Wireless or wired

[yolotimon]

Hi!

 

I've been looking for a new gaming headset and now I've come to the question of will I go wired or wireless, and I wanted to know what everyone here thinks.

 

Are the 2.4ghz headsets as good as normal wired ones? I've been rocking the jbl quantum 400s (wired) for 4 years now and I've been thinking about upgrading and after looking for a while, most high end looking headphones are wireless through 2.4ghz.

 

Like, are the sound and mic quality with 2.4ghz as good as wired, and is the latency just as good? (For reference the wireless headsets I've been looking at are the arctis nova 5, arctis nova 7, turtle beach 600 stealth and the jbl quantum 810, the only wired headsets I've looked at are the hyperx cloud 3 and the arctis nova 3)

 

Just looking at all of the selections it looks like there are way more wireless headsets, in my opinion wired would be better because of things like latency and sound quality but if wireless caught up to that it wouldn't really matter. Also the wired headsets are ofcourse a lot cheaper, the hyperx cloud is only 50 euros while those wireless headsets (except the turtle beach) are 100+

 

I live in the Netherlands by the way.

 

So, I would love to hear y'alls opinions on wired vs wireless and would love to hear some suggestions!

[Blasty Blosty]

Personally, I will always stick with wired for gaming, especially mice and keyboard

 

Being a competitive CS player I do not want to think about the charge running out midgame, disconnects, etc. However as a more casual player wireless is a great option. The sound quality will not be far off, if off at all, provided you purchase a good headset

[Pawer8]

Wired will always be better but wireless has gotten really good. My problem with wireless is the price is a lot higher and they will die when the battery goes.

 

If you are using them at a desk I recommend wired

 

If you play on the couch maybe wireless is better. But you could also get wired and plug them into a controller

[venomtail]

On paper, at the same price wireless headphones should never be on the same performance level as wired headphones simply because they need more of and pricier components. They've also gotta go somewhere on the headphones.

 

I've had wired headphones for a decade, and when mine broken I stuck with wired for the simplicity to not have to mess with wireless issues and I'm already familiar in a routine with wired. Wireless would have a rough transition period in which I'd have to learn new habits, such as turning them off when I'm done, leaving them to charge and so on.

[PDifolco]

PersonnalIy only use wireless 2.4GHz peripherals, mouse, kb, headset, and it's really fast and smooth

They all have pretty long 50hrs+ charge 

But if you're into competitive online games (I'm not) there's always the issue of possible disconnect in game if it gets discharged..

[Monkey Dust]

Good wireless mice can match the latency of wired mice, I assume headsets are the same? Though I was watching a laptop review on Hardware Canucks and Eber mentioned he likes an audio jack for video editing, because of latency. So there might be that too.

 

Personally, I use a wireless headset and I don't notice any latency. I wouldn't go back to wired, the wire annoyed me too much, possibly more than wired mice. 

[yolotimon]

2 hours ago, Blasty Blosty said:

Personally, I will always stick with wired for gaming, especially mice and keyboard

 

Being a competitive CS player I do not want to think about the charge running out midgame, disconnects, etc. However as a more casual player wireless is a great option. The sound quality will not be far off, if off at all, provided you purchase a good headset

I dont play a lot of competitive games, only one I really play is rainbow six siege which i haven't played in a while, ive been looking at the jbl quantum 810 and it seems like a great headset, i just cant find whether you can connect it to your pc using the usbc to usbA cable that comes with it so i can swithc to wired anytime i want

 

Do you have any wired headsets you would recommend?

[yolotimon]

2 hours ago, Pawer8 said:

Wired will always be better but wireless has gotten really good. My problem with wireless is the price is a lot higher and they will die when the battery goes.

 

If you are using them at a desk I recommend wired

 

If you play on the couch maybe wireless is better. But you could also get wired and plug them into a controller

I play at a desk, and yea ive thought about that if the battery died the whole headset dies, ive been looking for a headset that can also connect to pc using a usbc to usbA cable, because in theory that would mean i could use it without the battery

[yolotimon]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

PersonnalIy only use wireless 2.4GHz peripherals, mouse, kb, headset, and it's really fast and smooth

They all have pretty long 50hrs+ charge 

But if you're into competitive online games (I'm not) there's always the issue of possible disconnect in game if it gets discharged..

Yea, I dont play a lot of competitive either but i do play r6s sometimes, the only thing thats been stopping me from getting a wireless headset is just possible connection issues and battery issues, they are also just cost a lot more

[Pawer8]

3 minutes ago, yolotimon said:

I play at a desk, and yea ive thought about that if the battery died the whole headset dies, ive been looking for a headset that can also connect to pc using a usbc to usbA cable, because in theory that would mean i could use it without the battery

Careful tho there's some that need to be powered on to use with a cable. And may not work just via usb with a dead battery. For example I had some Sony's that cannot be used while charging. On the other hand I have some epos that turn on automatically when charging.

[yolotimon]

16 minutes ago, Pawer8 said:

Careful tho there's some that need to be powered on to use with a cable. And may not work just via usb with a dead battery. For example I had some Sony's that cannot be used while charging. On the other hand I have some epos that turn on automatically when charging.

Yea, the jbl and the Steelseries headsets are guaranteed to charge while in use, but the question is would that still happen if the battery is dead, another question is if i plug it in like a normal wired headset, will it act like a wired headset and also be detected by software/apps

[GalaxyStudios]

If you can't make up your mind, you can go for a wireless\wired headset. There are a number of options for headsets that have Bluetooth capability, but if the battery dies you can connect it to your computer via AUX or USB.

[Cocococo]

As someone who really cares about audio quality, wired is the way to go all the way up until the Audeze maxwell, for some buyers advice: the Rode NTH-100M is better than any gaming headset out there and wireless is a gimmick that gets old really fast once your headphones lose battery. As for latency the 2.4ghz dongles are on par with wireless mice and keyboards, but fitting the battery, bluetooth receiver, mic and transmitter into headset earcups really limits how good headsets can sound (also most headsets target a thumpy-style "V" sound signature) if you have the money for it the Maxwell is a must-buy imo, but i use my NTH-100's more than any other closed back headphone i have, they're just the perfect replacement for a conventional headset and surprisingly nice in hot weather (well ventilated gel earpads put in work during summer) 

[ToboRobot]

Wireless is great for phones and devices without the option for a wire.  

Computers, mice, keyboards, audio, anything where latency and random disconnects matters: wires are the way.

[saintlouisbagels]

44 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

Wireless is great for phones and devices without the option for a wire.  

Computers, mice, keyboards, audio, anything where latency and random disconnects matters: wires are the way.

I don't think that's been true for keyboards and mice for quite a while.

Normal office keyboards are like 125Hz polling. Gaming keyboards are 500Hz-1000Hz polling.

We have enthusiast and gaming keyboards and mice with 1000Hz polling wirelessly nowadays.

 

^{(I also feel that 8000Hz polling is just a meme. Like 24-bit 48KHz audio .wav files.)}

[ToboRobot]

47 minutes ago, saintlouisbagels said:

I don't think that's been true for keyboards and mice for quite a while.

Normal office keyboards are like 125Hz polling. Gaming keyboards are 500Hz-1000Hz polling.

We have enthusiast and gaming keyboards and mice with 1000Hz polling wirelessly nowadays.

 

^{(I also feel that 8000Hz polling is just a meme. Like 24-bit 48KHz audio .wav files.)}

polling rate isn't the only metric to judge.  wireless signals are not as reliable as wires.  batteries can die.