Headphone Replacement

21bdp21 · July 5, 2025

I have a old pair of wireless/wired turtle beach headphones. The fit well, but the earcups are dissitegrating and the battery is staring to fade. they are not bluetooth and instead use a little adapter for my computer.
I am looking to get a new pair of headphones.

Requirements:

Decent mic as I do use them for meetings when I work from home and use them to chat with friends.

Detachable mic, OR mic is not on a boom. (I do not like the failure point of a boom mic that is not detachable)

Wants:
1) Bluetooth (would be nice to use with my phone) I do not mind buying a bluetooth adapter for my PC and putting it in my KVM for my work laptop to integrate with.
2)ANC, The Fan in my office is kind of loud and pusly. I also travel for work so would be nice for planes. Or mowing the lawn.
3) Portablility, See above, a massive headseat would suck for travel. I have earbuds, but would be cool to have this option as well as earbuds on long flights...
4) Detachable/Replaceable Earcups. Would help with longevity and ewaste

5)Line in, there are situations its nice to hard wire the set vs wireless

I do not have a general price in mind yet as I do not know what this list would cost. I do know I spent about $100 almost 8 years ago on this pair from Best Buy. My wife did steal the Bose Quiet Comfort headset I won from a work party, they fit decently if the ear cups are a bit small.

Dedayog · July 5, 2025

41 minutes ago, 21bdp21 said:

I have a old pair of wireless/wired turtle beach headphones. The fit well, but the earcups are dissitegrating and the battery is staring to fade. they are not bluetooth and instead use a little adapter for my computer.
I am looking to get a new pair of headphones.

Requirements:

Decent mic as I do use them for meetings when I work from home and use them to chat with friends.

Detachable mic, OR mic is not on a boom. (I do not like the failure point of a boom mic that is not detachable)

Wants:
1) Bluetooth (would be nice to use with my phone) I do not mind buying a bluetooth adapter for my PC and putting it in my KVM for my work laptop to integrate with.
2)ANC, The Fan in my office is kind of loud and pusly. I also travel for work so would be nice for planes. Or mowing the lawn.
3) Portablility, See above, a massive headseat would suck for travel. I have earbuds, but would be cool to have this option as well as earbuds on long flights...
4) Detachable/Replaceable Earcups. Would help with longevity and ewaste

5)Line in, there are situations its nice to hard wire the set vs wireless

I do not have a general price in mind yet as I do not know what this list would cost. I do know I spent about $100 almost 8 years ago on this pair from Best Buy. My wife did steal the Bose Quiet Comfort headset I won from a work party, they fit decently if the ear cups are a bit small.

SteelSeries Artic Nova Pro Wireless should tick all these boxes I think. Using mine for a week now and say they're very comfortable, adjustable, nice and light. Battery length is decent, you get 2 of them. Charge via USB C into the headset as well, can dual connect BT and USB station. Has a line in also.

I don';t know the cons well enough yet, so look into them if you want.

Psittac · July 6, 2025

I have the Maxwell which is the best wireless "headset" you can get but it's not very cheap. They're also the best sounding wireless "headphone" I've heard. Problem is that most of the "audiophile" grade products aren't wireless. I think Sony does pretty good on wireless sound quality but never heard a pair. My point is that if sound quality is your biggest concern and you don't Need ANC get the Maxwell. If ANC and sound quality are important but don't require a built in mic consider Sony. Also I would take a quick look at "Heavy's" headphones. My general mindset is basic's, two drivers a cable and dac/amp. So I didn't like the sound staging affect of having multiple drivers. They had a really good sound profile but the multiple drivers turned me off of them. I think they have everything but a mic as well.

I can't speak about the Arctic Nova Pro Wireless because that's an entirely different ethos than I have, but I can acknowledge how putting everything like that together in a package is appealing. My experience with "gamer" headset's wired and wireless is that they are very colored sound, meaning that bass is exaggerated and everything is tuned for gaming. Usually they're great at gaming and poor for everything else. The Maxwell is the exception to this rule. If you need ANC the Nova Pro could be worth it.

21bdp21 · July 6, 2025

8 hours ago, Psittac said:

I have the Maxwell which is the best wireless "headset" you can get but it's not very cheap. They're also the best sounding wireless "headphone" I've heard. Problem is that most of the "audiophile" grade products aren't wireless. I think Sony does pretty good on wireless sound quality but never heard a pair. My point is that if sound quality is your biggest concern and you don't Need ANC get the Maxwell. If ANC and sound quality are important but don't require a built in mic consider Sony. Also I would take a quick look at "Heavy's" headphones. My general mindset is basic's, two drivers a cable and dac/amp. So I didn't like the sound staging affect of having multiple drivers. They had a really good sound profile but the multiple drivers turned me off of them. I think they have everything but a mic as well.

I can't speak about the Arctic Nova Pro Wireless because that's an entirely different ethos than I have, but I can acknowledge how putting everything like that together in a package is appealing. My experience with "gamer" headset's wired and wireless is that they are very colored sound, meaning that bass is exaggerated and everything is tuned for gaming. Usually they're great at gaming and poor for everything else. The Maxwell is the exception to this rule. If you need ANC the Nova Pro could be worth it.

I am not an audiophile by any means. I will say most of my listening is audiobooks and podcasts so base is not as much of a concern.