A great gaming headset is one of the
8. JBL Quantum One
Best Surround Sound Gaming Headset
Why settle for just one type of surround sound? The JBL Quantum One may be pricey, but it has a lot to offer in the sound department, including JBL’s QuantumSPHERE 360 technology as well as DTS Headphone X: v2.0 surround sound. The latter is a high-quality digital surround sound that can make your game worlds and movies feel that much more engrossing. QuantumSPHERE 360 is a bit more involved, and actually takes into account the position of your head, so you can turn your head in the real life and all the sounds around you will shift to maintain their relative position.
It’s not just nifty surround sound, but also precise, as the Hi-Res certified 50mm drivers offer excellent sound and a 20Hz-40kHz frequency response range. The JBL Quantum One also offer great flexibility, with options for both a USB and a 3.5mm connection available (though the latter will limit its capabilities). The JBL Quantum One even includes active noise cancelling to help you focus on only the sounds you want to hear. And, to top things off, there’s customizable RGB lighting on each ear cup.
9. SteelSeries Arctis Prime
Best Esports Gaming Headset
When you’re competing, you need every advantage you can get, and audio clarity is one piece of the puzzle. The SteelSeries Arctis Prime is built to give you clear audio both going in and coming out. Your teammates in esports will hear you loud and clear thanks to the ClearCast microphone, which has consistently delivered on SteelSeries headsets.
On the other end, the SteelSeries Arctis Prime may cheaper, but they’re coming with the more premium speaker drivers from the Arctis Pro side of the family. These drivers deliver an extended frequency response range and hi-fi clarity to ensure you don’t miss anything in game. The Arctis Prime is built with comfort and durability in mind like the other premium Arctis headsets, but it also aims to help block out external distractions by using a leather-like ear cushion instead of the AirWeave cushions on other Arctis headsets, which are more breathable but also let in more outside sound.
10. Turtle Beach Stealth Pro
Best Noise-Cancelling Gaming Headset
For a versatile headset that sounds great and features a subdued look, you can’t go wrong with the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro. Though it can’t beat the best noise-canceling headphones, this gaming headset has top-tier noise cancellation, cutting down on distracting low-frequency noises. Superhuman hearing can be a boon for some, picking up footsteps or leaves rustling in games to give away enemy’s locations, while you can customize EQ settings to match your preferred sound profile.
Turtle Beach doesn’t miss a beat in the Stealth Pro’s design, so you’ll enjoy a simple, comfortable design with matte black and gunmetal that can pass as everyday wireless headphones. The plush earcups tote all the controls you could need, and the right earcup offers swappable batteries to ensure the headset is always charged. Dual wireless mode is another perk, so while listening to your game on a PC or console, you can simultaneously rock out to your favorite album via a Bluetooth source.
11. Razer Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed
Best Gaming Earbuds
Don’t like the look and feel of a traditional gaming headset? Razer has you covered with the Razer Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds, a slightly suped-up version of the Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed. These gaming earbuds are compact, lightweight, and secure in-ear but still deliver impactful sound and even active noise cancellation to keep you focused on the action. You also get directional audio, customizable EQ settings, and remappable touch controls—all features of higher-end headsets.
One of the most limiting factors of the best wireless earbuds is lag, and Razer has you covered, offering a low latency 2.4 GHz dongle that connects seamlessly with your PlayStation 5, PC, Switch and Andrioid phone. If you’re looking to listen on other devices, there’s Bluetooth. Given these headphones are only wireless, battery life is a concern, but you can get up to 6.5 hours of use plus additional 24 hours in the case. However, when you turn on features like RGB lighting—the earbud’s Razer logo lights up—its battery life drops.
Gaming Headset FAQ
What Type of Headset is Best For Gaming?
Similar to other peripherals, like a gaming mouse or gaming keyboard, it’s always up for debate whether you should go for a wired or wireless headset. Wired always seemed to be the most reliable option, given the plug-and-play, direct connection to the device ensures latency isn’t a problem. But wireless headsets have almost conquered this issue in recent years thanks to the easy-to-use 2.4GHz dongle that slots into your console or PC, providing almost completely lossless audio. Though, there’s always the possibility of signal interference.
Battery life should also come into consideration. Of course, it’s a nonissue on wired headsets, while many wireless headsets offer a decent battery life, lasting 25+ hours, making recharging less of a chore.
Extra time and money are often spent on adding wireless functionality to headsets. That means you may sacrifice sound quality and features on cheaper wireless offerings. Budget wired headsets often don’t fall victim to those same problems.
Though that cable seems to give wired headsets a slight advantage over wireless, it does mean you’re tethered to your gaming device. If you like to move around or get overly excited during a match, there’s a chance of yanking it right out of the console. Wireless headsets give you much more freedom to move around and even offer features that let you connect to multiple devices, so you can listen to music while still hearing all the action on screen. Luckily, many headsets these days offer both wired and wireless connection options.
Are Headsets Good for Streaming?
Gaming headsets are a viable option for streaming. You just need to be sure you’ve got one with a quality microphone. Many gaming headsets come with boom mics, which place a microphone just below your mouth, making it easier to pick up your voice for a clear line of communication while keeping your hands free. There’s also often technology that ensures only your voice is picked up and not distracting sounds in your environment. You can even play around with mic sound settings on many headsets using companion apps to get the best sound for your broadcast.
However, the sound quality of a headset’s built-in mic will still pale in comparison to stand-alone streaming microphones with their wide frequency response, high sample rate, bit-depth, and extensive software. But these microphones do require a more involved setup, including finding the proper placement for the best sound during a stream. You may even need to purchase a separate boom arm to hold the mic in an ideal position. Gaming headsets are a much easier-to-use plug-and-stream option that requires a slight sacrifice to audio quality.
Do You Need a Bluetooth Adapter for Wireless Gaming Headsets?
Many wireless gaming headsets offer two wireless connectivity options: a 2.4 GHz dongle that you slot into your PC or console and Bluetooth. A wireless dongle is often the ideal choice when gaming, as it has less latency than Bluetooth. But in some cases, Bluetooth may be your only option.
Luckily, most pre-built gaming PCs and gaming laptops have Bluetooth support baked-in, making it easy to connect your gaming headset. However, if your PC’s motherboard lacks a Bluetooth card or its current Bluetooth version is dated and doesn’t offer a reliable connection, grabbing one of the best Bluetooth adapters for PC is a simple solution to quickly and wirelessly pair your headset, PC controller, and other peripherals.
Where to Get the Best Gaming Headset in the UK
You definitely need a quality gaming headset if you’re looking to take your favourite hobby even remotely seriously. Thankfully, every headset we’ve picked out on this list is also available across the pond in the UK, so take your pick.
Best PS5 2024 Gaming Headsets in Australia
Collected below for your convenience are Down Under prices that are (in a few cases) down under recommended retail. Better yet, they can all be acquired locally, so you don’t have to pay through the nose on the Aussie consumer’s most hated enemy—international shipping charges.
What to look for in a Gaming Headset
We often focus on improving our gaming experience with visuals by grabbing a better gaming TV or a beefier graphics card, but your game’s sound is just as important. So, when you’re shopping for a gaming headset there are a few key specs you should look out for.
The first is the size of the drivers, which follows the rule of bigger is better. Drivers are the internal mechanism inside headsets and headphones (or really any speaker) that ultimately create the soundwaves you hear by vibrating back and forth in response to an electrical current.
The larger the driver, the more air they can move to not only to make louder sounds, but it also allows them to produce a wider, more nuanced range of frequencies—which happens to take us to our next specification.
Frequency response is another important spec, and it’s the range of frequencies the headset can reproduce. On the low-end, most gaming headsets hit a minimum of 20Hz and a maximum of 20,000Hz. As you go from the bottom of the range to the top, sounds go from a low thud to a warm, steady hum and finally a piercing screech.
While on the hunt for a gaming headset, you’ll likely find more than a few promising 5.1 or 7.1 channel surround sound, which are both designed to give users a more immersive audio experience. 5.1 surround places speakers directly in front of you, front right, front left, back right, back left and adds a subwoofer to relay bass. 7.1 surround gives you the same setup as 5.1 surrounds, but it adds two more speakers to your immediate right and left.
Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone:X (2.0) are two specially branded types of surround sound you’ll also likely encounter. They both essentially do the same thing of adding positional audio for effects for objects like say a plane flying over or a bomb falling from the sky above you.
Now while surround sound on a headset is cool, it’s not exactly the same as having a real multi-speaker system, like some of the best soundbars offer. In fact, the majority of gaming headsets employ virtual surround sound—which is to say they’re faking it with mathematical algorithms.
But just because the surround sound you hear on a gaming headset is fake, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it or doubt its ability to create an immersive environment.
The fact that surround sound can be virtualized also means you can get it on any gaming headset even if it only has two channels. On Windows 10 you can download the Windows Sonic for Headphones app and get 3D spatial audio from even the most basic set of stereo headphones.
Gaming Headsets vs. Headphones
The line between gaming headsets and headphones has blurred significantly in recent years. There are still distinct differences between the peripherals that make one better for gaming and the other ideal for listening to audio. We discuss those below.
Connectivity: The best wireless gaming headsets offer a 2.4GHz dongle that’ll slot into your PC or gaming console, delivering a latency-free connection to ensure you never miss audio cues in a game. Beyond the dongle, you’ll also often get Bluetooth to listen on other devices, and many offer a wired lag-free connection, too. As for wireless headphones, you’re usually just limited to Bluetooth, and there’s always a bit of latency that comes with it, which could make or break you in a gaming setting. However, some higher-end headphones do offer a wired connection to devices, making lag less of an issue, but you’ll be tethered to the device.
Audio: Headphones, for the most part, deliver a neutral, well-balanced sound, so a high-end pair of headphones is what most audiophiles will grab for listening to music or movies. Gaming headsets often offer a punchy, brighter listening experience, but with cheaper headsets, this can lead to a muddy sound, which isn’t as much of a problem on budget headphones. Where gaming headsets take the cake is spatial audio support, often having some form of it baked in, making it easier to place enemies in a game based on sound cues for an edge over the competition.
Microphones: Many gaming headsets come with boom mics that help keep a clear line of communication between you and your teammates, thanks to an arm placed just below your mouth. This extension is often removable or can at least fold out of the way when not in use. Headphones typically use beamforming mics, which hide the microphones away in the earcups and use processing technology to pick up your voice over the sounds in your environment. Gaming headsets have a leg up in this category, but neither compare to a standalone microphone.
Design: If you want audio controls on your earcups, gaming headsets are the way to go. You’ll often find buttons for mute, game-chat mix, audio presets, and a volume dial on higher-end sets for easy adjustments in the heat of the action. However, they are often bulky and give off major gamer vibes, especially with a boom mic attached, making them less practical for use outside the battle station. Headphones, on the other hand, look sleeker and have more simplified controls. A premium pair of headphones will also last longer than most gaming headsets, as headsets are usually less expensive with more features that can fail over time.
Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer who loves all things tech with a special passion for sound. Whether it’s music, in-game audio, or a blockbuster movie, she’s constantly trying to find the best way to experience all the detail in everything she listens to. So, she’s spent a fair share of time testing out and researching gaming headsets, headphones, and speakers, making her particularly attuned to the topic.
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