Tempest001

I'm no audiophile, but I'd like to be one. I want that crystal clear audio quality that apparently is just too great for audiophiles to live without.

It will be used mostly for music + gaming and I plan on recording guitar with my computer eventually, if that doesn't fall into the music category.

I never had a set of good headphones before, but I read around, and people seem to like sennheiser a lot, so I looked into the hd595's.

Turns out they're open back headphones, which means they don't block out ambient noise. Not really something I want, since I have 2 very noisy little brothers and an older brother who shares the same bedroom with me.

So what are some good quality closed-back headphones?
What are the pros/cons of closed-back vs open-back?
Should I invest into a good sound card? (keep in mind that my sig rig is not my real rig, it's just a dream PC. Currently I use onboard sound.)
If so, what would a good sound card be in combination with the recommended headphones?

Budget right now is < $300USD for the headphones with shipping included.
Budget for a sound card would be a separate budget around the same as the headphone budget.

I'm willing to buy from any well reputed site, but I prefer to buy off the egg, if possible.


Thanks in advance!
~Tempest001

AMD+nVidia

Well I personally own the HD555's, and while they ARE open ear, I CANNOT hear anyone else in the room when they're even at ~50% output.

We play a lot of TF2 LAN, and there is no chance of hearing the others in the room YELLING at me, they must speak via mic or I will NOT hear them.

The sound is fantastic, I can hear people walking from farrr away in COD4, and hear everything in TF2. Music is great!

Just my $0.02

__________________
Please support the Modern Warfare 2 boycott until our voices are heard!

Modern Warfare 2 Petition
Global Modern Warfare 2 Price Hike
Modern Warfare Will Not Have Servers, Mods, Anything
Have you canceled your pre-order?

lozanoa11

If you wanna spend $300 on headphones and the same on a card i would instead spend about $150 on the card and $150 on a headphone amp.

__________________
Flac>Creative XF-I Titanium>Grado Sr325
MICHIGAN OVERCLOCKERS

Tempest001

What's a headphone amp do for me? It wouldn't block anything on my sound card would it?
I plan on getting headphones + a sound card before christmas, and then getting z5500 speakers for christmas.

but can people around you hear whats coming from your headphones?

Tempest001

how do the ATH-A700 headphones compare to the hd555's?

bebster

Don't bother with the A700s, they are pretty ordinary.

If you have $600 to spend on headphones and a soundcard: I would highly recommend getting headphones, a headphone amp and a USB DAC instead.

A great headphone to look at would be the Millet Hybrid Minimax, which cost about $250. This leaves you with $200 for a kick ass pair of headphones and $150 for a USB DAC.

For the kind of money that you have, don't bother with a sound card. A DAC and AMP setup sounds much nicer.

As for closed headphones, perhaps consider the Shure SRH840 - they are highly recommended my many people, and cost AU$240 (~US$200) so they might just fit into your budget.

So yeah, other people might have different ideas, but for your budget IMO the absolute best sound would be

Your PC >> USB DAC >> Millet Hybrid Minimax >> Shure SRH840 >> Your ears d[-_-]b


p.s. If you are considering buying the Minimax amp, they are not commercially available - you will have to find someone to build it for you. I believe Soloz2 - OCN's audio editor - can do it, so PM him and ask.

__________________

Lossless Audio Group

We Are Gr33n Machine

AMD+nVidia

Ohh sorry is that what you were looking for?

Yeah they can

__________________
Please support the Modern Warfare 2 boycott until our voices are heard!

Modern Warfare 2 Petition
Global Modern Warfare 2 Price Hike
Modern Warfare Will Not Have Servers, Mods, Anything
Have you canceled your pre-order?

SkoalFineCut

About the SRH840's if you do some digging you can find them for as low as $120 or so and they've been getting good reviews, I haven't had a chance to hear them though so can't speak from personal experience.

As for a DAC chinesekiwi seems to like the Musiland 02 and he knows his stuff.
http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards...s-essence.html

__________________
Lan Machine: e8400, 8800gt 512mb, 80gb HDD, 2gb G.Skill, DFI Bloodiron, Tt matrix.

Reflux

Audio Technica AHD2000's. Closed, good quality audio, my cousin has a pair, they're comfy and give good sound quality, but suck ass for gaming because they 'sit' on your head, they don't clamp on, meaning you can't move your head around as much.

__________________

Say "Thank you" with rep.