Quick Update:
I was able to sit down with the PS5 for about 15-20 minutes before eating dinner to do some quick listening over the spotify app to stream in some music. I have not gamed yet as I am waiting for my PS5 to finish some downloads. I tried a few headphones that should cover most of the ohm ranges folks are interested in.
- HD650/HD6XX 300ohm headphone plugged into the controller. Sound quality was doable, volume was loud enough. I felt like the experience could be maintained on the controller vs having to plug in a dac/amp solution, although there is no doubt you would benefit from better and cleaner sound quality by using a dac/amp.
- AKG K7XX 60ohm: Had some room to spare on volume. Sound quality was serviceable, relatively same experience as above.
- Hifiman HE4XX 32 Ohm: Decided to do an entry planar. Got plenty loud, sound quality was good.
- Phillips X2HD 30 ohm: Plenty of volume to spare, sounded great. Definitely didn't need a separate amp or dac.
I think that pretty much covers most ranges of head phones. I am REALLY impressed with the massive improvement over the PS4 controller. I think most will be pleased.
I'll try and play around with DAC/AMP solutions at some point, especially the Creative G6. Without trying to shill the G6, as far as I am concerned the G6 will probably shit all over most dac/amp solutions in the 100-500 dollar range when you A/B test and aren't concerned about reference accurate stuff like a THX/Heresy/Atom, which imo are excellent and very clean sounding but they are a bit boring. To help illustrate the differences to help some better understand.... regular amps are like missionary sex, pretty ordinary but still extremely enjoyable and intimate experiences. The G6 switches it up and goes from cowgirl, trades off for some doggy then transitions again into a full on orgy... of sound. I just think it's on a different level, maybe like how some will prefer tube amps over solid state because the sound is more pleasing. Lets be clear, there will always be more expensive higher end dac/amps you can buy but the G6 could easily make you not even care, especially when you have had the chance to hear one for yourself and got it properly tuned. It's friendly with any headphone you can throw at it and is much like a spice rack giving you plenty of different ways to flavor your audio. You can pick one of these up for $80 on sale right now for a refurb
https://us.creative.com/p/b-stock/sound-blasterx-g6-b-stock. These are some of the more expensive dac/amp combos I use as reference to compare:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTNK3ZT/?tag=neogaf0e-20 and
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24459. If I could only have one, I'd pick the G6 in a heartbeat and never look back but that is just me, I need my music to surround me, feel robust, alive and MUSICAL while still sounding pristine. It's great.
Pulse 3D headphones.....
For music playback I am not really impressed with these yet but I hope I get some time to game with them to see if they rock my world.
Edit: Pulse 3D Update - Tested using Demon's Souls
- I didn't really notice much of a difference in 3D positioning vs using any other headphone.
- Pulse 3D didn't sound much better while gaming.
- I do not have a large pool of wireless headphones to choose from but the ones I did try were the following:
Corsair Void Pro Wireless: these were far to quiet on the system to be useful as a wireless gaming headset for the PS5.
Creative Theater Air: These were
wayyy better than the Pulse 3D and worked extremely well with the PS5 but they are double the price of the Pulse 3D so probably not the first choice for somebody on a budget. In some circumstances the S-XFI processing on this headset can be a little much, I found that I enjoyed it and it enhanced my immersion so I left it enabled. S-XFI basically gives sound a more 3D holographic effect, it's pretty snazzy but it can be complicated to get the sound just right as it requires a pretty precise photo of your ears to map them out, the quality of the 3D holographic effect is dependent on that scan. This is surprisingly hard to do on your own!