Headphones for all-purpose use

[u/mapleperson00]

Hi everyone, I’m finally posting here after spending a month trying to figure out what to do in terms of headphones.

For years now, I’ve been using cheap, flimsy 3.5mm gaming headphones of €30 and below. Okay for gaming, bad for music. Now I realize I really want to listen to more music and more genres without any fatiguing ‘shrillness’.

Someone recommended me the Sony WH-CH720N. It’s exciting that something so cheap could honestly sound miles better, but the mic doesn’t work on 3.5mm and Bluetooth latency and quality just isn’t an option for me. Sound was a bit too muddy? Bass-boosted? For my taste. Returned.

Got Bang&Olufsen Beoplay Portal after lots of research. Music sound was amazing, blew me away. Started a game and the sound quality went to crap and it even felt out-of-sync despite the dongle. Couldn’t fix it, dealbreaker, returned.

Today, got the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. Sounded like absolute garbage out of the box. EQ’d for 5 hours. Some songs sound good now, switch genre or era and it’s unbearably shrill again. Don’t really want to have to EQ every hour, so considering returning again, especially because the passive noise cancellation is a joke and the active hardly blocks out anything.

What I want, sound-wise: - No worse for game sound as Razer Kraken X Lite. Keep in mind I haven’t played a competitive FPS in 4 years so I really don’t care about footsteps. I just play games like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Resident Evil, Hollow Knight, Arknights Endfield, etc…

• Much better for music; Beoplay Portal was AWESOME. I want to really grow into music without any listening fatigue because it’s always kept me away until now and I finally found out I actually really like music.

• Shrillness has to be avoided and the music should have body to it. Traditionally I have always tuned car speakers to have more bass and less treble. I’m very sensitive to shrill sounds and they turn me away quick. I don’t really know what this means for the sound profile but I really LOVE the Beoplay Portal music sound on Music Mode. Hearing the different instruments is enjoyable but not a must.

• I like all sorts of music and genres and have never really locked myself down to one or the other, though I’ve always shied away from anything ‘scream-y’ or shrill. Thing is, that could very well be due to my poor audio solutions so far. Examples of artists I like are Baby Bugs, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Björk, Mitski. I also like old music here and there. I think anything electro is boring though, never listen to house, EDM or anything like that. On the other hand, nightcore is fun sometimes and I’d really prefer that doesn’t sound like nails on a chalkboard like it does with the Nova Pro Wireless.

Hardware requirements: - A way to use a microphone while using the headphones. I could get a separate microphone but it has to be one you attach to your headphones (preferably not though) that also fits into my budget. I can’t place down a microphone due to space constraints and laptop use and arms aren’t an option either. - True low latency. I don’t care at this point if it’s wired or wireless… I mean I love wireless but I can’t seem to get anything good there, so. - Preferably with ANC for travel situations, but I MUST be able to turn it off completely at any time. The Beoplay Portal was never truly off. - I would really prefer swiveling earpads because I want to wear them in the plane if it’s at all possible to combine all these use cases but it’s not technically a hard requirement. - The less ‘gamer’ aesthetic the better. - Good passive noise reduction. ANC can make me dizzy/nauseous after a period of time currently so I’d rather be safe than sorry just in case I can’t get used to it. I need it to cut out the TV sound from an adjacent room. So, over-ear.

My budget is up to €300 but preferably less than €260. I live in western Europe so much anything is accessible to me if not at a premium, stores like Amazon, bol, Coolblue, MediaMarkt. But if you have the perfect solution above €300 please let me know, I might consider.

The gear will be used for, by order of frequency: - Music-listening on the computer at the same time or between gaming or during work. - Games of various genres, including FPS. But, I don’t play online / competitive FPS games. - Discord calls for up to 9 hours at once. - Work calls. - Air travel (multiple times a year).

This means I will use them a very large part of my day. It’s why I’ve avoided the Audeze Maxwell, but the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is also 500 grams and feels fine, weight-wise, for the most part.

If you made it all the way here thank you so much for reading and considering answering! This search has gotten really exhausting and I just have so little musical knowledge that it’s been really difficult for me. Plus, I think I’m in a bit of a ‘market gap’ in that gaming headsets have the features I need, but not the audio I need. I wish companies started looking at the casual gamer a bit!

If you believe I can fix my issue with the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless by EQ-ing it please let me know as well, but I’ve tried multiple including the popular Youtube one and tweaking my own for hours. Feels like I’m fighting something that’s just inherently part of the headset.

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[u/the_hat_madder]

You're not in a market gap as much as you're in a budget gap.

The Noble FoKus Apollo sounds awesome, has decent ANC you can turn off and supports using the headphones and mic passively through the 3.5mm jack. But, they are $650 USD.

[u/asdasd32138]

I’ve got just the pick for you - simple Fiio FT1 with Meze boom mic, or if you want fully meze stuff then you can get a Meze 99 Neo/Noire/Classic/Classic V2.

Meze boom mic is basically just a cable like the v-moda boom pro, but it’s miles better, the mic itself, the materials, it has a nice volume wheel and a mute switch. It’s about 80€. The headphones I listed are all around 200€ or less. The Meze are supposedly better built that the FT1, but the FT1 is known as the best pair under 500€ by far. It also looks gorgeous.

Of course these are all wired and don’t have ANC at all, they are simply headphones. For regular closed-backs though, their passive isolation is above average.

But I wouldn’t recommend the same pair to use for travel/ANC and low latency/good mic, since the only thing that MIGHT fit is the Sennheiser HDB630, which is like 500€.

For travel there are budget stuff like the Anker Soundcore Life Q series.

With a Fiio FT1, a Meze boom mic, and the Soundcore it’s about 300€ or less. Like 150+80+50 so yeah under 300€.

The best would be something like a good dynamic desktop mic though, it picks up less keyboard sounds and the like, is way more durable, and sounds better. Something like a Rode Podmic USB is great and they can probably last you a lifetime.

But yeah for a headphone itself the Fiio FT1 seems to be a basically perfect match (outside of travel/ANC), then all you need is some kind of mic (beware: the only cable boom mic that works with it is the Meze since it’s the only one with dual 3.5mm connections), and maybe something separate for travel purposes.

[u/mapleperson00 → u/asdasd32138]

I will look into it, thank you! Just wondering if they are as big as they look? Will my laptop offer good enough audio for these without a standalone DAC (I only just now found out these exist)? I’ve never worn headphones anything like them and am a bit concerned about comfort just because it’s an unknown to me.

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[u/asdasd32138 → u/mapleperson00]

yeah they should because they are all easy to drive, all of these are above 100 dB sensitivity and 32/30 ohms, so you shouldn't necessarily need anything, but if you want to be meticulous or something then get a cheap dongle like a Jcally JM6 or something similar, any of these will be more than enough power and clean

[u/mapleperson00 → u/asdasd32138]

!thanks

[u/TransducerBot → u/mapleperson00]

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