What headphones are you all using while gaming on Linux?
Looking for some good headphones to use for listening to music, and gaming. Could do wireless.. but I feel like USB or 3.5 mm connection would be best. Seems like a lot of the big brands have stuff locked into their windows apps.
Sony WH-1000XM4
First couple days I actually got dizzy from the noise canceling, now I can't live without it.
I can't stand wired headphones anymore. They always seem to break somewhere along the cable or connection to the cable, no matter how careful you handle them. I can now also easily listen to music or whatever while doing stuff in the kitchen.
One note. I have not done this, but the WH-1000XM4s are now a generation behind. If someone is okay with that model, you can get older pairs on Ebay. If you can find a pair with worn pads, you can probably just get that pair and get replacement pads, maybe save a few bucks versus a new pair.
Works with earlier generations too (some people are not a huge fan of the touch controls). In this case it was severely reduced on black friday at the time, which looked like a decent investment.
Audio Technica m50x with Bluetooth.
I bought them for tracking when recording guitar or just jamming music. They have a flat response so it doesn't add lows or highs or scoop mids. The Bluetooth option works great with pop os. Never worked on win10 for some reason.
Same here. Great headphones. Stock pads will start to fall apart after about a year and a half depending on how sweaty you are but you can get sheepskin replacements that will last much longer after that. Also adding a ModMic works nicely with these as well.
oh thanks for the heads up on the sheepskin replacement. I wear headphones for drumming too (vdrums) but haven't sweat too much in these ones just yet.
I don't like headphones designed for the gaming market. I use a Sennheiser HD 599 which is a few years old now. Sounds excellent both for music and other activities. Open backs are great for when wearing headphones for long periods; my ears don't get sweaty nor fatigued even when wearing good open-backs for hours on end.
Well, I don’t really like headphones, so mostly I’m using my living room stereo like it’s 1987 and I just got my first Amiga.
I do have a pair of beyerdynamic DT 990 Pros (3.5 mm TRS) because they’re supposed to sound “neutral” and their main purpose is to aid in audio …“work”… and voice chat. But they’re just fine for gaming, I guess, and have been trouble-free and fairly pleasant to wear (as big headphones go).
I use Audio Technica ATH-m50x through a Topping DAC. Honestly really like the Koss Studio headphones as well and that's what I'm looking to pick up. Obviously not better than DT880 or some Sennheiser, but I like to buy cheaper headphones.
I have a pair of Senheiser HD6xx from Drop.com. It's basically a pair of HD600s with slightly cheaper plastic and bare bones packaging. They have the exact same drivers as the 600s. These cans have been famous for decades with good reason, as they give the perfect balance of low, mid, and high end.
They're a bit pricey at around $230, and you'll also need a great amplifier to power it. You can always go with a decent $99 desktop amp or you can shell out $300 on a high quality DAC+AMP. I have the Audient ID14, and everything sounds FANTASTIC. I can turn up the music super loud and still have head room.
TLDR; Drop.com Senheiser HD6xx with an Audient i14 to power them. Overkill for casual listening, perfect value for audiophiles.
I use the drop/sennheiser HD 58X which are very similar, but do not need any special equipment to drive. While I prefer the hd600 sounds, for just gaming the 58X are very similar for a little less and without need for an amp
I use the Logitech G Pro X. It comes with a USB audio dongle and 3.5 jack as well, so it can be used without the USB dongle. Works out of the box on Linux and I can control the side tone with headsetcontrol.
Used to have an Audio Technica ATH-M40x which were amazing, great sound quality for the price, but their plastic kinda broke in both ears eventually and i had them taped together for a while, swapped over to some Phillips SHP9500 which tbh never sounded as good at the audio technica even though they cost about the same
Chances are most of the stuff will at least connect to Linux.
I personally have a sennheiser hd598 cs but for Linux, pretty much anything 3.5mm will work for audio. Stuff like rgb may not work but the headphones will be headphonss
Take a look at https://crinacle.com/guide/gaming/. This guy is respected in audiophiles circles but aware enough that he is going to make decent recommendations for low end headphones.
I personally am using a pretty expensive set, Hifiman Ananda, but I use it for listening to music and playing Hunt Showdown, which is more sonically demanding then most games.
I used Sennheiser HD598 headphones via 1/8 inch jack. For microphone I used some Insignia desktop microphone. Kept some thin acoustic foam under it for vibrations / desk noise.
Grado Labs SR325i (discontinued now, I got these ~10 years ago) connected to a Lexicon Alpha, with a Blue Yeti USB mic. I like everything to sound crispy. I also like open-back headphones because I don't want to completely close out my environment. Mic is mounted on a shock mount to a target shooting scope stand using a 1/4"-20 to 5/8"-27 adapter I whipped up on my lathe. It's a hacky setup, but I didn't want to spend money on a mic boom, and it cost me ~$1 in 4140 steel bar stock.
Came here to give Grado a vote. Everything from Joe's shop is top-notch. Even the humble SR80s have beautiful, warm sound, but if you want to go a little crazy... https://gradolabs.com/headphones
If I ever manage to kill my current headphones (unlikely but possible since I'm a clumsy oaf), I'll definitely pick up another pair. Grado makes a quality product at a fair price, and I'm glad they're still going strong. I hope that I can justify picking up a pair of their headphones with wood housings some day.
I don't know if you can still get them (they aren't in production anymore) but I use a pair of Sennheiser PXC550-II for pretty much everything. They connect either via Bluetooth, TRRS or USB. For slightly advanced entry-level ANC headphones they're overall decent value for the ~$150 I paid.
You'll want to turn off the built-in microphone in your computer's settings though as the audio quality goes down to crappy bluetooth earpiece level as soon as that thing is active. If you're looking for a headset to talk into, go for something else.
Also, if you're going wireless, definitely don't get JBL. Their BT headphones can't be used while charging which is an enormous pain as they take a few hours to do so.
Sennheiser Momentum 3 wireless (can be used with a normal jack audio connector too). The active noise cancellation helps a lot in terms of immersion in the game.
I use the PHILIPS Fidelio X2HR, they are Over-Ear, use removable 3.5 mm and are open back. I love them.
You might love or hate open back because you hear your surroundings basically as loud as if you are not wearing headphones. But it is nice if you use VC, because you hear your voice while you speak with them.
If you're ok with, at some point in their life, redoing the internal cables to fix them, the MH752 are the most comfortable thing I ever had on my ears, they also sound good both audio and mic, they're closed back so a little hot for summer, and comes with a usb to trrs mini jack adapter, which is important for the microphone since using a basic splitter to split mic and audio to two trs if you don't have a trrs plug on your pc will introduce noise in the microphone input.
but yeah, the little cables going from the internal pcb to the other side of the headphone will eventually break and need replacing, they're not very hard to fix though.
back when they used to make them, combining shp9500 with a vmoda boompro was the shit, maybe the shp9600 are a good place to go
I'm personally a fan of Bowers & Wilkins PX Headphones - they pivot the drivers 15 degrees off angle so it physically widens the sound stage increasing the stereo effect giving you a better sense of left and right channels.
The company I work for bought them for me for work, then turned around and told me to get a Jabra set because those were the new standard...so I took them home. Their loss.
Steel Series Wireless Pros. There's an external DAC via USB and then a 2.4ghz wireless connection to the headset. The DAC also charges the spare battery that comes with the headset so I never have to worry about charging the thing.
The mic is okay. Good enough for work and discord. The sound is great.
Plug and play compatibility with Linux. I haven't tried the Steel Series app yet but I barely used it on Windows anyways.
I don't mean to endorse them in any way, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 2017 steelseries arctis 7's transceiver worked flawlessly out of the box on fedora.
As a package, it had great wireless range, excellent mic quality, decent battery life, the chatmix crossfade feature (which I don't think I could live without now), and a sort of understated design. The transceiver also has 3.5mm audio hand off, so you can use desktop speakers when routed through, and turn on the headset to automatically route the audio through that instead (they've since discontinued this on the 7+). Media audio quality is nothing to write home about but it's okay.
I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, however.
There's some pretty glaring hardware and build quality issues with this line of headsets.The ear up hinge is prone to failure, there's hardware-side audio balance issues unless you max out the volume, the onboard battery is practically impossible to replace as an end user. Steelseries also suck with after care support.
I've gotten enough use out of it to justify it's original asking price. I'd love to find another headset vendor offering similar features but I don't think I will.
Phillips Fidelio X2HR with a Fifine USB mic on a mic arm attached to the side of the table. I don't play multiplayer much, so usually the mic is just tucked away to the side.
The sound quality is amazing for its price, and the 3.5mm cable is detachable, unlike a lot of gaming headsets. If my cats destroy one cable I can easily get another one.
I have Beyerdynamics DT 770 pros. I replaced the earpads with brainwavz leather both for better sound isolation and also because I am allergic to plastic, and preemptively bought something that wouldn't bother me. (Funnily I think their velour is actually not plastic-based because they didn't trigger my allergies, regardless I like the leather pads better.) I also did the "paper towel hack" of putting pieces of paper towel near the drivers to reduce the sibiliance, and my EQ curve is mighty silly, but I am extremely happy with these after all my tinkering. The detail is very good and they make my music sound so nice.
My mic is just a moderately cheap TONOR TC30 condenser mic with a built in pop filter. Works better than one near my head and I don't miss fiddling with mics constantly. Comes with a stabilizer tripod and I have no issues.
I run both through Easy Effects (free program on linux) for both my EQ and sound cancellation for the mic, works great.
Had to dick around with cheap headsets that made me hideously itchy for way too long and so much happier now. The beyers do have fake leather on the top band that makes me itchy, but since they're fully modular (biggest selling point to me) I plan to either replace them with my own sewn abomination or find something else somewhere to replace them with.
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros were my favorite set over the past 20 years, but what I ultimately hit that killed my pair was the tiny screws that hold the earpieces in place loosening and starting to fall out after some years. I don't know if they've redesigned them to have deeper screws, but if not, that'd be my biggest ask for a design change.
My desktop has Sennheiser HD280 Pros. Recently replaced the pads on them after they had worn out. They're decent in terms of passive sound isolation, and less-expensive than some really fancy headphones. They have, other than the pads, shown pretty good longevity. 1/8" TRS jack. Not my favorite pair of at-the-computer headphones -- I think that that'd have been a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros that fell apart years ago. But decent and durable.
I keep a pair of Phillips 1/8" TRS open-back headphones by the computer for when it's not too noisy. Don't remember the model.
I use an old, beat-up, duct-tape wrapped pair of headphones whose manufacturer and model I cannot remember with my laptop or other portable devices with a 1/8" TRS jack when I want to take something with me. Or a pair of earbuds.
I don't presently use wireless headphones with active noise cancellation for my computers -- just the devices that don't have 1/8" TRS jacks -- but I've been very impressed with what is out there -- they work quite well. Unfortunately, 1/8" TRS headphones with active noise cancellation aren't really a thing -- no source of power over the line -- so you need to get USB or Bluetooth headphones for that.
My ideal pair of headphones-for-the-desktop would be 1/8" TRS, have pretty solid passive sound isolation -- using an existing set of hearing protectors as a base, like 3M Peltors or something would be neat -- and active noise cancellation as an option. Oh, and a detachable cord (which very few pairs of 1/8" TRS headphones that I've ever had have had). Unfortunately, that combination doesn't seem to be a thing.
If I were going to get a pair of headphones right now, I'd probably get Beyerdynamic DT 770Ms (not the above DT 770 Pros), as they're similar to my favorite pair and have greater passive sound isolation. No active noise cancellation, though. I don't expect to get new headphones for a while, though, as I've a few pairs that need to fall apart first.
In general, I find that modern, circumaural headphones, outside of the very low end, all sound pretty decent. I think that the only pair of over-$40 headphones that I've ever been disappointed with the actual frequency response on was a 1970s reproduction, the Koss Pro4AA. Maybe one person prefers headphones with a bit more or a bit less bass response, but eh. And if you really want that and are willing to sacrifice a bit of latency -- which for music, isn't really a big deal -- you can get whatever response curve you want with an equalizer, either in hardware or software. What does vary is sound isolation. You can roll your own high-isolation headphones with a pair of ear protectors and earbuds, but I don't really find earbuds to be as comfortable as circumaural earphones for long sessions.
at home Sennheiser hd 5something with modmic when talking makes sense.
on the go Sony wh1000mx3 with jamesdsp and a profile to make it not stupidly bassy. I can't remember the specifics but the steam deck had some fucky config with it's 3.5 jack and Bluetooth headphones can only use the mic when in shit sound quality mode so no talking.
Razer BlackShark V2 Pro - the updated 2023 version has the best mic quality I’ve ever experienced in a wireless headset. Let alone being able to use it in Bluetooth mode
I have used aSoundcore Q30, a Soundcore A40 (these are earphones, so not sure if they fit here), Sony XM2 and XM4, and currently I'm using an Astro A50 that I got from work (mostly because of the microphone). The XM4 are the best by far but not very gamey, I wouldn't buy the A50, not think they're worth the price.
When I need a microphone I use my Cloud Alpha S, but most of the time I use my Letshuoer S12 with a CX-31993 and in the future I plan on getting an Audio Technica ATH-R70x.
If you want wireless, you could always get a good pair of headphones and pair them with either the FiiO BTR5 or the Qudelix5k.
Good old Sony MDR-7506 I found in e-waste, replaced the pads and they are golden (light and comfy over ear)! Before that I was using a modified David Clark H10 headset (heavy but naturally isolated with loads of insulation) with MDR-CD999 drivers (can't believe these were a perfect fit) a Shure boom but it's only for when the environmental noise is particularly hostile.
Got Beyerdynamic 770s at my friend's recommendation and man, they blew me away. Metal songs sound massive. Games are crisp and clear. Trepang2 absolutely blows my eardrums out.
I mention them in my comment as being the favorite pair I've had over the years. There are different headphones they sell under the 770 brand -- the DT 770 Pro, which is what I had, DT 770 Studio, and the DT 770 M. Just out of curiosity, which do you have?
They are probably the best headphones I've ever used. I've got the 250 Ohm version of the DT 770 Pro. Do you use an amp to drive it? I have one here from Behringer that feeds to multiple outputs which is really nice. I can switch from the headphones to my speakers pretty seamlessly.
People always say to avoid gaming headphones, but gaming headphones are often the only ones made with built-in external mics. If I'm gaming, I need at least a decent mic. Internal headphone mics aint going to cut it, they are omnidirectional and have terrible quality.
Sure you can get the perfect set up with some high quality headphones and a separate recording setup but there are issues with this. Boom mics are the highest quality of course but they take up a ton of space and are unsightly. You need to get the perfect length of boom and hold it close to your face at all times... it's necessary for content creation but not practical for everyday playing. There are "mod mics" you can attach to the side of your headphones, but there is only one company that makes them (Antlion) and both of their products in this line are terrible. I've had nothing but issues and they are not cheap.
So in the end I settled for the Sony Inzone headphones and they are fine. They are ugly as sin and the sound quality is obviously lacking, but it's way better than most in the category. You can connect via Bluetooth but the dongle works OOTB on Linux. The headphones are poor without a firmware update, and that needs a Windows VM and it's a bit tricky. The update will disable the USB device at points, so you will need to re-enable the USB passthrough when this happens. Pretty easy to do with GNOME-Boxes.
I use a Plantronics headset. Sound quality is important to me, so I decided to try hardware from a company that specializes in voice comms. I found one on sale for a little more than the cost of two movie tickets.
I'm happy with my choice. My headset is smaller and lighter than any "gaming" headset I've ever seen, and strangers regularly compliment my mic clarity when I play team shooters online.
In case you want to try something similar, Jabra is another brand in that space.
I had the Plantronics voyager focus at one of my jobs. Such a slick headset. I liked that it would auto toggle between voice audio mode and stereo audio modes automatically. The charger dock was nice too