What To Look For In a Gaming Headset

The quality of your gaming experience is directly related to the quality of your equipment. A reliable set of headphones is one of the most crucial components. However, picking the best choice among the numerous available might be challenging. In this piece, we’ll take a deeper look at some of the best gaming headphones available to help you choose the appropriate one for your needs.

Whether you’re a PC gaming purist or a console born and raised, the bleeps, bloops, and gunshots from your games will ultimately upset the folks you live with. Even if you have a good set of headphones and a camera with a mic, it might be convenient to have everything you need for multiplayer gaming in one area. The gaming headset serves this purpose.

These headsets are a convenient all-in-one option for gaming audio since they often include a microphone, high-quality audio, and long cables to accommodate a wide variety of setups. There are a lot of gaming headsets out there, and many of them aren’t very good, just as there are a lot of other types of technology.

When searching for a new headset for gaming, keep these things in mind.

Note from the editors: We’ve expanded our coverage on gaming headset microphones and updated the recommended devices to reflect the most recent developments in the field.

Do you like the style of the gaming headset?

This is what I call the “will my roommates laugh at me” consideration. The microphone on many gaming headsets makes them seem like regular headphones. Others like an extraterrestrial spacecraft docked to your skull. Some of them are brightly colored, have oddly angular shapes, flashing LED lights, and have names that seem more appropriate for laser weapons than earplugs.

If you want to use your headset in a public setting, this is crucial information to have. If your headset makes you appear like you’re riding a little Tron light cycle on your head, having a detachable mic is useless.

You should only use a headset if it fits comfortably.

One of the most crucial factors to think about when purchasing over-the-ear headphones, particularly for use as a gaming headset, is how snugly they fit on your head. A faulty fit might cause physical discomfort while playing for extended durations, making it difficult to concentrate on the fragging at hand.

At first glance, it may seem to be alright, but with time, trapped heat, perspiration, and friction may cause discomfort. After one or two hours, even a little annoyance might seem really unpleasant. Pain in the neck is a common symptom of carrying excess weight in the incorrect places. Even a little bit of tension in the band may cause severe ear pain and even a headache.

Relevance of Isolation

The sound quality of headphones is significantly impacted by how well they seal. Particularly crucial for headsets and games that employ subtle directional audio cues, poor isolation may significantly alter what you hear.

The effectiveness of the seal between your headphones and your head might depend on factors including the pad’s size and construction. The foam of the headphone pad may just require some time to conform to the contour of your head before it can form an adequate seal. If the circle of the pad is too small for your ear, you may need to upgrade to a larger set of headphones or purchase larger replacement pads.

If you need to use your headset while wearing glasses, you might look into purchasing velour pads or a gaming headset with eyewear channels. You’ll be missing out on a lot of low-end if you don’t have them. Take a look at this frequency response comparison chart:

Although it’s very uncommon, certain gaming headphones do have noise-canceling technology that helps remove distracting ambient noise. This is useful even if you’re playing in a calm environment, like your own house. There won’t be much disruption from the outside world or from your nosy roommates or relatives. The Bose QuietComfort 35 II Gaming Headset and the EPOS H3PRO Hybrid are two examples of high-quality noise-canceling headsets for video games, but they won’t come cheap.

Put Quality First

In general, headphones for video games are flimsy affairs, constructed of plastic. Find a headset that has a solid build quality. Finding an item that is metal or wire-framed is preferable. If you must use plastic, look for a product that offers enough adjustment to suit your particular skull shape.

A headset constructed of cheap or weak plastic may easily break with the slightest amount of stress or pressure. When plastic is pressed, it often makes a loud creaking sound. I don’t even have a very huge head, yet I’ve had a headset shatter in two after some time.

Beyerdynamic’s Custom Game is one such headset that uses an all-metal chassis, making it very durable. If the headset is going to be used by a… dedicated gamer, this is something to bear in mind.

Mic considerations

While shopping for a gaming headset, it’s crucial to keep in mind a few elements related to the microphone.

First off, don’t get your hopes up about tracking down a headset microphone that is suitable for capturing audio while gaming. As a result, gamers who have very deep voices may come across as speaking through a metallic tin can while using a headset microphone. It’s possible that you won’t be heard well since the 3.5mm or USB connection these microphones need doesn’t provide adequate power.

Is there anything you could do to fix the microphone?

Yes! There are a few solutions to the hardware problems with headset microphones, however, they vary with each gaming system. The sound cards built into the controllers of modern gaming consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S may greatly enhance the quality of calls made from inside the game.

Logitech G Hub now incorporates the Blue Vo! ce mic suite into the features for the Logitech G Pro X and Logitech G733, and other companies, such as Razer and SteelSeries, offer mic EQ and additional features in their respective headset companion apps. If everything else fails, Discord’s noise suppression tool may disguise or significantly reduce even the sounds of chips being eaten straight into the microphone.

You might consider getting a headset with a removable microphone if you plan on wearing them like a regular pair of headphones while on the run. Even if you’re a couch potato gamer who never leaves the house, the portability of the microphone is still crucial; moving it even a centimeter may improve call quality.

Full-Fidelity Audio

Surround sound, which is not the same thing as 3D sound, is a fairly standard feature in gaming headsets and might be crucial depending on the kind of game you play. In-ear monitors with surround sound may simulate an environment with as much as 360 degrees of sound. They engineered it such that sounds originating from the right behind you would be attributed to that area. This is a high-end characteristic of most types of entertainment. It may be a huge help in winning games. It’s essential if you’re one of the millions of people who play Fortnite.

There are several different specifications for surround sound. There are a number of proprietary formats developed by headphones manufacturers, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X 2, Windows Sonic, and others. The PlayStation 5’s Tempest 3D audio engine and Microsoft’s Windows Sonic are just two examples of the many in-built spatial audio solutions available in modern game systems. Your new headset is less likely to need its own solution if it adheres to these built-in standards, which work with any headset, whether it connects by USB or 3.5mm.

If you don’t feel like going through the trouble of setting up spatial audio, which every gaming headset is capable of doing, you should be alright. A stereo headset shouldn’t be a problem for players of multiplayer online battle arenas like League of Legends or Dota 2, or character action games, or practically any single-player game. If the headphones you like most don’t support DTS or Dolby Atmos, remember that you still have choices.

Conclusion

If you’re a gamer, you know how crucial it is to have a good headset. There are several fantastic options, including the HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset, SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset, and Razer BlackShark V2 Gaming Headset. When deciding on the finest gaming headset, think about your requirements and personal preferences.

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