Wireless gaming headset recommendations?

berger54

berger54

berger54

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Hi,

I’m looking for a wireless gaming headset.

What do I want; 2.4ghz and Bluetooth, doesn’t have to be simultaneous, as long as I can switch between. Removable mic or one that completely retracts and the sound quality of the mic is good, certainly better than average. A voice chat and game mix control would be nice but not essential. 30 hours or so battery minimum ideally. I’m not too clued up on technical specs of driver size, resistance, frequencies etc but I would like it to sound “decent” for my uses.

Im aware that a decent wired headset is going to be better for audio quality and microphone quality but I would prefer wireless.

These will mainly be used for gaming but will be used a little for listening to music on my phone and watching movies on the TV.

I did come to the decision of the razer black sharks v2 pro 2023 and was pretty set on these but then read about build quality issues and hinges snapping which has put me off a bit but they do everything I want. Budget is £150 max. I would consider buying second hand and or refurbished but would prefer new for warranty/guarantee.

I did see the Corsair HS80 max which looks decent but the mic does not detach or retract.

Appreciate any advice/recommendations.
 
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I'm in a similar situation, watched a lot of review vids over the last week. I already own the Corsair HS80's (original, not Max) and they are pretty good. The reason I'm looking for something new is that although the mic is very good, it's omnidirectional and picks up too much surrounding noise. Good mic options seem to be the 2023 V2 Blackshark Pro's that you've already mentioned, and the Beyerdynamic MMX 200.
 
Torquar said:
I'm in a similar situation, watched a lot of review vids over the last week. I already own the Corsair HS80's (original, not Max) and they are pretty good. The reason I'm looking for something new is that although the mic is very good, it's omnidirectional and picks up too much surrounding noise. Good mic options seem to be the 2023 V2 Blackshark Pro's that you've already mentioned, and the Beyerdynamic MMX 200.
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Thanks for the comment.

The MMX 200 looks to be a good shout, I hadn’t seen them. Only one negative is no side tone and they are closed backs but I don’t know how much that would affect things. Looks to have some great reviews apart from the multi function buttons not being the most user friendly.

You’ve thrown a spanner in the works! lol. Finding it difficult to decide.

I’ll add here if I consider any others and what I go for in the end.

What are you swaying towards?
 
I've been using my Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless for 5 years - just replaced the ear pads as they were getting tatty, but they've otherwise been faultless. They're Curry-ently on offer for £119 (RRP was £299, iirc).

They're Bluetooth & 2.4Ghz, have used them with PC, PS4&5 and my phone. Decent, immersive sound, although they really shine on the PC, when they have access to the Sonar App...

The equally good Arctis 7s are available for £80, or the newer Nova Pro are reduced from £279 to £169 (I'm not sure if they're wireless, so best check).

Steelseries after sales support is great; when my son's Arctis 7s developed a fault (out of warranty by 8 weeks), they didn't quibble and sent a replacement chat mixer & headset free of charge.
 
RedMogg said:
I've been using my Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless for 5 years - just replaced the ear pads as they were getting tatty, but they've otherwise been faultless. They're Curry-ently on offer for £119 (RRP was £299, iirc).

They're Bluetooth & 2.4Ghz, have used them with PC, PS4&5 and my phone. Decent, immersive sound, although they really shine on the PC, when they have access to the Sonar App...

The equally good Arctis 7s are available for £80, or the newer Nova Pro are reduced from £279 to £169 (I'm not sure if they're wireless, so best check).

Steelseries after sales support is great; when my son's Arctis 7s developed a fault (out of warranty by 8 weeks), they didn't quibble and sent a replacement chat mixer & headset free of charge.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this, my Arctis Pro Wireless have served me well for a few years of 8+ hours daily use but are starting to wear out (ear cups coming unstuck, batteries not holding charge quite so long, random disconnects) so I've just treated myself to a replacement set. They serve my purpose perfectly as a combination work and gaming set and I couldnt find anything I wanted to replace them with. I'll move the old set to my man cave when I finally get around to finishing it off..
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I actually came across the SteelSeries nova 5 wireless and am considering that now to save a little bit of money. Currently £100. The arctis pro wireless is £120. Supposedly the battery life of the nova 5 is better, microphone quality is better but I imagine sound quality of the arctis pro wireless is a little better, it does have simultaneous wireless and Bluetooth and comes with the transmitter base station compared to the nova 5.

I’m getting lost with all these different headsets lol
 
The pro has changeable batteries - worth the extra £20 imo. Battery gets low and you simply swap new one in and pop old in the base station to charge.

The earlier nova had an anc design that was uncomfortable but I believe they have now sorted that with a newer revision.
 
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honestly you would be MUCH better off buying wired with AMP, but if you must go wireless my advice is save up a bit more and buy Audeze Maxwell if you must have wireless, to me they are best of the gaming designated headphones and with Sony Inzone BUDS, if the actually stay in your ear, as an alternative all the other stuff I have heard is a big no.

I have also tried several other audiophile wireless headphones for gaming and while they are very good, they generally lack tuning and latency needed for a FUN gaming experience.
 
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AMDPower said:
honestly you would be MUCH better off buying wired with AMP, but if you must go wireless my advice is save up a bit more and buy Audeze Maxwell if you must have wireless, to me they are best of the gaming designated headphones and with Sony Inzone BUDS, if the actually stay in your ear, as an alternative all the other stuff I have heard is a big no.

I have also tried several other audiophile wireless headphones for gaming and while they are very good, they generally lack tuning and latency needed for a FUN gaming experience.
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Those are £349.
I agree, spending that much would be better put towards a decent Amp/Dac and proper headphones (my AKG K550 Reference have been repaired/refurbished so much, they're like Trigger's Broom).

But OP asked specifically for a wireless gaming headset, so I assume he'd want a microphone too - add another £40-90 for anything reasonably decent (and more again for an adjustable arm to mount it on).

Now the outlay is closer to £450-500, compared with £120 for the Steelseries...
 
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RedMogg said:
Those are £349.
I agree, spending that much would be better put towards a decent Amp/Dac and proper headphones (my AKG K550 Reference have been repaired/refurbished so much, they're like Trigger's Broom).

But OP asked specifically for a wireless gaming headset, so I assume he'd want a microphone too - add another £40-90 for anything reasonably decent (and more again for an adjustable arm to mount it on).

Now the outlay is closer to £450-500, compared with £120 for the Steelseries.
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I am not sure where £500 came from, he can do wired setup for almost £250-£300 that will sound MUCH better than any steelseries could ever hope. He insisted on wireless so I told him what is best out there for wireless and the only option I would consider Audeze Maxwell given how awful wireless gaming headphones are in general for sound generation and the Audeze don't sound bad for general music listening either. I understand he has a budget so your suggestion is more correct in that respect but I did quantify "save up a bit more" its worth the difference in sound quality. I did also recommend the Sony Inzone which are quite decent and in budget.

as an example he can buy senheiser 560S for a more neutral accurate representation and Philips X2HR Fidelio for more fun sound, they can both be had for ~£100, he can get Amp for ~£100 and £50 for a mic. I know these are not the best headphones out there but better than any wireless setup out there that I can promise.
 
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Thought I would update;

Things changed slightly and I need to get a new computer/office chair too. I’ll check on the forum for recommendations. So in light of this and realising how expensive they can be, I wanted to spend less on the headset and went for the steelseries Arctis nova 5x wireless. I got them from curry’s for £95. They have gone up a bit in price now to £130. I went with the X as these don’t have a 3.5 Jack to use wired and the x covers more comparability. I do have a Xbox series S too, in case I ever used it in the future and no PlayStation. But the main use is PC.

Its hard to give a comparison as I haven’t had a headset like these before. But I think a good summary would be “decent/ok sound with great features and a improved microphone for a reasonable price”.

The quality of sound isn’t audiophile and doesn’t blow you away but it is still very nice, nothing sounding too fake or overbearing. Overall decent for all uses gaming, movies and music. One thing I would say is if you like things very loud, these aren’t the loudest but I don’t like it very loud personally.

When using Bluetooth for music and films the Arctis app is a real nice touch and very easy to select different preset EQs and they actually sounded pretty good. Equally the GG and sonar programme for windows is easy to use. The AI noise cancelling does seem to work. I have a dehumidifier running and having the AI noise cancellation on at around 50 does stop it completely but doesn’t make your voice drop in and out. I have a fairly loud mechanical keyboard too and it cuts out that as well. It’s a shame these features are only available on the sonar/gg software (I think) but that’s fine for me.

Microphone quality is really very good at this price point when I compare to other steelseries wireless headsets that are much more expensive. I’ve asked people how it sounds and recorded it through OBS without going through sonar and then through sonar and it really does sound good. Not as good as the black shark v2 pro 2023 but still very good. Sidetone seems to work well, I’ve liked it subtly at 2/3. It retracts completely in to the headset and doesn’t have a really “gamery” look to it, I think wearing them in public would be fine.

Battery life has been good so far with what they claim. I’ve been using them between 3-6 hours a day depending on the day and had them for a week yesterday and I’m at just above 50%.

They are closed backs but don’t have a tight clamping force, light to maybe medium to me. They have felt very comfortable and no complaints on the longer times wearing them. I can still hear background noise but it is reduced a fair bit.

They only thing I can’t comment on is longevity but I will mention here if I have issues in the future.

Negatives:
No 3.5mm to use wired, no interchangeable batteries and not simultaneous Bluetooth and wireless connectivity.

I may have missed some bits and it isn’t a really technical review but overall happy with the purchase.
 
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i have to be honest i have always used sennheiser as i used to do a little DJ'ing and that was the way to go, but wanted to go wierless and for £100 the SteelSeries Arctis 1 is actually amazing for games.
i think now is only £60 on offer but the pro is only £120.
 
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I got the Razer Blackshark V2 Pro (2023) a while ago and am very impressed with it, especially the mic, which all the reviews rave about.

It does look a little on the flimsy side but tbh feels perfectly solid and I doubt there'll be any issues if not mistreated.
 
RedMogg said:
I've been using my Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless for 5 years - just replaced the ear pads as they were getting tatty, but they've otherwise been faultless. They're Curry-ently on offer for £119 (RRP was £299, iirc).

They're Bluetooth & 2.4Ghz, have used them with PC, PS4&5 and my phone. Decent, immersive sound, although they really shine on the PC, when they have access to the Sonar App...

The equally good Arctis 7s are available for £80, or the newer Nova Pro are reduced from £279 to £169 (I'm not sure if they're wireless, so best check).

Steelseries after sales support is great; when my son's Arctis 7s developed a fault (out of warranty by 8 weeks), they didn't quibble and sent a replacement chat mixer & headset free of charge.
Click to expand...
I agree excellent head phone plus you can buy earpads and head bands if need be
 
Not sure what you are asking?

You never charge the headset itself, one battery goes in headset, one in the small box / audio control centre thing. When it gets low in headset or runs out you simply swap them round, then you have a full battery and the low one begins to charge.

Also has the benefit of being able to replace your batteries when they are showing signs of aging.
 
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