Sound card and Headphone combinations for multimedia ( Xonar Phoebus, D2X or the STX)

[NeverBackDown]

Should look at Beyerdynamic Dt770(closed) or Dt990(open).

Closed will mean no sound will escape from the earpads, open is opposite but allows your ears to breath more and for the sound to feel more natural due to the air naturally carrying the sound frequencies.

 

[Lazlo]

you're right, for a budget sense wise it be smarter to buy a set of headphones and get a $5 mic... you save a lot of money.

100% agree.



Yes! Even if it is more expensive the level of quality is far beyond than any other all in one headset.

I would say that a decent headset most of the times has a noticeable better mic than a cheapo 5 bucks one.
A headset/headphone mc combo always goes both ways. So if you have a crappy mic you won't notice. But everybody else will. Trust me I had my share of skype/teamspeak/comms/etc. with people with sub par mics. And it can be quite anoying.
So honestly saying buy a 150€+ headphone and pair it with a 5€ mic can be interpreted as very unsocial/selfish.
Have a look at it this way. If everybody takes this route we all have crappy annoying voip despite our excellent headphones

 

[SuB]

This is true lazlo but dropping money on a headset is obsurd when you can get far better audio quality in the cans, then invest in a mic later.

@op
I'm not a massive Audio technica fan myself, I prefer the look of the beyerdynamic stuff for closed back, I went with open back AKG's for gaming/reference reasons. THey are extremely sharp and accurate in their sound reproduction and are superb in games that require accuracy of locations/rapport. Really can't be touched with an STX. The sound stage really is something to be admired.

 

[Lazlo]

I think it's no question that you get the best sound from "dedicated" headphones. My point was that if you fork out a lot of money for a soundcard and cans don't go cheap on the mic.

It's my personal opinion though that a good headset can make sense in some (budget-) situations, depending on the purpose.
I've been using a senheiser pc161 for a couple of years. And in my experience it's more than sufficient for gaming and voip stuff. I have M50s for listening to music and stuff and of course if I look for it, or hear for it if you will, I can notice a difference.

If you need that "difference" is something everyone has to decide for themselfs. Personally for gaming and normal use I don't need it.