Arma 3 Improved Your Audio, Headphones List and Accessory

[veles-zv 176]

Headphones and why they are Important for games

 

Most people overlook their audio for games in their setup, they buy expensive video cards, displays and even fancy ram with LED lights... 

 

I Would like to go over a few things, terminology, price/performance value what to look for and what to stay away from. 

 

 

 

Terminology 

 

Drivers- are the speakers which are used in your headphones designed for use in close proximity to your ears Big = better.

 

Virtual Surround Sound - you dont need 5 sets of drivers per ear to have surround sound, generally this is a marketing term for stereo audio having more then 1 Driver per Ear is a waste of your money and your sound quality.  

 

Amp - a Amplifier which helps to push your headphones a little bit both in terms of volume and in quality.

 

Open Back- Headphones with exposed drivers, provided great sound stage for the most part, will leak sound so you can hear what is going around you, and people can hear what you are listening to... will not bleed into mics if you set mic gain accordingly. overall these and the semi open are the best for gaming.

 

Closed Back - Headphones which are completely enclosed drivers, the typical headphone type you are used to isolates sound.

 

Semi open - really its just open back with a few trade offs.

 

Sound Signature or Frequency response - how the headphone acts during certain frequency range. but be higher, lower or neutral (FLAT), V shaped means More Bass and treble and not much mid range sounds.

 

Monitor or reference headphones mean that they have a flat Frequency response.

 

 Please try to Stay away from headsets... aka headphones with mics, usually you can find the same headphones without a mic at 200 to 300% less price, I would highly recommend Sony Clip on ECM CS3 Mic with a 3.5mm extension, really great sound quality you could use it for making voice overs in games... better then pretty much any headset mic. 

 

 Stay away from brands such as Beats, Bose, skull candy ect... while some people may like them... its better if you look else where.

 

Price I find that anything around 40 to a little less then 200 will give you very good headphones, above that you start to have steep diminishing  returns for only slightly better audio... 

 

If you have a good motherboard and your house was not wired by grandma and grandpa you should have clean undisturbed signal with little or no noise  so dacs will not be needed unless you really want to as most Highend (not high  priced) motherboards should have a good quality dac built in. 

 

Try to stay away from wireless systems, i find anything wireless to just be a hassle with sub-par performance compared to a system which uses conductors, not only do wired headphones/ all devices work better in almost all regards you don't have to replace batteries and yes li po batteries will not last long, you have much lower latency with a wire close to the speed of light that is, more interference that might be picked up through a wireless system, plus wireless systems are harder to repair. 

 

Feel free to Post down below your comments, recommendation as well as any questions you have ;) 
 

will add headphone Amps down below at a later date and a few other things  ... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headphones list 

 

AKG K612 - Pro one of the best Headphones I have tried, works very well of gaming and music, Flat sound signature, open relatively easy to run without an amp Around 150 USD (sadly build quality is a little low, connection issues led to me opening and re soldering the left ear)

 

AKG K712 - the K612 older brother, better in all aspects but are around 300 USD great if you can find them used for around 200, but if not AKG K612 are pretty much the same, it also comes with a detachable cable

 

AKG Q 701 - Great Audio, open back, Little harder to run then the K612, not much bass which is not such a huge issue little over priced for what they are

 

AKG K240 and MK II - Great Semi Open Headphones around 50 to 95 USD easy to drive at 55 Ohms 

 

AKG K271 and MK II - Great Value Closed headphones easy to drive 55ohms drivers

 

Audio Technica ( ATH )

 

ATH M20x,30x,40x,50x, - Get which ever headphone you can afford, they are little over hyped maybe for good reason, easy to run, closed (50's are over priced get the 40's instead)

 

ATH AD 500X - Really impressive Headphones one my top pick for under a 100 USD for gaming headphones, open, easy to drive, Very accurate and large soundstage higher then 90% of headphones, lite on the base. sold for under 80 USD, wings on top can be moded with elastic or rubber band if one has issues with them, very light and very comfortable, flat sound signature besides for bass

 

ATH AD 700X - A small step up above the 500x just a touch more bass around 100 USD

 

ATH AD900X - A step up above the 700x, competitive to AKG k612 pro with less bass but more sound stage sold for around 150 USD

 

ATH AD1000X - same as the previous line up with again a little more Bass and a touch of higher quality audio which might be unnoticeable for most people. sound for around 300 USD 

 

ATH A550x/ A700x/ 900x - Closed back version of the AD series, slightly less Sound stage but still very good for being closed back. and more bass. 

 

Takstar HI2050 - Great Cheap headphones if you can find them, opened back, little strong on clamping force, great sound stage, great bass, semi flat

 

Sony MDR-7506 - Closed back headphones, some say they are better then the ATH Mxx series sold for less then 100, and they are portable much like the ATH Mxx. 

 

Philps Fidelio X1 Good Headphones have a high amount of praise, open back, large and comfortable.  (stay away form the X2 due to the low quality manufacturing from the company being bought) 

 

Philips SHP9500 Better Valued Fidelio X1 per dollar ratio can be had for under 80 USD. 

 

DT-770 Closed headphones, comes in 3 resistance ratings, V shaped sound signature, its german take it or leave it... starting price at 150 USD

 

DT-880 same as the 770 but semi opened  starting price at 150 USD

 

DT-990  Opened headphones, better sound stage, less bass   starting price at 150 USD

 

Sennheiser HD598 - very good Headphones, light weight, great sound stage, flat sound signature, little base lite, can be picked up for around 150 

 

Sennheiser HD 558 - lower cost HD 598 if you can find them, very slight less bass and treble which helps to flatten the highs out

 

Sennheiser HD 518 - Great value for the money if you must have a Sennheiser under 80... 

 

Sennheiser HD 201 - Closed headphones, Cheap, great feel

 

Sennheiser HD 419 - Closed Headphones, Cheap, great feel

 

Fostex T50 RP- are semi opened Headphones they are pretty good, around 100 to 150 in price, higher treble 

 

Fostex T20 RP Opened headphones for around 150 USD. great headphones 

 

Status Audio OB-1  Really great Headphones for under 100, no silly branding, poor sound stage, Strong build, recommend

 

Superlux HD 668B - oh were to start with these headphones, I have nothing to say  bad about these headphones for what they are. they are semi opened, great sound stage, very good sound, very light, detachable cable which you can pick up at any store, 3.5mm extension. flat sound signature and did I say they are sold for UNDER 40 USD... might be uncomfortable so please buy the 20 USD Velour HM5 pads :D to improve sound and its comfort value. might need to stretch them out on some books for a few nights

 

Superlux HD 669 closed HD668B

 

Superlux HD681 EVO semi opened headphones sold for under 30 USD cant say about sound quality but they should be close to the HD 668b

 

 Superlux HD 661 Like sony 7506 but a little better considering its price and superlux performance for what they cost

 

Superlux HD 685 Closed headphones very nice similar to the AKG K550 but not at a 200 USD price range... had for under 60 USD

 

Superlux HD 562 - Cool little portable On ear Headphones for outdoor use when you are playing arma mobile...

 

And for those who need a headset I would recommend the hyper X :P

 

 

to close this out I would like to say that you can defiantly get 5 to 10 years out of your headphones, most headphones will suffer from continuity issues and then most people will throw them out... however this is not needed, you can fix this issue. all you need is a soldering iron, lead/tin solder 60/40 (not plumbing) some silicon 24 to 30 awg wire depending on your need, and some 3.5mm plugs and jacks, you can mod your headphone to use detachable cables such as a 3.5mm extension or 2 male 3.5mm prong connectors, a cheap multimeter which has continuity mode. liquid tape and a hot glue gun, a screw gun with some drill bits, and wire strippers (automatic or pillar type) or if you are pro a side angle cutter (diagonal cutter). 

 

You can also make your own Track IR system if you feel like you can, which I highly encourage people to do so. however if you want to  be boring you can always just spend your money and wait a few days for it to be shipped to your door...  :lol:

[Gruman 122]

DT880 Premium with a O2DAC plus a ModMic 4.0 and would never go back to a "Headset". Especially the "Gaming" one are pretty bad.

 

Only Issue I have is the microphone. The audio inputs ont he motherboard are basicly crap and I still look for a better microphone / amplifier solution.

 

But great writeup., Thanks.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Yeah a hint if you're changing to headphones + mic, the motherboard in/outputs aren't enough and especially mic can also get some bad signals.

[en3x 209]

good write up.

 

Audiophiles levels:

 

Gaming headsets (shunned due to their poor audio quality and mic quality) < Separate headset and mic (lower price levels) < Headset (in higher price range AKG, audio technica, Senhiesier...) < DAC (to convert analog to digital and to amplify) < Mic with XLR output

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

Got the DT880 pro for quite some time now, lovely sound while staying neutral without overdoing the heights/bass.

 

Talking about gaming, there's only a decent 5.1 system coming in question for me.

HDMI out to the 5.1 receiver is all you need.

It's not even comparable to headphones, driving the slammer makes the subwoofer shift astounding amounts of air.

If you got a decent 5.1 set in your living room, try to hook it up to your PC and play some arma on it.

 

Can only recommend, especially with the recent changes to the sound engine in A3.

 

Cheers

[IndeedPete 1038]

I've got the DT 770 Pro in the 80 Ohm version myself, combined with a Creative Sound Blaster Z, and some cheap attachable mic. I really love the sound in music, but I feel the directional aspect in games might be a bit lost. It's probably just an issue with my settings though, loving them nontheless. Oh, and I actually appreciate them being closed. Loud music or gaming at 4am? Or noisy neighbours trying to kill your immersion? Random fire alerts? (We get some twice a month and they were all false so far.) No problem with these fine headphones. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Love them.

[Corvinus 35]

Going to add my five cents. I'm not an audiophile by any means and my experience is rather small, but here it is - after about five years of using AKG K512 (MK1) I replaced them with Superlux HD662B - and while being cheaper, the latter sounds almost the same as the former; I would even say it's a bit more clear in the bass range. So I would definitely recommend Superlux products for anyone who's interested in high end sounding by a modest price.

[veles-zv 176]

Yeah a hint if you're changing to headphones + mic, the motherboard in/outputs aren't enough and especially mic can also get some bad signals.

Depends on the motherboard you own, on my board i have a very good dac so buying an after market dac is not need and today pretty much all motherboard have good audio. of course you can always do a isolated grounding circuit for your receptacle to help reduce the noise that occurs this will pretty much reduce or eliminate all of your unwanted noise which is used in data centers and hospitals. 

[en3x 209]

Myself I'm running

 

DAC Focusrite Scarlet 2i2

 

 

Audio technica M50X

 

If you can afford it I can only recommend.This 2 popular pieces of hardware don't disappoint.

[froggyluv 2130]

Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 450

 

 Love em. Dont know much about the tiers of quality headsets but these sound great for me for Arma at relatively low cost

[jumpinghubert 48]

Headphones: Modified fostex t50rp magnetostats (damped inside, other ear-pads, linearized frequency response calibrated with in-ear-mics) http://www.head-fi.org/t/618659/fostex-t50rp-incremental-mods-and-measurements

 

Mic: soldered elektret mic (2 Euro).

 

Headphone amp: beyerdynamic a1.

 

Soundcard: x-fi xtrememusic.

[J0K3R 5 93]

I do have rocat kave headset, but it collects dust now.

I prefer to use Koss KSC75 + Zalman ZMMIC1 Lapel Microphone

 

 

I know its not up there with the more expensive headsets, but it suits my needs.

[serjames 357]

I'm no expert by any means, but I can heartily second the Sony 7506's. I liked mine so much I bought a second pair just in case. I run them with a Mod mic 2 or 3. Brilliant

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[veles-zv 176]

Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 450

 

 Love em. Dont know much about the tiers of quality headsets but these sound great for me for Arma at relatively low cost

Yep they are in the lower end of the scale... when they break or better yet before they do get the Superlux HD668B with velour earpads its cheap only 40 usd + 20, at that price you cant be disappointed in them and you wont be. Tascam Th-02 is good for 20 usd portable just like the ATH M-50x, Audio technica AD 500x or if you want to get something better in the line up 900x, takstar Ts-671 for 70, Philips-SHP9500 for 80. cant go wrong with any of them. 

[sambal112 0]

thanks needed it

[Blafirelli 24]

Myself I'm running

 

DAC Focusrite Scarlet 2i2

 

 

Audio technica M50X

 

If you can afford it I can only recommend.This 2 popular pieces of hardware don't disappoint.

I can add recommendation to Scarlet 2i2, i use it to drive a 2.0 setup.

[omL 24]

Using the Superlux HD668B at the moment, ridiculously good for the price.

Coupled with a lavalier mic eg. Sony ECMCS3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-ECMCS3-Microphone/dp/B0058MJX4O it's a better sounding(imo) alternative to a "gaming headset"