Hi, not sure if it's helpful, but I've used to use Sennheiser HD515 headphones that were soft and lightweight. The 555 and 600 are similar in this respect.
Though the 515 and 555 are more about ambient sound, the 600 is more neutral (for classic fans etc).
Problem is, however, that the headphones models are old by now. So new foam pads must be bought, maybe.

PS: I've used to use the 515 when playing SNES games, MOD music and chiptunes.
Sound card was an Xonar D1 with a high signal-to-noise ratio (116 db; a vintage SB16 had 70 to 90 db) and high channel separation.
I think that enhanced the experience quite some bit.
It made sound everything more, um, "deep".
A simple USB sound card makes the audio sound as if its a mono signal/as if you're in the wardrobe,
wheras a sound card with a good DAC makes it sound as if you stand on the balkony and listening to the city sound or nature.

I use Beyerdynamic MMX 330 Pro, it has always visible microphone, though if I'm not mistaken, DT 900 Pro X is supposed to be a similar model without the microphone.

Previously, I used much cheaper Plantronics GameCom 380 for over a decade.

mackie mc350 closed back mixing headphones.

speakers, i route of of my dac into an amp into sony sscs5 speakers

Audio Technica ATH-M50X. The lesser models in that series are cheaper and sound almost as good, probably imperceptibly worse to less sensitive ears. My only complaint about them is that your skull starts to hurt a little after wearing them for long periods of time, but I'm not sure what headphones you could buy that don't do that.

For headphones, I am a big fan of the Sony MDR-7506 reference monitors that The Wirecutter continues to recommend. They'll faithfully reproduce whatever equalizer settings you put into them, but have a very flat response otherwise so you may want to use a mixer or adjust the EQ in your retro sound card's mixer if you can.

Sennheiser 630VB.

MadMac_5 wrote on 2025-03-27, 16:18:

For headphones, I am a big fan of the Sony MDR-7506 reference monitors that The Wirecutter continues to recommend. They'll faithfully reproduce whatever equalizer settings you put into them, but have a very flat response otherwise so you may want to use a mixer or adjust the EQ in your retro sound card's mixer if you can.

I use these Sonys for just about everything. They aren't necessarily the best headphones, but they are to me the best bang for the buck out there. They don't have a particular signature, but things sound exactly how they are supposed to with these, for better or worse. I do like to give them a tiny bass bump for personal taste. I also have some Sennheisers that are technically higher end, but I mostly just use that for watching TV.

For speakers it depends on how much room I have. The living room has a whole big surround setup, but the smaller setup where I do most of my PC gaming has the good ol Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers. After all these years it's still the best bang for the buck if you need small speakers and can hide the subwoofer somewhere. With a little more room like in my office I have inexpensive Dayton bookshelf speakers with a little Chinese amp which are fairly cheap but sound better than most PC speaker setups, including the Klipsch.

I'm a fan of Ultrasone headphones. They are a lesser-known German company, but they make great stuff in my experience. I've bought two pairs of Ultrasone headphones in the last couple decades, and both pairs are still going strong.

I compared them to Sennheiser, Sony, etc, and the Ultrasone headphones just had better, cleaner bass response, along with nice mids and highs.

- Sony WH1000XM5

These are Bluetooth headphones with noise canceling, but they also come with a 3.5mm audio jack, will work on the cable without being switched on (although they sound a lot better when they are) and they sound really clear - maybe just a little bass-heavy.

They are pretty comfortable, I usually wear them for 10 to 12 hours a day. A few features (like the equalizer) can only be set with the Sound Connect app, though.

There are a myriad of 3rd party earpads for it. I especially like the wild leather earpads from Dekoni (so sooooft) and the cooling-gel earpads from Misodiko, so my ears don't get sweaty in the Summer. Misodiko pads are deeper than the original ones (if you suffer from ears like Dobby from Harry Potter).

- AKG K141 (600 ohms)

I have the old ones that were made from 1988 - 2004. If you get those, you will probably need new foampads and earpads, I got some with real leather. These sound amazing! They are monitors, so they've been made to sound as neutral as possible. They are very comfortable, have a wide headband and the gold version looks very aesthetic and vintage. The K141 are an opened style so you can hear your surroundings easily - I took them to a LAN party a few weeks ago to be able to speak to my teammates in Battlefield 1942. 😀 Another plus is the extremely long cable.

AKG rereleased them as the MKII variant, I can't say anything about those because I've never tested the modern ones.

I currently use Beyerdynamic DT770PRO (250ohm) on my modern PC with SB AE-7. Can wear them for HOURS!! Very comfortable! They come in "regular" 80-ohm version, too. (which is what you'd want for weak outputs)

ATH-M50x was mentioned; I use those on EVERYTHING else. They DO dig into your head after a few hours. Sound quality is good though, even from weak amplifiers.

I see the Sony MDR-7506 was also mentioned. VERY good for how cheap they can be. I got mine for $40 some years ago and they work very well. Not hard on the head, either. Large over-the-ear, so they feel good.

I'd also throw the Marantz MPH-2 in with the mix. The quality/build on them is way higher that you'd expect for such a "cheap" pair of headphones. Comfortable around the ears, too. They also do the head-dig, but it takes a lot longer than the M50x. I got a pair for $20 on sale and they have been very good.

Running an amplifier/headphone combo is the sweet move. I used a Onkyo TX866 for years on my computers. The EQ and bass/expansion settings make ANY headphone sing. I use car amplifiers now, since the 12V rails on the newer PSUs are RUTHLESS. I'm currently using Sony XM-3020 and have a headphone jack just wired to the outputs (actually a speaker selector, then the jack). Dangerous? Yes. You could have your head BLOWN OFF. (not literally, but you CAN damage your hearing/headphones)

I'm no audiophile either but know most computer/gaming stuff is overpriced and gimmicky.

Back in 2019 I was looking for decent headphones without a microphone, somewhere like here is good place to get ideas.
https://www.soundguys.com/over-ear-headphones

I ended up getting the AKG K72 which I felt was pretty good for £28.00 but know much better options exist if you have more money to spend.

Speakers I got a 2nd hand pair of Logitech Z5500's. The good thing about speakers is no need to upgrade constantly.
Win9x and especially dos aren't high quality recordings, as long as you have a sub-woofer, it'll make cheap speakers sound good.

Headphones: Grado SR80e
Speakers: Edifier R1280T

schmatzler wrote on 2025-03-27, 22:55:

- AKG K141 (600 ohms)

Ah, the good old AKG Monitor! Had one, too! 😃
A bit heavier than my Sennheisers but a real classic and certainly no kids toy!
Used to use it for editing my YT videos, too! Wished I still have it!

Can someone explain to me what the ohms in the description indicate or help with? I really have no clue what to look for but it seems the Beyerdynamic ones get more expensive the more ohms they advertise.

AI spits out:

typically around 16 to 32 ohms, require less power and are well-suited for portable devices like smartphones and laptops. High-impedance headphones, such as 80 ohms and 250 ohms, need more power and are better suited for professional audio equipment and amplifiers.

Headphones with lower impedance, like 80 ohms, are generally louder and can be driven by devices with weaker amplifiers, making them ideal for casual listening on portable devices.
Higher impedance headphones, such as 250 ohms, offer better sound quality and headroom but require more power, making them preferable for studio use and critical listening.

Can this mean a Soundblaster card might not be able to work with a 80 or 250 ohms headphone?

mombarak wrote on 2025-03-28, 09:26:

Can someone explain to me what the ohms in the description indicate or help with? I really have no clue what to look for but it […]
Show full quote

Can someone explain to me what the ohms in the description indicate or help with? I really have no clue what to look for but it seems the Beyerdynamic ones get more expensive the more ohms they advertise.

AI spits out:

typically around 16 to 32 ohms, require less power and are well-suited for portable devices like smartphones and laptops. High-impedance headphones, such as 80 ohms and 250 ohms, need more power and are better suited for professional audio equipment and amplifiers.

Headphones with lower impedance, like 80 ohms, are generally louder and can be driven by devices with weaker amplifiers, making them ideal for casual listening on portable devices.
Higher impedance headphones, such as 250 ohms, offer better sound quality and headroom but require more power, making them preferable for studio use and critical listening.

Can this mean a Soundblaster card might not be able to work with a 80 or 250 ohms headphone?

Yes and no. 80 ohms might not have a problem, but 250 might be a bit high. If the SB has "SPK OUT" and "LINE OUT", I'd probably plug such a high load into the SPK output. SB LIVE! and Audigy will probably be very quiet, even at full volume. My Audigy 2 Platinum has a notably higher output than any SB live! or Audigy in my computers, but I haven't tested heavy loads with it.

The quick: Most sound cards will NOT be able to drive a 250+ ohm load with a "LINE OUT" 80 or less is the zone for non-amplified sound cards.

Note on the (OHM):
The Impedance, is the measurement of how fast the electrons can move through the speakers. Higher impedance (OHMS) needs more amplifier power to push the sound through the speaker. Low impedance will let electrons flow without much fight, resulting in MORE sound with LESS power. You can usually hear more amplifier imperfections/noise in the lower impedance range, since it's easier to push all the distortion/etc. through the speakers as well. Higher impedance slows down all that junk and only will reproduce what the amplifier can force through the speakers.

Hi, I don’t know what that the LLM talks about.
Headphones and loudspeakers have varying impedance according to their application.

A crystal radio speaker earpiece has high impedance but requires a tiny fraction of power. It's so little that no battery is required.
It's a piezo speaker with an impedance of about 20000 ohms.

https://www.crystal-radio.eu/enkristalspeaker.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_earpiece

The military radio operators and crystal radio pioneers had used similar high-impedance headphones with 2000 ohms.
https://www.crystal-radio.eu/en2000ohm.htm

The LLM statement about power consumption is misleading, thus.

A high-impedance audio device and a pair of high-impedance headphones don’t have high power consumption or powerloss.

A low-impedance audio device and a pair of low-impedance headphones don’t have high power consumption or powerloss.

The impedance simply has to match.

If it doesn't, if there's a mismatch, there will be powerloss or loss of volume.

However, it normaly causes no damage. Not in audio field.

You can use a pair of 600 ohms headphones on an ordinary soundcard, it will just be quiet.
Otherway round, you can attach a low impedance pair of headphones on a line-out port. You may hear nothing, though.

Ideally, though, a pair of audio transformers are used for conversion (impedance matching).
Two 12V to 120v AC transformers will do, as well. That's 1:10 ratio.
The iron core isn't great in terms of fidelity, but it's okay for audio frequency (AF).

Thing is, the typical consumer devices are low-impedane of about 16 to 64 Ohms.
Stuff like PC sound cards, gameboys, discmen, walkmen, pocket radios.
The typical Sony Walkman headphones had 32 ohms.
Edit: From the 1970s, I mean. There were mono/stereo models.
Mono models might have been wired in series or parallel, resulting in different impedance.

That's why the AKG K141 Monitor had existed in 600 ohms and 55 ohms.
The newer model is for today's consumer electronics, rather than traditional hifi/studio equipment.

Things like line-out (sound card, radios) use 1000 ohms impedance, roughly.
They are more sensitive to static electricity etc, thus.
Edit: More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

The telephone (landline) had used 600 ohms, too.
The speaker in the handsets is of high quality and high impedance (600 ohms), too.
PS: The carbon mic is poor, though. The handset speaker can be used as a microphone, too, if an one transistor amp is used (2N2222 or BC548).

Then there's XLR stuff amd what not, which I'm not very familiar with.

Headphones: AKG K92
Speakers: Creative T40 series 2
Mixer: Hill Audio RPS 1620

I'd love some bigger desktop speakers, but I'm extremely pushed for space on my desk, so the taller, thinner T40 speakers are a decent compromise.

mombarak wrote on 2025-03-27, 08:45:

for my old computers with Soundblaster

Don't listen to anyone but me.
Whoever doesn't have Dan Clark NOIRE X Headphone is a loser.

For spatial sound, which is present in games, you need headphones with a completely flat frequency response.
Because the localization of the sound source is based on the change in this frequency response.

Buy these $20 Crinacle first.
If they work for you, you'll have something to compare them to.

You'll probably end up with the Sennheiser HD560S

PS I'll leave this link here.
Maybe someone will understand that gaming headphones are not about LED backlighting.
https://recordingsofnature.wordpress.com/2015 … elevation-cues/
The frequency response depending on the direction of the sound source looks like this.

I use a set of T40 (first generation) myself and think they sound great. I listen to a lot of midi from the era, along with dos/windows games and some occasional stream of (mostly) electronic music.

I did modify these to plug in a subwoofer as well (random HT sub), it was pretty easy, the headphone amp in these is separate and active even with nothing plugged in, so it just took tapping into it's output and sending that to said sub. This filled the sound in nicely on the bottom end.

Having owned all sorts of "period correct " speakers over the years, nothing came close to the t40s so I will just stick with those. I haven't used a pair of the Roland's, my guess is they'd be somewhere in between- decent for games and midi but probably not in quality music sound territory.