I've been wondering for a loooong time now whether to get a headset and soundcard, and since I get payed next week I though eh, why the heck not. I'm pretty worried about it being a waste of money, having never heard audio through a sound card before, and not owning many albums (mainly listening on youtube). I've been eyeing the xonar phoebus which I recently found for pretty cheap here in england, £100, although as its a "gaming" graphics card im unsure, and would like to get card with similar or higher quality for less if possible. I've also been looking at some audio technica m50's or pro700 mk2's although the punchy bass on the pro700's is a bit of an iffy thing for me, the last headset I bought had insane bass, literally rattled around on my head and I returned it within a day (after trying to turn down the bass, which still didn't work). So if you have any suggestions for headsets and sound cards please leave them below. I mainly listen to electronic music (drum and bass, techno) and sometimes listen to rock and metal (melodic death usually). Thanks for any suggestions!
Bump
As for headsets. STAY AWAY FROM HEADSETS.
Why?
Headsets are (the the vast majority of cases) almost a scam, as they put together really bad audio hardware and a mediocre mic (or at least stuff worth way below what they charge) and string them together then charge you much more than you should be paying.
The best solution is to:
1) Get good headphones specifically for your needs (this is going to cost you a fair share of money)
2) Buy an Antlion Modmic or something similar (you can get these at the Antlion website) which attaches to your dedicated headphones like a headset would, and best of all is detachable when not in use.
As for headphones I do not have enough experience with many kinds to give you proper information, but you should head over to Head-Fi, a website dedicated strictly to high fidelity audio recreation, especially for headphones. That is where you will get the best help, and find the best resources. This includes help finding a DAC / Soundcard as well.
I should note that you should have a minimum of $150 ~ $250 ready to spend for decent audio. People who are really serious about it end up spending even much more than this.
Good luck.
What is the headset you had with extreme bass?
@bns The razer tiamat (bought back when I knew very little about computers, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten "gaming branded" headsets.
To rinslime, I meant headphones :P The pro700's are headphones. I have a habit of confusing to two.
Sorry it took me so long to reply, havent been on the site for a few days.
On the topic of the tiamat's bass, im almost positive something was wrong with that specific headset rather than all tiamat headsets being like that, The government must have accidentally slipped their prototype of tesla's earthquake machine into a heaset :P