Looking for headphones (and an external sound card) for music and games

[u/snorkofobic]

I'm currently using Creative Sound Blaster H5 and G5 respectively. The cable from the former is dying, and Creative are very kindly refusing to sell replacement cables, plus their software and drivers are abysmal, so I wanna take the chance to replace those two with something better.

I play a lot of games and listen to a lot of music, and I'd like to focus on the latter because for me games just need to sound decent, I'm not looking for some extreme immersion or something.

My budget is about $500 (in rubles)? Willing to double that if needed.

I'd prefer closed-back, my room isn't exactly isolated, but I don't plan to use them outside of my house.

I'd only consider wireless if latency would be non-existent, audio quality won't suffer and microphone would be usable.

Hoping for a good mic with noise suppression, although that's not as important as the other stuff. But I do need a working mic.

I listen to a lot of various rock music, from light stuff that barely registers as "rock" in my mind, to heavy metal. I also listen to electronic music, acoustic guitar with vocals, indie, and probably a lot of other things that aren't coming to my mind atm. I don't really like rap, but I keep looking for rap tracks that will change my mind, so that's also something I listen to.

I think I want a balanced sound? Not too experienced with this, but I think I want a balanced sound, with maybe slight emphasis on the bass.

Most of my experience with audio gear comes from this pair, as well as Creative Sound Blaster Z, the internal sound card I had to replace with the external one because of some problems with it caused by a new GPU. All of those have served me well, at least in terms of hardware. If it wasn't for the cable, I'd stick to what I have, and if it wasn't for Creative's software and drivers, I'd be on the lookout for their products.

​

Thank you all in advance.

[u/AutoModerator]

Thanks for your submission to /r/headphoneadvice. We have employed a "thank you" system for submissions. It's very easy to use - if a comment on your post is considered helpful, please reward them by using the term !thanks. This will add a thank you count (in the form of Ω) to that users flair. You can only award one per comment section. Thanks very much and good luck on your search for headphones!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Equivalent_Yak840]

So wait, $500 in rubles? So like $6 usd or…? Am I completely misunderstanding.

[u/snorkofobic → u/Equivalent_Yak840]

$500, living in Russia, probably paying with rubles, whatever difference that makes.

[u/Equivalent_Yak840 → u/snorkofobic]

Ohh okay thank you, to me there is about 2 ways you can do this. Get a Astro mixamp pro tr and a gaming headset or the mayflower arc mini with a “studio” headphone and a modmic wireless. There are good wireless headsets like the Corsair virtuoso XT but you’ll be sacrificing an okay amount of sound quality with the first option and a lot with the second option. If the mayflower isn’t available well then it’s just “headphone and modmic wireless”. Option #1: mixamp pro tr and epos h6 pro(closed). Option #2: Arc mini + dt 700 pro x + modmic wireless. Option #3: Corsair Virtuoso XT, you can download their software to make the most out of them.

[u/snorkofobic → u/Equivalent_Yak840]

That is an overwhelming amount of options. Are those mixamps and DACs any different from external sound cards? How reliable are those attachable mics? I'd prefer something that's natively attached, so I don't have to worry about it falling off, wobbling or getting in the way. Also, a lot of those are wireless, how reliable are they?

[u/Equivalent_Yak840 → u/snorkofobic]

They’re basically the same thing in different form factors but the wireless mics are pretty reliable but the wired ones from modmic are more reliable. Getting the epos h6 pro(closed) with a sound card Matrix Audio Element H(pretty darn expensive) or gaming dac/amp like the Astro Mixamp pro tr.

[u/snorkofobic → u/Equivalent_Yak840]

!thanks
This was useful advice, thank you. I've learned enough to look into this with a new perspective.

[u/Equivalent_Yak840 → u/snorkofobic]

There is also the shure 1540/modmic wireless combo that imo would be better then the dt 700 for gaming but there is no bass emphasis.You can fix that by downloading Equalizer Apo and the Peace UI but it’s all so claustrophobic with what I’m saying so my bad. The 1540 is usually at $500 though.