like i said if you want the most out of your money i d get the beyerdynamic dt770 80 ohm(the pro are more affordable but the plain dt 770 are suppose to be better albeit not cheaper, known for their powerful bass) or the ath-a900(good bass and soundstage, also good looking to me
) or the senns hd595(well balanced, i own them they have a nice soundstage but maybe they lack bass a tiny bit, very comfy). these are well regarded in the high end gaming community.
i dont think it s worth it if you shell out more than that for phones only for gaming. sure you could spend like 3000$ on audio technica l3000 but it s not worth it for gaming, far from it. the senns hd 650 are good.really. you d have a great time gaming with them. but i d only consider them if you plan on listening to music or money is not a problem. they are the top of the line senns(except orpheus). + you would need an amp to drive them properly. and if you were to spend for an amp, you d be better of with buying a dac because you would be able to use your home amp which would be awsome, really(if you got a good home amp with a headphone output).
signal goes like that in any system as far as i know
source material(mp3,cd,dvd,games)>conversion of digital to analog(sound card,external dac, cd player)>amplification(home amp or x-fi does that)>headphones. not that hard is it?
so what you normally have is: games>x-fi>headphones
the ultimate setup would be: games>external dac(digital to analog converter)>your home amp>your headphone
like i said start with headphones IMO. if you like it and you want more, go ahead and upgrade. cause i know you would be mad if you just spent 800 bucks on a headphone setup only to realize it s not what you expected. what is nice too is that those kind of headphones sell like hotcakes on the net if one day you wnat to sell them