Gadgetory

while they're not as good as an actual surround sound system gaming headsets have come a long way besides maybe you don't have the room or money for a 5.1 setup in your room or apartment I've been gaming with surround sound headphones for almost a decade now and I think if you're serious about having a respectable audio experience one of these high-end gaming headsets is for you this is only a small sample of what's out there but hopefully it gives you an idea of how to spot quality when shopping for a new surround sound gaming headset ok let's start with turtle beach turtle beach offers an endless amount of options for Xbox and Playstation platforms and the most expensive model is the 800 line of headsets the elite 800 and elite 800 X offer surround sound and noise cancelling features for ps4 and Xbox one respectively and they charge in these really convenient cradles plus they have optical ins and outs on the base so you don't lose sound on your regular AV receiver setup but and this is a big but they both go for $300 that premium price is mostly for the extra features and solid build quality but actually they started to annoy me after I wore them for an extended gaming session fortunately for ps4 owners I can recommend the stealth 500 P which is only $100 it removes the charging cradle Bluetooth and noise cancelling features but it retains what you want that's the surround sound and check albeit it's got this really super awkward USB dongle setup for Xbox one the 500x is a cheaper alternative but it's still pricey at $230 gone also are the cradle Bluetooth and noise cancelling features but at least you can chat wirelessly on Xbox one and game surround sound ok let's move over to astro gaming the new tournament ready a 40s are super comfortable lightweight and come in two varieties one for Xbox one and one for ps4 and you can use them both with a PC connection as well because they're wired you get minimal sound delay like you might encounter with other wireless connections the a40 TR s come with a mix amp pro that lets you mix game and chat audio in real time now there's two versions available they're both for 250 dollars the white version is for Xbox one that allows for chatting without a clunky adapter the mix app can also connect to a PC where you can access EQ management software called command center it lets you customize the experience when you plug in the mix amp to a PC all you do is download the software and you can do a ton of customization all these settings are available and then you load that into the mix amp now if you're a twitch gamer and need to have a precise gaming no delay experience the a 40's are really the headset to be Astro also offers the ability to customize the headphones and they sell a mod kit for the 840 s it'll actually let you swap out the ear cups the headband and a boom mic nose mod kits go for $60 finally I want to take a look at a headset that's specifically designed for PC I absolutely love the logitech g930 3 Artemus spectrum wireless surround headset it goes for about $200 but it provides the best surround sound for PC that I've tested the G 933 lets you customize the RGB LED light that shines when it's turned on and the logitech gaming software allows you to assign commands for the buttons that are on the headset itself you can also customize EQ settings as well now for wireless PC gaming it's all you need but for $50 cheaper the g6 33 does the same exact thing but with a wired connection now there are plenty of solid products that I didn't get to include here SteelSeries makes a great headset in the Siberia line and Sony even makes proprietary headsets for the ps4 that are actually pretty solid as well hopefully you've gotten a good taste of what to look out for in the high end surround sound gaming landscape be sure to reach out to me on Twitter if you've got more questions about anything you've seen here I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet.com you