In my earlier life I put a lot of emphisis on durability cheapness in my compuer periferals. Duribility mattered for traveling to lan events, cheapness was because my bottom line was very low. I hated to see good equipment broken and when it came to cheaper headphones that was something that happened all the time. Now however I have learned the value of the expression ‘you get what you pay for’, and then some. I have become a headphone snob/junkie.
Now, when I say snob I just mean, I am beginning to care more about quality than anything else. There are some people out there posting on amazon saying, “I had this and this headphone and the decible output on the base was less satisfactory at 1200 mhz.” F those guys, you think that helps me figure out of this is a good pair of headphones or not? No way! I want to know are the headphones comfortable, do they have good sound (I don’t care how many mhz’s) and are they going to last long enough to make them worth the hundreds of dollars they sell for.
Enter the Sony MDR 7056 Professional Large Diaphragm Headphones. Some good advice from a former soundboard student these headphones were recommended as good sound, great durability at a reasonable price. Now 80 bucks is nothing to scoff at but I needed help at work. With a large wide open room and only crappy little earbuds to protect me I had a hard time getting work done for not being able to concentrate. These headphones saved my butt and the sound they produce I think is quite awesome for the price. I didn’t think the headphones would make that much of a difference but man, was I wrong. With these headphones at work, I knew I needed better headphones for home and gaming.
I did a lot of searching around the internet over the period of months looking for a good pair of headphones with a good microphone for chatting and comfortable enough to wear for hours on end.
This is what I found.
The Sennheiser PC 360 headset for Pro Gaming was the result of my efforts researching. What stood out about this series? The headphones are full ear covering but not noise canceling which means air can get in and out and keep your head from getting too warm. Another advantage is that these headphones have no control halfway down the cable for volume controls, rather the volume control is on the right earpiece and the boom actually works as the mute button; when it is down, it is active, when it is up, it is muted, easy enough. Finally, instead of leather ear cuffs, which can feel a but sticky and hot at times on your face, these ear pieces are felt, comfortable and cool.
The sound is excellent, even my friend’s voices on Skype sound better and I didn’t think those could improve, heeeyooo! The point is, I now know that a good pair of headphones is sometimes worth the price for good sound and better comfort.
I think a cheaper pair which also might be just as good is this one here. The Steel Series 7H also looks like a great pair of headphones and a shade cheaper than the Sennheiser, I haven’t tried them on, but my research extensive as it was for gaming headsets makes me think this would also be a good pair.
