I use an A10 gaming headset... The audio reports I get are incredible.... ah.... uh oh! Nevermind! Seriously though my gaming headset is the over the ear "cup" or "muff" types of cans. I, the same as others mentioned that the muffs keep the distraction from household or other background sounds from keeping me concentrating on the code. Headphones are mandatory when I work CW.
I’ve used HS-5s for many years to help dig out weak signals on SSB as well as CW. They are not high-fidelity headphones but rather do a great job of accentuating the right frequencies while filtering out much of the noise. They come with a special set of ear cups which you can use to increase acoustic pressure. I find them a little uncomfortable to use for long periods, especially with the ear cups installed. However, they are serious communications headphones and aren’t, in my opinion, designed for extended periods of listening to music and the like.
I'll definitely check those out. It looks like they would fit over the ears better. The HS-5s sit more on my ears.
Yeah, they are comfortable. The argument that narrow-bandwidth (narrow frequency response) phones are "better" for hamming, and perhaps especially for CW, isn't very applicable today where we almost all have receivers that can restrict bandwidth (IF and audio) any way the operator wishes. Even my little Ten Tec Jupiter can restrict response at the turn of one knob from 150 Hz to 8 kHz, and set both high and low-end rolloff. I don't need headphones to do this. I actually prefer "high-fidelity" phones that make my 600-800 Hz CW pitch (and sidetone, which matches that) sound very "crisp," which requires response up to several times the center frequency. I find restricted response headphones annoying, but that's why they make chocolate and vanilla. I settled on the PRO-4AAs decades ago when one of my best friends (Bill, K2OWR -- who is now K4OWR) was a chief recording engineer at big NYC studios, including The Hit Factory. I visited him there a couple of times and saw "everybody" (himself, and the other recording engineers and technicians) were all wearing the same kind of headphones, and they were all Koss PRO-4As (at the time, the new model is AA). I asked him why, and the first thing he did was take them off and throw them on the floor -- hard. He picked them up and they were fine. He said, "That's one reason why."
Sorry, hadn't read all the posts before I asked, I've always like the Koss phones for the audio quality and room isolation, but I find them a little heavy. I do use a pair of AKG phones for cw and a gaming set for the rare contest, I hear better and it keeps the desk clear.
I have a set of BOSE that I bought for use with my computer and they are super comfortable and, great quality. Since I have started listening to webSDR a nit I use them and the tonal quality for ssb is great. I have never tried listening to CW with them but, suppose they would be just fine for that also.
These are GREAT ! I just bought a pair. They came in the original sealed box with all of the Gov't markings dtd: 1966 - That's when I was in Vietnam & these are the same type of headphones (HS-16A) that I used then. They come out of the box very tight & it takes a bit of bending to get them loose enough so that they don't POP your eyeballs out ! (An unsolicited testimonial)
