I got quite annoyed by having to constantly turn down the volume on my speakers when gaming late at night (a lot of games go from very quiet to really loud very quickly causing my neighbours to complain) so I decided to buy wireless headphones.
It seems the Arctic 7 gets decent reviews and has a new version for 2019. Does anyone have any experience with these?
Probably irrelevant because considerably more expensive than gaming headphones but:
- I would just buy decent set of headphones from a reputable company in the audio game, I would hazard a guess gaming sets are considerably poor quality.
- Why wireless? if your going to be in front of the PC 90% of the time you could get corded headphones which provide 10x better audio quality, don't have battery, dont drop out etc.
- If you go cabled find a pair with a removable cord, over time the cable or connection point will break and it's a lot less frustrating buying a $30 cable to fix.
- If your super tight budget, Audio Technica ATH-M50X are continually debated as a very decent budget set of headphones, they will likely sound better than any wireless gaming set.
Last 2 sets of headphones I've owned.
AKG Q 701's: I think i got them for $280, open back headphones so they dont block out all sound. They are one of AKG's classic designs, really good clarity and I would say fairly flat response (not like monitors though), you will hear stuff in music you never noticed before which is a lot of fun for a good 12 months owning them. A little wasted if your purely gonna game.
Sony 1000XM2, I use these if i need mobility an obviously have the above set-backs being wireless. Audio is okay, noise cancellation works that said being wireless have above pit-falls, believe you could outdo the audio quality spending half the price on a wired set.
I have expensive V-Moda M100 headphones - really great - but the fact they're wired is annoying. The Arctis is actually lossless quality so very high quality as well. And reason for being wireless is simple: I want to use them downstairs on my PS4 as well.
I'd still recommend wired (and removable cans/wire), my time with wireless taught me that them dropping out here and there and charging batteries is way more of nuisance than unplugging a cable now and then.
Go for wireless, it's just so much more convenient. I recently got Arctis Pro Wireless and they come with dual batteries, so you can always keep one charging and it's never an issue.
Also, as someone who has owned a similarly priced (to the Arctis Pro) non-gaming AKG headphones, I suggest against them for gaming / movie-watching purposes. Most of them seem to aim for a more monitor/studio flat sound, which only feels good for specific music styles (not for electronic music, nor for games/movies). Not saying there aren't good ones, but just saying it's easy to go wrong if you don't test them out beforehand - with gaming stuff it's more of a sure-shot, even if it might suffer on the fidelity (although my Arctis sounds pretty damn good).
Also, there's not going to be much of a noticeable difference between wired and wireless unless you're an audiophile. And most of these can still be connected via a wire if that is as issue.
Note that Arctis 7 is slightly inferior to the Pro, but I've heard they are quite similar ultimately.
Thanks for all the info. I got the Arctis 7 and used it for 4-5 hours so far and I'm very happy with it. Some remarks though:
- the volume may be on the quiet side for some. It's just right for me but some movies may sound too quiet. There's apparently software that can boost volume (by replacing the DAC) but the latest Steelseries software broke it so I'll have to wait for a patch or revert to an older version if I run into problems. Note: my V-Moda headphones had the same problem and so did my old Logitech headphones - there the problem was even worse.
- sound is pretty great. Normally I got to adjust my EQ but in this case, it sounded right from the start. Just enough bass, no sound clipping, music sounds warm and nice, nothing tinny or too heavy.
- they're VERY comfortable and light. My VModa headphones can get very warm after a while and having it wireless makes you even forget you're wearing them.
- minor negative: the button of the mic mute is in a pretty poor position. Each time I want to take off the headphones, I accidentally press it. They should have switched the volume wheel and the button. You can't accidentally press a volume wheel.
- the charging cable is long enough that you can wear it while charging - it feels like a wired set then, so it's not very cumbersome.
- the wireless signal is pretty damn good. My game room is on the top floor and I can walk all the way down before the signal starts to cut out. My bathroom is on the first floor and I can effortlessly walk there with the headphones on.
In general, quite happy with it. On sale, it was €120 which is a good price for headphones this good - especially considering a single charge gets you 20+ hours of wireless sound.
Just a heads up: I've been using the headphones for 2 weeks now and I'm still very happy with them. They're incredibly light on the head and ears so much so that I forget I'm wearing them. I had to recharge them twice in these 2 weeks and I can easily wear them while recharging so that's not an issue. Sound quality is pretty great - not perfect but good enough. It's clear and crisp with enough bass. I can recommend these for sure.
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