Blasterboy460
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i got 70$ to spend on some headphones, my panasonics cord snapped so im SOL right now, any suggestions. i game alot and listen to rock/ some rap. i like bass and good highs
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best sub 70$ headphones
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Blasterboy460
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right now its between the hd497's te grado sr-60's, the sennheisier HD-270 and the sennheiser EH-2270
Nazo
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Bass and good highs eh? But not an audiophile looking for a 15-33000Hz frequency range? d-: Seriously though, I have found something very nice. Kinyo makes a 5.1 headphone (KY-100) which actually has some kind of minurature subwoofer as well as seperate speakers for front, rear, and center (eg not one of those that do the virtual surround that just doesn't seem to work right.) I got these off of newegg for $50 and rather enjoy them, especially since I no longer have to switch to 2 speaker mode on my soundcard every night when everyone else goes to sleep but I'm still up gaming or watching anime. Part of how they made it cheaper is the fact that the specs aren't exactly the highest out there. According to the box, the amplifier you have to plug it into (I'm working on a way to directly connect it to my soundcard in surround rather down stereo involving splicing something probably) has a SNR of >= 80dB, which as you might already know isn't the greatest (my soundcard offers 96dB for example.) The box says all of the speakers do ~ 20-20000Hz frequency range, which is quite decent since the real cheapies out there usually do more like 50-15. Probably the most notable issue is the fact that the amplifier has a small noise that you generally can't hear the moment you start a game or play music, but the audiophile types who feel that a 320Kbps MP3 is too low quality will obviously not even touch that with a 10 ft pole. My suspicion is that it's internally doing full amplification and the volume control merely controls the output. I believe sony makes a 5.1 headphone set for the area of $100 that basically has all the ups and none of the downs, but you don't want something that costly I guess.
Anyway, so maybe you are looking for the really high quality stuff, especially since you specified $70 as the upper end, but if you aren't an audiophile that might at least be of some interest to you. It does have the advantage of being capable of very clear audio due to the seperation, even in stereo when you use the virtual surround on your soundcard (not to be confused with the earlier mentioned virtual surround that tries to make surround with two speakers, this time I'm referring to where it tries to seperate out stereo into 5.1, which isn't perfect but at least sounds fine on my soundcard.)
Anyway, so maybe you are looking for the really high quality stuff, especially since you specified $70 as the upper end, but if you aren't an audiophile that might at least be of some interest to you. It does have the advantage of being capable of very clear audio due to the seperation, even in stereo when you use the virtual surround on your soundcard (not to be confused with the earlier mentioned virtual surround that tries to make surround with two speakers, this time I'm referring to where it tries to seperate out stereo into 5.1, which isn't perfect but at least sounds fine on my soundcard.)
Blasterboy460
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where do i got to try these out, the local circuit city doesnt have these so thats a no for that place
Nazo
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Best Buy has a few decent headphone sets, but I don't think they let one try them out. If you meant me specifically, I don't really know where else you can find them besides Newegg since that's the cheapeast place I found it, so I just forgot all the other sites. Maybe their return policy is friendly enough though to try it and return it if it's just not satisfactory, but I would assume not (well, local stores sometimes do it. I can go to walmart and say I don't like something I just bought and return it which I've had to do for a few things that were just absolute ripoffs.)
Check around for some local hi-fi dealers, though I doubt you will find what you look for. Even better, try headphones from people that you know. My hd497's eventually were sold to a friend and another bought hd212's.
While those surround sound headphones may seem ok for gaming, they most likely can not compete with similarly priced 2-channel headphones (especially with music). First of all, something recorded in 2.0 should be played in 2.0. This leaves DVD's and SACD/DVD-A (computer games are 4.1; why listen to SACD/DVD-A on low-end headphones?). Secondly, and most obviously, you are paying for 6 drivers instead of two, and in a closed headphone, which will general not sound as good as open in the same price range. Obviously there is no true "center" channel or subwoofer, which brings another point. You have two ears. Surround sound vertainly has it's uses, but mainly with speakers. If you ask around, you will find that many people here with even entry level headphones prefer them to their speakers for gaming. For me, hd497 vs Klipsch 4.1; the hd497 wins.
Nazo, all because it lists a certain frequency range doesn't mean that it performs acceptably within it.
Nazo
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Bah, I tried to make it clear that they were cheap. If you want the ultra-high quality you have to go up to much higher costs. Oh, and btw, I forgot to mention that it has a connector that let's you plug it directly into a stereo source to play the stereo audio through each of the speakers (eg left plays on front left, rear left, and the left sub.) However, I've found that by using some things that seperate things out somewhat I can actually make songs more clear thanks to my 5.1 systems. And I wasn't kidding about them having mini subwoofers. It's a very unique feeling having the headphones vibrate in such a manner on your head. At first I thought just a thumper or one of those weights on a motor that just spin, but it's definitely real bass (I've been playing around with a 5.1 sound editing program.) If nothing else there's always the neatness factor. d-: Anyway, that was just a minor suggest for something relatively useful in the < $70 range and as I said it's only if you aren't a quality freak. I just listed the stuff like the frequency ranges on the box for some information for his reference in case he was somewhat interested.
I just bought a pair of Hd497's and I love them. Extremely comfortable which is very important, and they sound quite good. I tried them out at Ultimate Electronic before I bought them.
These are a great set of cans, and not terribly expensive ~ $60.
These are a great set of cans, and not terribly expensive ~ $60.
NightRaven
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I doubt that those headphones you have are even mediocre quality. Surround headphones are generally rather terrible in terms of audio quality in general because they make sacrifices in order to try and achieve positional audio from multiple drivers. Numbers, unfortunately, generally do lie in cases like these, and just because the specs are nice doesn't mean that the headphone achieves them nearly as well as they indicate.
You probably get better quality than that from quite a few sets of good, quality, value headphones in the sub $80 range depending on your tastes and needs. Commonly recommended ones include the HD-497, HD-280 Pro, SR-60, SR-80, KSC-35, Sony MDR-V6, but there are many more.
Nazo
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The one and only thing I'm saying is that non audiophiles like myself find them to be pretty nice at such a low price. That's it. They sound a little clearer than the headphones and earphones I've had before and that's really all that matters to me since it's good enough. Really that's all I was trying to say. I don't know how much he cares about having ultra-high quality audio or if he is like me and just likes having something that's ok enough for most and convenient.
Oh, and what I was saying about the subs is that you can actually play audio at middle frequencies through the subs and hear it, albiet pretty quietly since, as one would expect, they don't respond very well past the lower ranges. Still, this disproves the possibility of being a mere thumper type thing (unless they are darned good ones) and clearly it couldn't be one of those motors.
BTW, if quality does matter, you might try looking at in-ear earphones that go actually in your ear, not just on them like the normal ones. I found out that even cheap in-ear earphones have clearer and generally better audio (at least, to me) than similarly priced headphones. Not to mention that even with these mini subs, you just can't beat the kind of bass that those can do even if you can't really feel it like this does a little of. Just a thought anyway. I think I saw nice sony earphones at best buy for in the area of $60, but I just use cheap $20 earphones from radioshack (the primary sacrifice in quality goes to the cheap foam they use to hold the things in your ears which doesn't hold well and doesn't last for too long so they could have better sound at such a price.)
Anyway, despite what people say, just use whatever you like. That's all that matters. Because stuff like this is all about human perception, if it sounds good, it is good as far as the user is concerned. (Glares at the audiophiles.)
Oh, and what I was saying about the subs is that you can actually play audio at middle frequencies through the subs and hear it, albiet pretty quietly since, as one would expect, they don't respond very well past the lower ranges. Still, this disproves the possibility of being a mere thumper type thing (unless they are darned good ones) and clearly it couldn't be one of those motors.
BTW, if quality does matter, you might try looking at in-ear earphones that go actually in your ear, not just on them like the normal ones. I found out that even cheap in-ear earphones have clearer and generally better audio (at least, to me) than similarly priced headphones. Not to mention that even with these mini subs, you just can't beat the kind of bass that those can do even if you can't really feel it like this does a little of. Just a thought anyway. I think I saw nice sony earphones at best buy for in the area of $60, but I just use cheap $20 earphones from radioshack (the primary sacrifice in quality goes to the cheap foam they use to hold the things in your ears which doesn't hold well and doesn't last for too long so they could have better sound at such a price.)
Anyway, despite what people say, just use whatever you like. That's all that matters. Because stuff like this is all about human perception, if it sounds good, it is good as far as the user is concerned. (Glares at the audiophiles.)
GodsMadClown
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Agreed. You have your options. Start auditioning.