Are mid range headsets worth it?

quad_red

Hi folks,

I’ve got a trusty old four year old Turtle Beach headset which is still chugging along fine. It was c. €45 back in the day, it’s moderately comfortable and have never had any issues.

I play COD and Warzone online and seem to be able to compete.

But I’m wondering am I missing out on something big here? Am I at a serious disadvantage with a middling headset? Only other one I’ve used was my bro in laws Hyper X Cloud Alpha. Another lower budget range headset. And I didn’t notice much of a difference really.... More comfy. More noise isolation. But not a huge difference.

So I’m thinking there’s no point buying another budget headset just for the sake of it... but is there a really huge difference, a tangible gameplay advantage?

I’m on a One X with a decent tv. I don’t really care about wireless - connecting to the controller doesn’t bother me.

Would a new headset really rock my world and make a big difference?

Cheers,
Quad

Eugene Victor Tooms

In my opinion a decent headset makes a huge difference. A few years ago, I had a basic headset for my PS4 and upgraded to the PS Gold headset and I was genuinely shocked at the upgrade. So, imo its definitely worth putting aside a few quid and buying a good headset. Especially for games like Warzone.

I actually bought a Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 headset on Friday for the Series X. 100 notes in Smyth's. It's not top of the range but I think it's excellent.

You'll probably pay less for wired headsets that are of equivalent sound quality but wireless is a necessity for my set up.

dines08

quad_red wrote: »

Hi folks,

I’ve got a trusty old four year old Turtle Beach headset which is still chugging along fine. It was c. €45 back in the day, it’s moderately comfortable and have never had any issues.

I play COD and Warzone online and seem to be able to compete.

But I’m wondering am I missing out on something big here? Am I at a serious disadvantage with a middling headset? Only other one I’ve used was my bro in laws Hyper X Cloud Alpha. Another lower budget range headset. And I didn’t notice much of a difference really.... More comfy. More noise isolation. But not a huge difference.

So I’m thinking there’s no point buying another budget headset just for the sake of it... but is there a really huge difference, a tangible gameplay advantage?

I’m on a One X with a decent tv. I don’t really care about wireless - connecting to the controller doesn’t bother me.

Would a new headset really rock my world and make a big difference?

Cheers,
Quad

I was in the same boat back in April when my headset gave up. After lots of research and review watching and reading I bought an Arctis 9x (Steelseries). Big plus for that headset is it had Dolby Atmos. It takes a once off subscription to enable through dolby access app on the xbox(€18) but it is well worth it. Like you I play a lot of Warzone and multiplayer COD and the surround sound audio is a game changer. Footsteps especially but sniper fire and even teams buying weapons drops are all very clear for location and 100% offer a competitive advantage over standard headset.

recyclops

I would also recommend getting the dolby atmos app for xbox when you get a headset, I know MS ships with Sonic but i would not really be able to go back to a non atmos headphone set up on Xbox now.

The app is currently on sale at the mo for black friday as well

Stone Deaf 4evr

quad_red wrote: »

Hi folks,

I’ve got a trusty old four year old Turtle Beach headset which is still chugging along fine. It was c. €45 back in the day, it’s moderately comfortable and have never had any issues.

I play COD and Warzone online and seem to be able to compete.

But I’m wondering am I missing out on something big here? Am I at a serious disadvantage with a middling headset? Only other one I’ve used was my bro in laws Hyper X Cloud Alpha. Another lower budget range headset. And I didn’t notice much of a difference really.... More comfy. More noise isolation. But not a huge difference.

So I’m thinking there’s no point buying another budget headset just for the sake of it... but is there a really huge difference, a tangible gameplay advantage?

I’m on a One X with a decent tv. I don’t really care about wireless - connecting to the controller doesn’t bother me.

Would a new headset really rock my world and make a big difference?

Cheers,
Quad

The one thing I really find I miss in cheaper headsets is mic monitoring (your own chat audio is played back through the speakers, so you dont sound muffled / prevents you from shouting over sounds no one else in the room can hear). The other thing you tend to get on higher end ones is bluetooth connectivity, so you can take calls / double them up as headphones for spotify from your phone etc.

Ive a wireless steelseries 9x that I paid about 150 for in a sale, and love them, some of the lads are using the 7x wired version and all seem happy enough with them too.

quad_red

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

The one thing I really find I miss in cheaper headsets is mic monitoring (your own chat audio is played back through the speakers, so you dont sound muffled / prevents you from shouting over sounds no one else in the room can hear). The other thing you tend to get on higher end ones is bluetooth connectivity, so you can take calls / double them up as headphones for spotify from your phone etc.

Ive a wireless steelseries 9x that I paid about 150 for in a sale, and love them, some of the lads are using the 7x wired version and all seem happy enough with them too.

So I ended up getting a 9x myself in the Amazon warehouse sale. Got it for half price. A bit concerned when I got it - packaging missing and headset covered in finger prints. But seems technically fine and zero scuffs or signs of use. Still smells new.

I also paid €12 for the Dolby Atmos app which has gotten good reviews.

Charged it up and gave it a whirl last night.

So so different. Shockingly so. Spent the first MW MP round a bit a sea it was so different. Second round was in the tv studio MP level. I was in the long corridor and I realised I could clearly hear enemies on the metal stairs attached to the building. I’d genuinely never heard that before. Stomped out to beside the door and ganked two of them.

I still think the balance is off and I’ll need to install the pc app to mess with that (which is kinda ridiculous with a console focused product). But there’s a huge difference. There’s genuinely new sound information and location information I wasn’t aware of before.

Stone Deaf 4evr

quad_red wrote: »

So I ended up getting a 9x myself in the Amazon warehouse sale. Got it for half price. A bit concerned when I got it - packaging missing and headset covered in finger prints. But seems technically fine and zero scuffs or signs of use. Still smells new.

I also paid €12 for the Dolby Atmos app which has gotten good reviews.

Charged it up and gave it a whirl last night.

So so different. Shockingly so. Spent the first MW MP round a bit a sea it was so different. Second round was in the tv studio MP level. I was in the long corridor and I realised I could clearly hear enemies on the metal stairs attached to the building. I’d genuinely never heard that before. Stomped out to beside the door and ganked two of them.

I still think the balance is off and I’ll need to install the pc app to mess with that (which is kinda ridiculous with a console focused product). But there’s a huge difference. There’s genuinely new sound information and location information I wasn’t aware of before.

yeah, its actually nuts the improvement you can find, I though that that they'd changed audio in warzone, the engine noise from the vehicles in particular sounded so much different.

If you find that the mic monitoring isn't up to your liking, theres a very easy firmware tweak that can be done to sort it, If you need it, fire me a PM and i'll dig out the links.

Edit - for warzone, theres a setting in the in game equalizers - I cant remember off the top of my head which one it is, but its possibly 'boost low' , this is very good for putting the emphasis on footpath sounds.