Headset Recommendations

[Rii]

Denizens of RPS lend me your wisdom!

I am after a headset (stereo or otherwise) that is compatible with both PC and PS3, i.e. Bluetooth. As I expect I'd be doing far more listening than talking through it, it should be no slouch in the music department. Ideally it would be suitable for unobtrusive outdoor use (via smartphone with A2DP support) also. Budget could stretch to $200-250 if necessary, although to be honest I'd rather not spend that much.

I've done some digging around myself and emerged with nought but a general loathing for humanity. Please help kthx!

[CMaster]

My experience with audio via bluetooth for the PC is that the protocol simply isn't up to the job. Even if you could spend that kind of money on such a thing, I'm inclined to think it would be a waste.

[Ezhar]

You do not want to game with a bluetooth headset, because that means having to decide between a notable signal delay (A2DP mode) or super bad quality (handsfree mode).

With headsets in general, the main question is if you want an open ear model or an closed ear model. Closed ear are big giant cups that enclose the entire ear and rest on the skull, therefore being more comfortable and less leaky (in terms of sound), but also bigger, heavier and sweatier. The open ear models rest on the ear itself and are usually smaller, lighter and often somewhat cheaper than their bigger cousins.

Personally I'm a closed ear sort of guy because the others always started hurting my ears after a few hours of wearing. In that category I can highly recommend the Plantronics Gamecom 367, which has a sturdy flip-out mic (useful if you just want to listen to music or so), a wire volume/mute control and is generally rather sturdy (withstood being dropped and having the cable rolled over with my chair many times).

In more general terms, I've been very happy with Plantronics so far and not very happy with Logitech (mediocre sound quality and flimsy plastic crap that isn't very well designed and breaks easily).

Also, if you get one with standard 3.5/6.3" plugs, you can use it anywhere and still put it into USB mode with an external sound adapter that adds a mere £10 (mine's a Terratec Aureon Dual USB).

Oh, and don't let any pseudo-surround/5.1 marketing confuse you, that stuff is mostly bullshit.

[Rii]

Hmm. See my problem is that each of the individual applications to which these 'phones would be put (PC music, PC gaming, PS3 gaming, portable use) are narrow enough that I've so far managed to forego fulfilling any of them. It's only collectively that they approach being something-wot-I-should-spend-money-on.

[slick_101]

My suggestion would be to pick up two different head sets to be honest a decent PC wired one will set you back about $100 (yes I'm roughly doing pounds to dollar ratio on my head ) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826436005 is what I currently use on my PC and love it giving you another $150 dollars or so to play with for a blue tooth headset for your PS3

[Ezhar]

Wikipedia says that " most commercial USB headsets can be used for voice communication". So it'd work for all 4 of your scenarios, although a big clunky headset wouldn't be "unobtrusive" for outdoor use. You do see the occasional appearance of those on the London underground though (hell, the other day I've even saw a guy that had a discman - although I'm sure that was just some hipster fashion statement).

Edit: Forgot to mention, there's one more option, using iPhone style ear-phones with a mic on the cable for all of the above. You'll need an adapter that splits the microphone into a separate plug, because PC soundcards generally don't support the 4-ring plug, but it's unobtrusive and you can get some pretty good ones (except mic positioning is an issue). V-moda are good and Ultima Ears are ok too if you don't mind the "boosted" sound (I prefer the V-moda, despite the fragile cable).

[Kadayi]

http://steelseries.com/products/cons...ria-v2-for-ps3

Expensive, but worth every penny (great sound quality, good microphone & robust build).

[neema_t]

I too am looking at buying a headset, not now but soon as I've just ordered a £1,150 pile of PC bits and want to be able to alternate it between my desk and TV; so I can play normal games at my desk or racing sims on the TV, you see. I don't want to buy an actual sound card for it, so until I get a headset I'll be using a pair of stereo headphones.

I want a microphone, I want comfort and I want a pseudo-surround sound thing because plain old 2.0 is just too jarring for some games, for example in BF3, if I stand next to an occupied jet and face it, I get the full volume sound of the engine in both ears. If I turn to face the way the jet is facing, I get full volume jet noise in my left ear but no jet noise at all in my right ear, and so on, and it is somewhat disorientating, kind of deafening and quite annoying.

So I've been looking at the Logitech G35 but ruled it out because of reports of flimsy construction, now I'm looking at the Tritton AX Pro and Turtle Beach X41. The AX Pro set is £50 more than the G35, but I don't want to spend £105 on something that will likely break the first time I throw it to the ground in a rage (my current headphones are the guts of a pair of Sony headphones in a pair of army surplus Peltor ear defenders; nice and rugged, like a rugbyman) due to receiving another RPG up my dark side in BF3.

These are my thoughts. They are disorganised, but hopefully you can take from them some sort of knowledge. Maybe someone else can come along and tell me exactly how I'm wrong in typical internet fashion, I'm open to that kind of thing when I don't really have any knowledge on a subject.

Edit: I actually just looked at the Turtle Beach ones and they are both wireless and designed for a 'console' (am I saying that correctly? Console?), so maybe not.

[creative42]

I'm looking to buy a headset too. I'd like to alternate between my 5.1 speakers and a headset (when I have to keep things quiet). Would headsets with a USB connection automatically block any output from my speakers without upsetting my X-Fi soundcard? Then, when I remove the headset, would my internal soundcard and speakers then automatically take over again without any input from me?

Hoping to get a decent set for £60 at the most. They'd be for music aswell as games.

[sabrage]

There's no reason to buy a "headset" if you care at all about sound quality. If you're dropping $250, get a nice pair of Sennheisers, like the HD 595, and a $10 lapel mic.

[ArtVandelay]

I ordered a pair of JVC HA-RX700 and will use them with a Zalman clip on mic. I'll post back later this week with the results.

Edit: I have had the headphones for a while now and I really like the combination. They are pretty comfortable to wear even though I have glasses. They sound good to me. People tell me the mic is very clear too.