In the Market for a New Gaming Headset

[ProfBrown]

Well, as the title suggests I am in the market for a new headset for gaming. Before people ask I am not an audiophile so while accurate sound is important for games (like surround sound) I do not need the ultimate quality of sound. I would like to go wireless as it seems the tech has come a long way as far as quality and battery life. Is wireless worth it, or should I avoid it and just stay wired? Wireless is not a necessity, but it would be nice to be able to walk around the room to turn on or off the fan or grab some water without having to worry about muting in discord.

 

So as it stands my current set up is a Razer Kraken headset from around the 2016 year range I believe? It has surround 7.1 I am pretty sure, but I believe it is virtual. This headset to me feels a tad on the heavy side, and while the ear cups fit over my ears, it is just barely so (this heavy side complaint could be due to weakened padding over time maybe?). I do like the over the ear cups. Personally I enjoy the sound quality and I am told the mic quality is nice. Also, the padding on the top at this point is either wearing out, or was never all that great to begin with. My main concern with going wireless is the added weight of a battery (if this is even an issue) and if that will affect comfort. I am honestly more concerned with comfort for 2 hour or so gaming spans than the super clean audio if that makes sense. Please keep in mind this was my first and only PC gaming headset so I have an extremely limited knowledge of quality vs comfort and the like.

 

Here are the list of wants:

• Comfort
• On-board Mic (so I don't need to buy a stand alone and have more desk clutter)
• Wireless
• Mic stand that charges it as well perhaps? (not a necessity, more of a cool factor)
• Affordability in US (would like to keep it a sub $150 budget, but if a striking deal is at $175, I can make it work) 
• Audio Quality

 

What are the recommendations? I might begin to dabble in streaming after I build my first gaming PC here in a couple months after AMD drops their new stuffs, so the comfort factor is really a big deal for me. Looking online Corsair makes the Void Pro for around $100, but what else are others recommending given my take on the Kraken headset? I know Hyper X makes some budget stuff, had a buddy recommend that, also heard of Steele series and a few others, but honestly as I am mostly concerned with comfort I want to pull from a larger pool of users than just a couple of my buddies.

[Slottr]

Cloud 2's are my absolute favorite headset and I wouldn't personally buy another model.

 

I do believe they just came out with a wireless version...

[ProfBrown]

Wouldn't or would? 

 

I did see that they do offer one and it looks promising especially the price.. But that is a lot to offer for the price. 

 

One more thing to note, The swivel function of the ear cups on the Kraken headphones I have leave something to be desired. Running 1 ear for short periods hurts a bit and when on my head there is limited adjustment for those following this thread.

 

Edit: So its known, I have a Logtiech and Razer mice, and Corsair keyboard. So I am already running 3 different software's for my peripherals. So while I wouldn't be opposed to adding one more to that group, if there is a recommendation with flying colors within those that would be great.

[rice guru]

Im just gonna say one thing if you want good audio quality stay away form brands that make mice and keyboards with a couple of exceptions 

[ProfBrown]

3 minutes ago, rice guru said:

Im just gonna say one thing if you want good audio quality stay away form brands that make mice and keyboards with a couple of exceptions 

Yeah audio quality quality isn't my forte. Like I said I actually have no issues with the $79.99 Razer Kraken headset I have been sporting for a few years. I have a friend with basically all corsair stuff, and he likes his wireless Corsair headset but he said the battery life at this point is rubbish.

[rice guru]

3 minutes ago, ProfBrown said:

Yeah audio quality quality isn't my forte. Like I said I actually have no issues with the $79.99 Razer Kraken headset I have been sporting for a few years. I have a friend with basically all corsair stuff, and he likes his wireless Corsair headset but he said the battery life at this point is rubbish.

whole I personally cant hep you cause you wnat somehting with wireless there are a ton of options for you in the non wireless more audio quality geared world

[Microsoft Master]

23 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Cloud 2's are my absolute favorite headset and I wouldn't personally buy another model.

 

I do believe they just came out with a wireless version...

The cloud Flight's I think? "Shoulder Shrug"

[rice guru]

4 minutes ago, ProfBrown said:

Yeah audio quality quality isn't my forte. Like I said I actually have no issues with the $79.99 Razer Kraken headset I have been sporting for a few years. I have a friend with basically all corsair stuff, and he likes his wireless Corsair headset but he said the battery life at this point is rubbish.

thats the problem on trying to sync brands. no brand is good at anything corsair makes good ram. great cases, decent keyboards and ok mice but nor brand makes everything well. so its always good to diversify and find the brand that makes one thing well

[ProfBrown]

Thank you for your time! I'll take a couple wired recommendations as well just in case this wireless looking doesn't really play out lol. 

 

4 minutes ago, rice guru said:

thats the problem on trying to sync brands. no brand is good at anything corsair makes good ram. great cases, decent keyboards and ok mice but nor brand makes everything well. so its always good to diversify and find the brand that makes one thing well

Exactly my opinion and why I am not opposed to adding another software if I need to to find a better bang for the buck product.

[ProfBrown]

For those curious I pulled the trigger on the Corsair Void Pro headset and while I was there I picked up the stand with 2 pass through usb 3.1 ports. Went with them for a couple reasons. The main reason was while I was at Best Buy I was able to try on about 8 gaming headsets. A couple razors, steelseries, Astro and other smaller brands as well as two Corsair. The Corsair void pro for me by far fit the best on my head and felt the lightest. The padding for my noggin is on point lol. The Razer Navi ultimate I think they were called felt bulky and lacking in head band support. Also, as referenced before, I am already using the Corsair software, so this fitting in that ecosystem is nice. Additionally, these were wireless which is a plus for me personally. Stack on top of that that this headset as it was white was for sale for $20 off I couldn’t pass it up! All said and done I walked out of Best Buy at 150 ish for a headset and stand. Played games for about 2-3 hours wearing the headset for the whole time and my sensitive head did not hurt one bit. Did not get hot, and felt relaxed the whole time. The build quality of them seem a bit higher than the razer ones but cutting the cord away from the headset use is really nice honestly even if the sound quality is maybe not as refined. After those three hours of gaming it had 36% left on the battery, even though they had not been charged since I pulled them out of the box which was nice to see. Would I recommend these headphones? Entirely. I don’t think there are many that can beat this item at the price of $79 let alone $99 for a wireless, built in mic (which by my buddies account sounds as good if not better than the decent sounding razer kraken I came from), being apart of a pretty solid software ecosystem and the swivel cups and lightness feeling but proper tightness around the cups. Bit of a ramble, but you get the gist.