Kithara Gaming Headset

When it comes to gaming headsets I would go with something from a audio brand. There’s the asus kithara which are great, the maxwells are well regarded and Sennheiser has the. Pc38x too. I would not go with any 6x0 series from Sennheiser while they’re great for music they suck for gaming. I’d personally go with the kithara as you get a good all in one solution on which you can build a better setup later on. You have a headset with a mic which comes with a normal cable too if you add a desktop mic somewhere down the line. It comes with either 3.5mm connection for your motherboard or a USBC adapter for your pc so you don’t need a dac/amp. With the headphone cable you have 6.5,4.4 and 3.5 mm connection when you add a dac/amp (which I highly recommend for any headphone) The kithara itself is great for gaming, comes with all the hifiman goodies (nano membrane, stealth magnets) and is upper comfortable.

Yeah sure most of the time budget can be stretched a bit but for Arya you definetly need a dac/amp solution and Arya itself is 500-600$ this almost DOUBLES the needed budget which is too much. I’d personally go with the kithara I’d even take then over Aryas for the better comfort tbh.

I’d recommend to get a dac/amp no matter what headphone you choose in the end. Other than that the asus kithara would be a solid base to start with. It comes with 2 sets of cables with and without a mic, multiple connectors, are planars so they are easilyEQ able and are super comfy.

They are build well and the mic has a separate cable so you should have no cross talk. Treat any headphone as if it’s fragile and they will last you a long time.

I would not go with any 6x0 series headphone if you want them for gaming. They have no soundstage at all and thus the imaging feels weird. Go with either the 490 pro or the Arya stealth, tho I’d recommend to take the kithara over the Aryas because 1) kithara is more comfortable , 2) you probably need a mic if you don’t have a standalone one, 3) you should buy a dac/ amp and the kithara leaves you with some extra budget to buy a dac amp and a mic later. You can then just wait with your purchase to buy a dac/amp and use the kithara alone or you have 200$ to get both. If you don’t have a mic then you should get a „gaming dac“ that also has a microphone input

If you’re open for open backs the asus kithara is a great option. They are already on sale in Europe (Amazon) and can be found for your budget as Bstock. And yes they are marketed as a gaming headset but in reality they are Hifiman headphones with a nicer skin

It’s basically a sennheiser audiophile headphone with a decent flip-to mute mic, basically a more convenient 560S. Gaming headsets are all slop basically, except for the Kithara and the PC38x, so basically anything made by Hifiman, Sennheiser or any respectable audio brand.

I know you said wireless is a must have but if you want high audio quality then you have to be wired. I would get the ROG Kithara as I am very pleased with my pair for gaming and music listening.

I must say I like the ASUS Rog Kithara pretty much. I used Nova Pro Wireless, Maxwell 1 and MMX 300 Pro and found pretty „narrow“. The Kitharas are the first to feel more natural (probably due open design). But you need an amp to get the most of them

I dont think gamers know what hifiman is.... Its hard enough already to convince most people to use an open back for gaming since most people don't know what wide even sounds like or why they need it.

They released a video today w/ quality control testing look a lot more intense than what i'd imaging hifiman is doing for their headphones. It's most likely a hifiman driver w/ asus manufacturing. I assume hifiman had some input in tuning as well. I suspect if you did have an issue youd prob need to hit up Asus though instead of hifiman who does have fairly solid customer service for a small company. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuiY-1WWDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuiY-1WWDc)

$350 for a planar is about whats is expected. Its within ballpark of hifiman xv, but most likely better build quality than typical hifiman.

Just looking at it you can tell. if you've ever owned any Hifiman products you know how thin the materials are. Even in the manufacturing video you can see that everything from the headband to the hinge, yokes, even ear cup are all a lot beefier than the typical hifiman product. I dont think Asus would ever have let a product have their name on it w/ the typical Hifiman build quality....

Maybe it's time to try half a dozen and one then... I know it doesn't mean much coming from some rando online but I do happen to be in industrial design and it seems fairly obvious to me... If it isn't to you then you'll just have to wait and find out. Most early reviews seem to also seem to conclude similar opinion on non-typical hifiman like build quality. I mean for $299 it seems like it's going to be fairly popular, should be hard to find them here or there soon. Mic seems to be it's only real short coming, ironically sounds better off axis or reversed.

that doenst sound too bad tbh.

This is the alleged response from today's video, assuming they did their measurements correctly before printing/shipping it. It doesn't look too bad, def has a hifiman-like curve, w/ some weird stuff going on at the top end but, nothing too bad relative to most gaming headphones. The response looks pretty good imo. https://preview.redd.it/hchog9uwb3hg1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e3bb3fe2ce45caa549c934f09ec04a6bb5ac7a6

I'm pretty hype for it, i think when it was announced it made fairly substantial waves, but we're still waiting to see what it performs like, they just dropped this video a few hours ago as well. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuiY-1WWDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuiY-1WWDc)

Maxwell is almost 600g. And Kithara is very heavy. Even mmx300 is heavy in comparison to xm4

They are literally better built than all other EGG shaped Hifimans and other than a 6 khz peak the response in better in every way than any version of Arya other then the unveiled one and for a lot less money so just becuase it has a Gamer market advertisement doesnt mean shit when it comes to the actual product. Thank god someone made a hifiman without the same plastic toy design that we have gotten for the past 10 years like it actaully looks nice for once.