The best wireless gaming headsets. How we test wireless headsets and others we tested. Fact: wired headsets hugely outnumber their wireless brethren in the PC peripherals marketplace. Why? Why hasn’t the technology that unshackles us from our machine rendered wired models obsolete? Well, historically, cable- free cans have had a number of drawbacks, some of which remain today. One: battery charge time. Ever had a wireless headset run out of charge on you mid- game, bleating its pathetic warning tone at the exact frequency that makes you want to chew through your tongue? Then you can see why some might be put off by the idea of having to manage their charge level, and even cut sessions short if their cans drain completely. Two: latency. Particularly in cheaper wireless audio gear, latency can fluctuate and lead to a distracting slow down, speed up auditory jerkiness in whatever you’re listening to as your hardware tries to keep pace. Distracting, and annoying. And three: price. There’s always been a considerable premium thrown on the price tag of any wireless headset, because that receiver and rechargeable battery aren’t cheap to produce. The silver lining? Manufacturers know those first two problems are deal- breakers, and have invested a lot of resources into minimising them. So today, you mostly just have to worry about price. That hasn’t changed, because all that resource investment is expensive. If you are prepared to pay a slight premium, some incredible, zero- hassle gaming audio equipment awaits. And we think the best of the whole bunch is the Steel. Series H Wireless. With a retail price set at $2. But for the money you get not only the comfort level, surround sound and audio fidelity of the very best wired headsets, but a bunch of cool extras unique to itself. Two swappable lithium ion batteries? Check. Impossibly stylish transmission unit? Double check. Of course, you might not be inclined to part with quite so much money just for the pleasure of cable- free listening pleasure. That’s fine—we’ve got you. Looking right the way down the price list, we’ve made our picks at the $1. Testing wireless headsets. Many of the qualities you’re looking for from a wireless headset are the same you’d hope to find in any audio equipment—tone, build quality, and reliability leading the charge. As such we listen to each review model while playing different genres of game, listening to music, and watching movies with bombastic sound effects and surround mixes—think less Werner Herzog, more Chris Nolan. We also run a simple sine wave вЂswoop’ across the stated frequency response range (almost always the full 2. Hz- 2. 0KHz these days), and in the case of surround headsets we’ll listen to positional audio tests from Dolby, like its DTS Headphone- X test. There’s also our old favorite, the Virtual Barber Shop. You. Tube’s compression does limit the overall sound quality, but it’s still a great way of separating the wheat from the chaff in surround sound earphones. There are a few wireless- specific elements we need to test for, too: battery life, charge time, range and latency. The former is pretty self- explanatory, though in addition to an вЂeveryday use’ battery life test we also run the headset at full volume to discover how quickly the charge drains under those conditions. To ascertain charge time, we… well, we charge the headsets and note how long it takes. Range and latency are trickier to test in a scientific manner. However, having a good old walk around the house gives a good indication of range, and latency ultimately comes down to perception. With all that taken into account after several days of use, we’re in a good place to make the call on a headset. Competitors. The wireless market’s considerably smaller than its wired counterpart—most of the big players in USB/3. As such the current market competitors list is a bit slim. The range expands when you look as far as console- specific wireless cans, but in the interest of ensuring full compatibility we’ve stuck to officially supported PC models. Oddly, Plantronics doesn’t have a bespoke wireless gaming headset; this . Audio 9. 95 is designed for office and multimedia use but is about as close to gaming spec as the manufacturer gets sans cables. It has a good rep for comfort and sound quality, and an appealing price at around $4. Don’t be taken in by the sub- $3. Online customer reviews tell a woeful story involving nonexistent driver support, defective mics, and even suggestions that this is a вЂgrey market’ model which isn’t authorised for sale to the United States. Edged out of вЂbest overall’ contention by a fraction. Despite fantastic surround sound and comfort levels, the Recon 3. D soundcard creates a lot of cable clutter and its headset’s admittedly strong battery life can’t compete with Steel. Best Gaming Headsets for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2016. Things a Tom must consider when buying a ‘Gaming Headset’ What is your Gaming Platform? At Clear Voice Communications we make it our business to make your voice communications as simple, clear and efficient as possible. Supplying a large range of. Do all computer headsets connect via a USB cable? Yes. However some models that have been designed with office applications in mind may require a special USB adaptor. Find great deals on eBay for gaming headsets pc gaming headset. Shop with confidence. Series elegant swappable battery solution. The last word in luxury in all aspects… if you’re a Mac user. Full functionality is possible but not guaranteed on Windows, and though it’s very nearly worth the risk, there are other options of the same or higher quality which make it a moot point. Another candidate that missed out by a whisker for вЂbest overall. Flawless sound, bomb- proof build quality, and a few minor niggles such as unpredictable battery life, and a strangely short charge cable. Looks and feels the part, offering great surround sound too. However, many users report problems with stutter or random disconnections. Battery life isn’t great for the price, either. Ticks the basic sound/build quality boxes, but is let down by mediocre battery life and develops noisy joints over time. Oddly, mic sound quality is extraordinarily good. Go figure. More expensive than the Evo, and with more functionality to show for it. However, being built around the same basic design, it suffers the same physical problems. And, look, we don’t want to get personal, but it’s really ugly. As the name suggests, this is a Bluetooth- only set, and not really intended with the PC gamer at the front of the queue. Good sound quality and range, but lacking the extras we take for granted in the gaming market and if you don’t have a Bluetooth receiver on your PC—well, forget it. Future testing. For now, the Steelseries H Wireless is our favorite wireless gaming headset. The wireless end of PC gaming audio gear offers less choice than that of wired peripherals, but it’s still a big marketplace—what’s more, it’s populated by models with incremental improvements and price hikes from the same manufacturers. As such, we haven’t tested every single model available, but done our best to seek out the cream of the crop. And from that cream, we’ve cherry- picked a) the absolute best options available right now, and b) a really odd, food- themed mixing of metaphors. It’s also a marketplace that moves fast—so we’ll be keeping our eye on it and updating it as promising new models are released. A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to stores like Amazon. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which helps support our work evaluating PC components. Computer & USB Headsets | Simply Headsets. We carry a massive range of all the leading USB computer headsets to give you optimal performance and sound quality when conducting IP telephony calls, Skype, using an IP soft phone application or simply listening to music. Some of these models offer unified communications so you can use your computer headset with your office desk phone as even your mobile phone too. Simply headsets stock all the leading computer headsets from Jabra,Sennheiser and Plantronics all at everyday low prices. For under $50 there’s really only one option for a quality PC gaming headset: the Plantronics GameCom 780. This headset features Dolby Headphone and Pro Logix IIx 7. Sometimes, you simply can't always blast your PC speakers as loud as you want. That's why a USB gaming headset is essential companion to your computer case at a noisy. Well, here it is: our pick for the absolute best wireless gaming headset available, the Steelseries H Wireless. And hoo boy, it isn’t a cheap one, weighing in just. Whether you're chatting with your buddies or listening intently for the footsteps of your enemies, your ears deserve the best gaming headset around. A great headset.
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