So you’ve built your PC, bought the best graphics card and the best gaming monitor to go with it; now all you need is some kind of new-fangled listening device to appreciate the sights and sounds of your favourite games, which is why I’m here to help you find the best gaming headset for your needs and budget.

For whatever reason, PC desktop speakers seem to have gone the way of the dodo these days, and the piddly speakers you’ll find in your monitor usually aren’t fit for anything but the briefest of email pings. What’s more, with several games now utilizing online play and various types of co-op mode, a gaming headset with a built-in microphone is often much more convenient than simply having a pair of regular headphones and a separate mic.

Finding a good gaming headset, however, is fraught with problems, as you’ve not only got to find one that sounds decent, but there’s also the quality of its microphone to consider as well as its overall comfort. There’s no use having an incredible sounding headset if the headband suddenly turns into a vice-like torture device after 30 minutes of use. To that end, I’ve created this handy guide, complete with everything else you need to know about buying a new gaming headset. Below, you’ll find my current favourites out of all the headsets I’ve tested here at Castle Shotgun, but as with any kind of ‘Best’ list, these picks aren’t set in stone. It will continue to change and evolve as I get new headsets in for testing, but for now, let’s count ourselves in…

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PCs are a messy business. Most of us have wires up the wazoo, and probably not an insignificant number of knots and snarled cables to go with them. Problem is, not many of us are willing to forgo the speed and reassurance that comes from having a wired set of peripherals – except, that is, when it comes to our headsets. Life is so much better when you’re not getting throttled as you desperately try and untangle yourself from your wider pool of leads and flexes when you need to answer the doorbell or go downstairs for dinner, but good grief wireless headsets do cost a lot of money, don’t they?

Fortunately, Corsair have taken note, as their brand-new HS70 Wireless headset has finally arrived for just £100/$109. That’s a heck of a lot more appealing than the £140/$160 demanded by HyperX’s Cloud Flight and even the £130/$150 you’ll need to spend on the excellent Steelseries Arctis 7. Corsair hasn’t skimped on features, either, as you’re still getting virtual 7.1 surround sound and up to 16 hours of uninterrupted play time. Can it break into our best gaming headset rankings? Let’s find out.

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Best known for their PC cases, power supplies and cooling fans, peripherals maker Cougar have a new gaming headset on the block: the Cougar Phontum. Eschewing the eye-catching spaghetti-style headbands of Cougar’s previous headsets, the Immersa and Immersa Pro, the Phontum (definitely not Phantom) aims to win hearts and minds with its oversized 53mm audio drivers, universal platform support and its rather nice price of just £43 / $50. Is it best gaming headset material, though? Let’s find out. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a stupid thing to get excited about in the grand scheme of things, but Sennheiser’s new ‘contact pressure slider’ on their flagship GSP 600 gaming headset really caught my eye when it was announced at this year’s CES tech bonanza. It wasn’t exactly clear what it did at the time thanks to Sennheiser’s rather vague description in its press materials, but it gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, it might help alleviate my ongoing battle with the dreaded headset headband pinch and become the best gaming headset of all time. Here’s how I got on.
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The Asus ROG Strix Fusion 500 is probably the first headset I’ve used in quite some time where I haven’t had to automatically put the headband on the tightest possible setting. This surprised me, considering the enormous size of its ear cups, but the tight, rigid design of its headband meant there was no way I was getting this thing over my head without loosening it first. Finally, a USB headset for people with smaller noggins than I.

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The Khan Aimo is the final piece of Roccat’s smart RGB peripheral puzzle – or at least it is so far, anyway. Like their Horde Aimo keyboard and Kone Aimo mouse before it, the Khan Aimo uses Roccat’s intelligent RGB system to create a synchronised light show that adapts to the way you work and play, rippling and fading with every click, tap and pause across each of your devices.

Of course, unless you regularly have out-of-body-experiences when you’re playing games, the RGB effect on the headset will be pretty much lost on you, as there’s no way to actually see any of it once you’ve put it on. Not that it’s particularly overt in the first place, with only a thin strip down the side of each ear cup and a tiny little sliver at the base of headband, but at least your mates will think you’re “Très Cool” when you rock up with everything at your next LAN party. Okay, so the lighting might be a bit pointless, but to dismiss the Khan Aimo on those grounds alone would be short-sighted, as this is also another Hi Res audio certified headset just like the Steelseries Arctis Pro. It can also do Hi Res and surround sound at the same time – something the Arctis Pro is decidedly lacking.  Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since the Steelseries Arctis 7 rocked my eardrums at the end of last year to claim the top spot in my best gaming headset rankings, no other gaming headset has even come close to matching its supreme comfort or exceptional sound quality – until now. Enter its brand-new shiny upmarket sibling, the Arctis Pro.

Borrowing the same understated design and ski goggle headband as the rest of the Arctis line, the Pro takes everything up a notch, introducing Hi Res audio support, a dash of RGB lighting around the ear cups and some primo build quality to make it extra feel durable and luxurious.

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A lot of headsets sound like they’re playing a game of buzzword bingo these days, and the Turtle Beach Elite Pro is no exception. Are you a pro gamer who’s into esports and want to play like the athletes you see on the internet? Well, the Elite Pro and its Superhuman Hearing tech, TruSpeak microphone, Aerofit ear cushions and ComfortTec fit and ProSpecs glasses relief system (yes, all actual words printed on the side of the Elite Pro’s box) could be the headset for you! Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me a minute, I think I just threw up in my own mouth.

Marketing jargon and crimes against the English language aside, though, and the Elite Pro is actually a very nice headset. A rather bulky,  heavy gaming headset, but a nice one nevertheless. But is it the best gaming headset? Read on to find out.

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It’s been barely a week since the annual CES tech bonanza shut up shop for another year, but HyperX has wasted no time getting in its very first wireless gaming headset out into the wild. Dubbed the Cloud Flight, this 2.4GHz headset boasts the longest battery life of any of its wireless competitors – up to a whopping 30 hours to be precise.

That’s enough time to play a complete run through of AC Oranges or that same cathedral at the start of Dark Souls III over and over again because god damn Vordt of the Boreal Valley is just too damn hard. The question is, is it actually any good?

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As gaming headsets go, the Roccat Khan Pro is delightfully diddly. Normally when I put on a headset, it feels like I’m encasing my head in something akin to a bike helmet, so large and cumbersome are their various ear cups that they’d probably provide adequate protection in the event of a roadside collision.

That might be because of my apparently pea-sized head, judging by the number of adjustments I always have to make to get a good fit, but it’s a rare thing indeed when I find a headset that could almost pass for a regular pair of over-ear headphones. You know, if it didn’t have a mic poking out the side or gigantic logos emblazoned on the ear cups.

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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is over for another year. It was a slightly weird show this year, marred by an embarrassing power outage, one too many pointless robots (Cloi, I’m looking at you) and the creeping feeling that the world’s biggest tech show might just be becoming a bit irrelevant.

Fortunately, PC gamers still have plenty to look forward to in 2018, from giganto gaming screens and teeny tiny powerhouse NUCs to mouse mats that can charge your phone, metal-clad motherboards, and probably yet another hike in GPU prices when EVGA unleashes its crypto mining dream machine power supply that can run something silly like 14 Nvidia GTX 1070s all at the same time (thanks, guys). But all that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Read on for what I’m officially deeming the best of CES 2018, all without a single stroppy robot in sight.

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I thought it would be ages before I found another pair of headphones that could rival Steelseries’ superb Arctis 7 for best gaming headset, but it turns out great headsets are a bit like buses. You wait ages and then two come along at once. This time, it’s Corsair’s Void Pro RGB.

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Readers, I think I’ve found it. The best gaming headset. For me, anyway. Thanks to a simple strip of fabric, Steelseries’ Arctis 7 is hands down the most comfortable gaming headset I’ve ever used. Instead of cushioning that damnable headband with memory foam and other such gubbins you normally find in online mattress ads, Steelseries’ so-called ‘ski-goggle’ design puts all the weight on a stretchy piece of material that wraps tightly, but snugly round your skull, while the main aluminium frame sits suspended above your head. No pinching, no headache, nothing. It’s beautiful.

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For a wireless gaming headset, the Steelseries Siberia 800 sure does come with a lot of cables. Open up the box and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve bought the wrong headphones, as there’s a whole other mini box crammed inside it with more cables than you know what to do with. This is mostly because, unlike a lot of wireless headsets, the Siberia 800 uses a dedicated transmitter box that can be connected to a variety of different devices instead of a traditional USB dongle. Don’t get me wrong, it still feels like a slap in the face when the whole point of wireless headphones is to get rid of said wires, but there is method to this cable-hogging madness.

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Your mouse and keyboard are vital parts of your PC setup, but they also break the most often, making Black Friday a great time to get a good deal on a new mouse and keyboard without spending an arm and a leg. We’ve also got some great deals on the best gaming headsets here as well, just in case you fancy upgrading your audio setup as well while you’re at it.

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