated very well. There are other professional tools as well but they are expensive. You can get gaming headsets with 3 speakers in each ear and get real surround sound. For gaming they are very good, but for everything else not so much.

And what a headset does is have a little box that plugs into USB. It's a cheap dac and headphone amp, and your headset plugs into that. And it runs with Dolby software usually, or Razer surround. Your better off buying your own DAC, own headphones, and getting real stuff.

I can tell you from experience that onboard audio hisses as low volume. A DAC is dead silent and just plain works awesome and sounds amazing. No software or driver issues to deal with like some soundcards. It just plain works, and works good. And owning a DAC means you don't need to buy expensive motherboards just to get better onboard sound. And having regular headphones means they last forever. No gaming headsets to break. It's a cheaper long term investment that actually gives better audio. And you can use the headphones for other purposes such as music, TV, movies, guitar, etc...

For DACs check out Emotiva. Their big and little ego are great. M-Audio also has the Super DAC that is great. Both can be hooked up to a home theatre stereo as well, not just headphones.

Listen to SSDX, he knows his headphones from other forums I've seen him on.

Let us know your audio situation. If you plan on getting a soundcard or USB DAC, and if you prefer closed back or open back. Also your budget. I'm sure SSDX could suggest something in your range. If you're just using regular onboard audio for now we can recommend something that can be driven by that.

My AKG K240 MKII for example work fine with onboard audio. Well it's no DAC and headphone amp, but acceptable with onboard sound till you save up the $50-$200 for a DAC or soundcard, or even a USB soundcard.

Audio-Technica is a joke compared to Sennheiser.
No-brainer question.

Better Headsets? It's called: STAX.

Yeah you'll be getting the best advice from him/her, he/she also has the most experience here.

But in response to soundguruman, I wouldn't exactly say that about Audio Technica, and you can't compare brands like that. They are both reputable and known for their high quality headphones and mics. And its just in my opinion, that the M50x is sorta flat - I've heard it and used it for a while.