Best gaming headset for around £50
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Soldato
They do. Keep an eye on HUKD
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I just picked up a Steelseries Arctis 5 7.1 surround headset for £55.99
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What's wrong with having headsets? Other than looking like a bit of a tool?
Can't fault my Hyperx Cloud II's. Had them a couple of years now, managed to pick them up for £58 back then. In the past with some headsets I've started to find wearing headsets very uncomfortable, probably due to my ever so slightly (lets not bring back childhood memories) large ears.
I literally forget I'm wearing these. Some might even say they are as light as a "Cloud". Get it?? Classic.
You're welcome Hyper X.
I literally forget I'm wearing these. Some might even say they are as light as a "Cloud". Get it?? Classic.
You're welcome Hyper X.
Keep that microphone.
https://imgur.com/gallery/bKU4H
Huge majority of them are fancy coloured and shaped Chinese garbage...
Even if closed design in general wasn't very bad thing for binaural sound needed by immersive gaming.
Extreme profit margins for cheapest junk are why everyone and their pet dog wants their share of gaming headset markets.
Here's frequency responses of pile of gaming headsets, including one very common S**tSeries model:
https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/60...gher-quality-testresults---frequency-response
Basically roller coaster's loop wouldn't look ouf of place in those curves.
Some 30€ Superluxes would curbstomp almost every one of them in sound quality.
For example HD-330 literally shreds that boom boom goes the bass Turd Beach Z60 to atoms.
That Takstar made HyperX is one of the exceptions without completely horrible frequency response.
Though as closed can its soundstage would be lot behind semi-open HD-330 Superlux.
And that Superlux isn't match for few audio maker headphones you can get for less than more expensive gaming headsets.
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I'm not an audiophile, so doesn't really mean a great deal to me. I went with a headset as my pc will be in the living room, which is 32 feet long, but speakers aren't an option As the tv surround system would drown anything out... And my wife wouldn't be too impressed lol. I wanted surround sound mainly for pube g and being able to hear the direction of other players. The reviews I read seemed pretty positive and it was cheap enough.
Then closed gaming junks are the worst thing.
Picking game sound environment details needs good sound quality (usually good also for music, suprisingly) and preferably big airy soundstage.
That latter is something you won't find in closed headphones (because of physics) no matter the manufacturer. (except maybe some luxury priced models)
Even better ones fall lot behind good open design headphones and typical cheap junks have soundstage the size of bucket.
And most "reviews" aren't worth the storage space cost those few lines of text take.
They're as reliable as going to plumber for asking advice to sickness.
That's assuming they aren't straight paid ads.
"All these positive points and the really good surround system make this headset ideal for gaming."
https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/60...-in-higher-quality-turtle-beach-ear-force-z60
That's bigger pile of BS than even Trump.
Putting head into bucket underwater gives pretty much as good soundstage: There's zero sense of deph/distance, some sounds are just more muffled than others.
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I guess I'll find out myself this week when they show up.
Soldato
This conversation went rather similar to... well, too many
"so, why are headsets crap"
"well, because a,b,c,d,e..... x,y and oh yeah, z."
"oh well, I'll try the crappy headset anyway and see"
later seen going "oh I got X headset, it's amazing!!"
it's ok but... TRY the headphone setup. Less money, more kit. You'll never go back
(not directed at OP or anyone in particular, "if the cap fits..." type statement).
"so, why are headsets crap"
"well, because a,b,c,d,e..... x,y and oh yeah, z."
"oh well, I'll try the crappy headset anyway and see"
later seen going "oh I got X headset, it's amazing!!"
it's ok but... TRY the headphone setup. Less money, more kit. You'll never go back
(not directed at OP or anyone in particular, "if the cap fits..." type statement).
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Tough one really, who do you go with, the reviewers on respected sites or people on an internet forum... I'll try it out for myself and see, if it sucks then at least I can say I'm speaking from first hand experience.
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Well I've been using the headset for several evenings... Honest opinion, it's excellent! For pubg sound is pretty important, so knowing the direction is vital and the directional sound is brilliant and comparable to my 5.1dts tv setup.
I'm sure there's 1000 technical reasons why these headsets suck etc etc, but I'd be surprised if anyone who's actually used a set would have much negative to say.
I'm sure there's 1000 technical reasons why these headsets suck etc etc, but I'd be surprised if anyone who's actually used a set would have much negative to say.
Can you make a positive recommendation re. a USB Mic or a Boom Mic? Ones that are easy to attach to headphones and stay attached?
Also, any decent earphones that have a manual volume control so I can change the volume on the fly? I hate having to control volume through windows or the software.
My ancient Plantronics 780's still do it for me (though not for listening to music I admit), but I'd be interested to see what reasonably priced £50-ish alternatives are out there.
There's good reason why any decent or especially good headphones tend to avoid having those volume controls:
Any resistance between voltage output and headphone driver acts like output impedance lowering damping factor.
And big volume decrease using such control just rapes damping factor starting to eat accuracy and punch of bass and overal sound quality.
Once tried such series resistor/inline volume controller with HD595 Sennheiser...
Using mouse to look for volume control of Windows or even worser going to game's menu sure sucks.
But that's why you should looks for dedicated separate volume control in keyboards...
Instead of bling bling RGB garbage and PR BS product names for fools used to sell feature lacking keyboards at excessive price.
And that 1080 Ti was reasonably priced?
Despite of it becoming second tier product in couple years and obsolete in five years...
Not sure about price level in UK but very good soundstage for closed can of that price range Creative Aurvana Live (made by Fostex and same model as in some Denons) should be available for roughly that price.
Then of course there are Superluxes.
Do you take car advices only from drivers of some Trabant or Wartburg?
Because this describes average western consumer perfectly:
"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."
-Bertrand Russell
And marketing is all about bad grounds.
“Advertising is legalized lying.”
― H.G. Wells
And there's no need for testing when frequency response tells that pretty much all but HyperX Cloud and Plantronics are from bad to total garbage.
https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/60...gher-quality-testresults---frequency-response
Though actually had chance to test that Turd Beach Z60 years before finding that:
It's single digit price sticker worthy garbage making ~30€ Superlux HD-330 feel like top quality headphone.
Didn't even bother comparing to Byerdynamic DT990 or Sennheiser HD595.
As car analogy it would be like comparing Lada/Trabant/Wartburg to some Jaguar or Rolls-Royce.
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If I was buying a car I'd test drive it and make my own mind up. It's horses for courses. I'm happy with my SteelSeries Artis 5's, they do what I need them to do, which is give good directional sound for FPS games. In that regard they do a superb job and were exactly what I needed. Sure, the sound might not be top notch for playing music etc, but no interest in that, so not even used them in that capacity. If I want to listed to music I'd just plug in my Sennheiser HD380's.
Soldato
The HYPERX Cloud Alpha (Jack) can be had for £60 and even though £10 over budget, is above and beyond anything else in the price range.
The Sennheiser GSP 350 is at the top end of your budget at £100 but is a great headset and mic (USB). Check out some reviews.
The Cloud offers great quality headphones and mic in a complete package although to get the best out of them, onboard audio enough may not be enough (depedning on chipset) in which case spending a little more on a USB variant headset or a Soundcard would be worthwhile and your ears will thank you.
The ASUS Xonar DGX can be had for £25 and that paired with the Cloud would be a great combo and in my opinion, better than "fake" processed USB surround.
The Sennheiser GSP 350 is at the top end of your budget at £100 but is a great headset and mic (USB). Check out some reviews.
The Cloud offers great quality headphones and mic in a complete package although to get the best out of them, onboard audio enough may not be enough (depedning on chipset) in which case spending a little more on a USB variant headset or a Soundcard would be worthwhile and your ears will thank you.
The ASUS Xonar DGX can be had for £25 and that paired with the Cloud would be a great combo and in my opinion, better than "fake" processed USB surround.
Soldato
Sennheiser PC350SE is available for £70. Is good headset, though the audio signature isn't the best for music