Looking for recommendations for a headset. I’ve really been unhappy with my last two headphones for one key reason: leatherette. It’s this fake-ass leather shit that flakes away after less than a year of use, resulting in pieces of black stuff getting everywhere, and obviously just looking bad.

I heard Sennheiser was some sort of top tier brand, but looking at their headsets (Game Zero and Game One) even THEY use leatherette too! I’d really just like some headphones that use velour or even just cloth. I suspect people don’t use real leather due to the exorbitant cost?

Anyway, can anyone give me any recommendations? Additional criteria:
PC Gamer, so I want a microphone.
I wanted wired, not wireless.
I don’t know about drivers and stuff, does bigger equal better?
I really don’t know what it is that makes headphones ‘good’. Like, I’m not an audiophile or anything. So any education in that regard would be appreciated.

I'm using the Astro A50 (This is wireless) and Astro A40. I also have the Logitech G930 (Also wireless). I'm considering getting Logitech G933 Artemis Spectrum once it is available. While the G933 is wireless, G633 is not.

People spend so much on headsets it is ridiculous. Maybe I am slightly deaf, but I spend like $30-$100 on headsets from Best Buy and people always compliment my microphone quality. Ask me what headset I am using and then suddenly change their opinion.

Currently using a Plantronics GameCom 780 and people tend to bash on Plantronics gaming headsets simply because they are not overpriced.

They are very comfortable, have great sound quality, surround sound (which is becoming more common in games), and the microphone has been praised quite heavily by people I play games with.

Just looked that up Loveless. Costs $129 here in AUS. Looks solid.

EDIT: Just noticed they're USB. :S I prefer jack. Dodginess can happen with running mike and audio through one cable. Also doesn't utilise my soundcard.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 31 2015, 5:26 am by Oh_Man.

The HyperX Clouds are really nice. They have leatherette ear cushions by default but you can swap them with the included velour cushions. Mic quality is so-so, some people have complained to me about it being scratchy sometimes but that might be the sound card I'm running it through as I'm not using my expensive sound card for them usually. I find them quite comfortable as I don't get hot ears with them, although because I wear glasses after long periods of time my ears hurt where the cushions press onto my glasses frame. I don't know how many circumaural headphones can avoid that though. I bought mine from Amazon as it was cheaper to import them than buy locally but I'm not sure how different Aus is in that regard.

Also includes massive extension cable if you want it, and the package is pretty sweet. In terms of listening to music they aren't as good as top tier headphones but for gaming I found them more than adequate. Mind you, I don't play FPS where you need to hear footsteps and such but I'd expect they would be fine for that too.

I have a pair of Audio Technica ATH-AD500Xs and a Blue Snowball. Both together ran me about $100 USD. The headphones use a standard cup size you you can swap out the included felt ones with more premium materials if you'd like. I like the headphones a lot more than my previous headset, the Turtle Beach Tangos.

I've had a Steelseries 5Hv2 for the last few years and I'm very happy with it. It has thick foam-like pads, has a very long cord (most of it is an extension cord though) with cloth exterior and a retractable mic. It's very comfortable to wear over long periods compared to other headsets I've had. Never gotten any complaints about the mic quality and the sound in general is all right, at least for gaming. I never installed any drivers to make it work, just plugged it in and it worked iirc.
The site I usually order computer stuff from only has v3, so I'm guessing it's being phased out now, but last time they had it in stock it was piss cheap ($30-40). The only (non-Norwegian) store I've heard of that had it in stock after a quick Google search was Amazon, where it seemed a bit overpriced.

He meant the driving part of the speaker coil, fyi.

And yes, bigger means better. But as usual, there's other factors that influence clarity and power of the headphone as well, so big isn't everything.

It's not the sound card. Any onboard sound chip is capable of perfectly clear voice transmission.
You need sound cards mainly for additional features that go beyond gaming and to lessen background noise - but we're talking *really* quiet noise here, which is *only* audible during silence -> high quality music recording.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 31 2015, 5:38 pm by NudeRaider.

Just out of curiosity what sound card do you have?

Asus Xonar DS.

I'm leaning heavily towards this at the moment.

http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/product.asp?catID=5&subID=41&prodID=4471

I was thinking about the Sennheiser Game Zero but I've found it has only 35 mm drivers, compared to AT's hefty 50mm drivers.

I've given up on my quest not to get pleather. Basically every headphone seems to have them.


I've bit the bullet and went with the Audio-Technica ATH-AG1 Closed Back Gaming Headset. It basically meets all my criteria minus the pleather. Reviews compared it favourably against the Sennheiser Game Zero. Hopefully I've made the right choice with my purchase.

I'll let you guys know how it goes when it arrives.

(I also use that same soundcard, Jack.)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 2 2015, 6:08 am by Oh_Man.

Drivers aren't the only thing that matter.

But those AT ones aren't too shabby. Still I'd rather have a mic/headphone combo like pie does.

I considered that, but I really didn't want to have two cables dangling from my head (assuming you mean clip-on mike).
As for a separate mike somewhere on the desk, well, then I get inconsistent volume in my voice depending how far forward/back I am sitting.

Order: processing. Should be here in the next day or two!

He means my AudioTechnica ATH-AD500X / Sennheiser E835 + XLR Mixer + Suspension stand combo.