Gaming headphones with plenty of bass....

[praetorian]

Hey peeps,

I'm looking to get a proper gaming headset and move away from my Sony XB700s with a generic USB desktop microphone; however, I'm spoilt for choice and trying to find out what is best is definitely not helping. Read a couple of reviews at Head-Fi (I'm addicted to the place) but wanted some others people thoughts on the headsets which I've got in line.

So far I have the following:
SteelSeries 7H Headset Fnatic Edition (50mm drivers which match the XB700s);
SteelSeries Siberia Elite (
Skullcandy PLYR 1s.

Now I'm really not concerned whether they're wireless or wired but more what the soundstage is and how punchy they are in terms of bass. The XB700s can absolutely vibrate your ears apart with bass/sub-bass so this is kind of the reference.

I could always keep the current setup and save the money but at least with an integrated mic, its one less USB connection for me to have to worry about.

Whatever I choose will be hooked up to a Asus Xonar D2X PCIe or the onboard Creative chip on my Sniper G1.3 board, again no slouching.

Any thoughts, experiences would be helped even though I know that the issue of soundstage etc is subjective to each person.

 

[ThinJ]

The Antlion Modmic is a good alternative to gaming headsets and would allow you to avoid just ditching your XB700's.

Also worth noting is that nothing, and I mean *nothing* else you buy is going to have bass like those XB series headphones. They bloat the bass end of the spectrum by a huge degree compared to basically any other headphone I have ever seen a frequency response chart for. I can't find a chart anymore because headphone.com stopped selling them, but if that's the kind of bass you like you aren't likely to find it anywhere else.

Also... assuming you're still young, those things will wreck your ears before you hit 25

*Found one!

 

[praetorian]

Hehe, cheers ThinJ. At least that backs up what I've been thinking about as nothing can touch the XB700s in terms of bass response The Modmic was also something that I should have added as I have the appropriate place to connect it on my XB700s.

Definitely not a youngun, as at 33 my hearing is already starting to go thanks to too many raves in my teenage years, DJing before the necessitation of ear defenders etc. I've had the audiology test that proves that I've lost certain hearing frequencies. Doesn't help that I use custom IEMs from 1964ears everyday either...

Think the Modmic is going to be the way to go especially with a nice $ to £ rate going on at the moment

 

[Comixbooks]

Razer Krakens

 

[B00nie]

IEMs are probably the worst thing anyone can do to their hearing.

 

[praetorian]

That's why I don't abuse them B00nie. I have them typically fairly low as with the -28db isolation on them, there's absolutely no reason to push them very loud

Comixbooks: I tried those at the weekend and really wasn't impressed with them. The plastic makes them feel very breakable and also squashed my head

 

[Godmachine]

IEMs are probably the worst thing anyone can do to their hearing.

If you're completely irresponsible yes. If you exercise sound judgement and actually keep the volume at a sensible level then you can use IEMs til the day you die perfectly fine.

Its human error that causes the majority of hearing loss from such things. Blaming the technology makes no sense.

 

[ThinJ]

If you're completely irresponsible yes. If you exercise sound judgement and actually keep the volume at a sensible level then you can use IEMs til the day you die perfectly fine.

Its human error that causes the majority of hearing loss from such things. Blaming the technology makes no sense.

Yup.

I've been using IEM's 5 days a week at work for something like five years now. I'm 31. My hearing still tests very close to where it tested when I was 18.

I lost a wee bit on the very high end which as far as I can tell is normal, but I haven't lost anything in any normally useful or heard range of sound.

As long as you're reasonable with volume... IEM's are no better or worse than anything else.

I mentioned the XB700's damaging hearing because people don't have the same reactions to damaging amounts of bass as they do to say a potentially damaging volume high frequency sound. High frequencies tend to cause direct pain or at the very least be very annoying and fatiguing. Bloated bass volume has to reach much farther into the db range where it can start causing actual damage to your hearing before there's any pain or sign of fatigue.