Needing Some Help With PC Headphones

Mr Slippy Fist

Hey, hope this is the proper place to ask instead of the Tech Tavern.

In about a month, my living situation is going to change such that my PC will be in shared space instead of my room, so I was wanting to get some nice headphones instead of sticking with speakers that may distract others. I've never used any other than just basic ones for Ventrilo, etc, so I could use some advice on a couple of things.

1) What are some good 5.1 (or better?) headphones for gaming?
2) I currently use the on-board sound on an evga X58 motherboard. Should I get a dedicated sound card for this?

Thanks!

Apogee

I personally bought a Corsair H1S1, along with a Xonar DG, which is Asus' headphone-specific soundcard. It's a great soundcard for the average guy, but it includes pseudo-8-channel audio from 2 speakers, plus a great amp for the sound.

If you're getting a analog (i.e. not USB) headphone/headset, get a decent audio card as well. It is amazing how much better everything is by cutting out the motherboard static.

Mr Slippy Fist

Thanks for the suggestions. I was just thinking that I may want to look in to a full featured sound card (if I end up getting one) to plug the speakers back into later on.

iRevert

My two babies:

http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-AD700-Open-air-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B000CMS0XU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1303431366&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303431499&sr=8-1

I prefer the Sennheisers in terms of comfort and sound, however the Audiotechnicas I use with a mixamp on my 360 and love them to death as well. Really its a six on one hand half a dozen on the other type of deal.

Upgrade your soundcard and then take a look around at some of 1+ year old headsets which will be half as much as the current models, just buy the leftover oldnewstock (new but unopened).

Essee

Mr Slippy Fist wrote: »

2) I currently use the on-board sound on an evga X58 motherboard. Should I get a dedicated sound card for this?

Honestly, we just went from using a recent Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium sound card to using the onboard sound on an ASUS motherboard, which is also an X58. If your motherboard is similarly good quality (and I would expect that from eVGA) then you might not really hear too much of a difference. Then again, the guy talking about which sound card to get also suggested one made by ASUS, so maybe their motherboards have better sound quality. We certainly don't have any new "motherboard static" from ours now that we've switched from the dedicated sound card, so depending on the quality of your current sound, you might not need to add a new sound card.

I know for sure that the quality of onboard sound has greatly improved over the years. The only concern I would really have now is the maximum number of sound channels the board supports. Certainly, you are pretty much guaranteed fantastic quality of sound from a dedicated card, but I don't think you're missing out on nearly as much as anyone used to (and yes, I often heard reports of static and lower quality from older boards) if you continue using your onboard sound. I would think I would notice the difference because hearing lower sound quality or buzzing really irritates me. There's no real downside to getting a dedicated card if you feel like it, other than the monetary investment itself. Some cards these days also have some useful, cool-looking front panel controls that come with them (although our particular sound card's front panel constantly buzzed if we ever actually connected to it instead of the card itself, due to a known design flaw, so your mileage may vary on that) that motherboards can't have. Anyway, it's just my two cents as someone who recently had to switch from one type to the other (sound card got fried when the old motherboard, whose onboard sound we never used, did). If you have the money, go for it, but if you don't I don't think it's gonna kill you. The headphones you use are probably gonna be more important, though.

As for 5.1 headphones, I don't really have any recommendations for anything that specific. For headphones in general, my fiancé has some reasonably-priced Sennheiser headphones that sound pretty amazing, and since I don't like having my sound terribly loud (quality over quantity, dangit!), I especially appreciate that they seem "quieter" than other headphones so you've got a lot more granularity in volume than your average, cheaper headphones. The only downside I see to them is that they surround your ears, so they're fairly big and might be a bit warm at times, but if you're looking for quality those aren't the primary concern. I dunno if they make full-on headsets (with microphones), since I haven't been the one researching them before, but for headphones alone they're great.