What headphone should I use ?

Hello,

I need a headphone to use with AMS2 and Discord.
I am not sure if AMS2 support surround-sound ?
What Headphone should I buy if I also want to hear where the cars around me are?

Thanks

 

Imo just buy any 7.1 set that fits to your budget and quality demands. I have the Steelseries Arctis 5 and surround sound works fine in AMS2.

 

I've always been under the understanding that surround headphones are a gimmick and a decent stereo set is the was binaural surround is designed to work correctly. The surround jn my 7.1 virtual HyperX headphones is crap and just using stereo still give me positional audio references in sim racing.

 

Any decent headphone will do, as long as you set Enable Headphone Mix to ON
This will enable a head-related transfer function which is relatively successful at fooling your ears to think that the sound is coming from a specific direction (as binaural audio, not as a surround format). There is no reason to start messing with surround sound in headphones when AMS2 already supports binaural sound using the setting I mentioned above.

There are some headphones that work better with binaural audio than others, particularly ones that have a smooth frequency response between 1-7kHz which is where our ears get most of their directionality cues from. Those that don't work well are headphones with a lot of comb-filtering between 1-7kHz, which unfortunately can be a problem for many closed over-the-ear headphones. In-ear monitors such as those by Etymotic are considered the industry standard, but go quite far into the ear canal and many people think they sound a bit harsh and have little bass. For over-the-ear headphones, the classic is the old Sennheiser HD 600. But there are hundreds and hundreds of alternatives.

 

short answer do not buy a surround headset. They are just a gimmick.

All you need is a decent set of stereo headphones. If you want you can add dolby atmos to windows for virtual surround which on a good set of stereo headphones with decent source material will sound infinitely better than a 7.1 set.

Really though stereo is all you need for great positional audio and is what most games are mixed for, whether its battlefield or tarkov or AMS 2. Realistically you probably won't notice a huge difference in positional cues in AMS 2 because a lot of the exterior noise is masked by the sound of your own car, which makes sense!

Anyway i don't know what your budget is but in general top picks for positional audio and also great choices for general listening purposes without getting very spendy are

Beyerdynamic DT880 - quite bright, but positional is excellent.
DT990 - another super popular, does most things well headphone.

Phillips Fidelio X2 - best bang for buck for soundstage and easy listening, however you can't buy replacement pads because phillps are morons. These are huge also but extremely comfortable

AKG K712 or K7XX - basically the same headphone the XX is from drop. This is a gorgeous headphone with great soundstage a bit pricier than the others. Another big but very comfortable headphone.

Sennheiser the HD600 is a great shout but it's also totally overpriced, much better off going for a HD6XX again from drop for significantly cheaper. Or get yourself a pair of HD560s which are my current headphones and I love them.

All of the above are fully open back except of the DT990 which is semi, this means sound will spill out into the environment around you, but its the open back that allows for better soundstage/positional audio.

Personally from the above I would go with either the HD560s or HD6XX.

These are all brilliant headphones that I have owned myself over the last few years. If you have any questions just shout.

One thing to note is that none of them come with a mic, but most can be adapted easily to use an inline mic like the v-moda boompro or a modmic, or cheap generic version of the boompro.

p.s don't by wireless, they are on the same level of bad as surround headphones.

edit -
some of the above benefit strongly from a headphone amp which for most people is an unnecessary added expense. The ones that will perform just fine without are the Fidelio X2 and the HD560s. The low ohm version of the Beyers will work well enough also but the do benefit from a little more juice than onboard audio will generally output (not always true some boards these days have quite decent output stages).

 

Thanks all,

I already own a couple of great headphones from beyerdynamic all DT-770 M
I use them while recording music In my home studio (living room)
I am expected to use Discord when racing AMS2 so I am looking for a different head phone with microphone build in and I am curious if it is possible to get some surround experience.
I ordered a JBL Quantum One gaming headset, this one has a balance knob for game and discord volume.

 

I use the HyperX headset. Comfortable and light enough for long races, good surround sound, although it takes a bit of setting up in the Windows control panel. I did find them to have too much high frequency when running in 7.1 mode so I use a free Windows EQ plugin to cut that back.

Cloud II Wireless - Gaming Headset | HyperX

 

I am curious about the extra features of the gaming head phone, I will let you know after a while how disappointed I am

 

I'm getting Steel Series Pro in a few weeks seems to be one of the best .A mate has just bought Virtuosa Rgb High Density .I decided since I've spent all this money on a Great Rig might as well get a top of the line Headset as well

 

I went with the Astro A50 when I was looking last year. Mostly because I wanted to make sure I had something that fit over my Reverb G2 without putting stress on the earphones.

I’ve been really pleased with them. They’ve got the game/discord variable volume and the mic lifts up out of the way to mute it which is good if I’m not using Discord or talking to crew chief.

I’ll admit I wouldn’t normally throw £250 at some headphones but I’d got loads of unused Amazon vouchers so all in all I only spent around £20.

 

I don't think surround is a gimmick... Maybe it's placebo lol
Anyway, I agree any descent 7.1 will work well.
For discord, game / chat mixer is a very nice feature. You can adjust each volume individually. For that unfortunately you'll have to look at more high end stuff. Aka expensive. Like hight end Astro or Razer Nari.

I'm using Nari and I think they're great. But not cheap

 

If you have Dolby Atmos for headphones or Windows Sonic activated don't enable the headphone mix, as they will do the 5.1 down sampling for you, and probably better than the 'headphone mix'.

 

Many people extol the virtues of Apple Airpods...

For that reason, I don't place much stock in what others think is 'best' regarding sound, it is far too subjective/personal for that, even when it comes to studio monitors which are 'flat'.

My father prefers speakers/headphones with pushed mids and highs because he has decimated his hearing working inside oil tanks, his EQ settings on top make my ears feel like they are going to bleed. If you took his advice on which are best you'd probably regret it.

Moral of the story? Try for yourself if you can, they are becoming harder to find, but there are still brick and mortar hi-fi shops around. If you go in with an open mind you might find a £50 pair that are 'better' than an £800 pair for your tastes.

I think Crimson has the right idea: Looking at mics you can use with the closed-backs you already have (if you like them) is probably your best shout, can't say I recommend the Antlion mic though, I have one and every time I have used it on Discord people told me to switch back to my 10+ year old webcam mic!

My 10 pence: Yes to stereo, no to wireless and no to USB.

 

Agree totally mate, this is my hearing compared to my 11 yr old daughters, just a quick test using my phones hearing test tool but shows massive differences.
Hers

Mine

 

Thanks for sharing that, very interesting, it's amazing how much we lose over time. I've not seen that program before, what is it called please?

I have been really fortunate with my hearing until just recently, I kept my high frequencies longer than most, I can still hear above (at 34) 17,400hz, unfortunately, last year, I developed permanent tinnitus in both ears rather annoyingly at precisely that frequency.

That's what I get for playing guitar too loud I guess! To quote the stones: "What a drag it is getting old".

 

I don't know how accurate it is but I do know I have terrible hearing, hear things others don't but also if there is even the slightest white noise (like fans) around I become deaf af and can't hear anything.
It is this inbuilt app on my Samsung A52

At the bottom is a test now button and a test of beeps follows.

 

Thanks mate, yet another thing to make me consider dumping my old iPhone, that feature looks really good, I guess applies when listening to music to compensate. Definitely intruiged, cheers!

 

JBL Quantum One gaming headset

The spatial awareness is very low.
Those infantile colors (RGB) cause sound distortion, fortunately you can turn it off in the software.
It has two sound-cards and a Balance knob, so it is easy to adjust volume between the two during racing, I have discord and my Pc-sound on one and the game on the other card.
Sound is kind of allright, to much boom, but i can tune the bass down in the software.

Big problem, this Headphone looses connection with my PC, so sound can be gone every moment, If i try to fix it while racing, AMS2 Crashes, Yesterday I drove without sound in the Superkart race