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Post by tonicwine999 on Sept 12, 2010 18:38:22 GMT -5
Which is the best headset at this time for the 360?
Preferably as wireless as wireless can get?! I hear that even the 'wireless' headsets to date still have some kind of wire going from the controller to the headset or mixer. I wouldnt say 'wireless' unless it really was wireless.
I am looking for the highest quality, how much it costs is not an issue (I can always eBay it after im done with it).
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n1gh7
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Post by n1gh7 on Sept 12, 2010 21:05:50 GMT -5
wireless=fail. Sorry.
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Post by hobbert on Sept 12, 2010 23:48:08 GMT -5
i have a turtle beach x3. the wireless isnt all that great. but then again you dont really need a superduper high quality headset. it honestly wont make you any better. a regular audio only headset (no mic) that you can get for around 20 bucks would serve the same purpose. the main thing it does is block out outside sound and makes it seem "tighter"
If you want the best of the best tho get either an astro a40 or a triton 720.
personally id just reccomend getting a turtle beach for around 60-100 bucks just for the mic.
and wireless is kinda fail. goes thru AAA batterys really quick. i wish i woulda got the wired one lol
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Post by snakex on Sept 13, 2010 6:30:47 GMT -5
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toysrme
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Post by toysrme on Sept 13, 2010 21:12:10 GMT -5
first it wont be any turtle beach bulshilt secondly this is moot. until you set a budget the sky is the limit. if you want to spend over a grand just on cans you can do it... third if its mlg, it's as worthless as the pixel it's shaded on for the money tritton 720's. for actual surround sound axpro's. if you want the best affordable simulated surround buy the astro mix-amp & pair it with some high end cans
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Post by n1gh7 on Sept 13, 2010 22:12:08 GMT -5
if you want the best affordable simulated surround buy the astro mix-amp & pair it with some high end cans This.
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mannon
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Post by mannon on Sept 14, 2010 2:12:50 GMT -5
How about dac/amps? What's out there that is a good value, especially if you already have good headphones or a good headset? Is there anything decent that's not as pricey as the astro mixamp? Are there software solutions that would work for PC?
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Post by n1gh7 on Sept 14, 2010 2:33:38 GMT -5
with the mix amp I combine my xbox and PC sound into one output (the headphones). I have no idea about DACs/Amps in the sense of what's good and what will work, but the most streamlined solution for Xbox is definitely the Astro mixamp.
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Post by mannon on Sept 14, 2010 3:06:54 GMT -5
Yeah it looks pretty fecking sweet, just sadly well more expensive than I can afford. heh heh But it's definitely on my "someday" list.
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Post by snakex on Sept 14, 2010 8:24:42 GMT -5
first it wont be any turtle beach bulshilt secondly this is moot. until you set a budget the sky is the limit. if you want to spend over a grand just on cans you can do it... third if its mlg, it's as worthless as the pixel it's shaded on for the money tritton 720's. for actual surround sound axpro's. if you want the best affordable simulated surround buy the astro mix-amp & pair it with some high end cans have u read the forum? 2 pages of headset reviews
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Post by n1gh7 on Sept 14, 2010 9:39:45 GMT -5
Don't bother trying to change toysrme's mind. It never works.
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Post by Indy_Bones on Sept 14, 2010 12:21:51 GMT -5
As an audiophile myself, I'd never even think of using a headset/mic combo as the sound quality isn't even in the same league as good quality headphones and a decent mic.
I've run a set of Sennheiser HD600 headphones ever since they came out, and haven't found anything to really compete with them for the money. If you add these together with any semi-decent microphone, you'll have a setup that will demolish 99.9% of other players out there (aside from the ones who have gone for something similar or more expensive).
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Post by wpnfire on Sept 14, 2010 21:45:36 GMT -5
CELL PHONE MIC DERPADERP. Plantronics
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Post by dchoi41 on Sept 21, 2010 10:02:34 GMT -5
The quality of the headphones, I feel, isn't as important as the audio decoding, at least for the purposes of gaming. Astro A40s are good primarily because of the MixAmp, and its Dolby Headphone decoding. Dolby Headphone simulates a surround sound system in two channel audio by adding effects based on the surround information. So you'll hear sounds echo off of the opposite wall, and sounds behind you will be dampened, similarly to the way your earlobes dampen sounds that are actually behind you. There are 3 settings for Dolby Headphone, each simulating different sized spaces. I have DH decoding on my surround sound receiver, and I have it set to DH3, which simulates something like a theater, so the echoing is more exaggerated, and I can figure out source positions better. I haven't used a MixAmp, so I don't know what setting it uses, but so far as I know from looking at the manual, you don't have the option to switch it. I'll say though, that using cheapo sound isolating earbuds in the headphone port in my surround receiver works better for me than actually using the surround speakers, because of the sound isolation, and the fact that I don't always sit square to my TV. With the headphones, the sound always comes from a position with respect to my character, rather than how I turn my head in real life. This is the surround system I have, incidentally, which I got for only a little more than Astro A40s + a MixAmp would have cost: www.amazon.com/SLS-Q-Line-Surround-Theater-System/dp/B000JZSYZOThe receiver is just a rebranded Sherwood.
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Post by superman123 on Sept 25, 2010 2:15:11 GMT -5
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Post by dchoi41 on Sept 25, 2010 4:51:12 GMT -5
You can have the highest fidelity headphones in the world, but they're not going to help you without the smart decoding. I used to use mid level hi-fi earbuds that sounded worlds better when I was listening to music than the earbuds I have right now (cats chewed up the cord on my old ones), and they didn't help me anywhere near as much as the Dolby Headphone decoding I got out of my surround system.
It doesn't matter if your sound is so crisp that you can count every bit of dirt displaced by someone's footstep if you can't tell right away if the sound was from your front or your rear. When the game's audio goes through standard decoding to translate it to regular stereo, all of that forward and rear information just disappears, and you have to guess, or turn your character to point your ears and hope they keep making sound (and then you have to turn again to shoot them).
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Post by mannon on Sept 25, 2010 6:43:25 GMT -5
Which is why you need a Digital to Analog Converter like the astro mixamp mentioned above. It converts the Dolby 5.1 output into stereo in a way that simulates the way our ears hear sounds behind, in front, above, and below us. Because we actually hear with only two ears it is entirely possible to simulate 3D sound with only two speakers. In fact with headphones it can potentially even be better because you can have headphones that 100% isolate the sound to each ear.
I don't know how good Dolby's tech is in this regard, but there are a lot of possibilities. I really wish that developers would start building it right into the game, however. Because the possibilities there are even better. The game would know exactly from what direction each sound is coming from, for example, and not just the output of a few channels trying to simulate all the various directions sound can come from. Mere volume isn't the only indicator. Even the minute difference in the times when a sound reaches each ear is a piece of information processed unconsciously by our minds which helps us to locate the source of a sound.
If the technology was built directly into a game to simulate the way we hear sounds using headphones the directionality of the sound could greatly surpass that of any multi speaker setup.
Unfortunately it hasn't really caught on enough to be a major marketing bullet point. There was something like that a few years back, I believe they were Dolby's main competition in it and that they did have a software solution which could be built into just about any game engine similar to the Havoc physics engine, but Dolby as usual, dominates. I shant go into it, though, as that was many years back and my memory is rusty. I'd have to research it to make sure I got my info all correct and I simply don't have the time right now. ;p I was sad to see them die off, because I think they had a more complete simulation than Dolby and it didn't require you to buy a mixamp. I recall a demo of a sound source moving around behind a wall and various things that you could download and check out on PC with nothing but headphones.
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Post by dchoi41 on Sept 25, 2010 12:01:52 GMT -5
I looked into it some more and the Astro MixAmp uses a newer Dolby Headphone chip, which draws less power, but eliminates the DH1 (simulates small room) and DH3 (theater) settings. DH2 (large room) isn't bad, but I feel like I get better directionality with DH3.
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Post by mannon on Sept 25, 2010 13:30:06 GMT -5
I think I might find DH3 kinda odd, especially in the big open environments. Once again I'm saddened at the hardware solution, since a built in software solution could dynamically switch modes for the appropriate environments...
It would certainly be nice to have all three options, though. But I'm not buying a whole Dolby setup with all the speakers, ect. I have my xbox sitting right next to my monitor at my computer desk and I just swap the monitor between VGA (PC) and HDMI (Xbox). Setting up a home theater speaker set for just my computer would be ridiculous as well as expensive. So I guess I'm hoping for a good, but cheap, dac/amp for headphone gaming. ;p
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Post by dchoi41 on Sept 25, 2010 18:35:31 GMT -5
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toysrme
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Post by toysrme on Sept 26, 2010 2:51:00 GMT -5
first it wont be any turtle beach bulshilt secondly this is moot. until you set a budget the sky is the limit. if you want to spend over a grand just on cans you can do it... third if its mlg, it's as worthless as the pixel it's shaded on for the money tritton 720's. for actual surround sound axpro's. if you want the best affordable simulated surround buy the astro mix-amp & pair it with some high end cans have u read the forum? 2 pages of headset reviews your reply is nullified by #3, "if it's MLG its worthless". changing my mind is normally based on weighing arguments, facts & credibility of who presented the information. want good game sound info? xim360.com's forum has page after page after PAGE of gaming related audio discussion (and like any pro, that's max posts per page, not pissy 10 post bs).
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Post by toysrme on Sept 26, 2010 3:01:18 GMT -5
not a direct reply to mannon's post, but adding more info to it. right off the bat forget audio changes base on vertical location in console video games. it is not around.
now, most (including dolby headphone surround) simulated surround works by "muffling" the sound coming from stereo headsets. if something is front & center, you get "proper" equal volume, stereo sound. As the sound source gets farther from front & center the soud becomes more & more "muffled". something to the right of you is played back slightly muffled. something behind you the sound is very "muffled" in both speakers. and so on. This does NOT sound in any way shape or form surround sound. what happens is unless you're a complete & unadaptable moron. you quickly learn "muffled sound = more behind than front". Strongly separating the stereo channels (left/right) plus increased muffling for sounds behind you give you great location awareness in 4 compass points, and pretty goodenough location awareness to 8 compass points.
VS straight stereo decoding its an improvement. Not earth shattering by any means... It literally saves you the "hassle" of flicking your view slightly left & right to determine if a newly unidentified sound source is in front or behind you. If you play with stereo headsets already, its not going to "take you to the next level". is what Im saying. If you play on TV or real surround sound. ya i mean even $5 stereo headphones are better, but i digress.
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Post by toysrme on Sept 26, 2010 3:12:22 GMT -5
not pointing fingers, bashing or about to start flaming... but throw sound quality of room audio out the Foxtrotting window when you're gaming. it doesn't make a flip flying Foxtrotting difference what you bought, what you paid. the sound stage is complete & total garbage for gaming.
gaming is not watching a movie. gaming is about EXACT information. you want sound coming from this or that direction absolutely EXCLUSIVELY. Not both ears hearing sound, not interference by an un-fathomable amount of things Foxtrotting up the sound stage. you watch a movie, there's no easier thing in the world. you don't even need really modern surround sound... you need a center channel for voice, stereo & a single fill channel. 5.1, 7.1. it's all moot. aint a hill of beans difference for that purpose.
stereo headphones, regardless of the price, give better positional audio than ANY surround sound setup you can possibly build or price. period. end of dicussion about home audio surround sound and gaming. it's an epic fail if you are looking for anything more than movie entertainment and/or "look at me, i bought something".
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Post by mannon on Sept 26, 2010 5:24:46 GMT -5
Sounds like the Dolby solution hasn't really matured much... it was never the greatest quality solution... ;-/ It's sad to me that this technology has still not found it's way to really being adopted in games, as it most certainly exists. Just listen to this demonstration with headphones on. gprime.net/flash.php/soundimmersionYou can tell not only when the sound source is in front or behind you, but how close it is, and whether it is above or below. The simulation is quite good even if it is just a rattling matchbox. ;p I guess you probably could can't really take something that's just 5.1 channel sound and do the 3D simulation entirely properly, but I'm saddened that they haven't done a better job of it, and that Dolby's dominance has kept their standard in place, helping to hold it back... bleh. Here's another place with some good audio demos: listenwithyourownears.com/3d-audio-demo-showdown/
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Post by mannon on Sept 26, 2010 5:31:53 GMT -5
I should note, the recordings use a physical dummy head with microphones to produce the binaural recording, but it demonstrates the principle anyway. You just need algorithms that can simulate the same effects. Dolby Headphone does this, but apparently not as well as I had hoped... I guess I assumed since it's been around for years since I heard about it that it would have matured and gotten better... But... this is Dolby... I shoulda known better.
Oh well, maybe in another decade or two...
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Post by qupie on Sept 28, 2010 10:04:32 GMT -5
stereo headphones, regardless of the price, give better positional audio than ANY surround sound setup you can possibly build or price. period. end of dicussion about home audio surround sound and gaming. it's an epic fail if you are looking for anything more than movie entertainment and/or "look at me, i bought something". please explain why... and are you familiar with really high end speakers? I know a headset produces the best audio if the price is right, but I cant believe a 5$ headset gives better info then my suround system... so please explain why you think this I mean, normally the words: end of dicussion are used after an discussion or at least after a few arguments.... I haven't heard allot of those.... so please elaborate other then that, surround sound is not only for movies and look at me, but also for peaple who actually enjoy music instead of misformed sounds....
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Post by mannon on Sept 28, 2010 12:10:14 GMT -5
Well for one the positioning of home theater speakers isn't really standardized with any level of precision. You basically get the corners and the front and back of the room, and usually not a perfectly square room at that, nor do people tend to sit perfectly in the middle.
From there you just have several static point sources of sound each one producing a distinct binaural image of the speaker's location. Mixing the volume of a sound between speaker A and speaker B can only go so far when attempting to simulate positions between them.
I dunno. I suppose with the perfect theater setup with perfect speakers all arranged in the perfect geometrical formation with nothing in the environment muffling sounds or causing odd reflections, it could work pretty well... Of course even then, headphones are able to completely isolate the left and right ears.
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Post by mdnl on Sept 28, 2010 14:13:42 GMT -5
.. Of course even then, headphones are able to completely isolate the left and right ears. And with the slightest rotation on screen you quickly determine front or back.
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Post by mannon on Sept 28, 2010 16:33:28 GMT -5
Which is actually made unnecessary by either a home theater setup or dolby headhphone.
By isolation I didn't mean that you could simply discern the difference in a sound source between left and right. Plain old stereo sound in headphones can do that. What I meant is the right ear hears only the right audio channel and the left ear hears only the left audio channel in the headphones themselves. In a home theater setup your left ear actually hears all the same stuff that your right ear does too, so you have no isolation. Isolation just gives more control and it's what allows the binaural demos I linked earlier to work. You cannot achieve the level of holophonic definition with a home theater setup that you can by simply listening to those videos in a good pair of headphones.
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Post by qupie on Sept 29, 2010 1:33:42 GMT -5
well, all the speakers in my system are at equal distance from my sitting place (except the sub, but that doesnt matter) and they are lined up in a circel, like it should be. therefore I cant believe a 5$ headphone will have better sound. I have a grado myself (yeah its prob not good for gaming, but they are good headsets) and I understand a headset can have better sound in the end because 1. it can completely isolate yourself from outside world sounds. 2. the speakers are way closer to your ear wich allows the makers to use full range drivers wich eliminates the use of (to much) filters (=bad for sound) but why would I want to rotate to locate a sound when I can just hear it behind me?
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