What actually makes for a competitive gaming headphone? Imaging? Passive soundstage?

[pierrefermat1]

I find somewhat conflicting results as going by Rtings measurements there are a few headphones that come very close to the HD800S. However from personal experience the HD800S and HD599( Fresh Reviews rates the HD560S equally highly) stand far above some of the other headphones I've used(Arya, Ananda, Aeon, Maxwell, Nan6, M7Z2, H9). Distance and directional separation are much more noticeable on the Sennheiser's.

I have also tinkered around with EQ to Harman and EQ to specific to game audio (measuring footstep frequencies and boosting specific values) but still prefer stock over EQs.


It's odd that the HD560s/HD599 both don't measure all that well but perform much better by subjective testing. So the question is what other currently non measurable qualities actually contribute to gaming purposes?

 

[Dunring]

The most important things are imaging so you can pinpoint direction, passive soundstage, and a silent noise floor.
If you plug a Topping l30II/E30II on optical and an Audio Technica adh1000x in low gain you'll be amazed how aware you'll be of everything going on in all directions. The Ananda Stealth is another exceptional headphone for it. I have both and it's got better imaging than the original.
IEMs are terrific also, since the seal out noise bu design at the expense of passive soundstage. Being able to hear really faint sounds really gives an edge if you have a noisy gaming computer. USB is best, but finding a quiet port can make optical really attractive.

 

[Robbo99999]

I find somewhat conflicting results as going by Rtings measurements there are a few headphones that come very close to the HD800S. However from personal experience the HD800S and HD599( Fresh Reviews rates the HD560S equally highly) stand far above some of the other headphones I've used(Arya, Ananda, Aeon, Maxwell, Nan6, M7Z2, H9). Distance and directional separation are much more noticeable on the Sennheiser's.

I have also tinkered around with EQ to Harman and EQ to specific to game audio (measuring footstep frequencies and boosting specific values) but still prefer stock over EQs.


It's odd that the HD560s/HD599 both don't measure all that well but perform much better by subjective testing. So the question is what other currently non measurable qualities actually contribute to gaming purposes?

You really want a headphone that can provide a smooth panning of sound around the soundstage. Some headphones like HD600 tend to move from right to centre to left without much inbetween differentiation and hence is my worst headphone for gaming. HD560s is a very good headphone for gaming in my experience, you don't really need to use EQ with it either. I think part of the smooth accurate panning is down to accurate left & right channel matching which Sennheiser tend to do well in, but I think there's also a physical design element associated with the earcups and driver/pad angles (which is vague "yes", but related to soundstage in my experience). I found the Truthear Crincacle X Zero IEM (my only IEM) really very good for gaming, which I wasn't expecting, it's at least as good as the HD560s for gaming. I don't have a problem recommending either the HD560s or the Truthear Crinacle X Zero for gaming, the best two that I've tried for gaming. You won't really find any hard proven reasons and mechanisms for why a headphone is good for gaming or not, but you can find personal theories that people have developed based on their own experience & testing as well as which ones they think are the best for it. My experience is based around accurately identifying enemy positions in 3D space around you (fps gaming) whilst using Virtual 7.1 Surround Sound (Creative Soundblaster in my case).