Just picked up a new headset on the weekend to replace the setup used for the past 6 months(old crappy sony pair of headphones from around the discman era combined with a mic from an old headset that died.)

Though I don't look as cool now, what with not having 2 pairs of headphones - one for sound one for working mic- on while gaming, thats okay and well worth the sound quality upgrade

Sennheiser PC-161 at NCIX After a solid morning of research & pricing, found these which were on sale for $80 (CAD), usually $99.

Highres pic

Sound 5/5
Mic 5/5
Comfort 4/5 - though this could change once they break in- right now a bit tight
Quality 5/5
Sound isolation 5/5 - having the tv on levels that would usually annoy me while gaming doesn't matter anymore - likewise in all my in-game tests nobody could hear my TV or anything outside about 1 ft of me.
Value 5/5 *at sale price

I don't know what my expectations really were, but the sound quality upgrade is huge. Hearing things in bf2142 is a completely different experience in so many forms of awesomeness. There are tons of new notes in the songs I had never even heard before, mostly in the bass frequency range but even the highs as well. Having a headset that's a bit bigger like this makes all the bassnotes really sound wonderful, and that includes far off armor shots in big maps.

Played on highest audio setting with an X-FI extreme its just beautiful. All the little things just sound so much nicer and crisper, especially all the wonderful voices of teamspeak and in-game voice Definitely reccommend this pair if you are looking to upgrade/replace/switch from speakers.

My budget for the upgrade was initially 30-50, or around what I'd paid for the last few sets that broke within 1-2yrs each. So this time decided to up it to between 50-100, making an exception if there was a good price point.