Hello world! A hot topic of discussion recently has been what gaming headset should I buy?

Reviewers like BadSeed Tech and Crinacle chimed in on their respective youtube channels which made some hubbub turn into a roar. So what gaming headsets should you buy?

The short answer: Whatever sounds good to you!

Screen Shot 2021-12-09 at 2.26.03 PM Oh hey its Uncle Dylan asking you to do whats right for your ears
But why is this such a polarizing subject? Well everyone has an opinion, we are human after all.

There are currently two schools of thought, Immersive and Competitive. I subscribe to immersive myself just to get that out of the way, but what exactly is a competitive gaming headset? I would describe competitive gaming headsets as either bass light or resolving. What does resolving mean? I would categorize that as crystal clear treble or high frequencies. The importance of this is for hearing your enemies footsteps or the whine of your transmission as you are on hour three of GT racing.
image4 Courtesy of Josh Staffin | The Staffin Experience
Another reason why competitive headset or headphones are chosen is their ability to image well or their soundstage. What is sound stage and imaging? Soundstage is the space around your head where sounds come from, the wider that space, the easier it is to discern how far something is away. Imaging is the ability of your headphones to separate left and right channel audio so you have more directional information on the location of your enemies in game. So do you need that competitive edge? Probably not. Unless your job is to play video games for a living, you should probably just buy “Whatever sounds good to you”. Competitive headphones or headsets are really there to give you a slight edge over your competitors, which might really only be utilized for the top one percent of players. Enjoy gaming and give into the immersive argument, buy a headphone or headset that gives you that oomph from explosions or the full spectrum of audio to really get the most out of the soundtrack. You don’t even need to buy a “Gaming Headset”, there are options to buy your microphone separately. This allows you to buy headphones that are tuned for quality of sound and not for champions of that one million dollar prize pool.

So what did we learn today? Hopefully, competitive gaming headsets aren't the end all of gaming. Gaming is meant to be enjoyed unless you are getting paid for it. Grab a Beyerdynamic DT1990 or a Koss KPH40 or if you really need a built in microphone the Drop PC38X. Gaming has some of the most iconic music out there so go out there and enjoy it!

Whatever Sounds Good to You.

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