Hardware What is the Best Gaming Headset?

With my Sennheiser HD 280 Pros carefully EQd and running with CMSS-3D for games, I have aural goodness - isolation means my PC can be as loud as it wants to be, too, which is nice. The problem with most of these "gaming" headphones is that the branding and style takes precedence over the quality of the audio, and while I won't say bit-tech's opinion of their sound is bad, they are not the first people I'd trust when discussing this sort of thing. Thus I'll stay far away from any "gaming" headset for some time. Good studio or audiophile headphones and a desktop mic work just as well.

Silly goose, they review what they get for free! Magazines are like that, you should know by now. And of course, having a story is better than being credible but storyless.

 

I cannot believe you gave those plantronics a high rating in sound quality. My mate bought a pair and I've never heard anything that bad in my life.

I agree with the above poster. Grab a good pair of studio grade headphones and a separate mic. Heck, Sony MDR-V6's are only $60 and will walk all over anything in this review, and for that matter, most headphones.

 

I vote for Sennheiser HD595. And a microphone on my desk that cost a couple of quid.

I get accused of cheating in CSS because I can hear a pin drop.

I've had LOTS of headphones but these will take any volume and any treble and bass and still carry on like troopers. No distortion. Just awesome. Dirt2 with the Blue Ripple Sound system and Creatives Crystal tech and EAX is simply incredible.

For a better experience I recommend full noise cancelling (full cup) headphones. It is just you, and the sounds of the game, and nothing else. My missus banned me from wearing those because I couldn't hear her calling me for dinner.

 

The score is probably relative. Even the Sennheisers, or any gaming headset for that matter, wouldn't be able to match a pair of studio-grade headphones, simply because they haven't been designed to. I've been looking for a headset with decent audio quality for a while, and there just isn't any, because gaming requires a completely different sound stage to music. Anyone who buys a headset thinking they are a capable replacement for a pair of 'proper' headphones is sorely mistaken (I found this out the hard way), but for gaming they get the job done, and do it well.

As far as I can tell, though, this would be the "best" gaming headset available.

 

I beg to differ. I must say that i'm also in the market for a new headphone, but sadly this grouptest hasn't helped much, as it has the strange selection and seems to directly compare 10, 30, 60 and 90 pound headsets against eachother.

For example, i'm really interested at the pricepoint of the 377, but that's the only one tested there. It seems to do ok in the test, but as it's not really compared to any others in it's own priceclass, i'll still be looking elsewhere for info.

Oh well...

 

I used to use a Gamecon 777, but the quality of the headset was poor, at best, and they had broken after less than one year or daily use.

 

You are certainly right about reviewing only what they are given and have kicking around at the time. But then calling the review "What is the best gaming headset?" is rather misleading, or just plainly wrong.

 

The Creative HS-1100 boasts '3D positional surround sound'. What is that without Creative's PR nonsense?

I'm not expecting it to perfectly emulate a 5.1 setup, but are the results adequate? Also would the surround work when watching a film (would be handy at night when trying not to wake the housemates)?

 

I complete agree, should be the best gaming headphones we could get our hands on to at the time of the review review lol but that would be a really long title.

 

I have to agree, i made the mistake of buying some of the plantronics in this test and although i cant really argue with their value for money they do sound pretty damn awful.

 

lol you guys are never happy are you?

Out of interest what is the Best Gaming Headset if bit-tech had to chose one out of all headsets, not just the ones tested today?

 

As I have a good quality headphone, I would rather see a review of different (types) of microphones. I'm interested in the functionality of a throat mic and how different they would be. Also wondering if there are detachable boom mikes for headsets?

 

How come you guys forget about Razer Megalodon and Sennheiser PC350? I'm currently willing to buy me a new headset and retire my 8 years old Plantronics DSP-500 and those two were the main contestants. However, it wasn't a total fail as I've never heard of the Creative headset before. I guess we got a new challenger here. :¬)

 

I have two pairs of PC350s, one at home, the other at work. They're pretty awesome.

 

I have the plantronics headset reviewed, it is brilliant sound quality, though i agree that after about 3-4 hours of play they start to feel uncomfortable. I was replacing my old gamecon headset (originally recommended by cpc) which eventually broke after about 50 lan parties and 3 years of use.

I have head so many bad things about the Creative fatality headsets. My mate has broken 2 sets and another mate's are almost dead, both have owned them around a year so i'm not likely to trust the creative ones on offer here! They features that stupid swivel features which is never used and badly made!

 

I totally agree with the sentiments mentioned chere about the group tests. As group tests go they tend to be very misleading due to the unfair comparisons they frequently involve. I read all the articles on here but I 'trust' none of them and always look elsewhere for confirmation.

 

Using a boom mic on your desk is complete and utter failure. You have good sound from your 300 euro/pound headset, but every one on the other side has to deal with the ambient noise from your room (which is never as quiet as you think it is).

To stress the point, never ever never ever use a boom mic.

Yours in Clan Leadership,
Star*Dagger

 

These headphone seem to be on the lower end, i bought a triton ax pro for my lil sister and she loves it to death, i'd like to see a list for mid range/high range.

 

Medusa 5.1's.

50 pounds of awesome.

 

I can't believe you've written an entire gaming headset review without testing the microphone on a single one of the products. A headset with a shitty mic is obviously pretty useless for gaming with!

No way to say it politely, but that's at best a pretty half-assed attempt at a set of reviews.