Wireless headset

[Sayso]

Need a wireless headset with USB connection as i only have onboard sound will be used for gaming and sometimes streaming movies.

Have been looking at the Steelseries 840 (on sale here £190) but if i could save some money and get something half decent for 100 quid i would be happy.

Not interested in music quality purely gaming.

 

[olivier renault]

The G933 Prodigy is decent. I'm OK-satisfied but not blown away. Although I shoudl have gone with the G533 personally.

Otherwise... The 840 is also one of the better ones. Dunno about Asus, HyperX, or Corsair's offerings.

Depends what you are looking for exactly :
- What range (varies from huge for radio headsets, to mediocre for Bluetooth).
- Mic quality (most aren't that good, and pick up keyboards).
- Audio quality (surround, or just good stereo, which I would recommend over meh-surround). 933 only has a couple of settings I like. But it's OK, sound wise.
- What battery life (most do over 10 hours, G933 prodigy is around 12 hours).
- If they can work off a USB connector, in case of drained battery.
- Inputs and outputs. Most are USB, and have a separate audio device. Some can be connected via mic and line-in. Prodigy is just a USB device.
- Build quality. Prodigy is entirely plastic, which is a minus point for me. But I don't tend to break stuff.

Dunno about the 840, seems OK. There's no definitive answer as far as wireless headsets go.

 

[EsaT]

Not interested in music quality purely gaming.

Actually binaural sound needed for good gaming immersion has specific much more demanding than any stereo music requirements.
Stereo music forgives lot in sound quality without sounding instantly bad.
While binaural sound fast gives head in bucket under water level immersion.
Even famous for music HD650 Sennheisers would be just average for gaming.

And closed design is even worser, without it being bling blinged cheap Chinese trinket.
Which is basically what 99+% of gaming stuff is, regardles of wired or wireless.
While in wired headphones little over £100 gives very good choises for gaming, including some of the best headphones for picking direction and distance of sounds.

 

[Sayso]

Actually binaural sound needed for good gaming immersion has specific much more demanding than any stereo music requirements.
Stereo music forgives lot in sound quality without sounding instantly bad.
While binaural sound fast gives head in bucket under water level immersion.
Even famous for music HD650 Sennheisers would be just average for gaming.

And closed design is even worser, without it being bling blinged cheap Chinese trinket.
Which is basically what 99+% of gaming stuff is, regardles of wired or wireless.
While in wired headphones little over £100 gives very good choises for gaming, including some of the best headphones for picking direction and distance of sounds.

Ok if i went for on board sound and wired what would you recommend.

 

[EsaT]

Around £110-120 AKG K701/702 (702 with detachable cable) are among absolute top headphones for gaming with huge binaural soundstage and neutral bass.
Bass actually reaches quite low if you listen for it, but it always takes back seat to details.
You simply don't get strong always present bass immersion, instead they give "god mode/wallhack" level details.
You could literally tell from sound that:
"Someone is coming from rear left... Now he stopped coming closer and is directly behind moving toward right" or
"Someone firing front right far away and is likely less dangerous, but there's someone firing closer rear right"
With more fun above neutral bass headphones (like Beyerdynamic DT990) those details aren't so easily distinguished when there are lower frequency sounds.

Of course if you have noisy environment to isolate then open headphones aren't good.


Binaural sound contains cues brain uses to process 360 directionality just from two input channels.
Good headphones also give sense of distance.
Like first minute of this tells instantly if headphones are good with those gunfiring sounds from different directions and distances:

With bad headphones those don't sound any special.
You likely have such headphones...


That budget would easily also fit sound card for binaural simulation.
Sad truth is that in average game sounds have stagnated to what they were 15 years ago and most games don't even have real own sound settings.
And even if there's some headphone mode it's usually just crossfeed to eliminate very artificial in one ear feel of 2.0/stereo speaker mix played back by headphones.
(with speakers sound from one channel reaches also other ear which doesn't happen with headphones)

Sound Blaster Z would be £50 at its cheapest:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...g-sound-card-oem-30sb150200000-sc-088-cl.html
Wouldn't exactly trust it to fully drive AKGs with high dynamic range classical music, but games don't have such low average signal level and lot louder transients.
Because such volume differences would simply make listening game sounds annoying.


Really shame most music is in stereo.
While you can pick up instruments and such you still know you're listening recording, but binaural recording with good headphones is like actually being in there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpNtNCqP94g
Or how about virtual hair cut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

 

[Sayso]

Ive got a set of Corsair 1500s which i havent got any complaints about to be honest, just getting a bit tatty,

Have been looking at the AKGs but wasnt looking to get a soundcard, would these be wasted with onboard?

 

[EsaT]

Ive got a set of Corsair 1500s which i havent got any complaints about to be honest, just getting a bit tatty,

Have been looking at the AKGs but wasnt looking to get a soundcard, would these be wasted with onboard?

Only because you've never listened to actual headphones.
Instead of sound those Corsairs produce cacophony of three spikes, one spike of bass, little of mids and some treble.
And make Turtle Beach Z60's frequency response look good and I know those to be bad heavy bass cans with head in bucket under water level soundstage:
https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/60...gher-quality-testresults---frequency-response
Roller coaster's loop wouldn't look out of place in those curve's.
That's what kind totally overpriced Chinese excrement gaming brand headphones are.

While overall sound quality would definitely improve by huge amount from AKGs integrated Realteks lack binaural simulation needed for good gaming immersion.

Standard 2.0/stereo speaker mix is plain bad with headphones with "inside right ear - in center of head - inside right ear" level positioning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ROujJ8Ae8
With good headphones this is like from different game to that first minute:
https://youtu.be/d1_20T8x_OI?t=12m56s

Though some Gigabyte and MSI motherboards have bundled in Creative's software with Creative's binaural simulation.
Just suspect your motherboard isn't one of those.
If you're using Windows 10 that also has Windows Sonic for Headphones mode, which is certainly better than stereo.
But less surprisingly also that seems average compared to Creative's algorithms.
(Microsoft being biggest reason for stagnation of game sounds)

 

[Sayso]

i got some AKG702 ordered in the end, after looking for the last month it was between them and hifiman edition s in the end. Going to try with the onboard and if im not happy get a soundcard.