Hi all,
I only just signed up today on this site after reading some of the forum threads regarding headphones in the last few days. I hope it's ok to ask questions that might seem dumb or obvious and i was hesitant at first (too shy) to ask because i lack the knowledge about these things but in the end i thought i'd take the chance. I have hardly ever used headphones in any capacity, only ever used earphones for walkmans back in the 90's.
I have read whilst google searching, or heard on YouTube terms such as "Soundstage" wide/narrow and only today i read some mentioning "Deep soundstage"....as well as "Imaging". closed and open back headphones/headsets and also recently , semi-open headphones. Some saying that having too wide a soundstage pair of phones isn't necessarily good for gaming because then you lose the imaging side of things when it comes to playing games, pinpoint sounds. I hope i got that right.
In the last month or so i'd been looking at headsets for gaming (at first), but then came across the idea of using headphones- separate mic needed for headphones of course from what i gathered because a number of people recommended them for gaming too.
My primary needs are gaming (Xbox one- via the 3.5mm connection on the controller) but also am very interested in watching movies with headphones too so i'd say both needs, but in no particular order, if that is possible. I have only thus far tried what came to hand here at home. My nephew's headset, which i borrowed for a few days, brand name: Rockpapa, which i believe are very low budget from what i gathered when i searched the name. I tried cheap Sony earphones(very tinny sound) i used to use with my walkman...... I also enabled the Dolby Atmos app for my xbox so i could experiment a little perhaps.. The results were just ok at best, as you would imagine. When i played a film or series on netflix (I don't know if Amazon prime use it) that was Atmos it was just ok using the Rockpapa headset, but lacked any sense of distance, especially things in front and behind.... as expected i guess.
Today i also found out it was possible to to get amps to use with xbox because for some reason i had it in mind they were only used on PC's. The one that popped up first on Amazon was the Astro gaming mix amp(around £120). From what i gathered some headphones need an amp otherwise sound volume may be low, but i also read some ppl saying that amp might not be needed depending on which headphones we purchase. I don't know if there are any other amps so far that i can use with an xbox as i haven't looked further so far.
It's all left me a little baffled as to which headphones (or headset) i should get. I understand that headphones ,if i buy a half -decent pair usually have better sound quality, unless i'm mistaken.
If i've been mistaken in anything i've written please correct me. I hope to learn a little, or at least enough my tiny brain can handle
My price range for headphones is probably £100 -"£120 tops i think, anything less than that would be good if possible. If i end up needing an amp it might take me while longer to save up for one. My birthday is coming end of September and family members/member have kindly offered to chip in if needed.
I hope this post hasn't been too long and boring..lol. Im not sure if i have left anything out, but if i remember anything else i'll post it here if it's ok to do so.
Simon