Ciao Gsferrari!

Have you got the details of the M-audio yet?
There's no hurry, since I don't have money in two months anyway. I'll be checking the thread every couple of days.

Do you know if the Ultrasone HFI-650s has the cracking headband -problem?

Anyone have a suggestion for a pair of good gaming headphones that have a mic (150$ or less)

gsferrari, you of all people should know that above the $30 point, nothing is actually worth the price tag. It's true that a pair of cd3ks are more overpriced than say v6's, but they are both overpriced.

The truth is that from my experience (I have owned the sony v6, ex-71, senn px200, mx500, grado sr-60, sr-80, shure e2c, phillips hs900) that the best value in headphones is a gem called the Philips HS900. Someone recommended it on head-fi about a year ago and since then lots of people have been buying them. They're closed, super super comfortable, sound really good (close to sr60 in my opinion and in the opinions of many of my friends) and are less then $16 from buy.com. I recommend these to everybody. The only con is that Philips has no customer support so if these break, I wouldnt count on any warrantey help from Philips.

Just my 2-cents; enjoy.

edit: i just realised that my first paragraph is in reply to a post you made 10 pages ago. whoops

I just got back from my vacation and wanted to pass on some info. First of all thanks for taking time to answer all these questions for us noobs out here. Secondly, I really like my Senn 212's! They sound great for my gaming needs. They cut outside noise down to almost nothing. Thirdly, they can get uncomfortable after a couple of hours. Next time I will go with a full size model to try and remedy that. I had great service from Jamie at headphone.com and since I was in the US at the time got my headphones in two days. That was great.

Congratulations Terry I am glad it all worked out.

A full size headphone that can still be loads of fun is the Beyerdynamic DT-440 / 531 or the Ultrasone HFI-650 Trackmaster.

I can think of many more but only if you want me to

Cheers!

depends on what you want for your money. I want ultimate sonic perfection. I have a tube amp that costs $1500.00, a Sennheiser HD-650 that costs $400.00, Cables that cost $200.00, Power conditioner - another $400.00 and so on...

My audio equipment costs almost $4000.00 and there are times when I derive just as much enjoyment with a $30.00 Koss PortaPro2 + Rio Karma 20GB ($200.00).

$250 vs $4000.00

Sobering isnt it?

And yet there are other times when my setup absolutely THRILLS me.

Here is a pic of my current rig

Before I became an audio nutcase :-





After I became an audio nutcase :-















I still havent made pictures of my desk with the Klipsch Ultra 5.1 speakers

In reply to the guy with the Sen 212's. I demod a set of those at Guitar Center once. I found the sound to be amazing - much better than the V6's that i owned. To get rid of the clamping feel of the 212's the guy there showd me that you can just bend the headband a little to loosen up the vice grip. This is similar to what most people do with the Grado headphones.

gsferrari, I of course didn't mean that high priced audio equipment isnt worth the money. I understand fully that to the right people, anything could be worth any amount. And that to some people, some stuff is worthless no matter how cheap it is. What I meant though is that the value per dollar greatly diminishes the higher you go in audio equipment. Ie: The sound on the Grado 225's is nowhere near 3 times as good as on the 60's everthough it's more than 3 times as expensive.

I wasnt trying to point out anything new - I was just replying to a post which at the time I didnt realize was 10 pages old.

Absolutely. I just sold a pair of SR-225's because they were nothing "special" compared to my SR-60's.

It is a case of diminishing returns. A wise man should know when to stop. A rich man can go on and on

However I spent the money I got back immediately on a pair of Alessandro MS2's

Life sucks eh?

My two cents:

The way I look at it, if I'm going to buy a good pair headphones and use them for many years, for example 10, paying an extra 100 bucks for better comfort, better base/sound or other slight improvements is well worth it, since it'll only cost me an extra 10 bucks a year or so..
..however, I wouldn't go over the magical 200 dollar line - just to be on the safe side
Amps are even more dangerous for the wallet!

BTW: How 'bout those specs on the m-audio, gsferrari?
Sorry, don't mean to be annoying, am just very interested in that machine

M-Audio Firewire is an excellent tool with your laptop. It supports full 24/96 upsampling and ASIO. However - only the EMU1212 supports this in Windows Audio therefore DVD Audio will still playback at standard sampling rate.

For music the Firewire is a great soundcard.

Get the firewire version

Cheers!

$200 will get you some awesome headphones :-

* Grado SR-225
* Beyerdynamic DT-880 (used)
* Sennheiser HD-25-1
* Alessandro MS-2 (used for less than 6 months go for $250 or $230)
* Beyerdynamic DT-531 / DT-440

I would get a used Grado SR-225 and a gilmore lite amplifier.

I am building a Gilmore Dynahi amplifier now...will post pics...should cost me $600.00 in parts but it will kick the arse of any headphone amplifier out there...this is a 40W monster!!

gsferrari, my budget is around $300.00 . Sorry for the late reply, and thanks for your help!

BTW, these sites need to start giving you commission!

When you love what you do - money doesnt become a variable in the equation.

I do get plenty of gear to play with though...no money...which is good news for me because this way I can audition $4000.00 CD Players and $3000.00 headphones and nobody will give me that kind of commission. I dont need it anyway...I like taking care of myself even though I have a high 3 figure bank balance.

Ramen noodles is my friend

I forget what this is about. Budget for headphones or amp or source?

Yo I have these Sony MDR-G52 street styles and they are da sheaaat. They play punchy base are awesome for games