I’m currently having a bit of a dilemma. My current headset is great, but unfortunately the mic doesn’t work due to the microphone port having been damaged beyond repair (it’s a long story). I bought an audio adapter with the Y split, but alas the microphone still doesn’t work. It sucks not being able to talk in voice chat for a lot of purposes, especially raid/pvp where i need to callout things. So now I’m looking into getting a USB headset in hopes it fixes my problem!
I’d love to get some recommendations on some headsets that are excellent for gaming and actually having a working mic through a USB port only. I’m not looking for one ridiculously high in price unless it’s actually worth it.
Also, if you still like your current headset, you can probably just buy a USB DAC.
Probably something like https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-70SB173000000-Sound-Blaster/dp/B06XBZ38ZJ/ , but I haven’t used it to give my opinions on it. Some reviews mention hiss for sensitive headphones. There are better more expensive ones, but I didn’t look much into those. You’d have to keep in mind what ports they have. Some have a single combo audio out/mic in jack, some are just audio out, etc.
I use a Corsair Void pro wireless headset. Its comfy, the battery lasts probavly like 8-14 hours depending on what you’re listening to. 7.1 surround sound.
I’ve been using the same HyperX Cloud II headset for over 3 years now and it has been great. It is their older models compared to the ones they have now although it is USB.
I’m actually more interested on good sound (I’m a musician). But every review for ANY headset has 10 people raving about how awesome they are, and 10 people saying they’re terrible.
I’m going to try these Cowin’s in a couple of days and if it doesn’t work out I’ll return them. But I’d like to get some more feedback.
No USB, make sure you have a decent DAC/on-board audio/soundcard for best results. Also not wireless, but you’ll live :P.
The COWINs don’t measure close to neutral if you care about sound quality, based on the RTING’s measurements. They’re bloated, and have a massive treble spike. Plus, for the best sound experience, you wanted open back headsets like the one I linked above. The reviews for those COWINs look fake. Based on the measurements for them, I’d imagine they’d sound pretty thick, bassy without extension, nasally/congested, with vocals that sound dark, but also trending on the harsher side. Plus, to top it off, the COWIN’s microphone will probably sound meh, more so over Bluetooth(due to Bluetooth limitations). Rting’s offers microphone sound samples, in which case, it sounds like garbage on their recording, but they probably measured it over Bluetooth, so I don’t know how much better it would be over wired.
Looking at the stuff over at RTing’s and the rating on Amazon, something seems fishy to be honest in regards to the high review stars.
TLDR: Don’t buy the COWINs, buy the ones I linked. If you don’t like them for some reason, I’ll see if I can come up with something else. The COWINs aren’t worth over $100 lol. They’re crazy. For that price, there’s no reason the driver should be measuring high harmonic distortion, looks like bargin bin cheapo drivers. Not good for reference work.
If you’re dead set on wireless, I’d have to recommend something else. In which case, that COWIN still wouldn’t be good for gaming, since Bluetooth can potentially have a delay, so you’d be better off with USB wireless solutions on some gaming headsets.
Looking at the stuff over at RTing’s and the rating on Amazon, something seems fishy to be honest in regards to the high review stars.
There’s more than 700 reviews. No one’s “faking” that much.
The rest of your observations could be valid, but not that.
From what I’ve read, the latency issue with cordless was a much bigger deal 3+ years ago, but it all but resolved now. Kind of like how FPDs had “ghosting” issues in the early 90s… no one talks about that anymore.
In regards to the latency thing. Latency isn’t a big deal on gaming headsets with USB transmitters, in regards to Bluetooth, the latency can depend on a few things, but a sure way of lower latency is by having aptx low latency support, which the COWIN does not. RTing’s measurement system showed it having 138ms latency over Bluetooth.
Plus, you’re just going to sound like trash to your teammates if you use the mic over Bluetooth.
If you want a headset for gaming at that price range that’s wireless, you’d probably be better off with something like the HyperX Cloud Fight or something.
If you absolutely need Bluetooth over a USB wireless transmitter, it would be a good idea to look for products with aptx low latency(you’d want a good aptx low latency adapter on the transmitting end as well for best results). You may or may not notice a difference, but aptx support and such is definitely a step in the right direction.
But the wired one I linked is simply better overall(apart from the of course issue of portability).
You mentioned you were a musician. I’m not that familiar with what you do with your headsets(apart from I guess listen to your recordings?), but if you want to hear things around you(IRL), then open back like the Sennheiser I linked would be best. If not, the HyperX Cloud Flight and such would take away some of the noise. But yeah, with those COWINs if you’re listening to your play session recordings, it’s not going to really sound anything like the actual recording sounds like.
Thank you for all of your time in your responses. Without quoting, I’ll make some comments:
1> Bluetooth isn’t a requirement, it sounds like USB is what I want.
2> I’m not a Mythic raider or anything, so mic quality only needs to be like a 7, not necessarily a 10. All I really use it for is coordination for Achvs and such, and even for those things, you mostly just listen. I need it, but it’s not a MAJOR thing.
3> Musically, I’d want them to sound good with what I’m listening to. I’m the guy who, many years ago when Beats hit the scene, first put them on and said “wtf, these sound terrible.” For my own recordings, I have a high end set of studio monitors I prefer to use for being critical of sound.
To that end, I probably would be fine to have these be a $150’ish set of cans that are mostly just “fine for gaming, fine for music” and then get a $300+ set if I want to be really picky about sound quality. I just don’t want them to sound like TRASH if I turn off WoW and want to listen to something. Gaming headphones (built in mic) have come a long way, but there’s still a lot of trash out there.
In that case, you’d probably be better off buying the HyperX Cloud Flight for wireless gaming, and if you have the money, spending some down the road on a nice wired set for real reference work.
It’s always good to have an idea of what kind of sound signature that you like though. Not everyone considers the same thing neutral, and sometimes it’s just because they’re used to a certain sound signature. Some people like warm, some like bright, etc. If you like how your studio monitors sound, it might be a good idea to buy something that matches it in a way. Not all studio monitors are really dead neutral, so it would be a good idea to figure out what is colored/recessed on your current monitors if you want to match it on a headphone. YouTube channels like Digital Stereophony upload recordings and measurements of many studio monitors.
The HyperX Cloud Flight would probably get you by for now. Can’t really get raw sound quality out of gaming headsets, but it’ll probably work fine for your use case for now. I haven’t heard it, but based on the measurements, I can only assume that it sounds a little on the flatter side(with Harman Kardon response bass), if that’s your kind of thing. It’s showing a dip in the mids around 400 Hz, so it’ll sound a bit flatter than flat, if that even makes sense lol. You could give them a try, and return them if you don’t like the signature(probably won’t get much better in terms of neutrality than the wired Sennheiser gaming headset though), since you had plans of possibly returning the other one anyway. If you don’t like a lower-midrange that’s flatter than flat(lol I don’t have any other way to describe it), then maybe the SteelSeries Arctis 7 2017 version would suit you better, but the midrange on those seem to heavily depend on fit. Check the RTing’s site and read through the reviews there. It’s a great resource for headphones. For in-ears, people like Crinacle are good people to keep an eye on. Oratory is also good. There is also people like Clavinetjunkie who reviews bluetooth speakers, headphones(not gaming headsets though), and in-ears, who is a bit picky in terms of sound. Then there’s Digital Stereophony on YT as mentioned, who does studio monitor comparisons.
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