steo on 24/3/2009 at 13:23
My cheap headset snuffed it a little while ago - the wire was constantly getting twisted and after a few months of use it wore through. Now it's come to buying a new one and I'm wondering whether it's worth investing some real money. I've got a Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer and my PC is hooked up to a fairly decent cambridge audio amplifier and speakers, which is great for music but not so great for gaming, since my desk isn't big enough to get much of a gap between left and right. The headphones would thus be used primarily for gaming and watching tv shows/films.
Here are the options I've weighed up so far:
£5 - £15: cheap headset - won't offer the same sound quality/surround sound experience as something more expensive, might not last as long as more expensive alternatives.
£30 - £40: (
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128208) Creative Fatal1ty gaming headset - Better quality and still a reasonable price but I did read in a review that the sound quality was a bit disappointing for Creative. OR (
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148256) Creative HS-950 gaming headset - a bit more expensive than the fatal1ty and clearly less money has gone into the marketing of it, so it's presumably better. It is USB, I'm not really sure how that affects things though.
£70-£100: There's quite a few good-looking high end models at this price range. The Razer (
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119660) Barracuda or (
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158648/) Carcharias are both either side of £70 and offer this so-called cirumaural design ((
http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/headsets/razer-barracuda-gaming-headset/1) here's a review of the barracuda). This apparantly means they have 8 Discrete Drivers: 6 for Mid-High Frequency, 2 for Bass, 6 Channel Analog Inputs and Eight Amplifiers contained within its volume control units. By the sounds of it, it has proper surround sound which I'm guessing would be far superior for gaming than the creative fatal1ty which, as far as I can tell, isn't that much different than a regular pair of stereo headphones in that respect. One thing that concerns me slightly with the razer options is this 'Razer HD-DAI™ (High Definition-Dedicated Audio Interface)', which can apparantly only be used with a razer sound card. I don't know if this means that I won't be able to fully appreciate the surround sound benefits of the headset and if it does, I'm not too eager to fork out another £100+ on a sound card, given that I already have a fairly decent x-fi.
UPDATE: Looks like the Razer Carcharias is only stereo, so the barracudas would be better for gaming and £5 cheaper. the barracudas also come with an adapter so they can be used with a normal sound card and not just Razers ~£130 card. They're looking like a good option for gaming, though I've read that the bass on them isn't fantastic and they still don't quite compare to a decent surround sound speaker setup.
Grado offer the (
http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/headphones/19571/Grado+SR+60.htm) SR-60 or (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grado-SR80-HiFi-Headphones-Review/dp/B000G3LCQC) SR-80 models for £73 and £90. The SR-60s would be the same price as the razer carcharias and I would expect them to offer better sound quality but they lack the surround-sound benefits of the razers. My thoughts are that they would be better for everything but gaming and given that I already have decent speakers, probably aren't worth the investment. I would also have to buy a clip-on mic, which is an added cost and it would no doubt be inferior to what's offered on other headsets.
The final option I've looked at is the £80 (
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160479/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended) Logitech G35 7.1 Gaming headset. This appears to offer surround sound like the razer headsets, and given the brand and the price, I would expect it to be of high quality. However, it says that it uses a USB connector and I recall reading somewhere that that means it will bypass my sound card which is probably a deal breaker if true.
UPDATE: Though these claim 7.1 surround sound, they are actually just stereo with added witchcraft to make them seem 3D. I suspect that it's similar to creative's CMSS-3D which you get with an X-fi, so though they're probably still very good, I can't see them outperforming the barracudas real 5.1 surround sound setup.
The Creatives look like a pretty good compromise, it's probably going to be either one of them or the barracuda, it depends on whether I think it's worth forking out an extra £30-40 for 5.1 surround sound.
So, does anyone have experience with any of these headsets? Are there any Headset gurus out there with advice on the matter? Which one do I buy?
