Hey Giant Bomb staff! What's your favorite headphones?

Hey folks! Just a quick question (those who watch streams might be able to answer what they see you wear most too...).

What headphones do you like for podcasting/studio work? For gaming? For listening? Is it different between them all? Is it the same? Might be a fun discussion if we can figure out or hear from you on your preferences.

Lex

I buy cheap ones for using hard, which is likely not the advice most people will have. My daily drivers are Plantronics BackBeat FIT 500. Cheap, solid, god BT connectivity, and they sound...fine.

Maybe when PS5 comes out I might shop for a nice pair of headphone to keep by my TV. However, I will wait until then to get one that work really well with Tempest Engine audio.

I always skew hard on the comfort side of things over sheer sound purity. But I'm no audiophile, for the record, and so passable audio quality has usually been good enough.

I've used an Astro A50 headset for a long time but recently made the switch to a SteelSeries headset from the company's Arctis line. The Arctis headset is genuinely very comfortable—something I can wear and have worn for hours at a time. And I think the audio experience is perfectly fine in comparison to the A50, which might have provided a little richer sound but often gave me headaches after prolonged use.

Based on the recent home streams, I believe this is what they each have been using.

• Abby: AKG Pro Audio K271 MkII
• Alex: Not sure. I think maybe he was wearing a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones with a wireless Antlion ModMic on his drum streams. No idea what he was using during the truckin' streams.
• Ben: No idea. Something white is all I can tell.
• Brad: Astro A40, though an older model
• Jan: HyperX Cloud II
• Jason: Also HyperX Cloud II
• Jeff: Also Astro A40
• Rorie: I'm pretty sure he was wearing Sennheisers in some recent streams, not sure on the model. HD 599 SE, maybe.
• Vinny: Audio-Technica ATH-M50x

Maybe one or more will respond to see how close I got.

@inevpatoria: I have the Arctis 7, and I found the ear pads to be a little thin, such that my ears would come into contact with the hard plastic covering the drivers. I replaced them with these "micro suede" Brainwavz ear pads, and it made such a huge difference. It's like having two pillows on the side of my head. I wear glasses, and I can and do wear the headset for many hours straight with no discomfort whatsoever. They do increase the clamping force slightly because they're thicker ear pads, but I actually prefer it because the headset feels a little more secure on my head.