A hot topic in the headphone circle this year is that a number of domestic HIFI and game headset manufacturers have come out to make entry-level monitoring headphones, and a batch of 100-yuan entry-level monitoring headphones have appeared, which has slightly stirred up this market segment. There is even a promotion** that uses monitor headphones to play games better than gaming headphones. So, are monitor headphones really good for gaming?
In today's consumer electronics market, headphones are mechanically divided into three categories, and monitor headphones are just one of them.
At present, the general consumer electronics market is mainly composed of three types of products: monitoring headphones, consumer headsets and gaming headsets. Among them, the largest consumer headphones are composed of ordinary consumer headphones (represented by various non-audiophile wired and wireless headphones) and audiophile-grade headphones (Hifi Hi-end level headphones), which are mainly aimed at users who listen to daily audio-visual resources.
Gaming headsets, on the other hand, are as the name suggests, for gaming users. The most niche is the monitoring headphones.
In the past, monitor headphones mainly exist in the professional group engaged in the production of **, with the sound fever from "metaphysical hifi" to "scientific hifi" in recent years, monitor headphones with their plain, real restoration and expressiveness, won the favor of "scientific hifi" audiophiles, and gradually became a subcategory of audiophile headphones.
Due to the needs of audiophile groups, therefore, ** at the level of consumer headphones, there are also a large number of monitor-level products, in addition to the very familiar Sony MDR7506, Sennheiser HD600 series, Beyer Power DT770 and other classic products, this year's domestic audiophile factory out of a series of 100-yuan entry monitor headphones, which can be regarded as a response to market demand.
Some people say that monitoring headphones are not just a feature, "plain as boiled water", which completely reproduces the actual situation of the sound source, including the flaws of the sound source itself.
In fact, this statement is not comprehensive.
In fact, the monitoring headphones of this kind of statement are generally "studio monitoring headphones", which are recorded by record workers in order to truly reproduce the singing or performance performance of singers and musicians, so as to find problems in the entire singing and performance, and better correct them in post-editing, or guide singers and musicians to improve their singing methods and performances, so they are unadorned. In fact, in the studio environment, the recording engineer prefers to use monitors to avoid the fatigue caused by wearing monitor headphones for a long time and affect their judgment. It's only when the audio is in the refinement stage that you prefer to monitor headphones with more visible details.
For physical reasons, no headset can be completely neutral. However, studio monitor headphones tend to tune as faithfully as possible to the source audio. The benefit of this is that studio headphones are typically brighter and more detailed than consumer headphones.
The downside is that you'll hear every flaw in the recording, mixing, mastering, and compression process. Once you start hearing about these flaws, it's hard for you to stop. As a result of typical studio tuning, distortion, background noise, abrupt editing, and more are all on the page.
This is not the case with other monitor headphones. For example, the vocal monitoring headphones called "in-ear monitoring" by singers at the concert site are mainly to restore the actual singing voice of the singer, so that the singer can find his true state and adjust the on-the-spot singing method, so the frequency band of the instrumental sound and accompaniment sound on the scene is actually weakened, and the singer's own vocal audio segment has been strengthened to facilitate the singer to find out the details. On the other hand, "DJ monitor headphones" pay more attention to the reproduction of the reverberation of the sound source of each synthesizer, and will also block some details of the original effects, so these monitor headphones are actually not considered "high fidelity".
For example, the instrument monitoring headphones are the same thing, which will deal with some background noise frequency bands and vocal and breathing frequency band information, and strengthen the details of the main instrument.
Studio monitor headphones, by definition, are designed to produce the highest quality audio over the widest spectrum without altering the audio at all, so as not to create any deviations in the audio output, helping to produce the final result of audio editing.
Audiophile headphones, also known as HIFI hi-fi headphones, are very different from studio monitor headphones, which do not refer to sound quality or sensitivity, but to the listening experience.
Monitor headphones are used to make the final audio product, while HIFI hi-fi headphones are used to listen to the full picture of the final product, that is, the result of post-monitor sound repair.
The equalized design of the hi-fi headphones makes the bass heavier and the treble more prominent to accentuate or"Excite "certain aspects of the audio, especially when listening." These headphones are action-packed and sound lively. They take audio to the extreme, resulting in the most enjoyable listening experience.
The frequency response of audiophile hi-fi headphones is usually around 18hz - 20 000hz. Studio monitor headphones, on the other hand, have a wider frequency response, typically around 5Hz - 25000Hz.
HiFi hi-fi headphones don't work well in the studio because they don't realistically reproduce the audio of**. However, they're great for listening and watching, as they mask any differences and flaws while making the interesting parts of the audio sound better.
The so-called "tuning" of high-end audiophile headphones is actually to bring users the best listening experience through the joint action of headphone amplifier modules, headphone units, equalizers, etc., and at the same time, the audio signal processing and playback process of the details of the finished product itself will not be lost.
This kind of processing not only needs to be able to optimize the sense of hearing, but also needs not to produce "sound coloration", which is essentially distorted, which is an artistic re-creation of the sound source, and can also be regarded as a "magic skill" to achieve the effect through technical means. As a result, most HiFi headphones** are actually higher than studio monitor headphones.
Gaming headsets are often based on consumer-grade headsets, adding microphones and adding some game-related audio functions, such as virtual surround sound.
Gaming headsets are often directly pushed by the PC or come with a sound card module, which is enhanced for the common audio frequency bands of games, such as the low frequency of highlighting the sound of gunfire, the low frequency of footsteps, etc., plus virtual surround sound technology to create a sense of direction.
The highest-end gaming headsets, on the other hand, are miniaturized to a multi-channel ambient sound system through a multi-driver setup to reproduce ambient sound.
In addition, high-end gaming headsets enhance the gaming experience by processing game-specific sound effects with features such as customizable audio profiles, allowing gamers to more clearly distinguish certain details in the game. PC gaming headsets prioritize sound localization and communication clarity, making them ideal for competitive gaming and multiplayer gaming.
So, on the other hand, if you're playing a game that is based on real spatial acoustics (such as Dolby ambience), then the gaming headset experience will be good, and the monitor headset will be good: because of the wider frequency response range and original expressiveness of the monitor headset, these sound details based on the real acoustic system can be better distinguished in the monitor headphones. But the ** that renders the atmosphere in the game may not be.
Last but not least, there is the issue of the impedance of the monitoring headphones.
High-end monitor headphones often need to be driven by a headphone amplifier based on very flat tuning, and the general sound card cannot be pushed directly. By amplifying the audio signal through the original headphone amplifier, the monitor headphones can hear the subtle details in the sound signal.
Therefore, if you are an e-sports gamer and mainly need to restore the real game scene environment for positioning, the resolution and wide frequency response range of the monitor headset can help you. But if you're a regular gamer, gaming headsets can achieve a more balanced overall gaming listening experience, as well as a better communication experience