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I'm looking for some recommendations on a headset for general use and gaming. The catch is the following:
I want to be able to use them on any of 3 devices: mac mini (general usage), xbox 360 (gaming), and PC (gaming). And be able to switch among the three with a minimum of hassle and (optimally) no cable switching.
I'm not opposed to spending good money (like $200+) on good headphones, but I am opposed to spending good money on crappy "gaming" headsets (i.e. the features of these headsets are nice, but if the audio quality is subpar then I'm less inclined to buy). I already own nice $200 sets of stereo headphones and would pay that again if I can get similar quality. This time around I'm looking for an integrated mic for gaming use though, possibly wirless functionality (for couch gaming on the 360), and easily transportable so I can use it on my 3 devices (xbox360 and mini are in one room, PC is in another).
The other catch is that my 360 and mini are currently hooked into a set of Klipsch Ultra5.1s via the Klipsch DD5.1 decoder. That way I get full 5.1 digital output on each device. The drawback is that the physical arrangement of the hardware is such that it is not convenient to use the headphone port on the Ultra5.1 control pod. If you are looking for an idea of the setup, check my post in the LCD Setup thread and you can get an idea of how I have things situated.
I hear a lot of good things about the Astro mixamp 5.8. It has Dolby Headphone technology, and it also supports using any 3rd party headset so I could get something like the Senn PC360 for a good quality set of headphones. This seems a little spendy but looks like the "premium" option if you're looking for ultimate audio quality. One concern I have about this setup though is that even though it is wireless, there seems to be a mess of cables going between the mixamp volume control unit and the headphones. Especially if you're gaming on a 360 controller, because you need some kind of additional (?) cable to route the voice channel to the controller so it can transmit it back to the 360?
Another concern I have is that it seems limited to a single input, so would not be able to easily hook up both my mac mini and 360 to the mixamp, without having to go over to where the hardware is located to swap cables around. If I wanted to use the USB audio aspect of the mixamp on the PC, I'd additionally have to move it into another room. However I can probably live with just using the integrated audio on my computer and just plug the PC360 right into the front audio jacks on my PC. I don't really need the wireless function there.
What other options might there be that would fit my needs? It's north of $300 for the mixamp+pc360 setup, which is a lot. I'd be willing to pay it knowing that it provides very premium audio quality, but if I still have to deal with cable hassles with the separate mixamp volume controller aspect, and the cable input swapping, I might be willing to retrogress my audio standards a little in exchange for some more usability convenience.
I want to be able to use them on any of 3 devices: mac mini (general usage), xbox 360 (gaming), and PC (gaming). And be able to switch among the three with a minimum of hassle and (optimally) no cable switching.
I'm not opposed to spending good money (like $200+) on good headphones, but I am opposed to spending good money on crappy "gaming" headsets (i.e. the features of these headsets are nice, but if the audio quality is subpar then I'm less inclined to buy). I already own nice $200 sets of stereo headphones and would pay that again if I can get similar quality. This time around I'm looking for an integrated mic for gaming use though, possibly wirless functionality (for couch gaming on the 360), and easily transportable so I can use it on my 3 devices (xbox360 and mini are in one room, PC is in another).
The other catch is that my 360 and mini are currently hooked into a set of Klipsch Ultra5.1s via the Klipsch DD5.1 decoder. That way I get full 5.1 digital output on each device. The drawback is that the physical arrangement of the hardware is such that it is not convenient to use the headphone port on the Ultra5.1 control pod. If you are looking for an idea of the setup, check my post in the LCD Setup thread and you can get an idea of how I have things situated.
I hear a lot of good things about the Astro mixamp 5.8. It has Dolby Headphone technology, and it also supports using any 3rd party headset so I could get something like the Senn PC360 for a good quality set of headphones. This seems a little spendy but looks like the "premium" option if you're looking for ultimate audio quality. One concern I have about this setup though is that even though it is wireless, there seems to be a mess of cables going between the mixamp volume control unit and the headphones. Especially if you're gaming on a 360 controller, because you need some kind of additional (?) cable to route the voice channel to the controller so it can transmit it back to the 360?
Another concern I have is that it seems limited to a single input, so would not be able to easily hook up both my mac mini and 360 to the mixamp, without having to go over to where the hardware is located to swap cables around. If I wanted to use the USB audio aspect of the mixamp on the PC, I'd additionally have to move it into another room. However I can probably live with just using the integrated audio on my computer and just plug the PC360 right into the front audio jacks on my PC. I don't really need the wireless function there.
What other options might there be that would fit my needs? It's north of $300 for the mixamp+pc360 setup, which is a lot. I'd be willing to pay it knowing that it provides very premium audio quality, but if I still have to deal with cable hassles with the separate mixamp volume controller aspect, and the cable input swapping, I might be willing to retrogress my audio standards a little in exchange for some more usability convenience.
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