Gaming Headsets vs Audiophile Headphones for GAMING.

zenismz

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Sep 4, 2016
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Am I the only one who thinks a good pair of headphones like Sennheiser Momentum, Beats Studio Wireless, Bowers & Wilkins P5, P7, Bang & Olufsen H7, H6, Bose QC15, QC25, etc. sound better than a pair of Gaming headphones?

Unless you go for real surround sound headphones – not to mention there're a lot of games do not support it and most “surround sound” headphones aren’t real 5.1/7.1 surround sound, audiophile headphones (I might classified it lightly as those headphones I mention above aren't so audiophile-ish as a pair of Sennheiser HD800, the Orpheus, or a Beyerdynamic T1, please bear with me) sound a whole lot better – both in music listening and gaming. If I had to say it, the diaphragms inside most gaming headphones just sound so “cheap". For instance, my Steelseries Siberia 650.

Okay, most (USB) gaming headsets come with driver/controller to bring “critical” frequency ranges up, I’ll give you that. But you can also use your computer sound card controller to set up the same thing with EQ and output to the headphones jack. And if you are serious about gaming, you wouldn’t use a built-in mic on any gaming headsets anyway, because you know that a big standalone mic make you sounds a thousand times better/clearer.

Comfort? Some gaming headsets were designed for “whole-day gaming”. Well, there are many audiophile headphones that were designed for "whole-day listening" as well.

So remind me what’s the point of buying a gaming headset again?

Not to start an argument here. I might be wrong on some points. Please let me hear your opinions and experience.
 

Gam3r01

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Jan 12, 2013
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I think most people are in agreement with you.
Quality headphones will almost always sound and feel better than a headset will.

The reason people buy headsets is marketing and simplicity. Mic, virtual surround, and simple interfaces (USB) are more attractive to the basic user. They dont wan to go out of the way to buy headphones and a mic (modmic or standalone).

Most "gamers" will also associate brands better with headsets compared to quality headphones as well.
 

Dashton Peccia

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Apr 30, 2015
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Sorry to res this, but cant you still use virtual surround even on audiophile headphones? Windows has a native "simulate 7.1" option now and other software also can do this (razer synapse, dolby atmos).
 
I'm actually using the Samson SR850s with a Zalman ZM-MIC1 which can be had for less than $50 these days - sounds just as good if not better than my sons HyperX Revolver IMO which is ~$110 on a good day, and since the zalman clips near the cans you don't get the darth vader breathing effect with a boom mic.

Agree Win10's Sonic spatial sound effect for vsurround is quite good, actually using that now.