Gadgetory

hey everyone i'm steve from gamers nexus net and today we're talking about the best gaming headsets of 2015 and this includes some headsets from previous years as well it's just whatever's good right now our criteria for selection include analysis of portability for travel so one of these is pretty good for that includes FPS focused headsets RPG focused and those things like that and all of these have a microphone attached so that would qualify them as the gaming headset category and they're all between 50 and $220 that's our price range for today starting out at the low end we have the $50 Plantronics game comm 780 which I reviewed the 788 maybe last year and this is technically the 788 but it's the same headset as the 780 the 780 is currently available for $50 the refreshed version which is this one with different colors basically is about 20 dollars more but if you're gonna buy one of the others by the 780 because the same thing and it's 50 bucks which is a crazy good price for a headset of this quality so the reason we like the 780 is because it has lasted us about three years now and it's used in production so it's one of the headsets that is actively used everyday on one of our workstations for one of the gamers Nexus staff members and it has survived it's quite a bit of abuse it's still in perfect use the mic still works properly everything's still good which is a bar for headsets to reach because they are prone to breaking so the 780 has got good endurance it's got superb mic quality actually better than some of the hundred plus dollar options up here and that's somewhat confusing to me I don't know why other headsets can't match the mic quality but either way it's very good for Skype calls and things like that and as far as the sound quality goes it's pretty solid you can get pretty far in games like counter-strike Go which are really just a one plain two-dimensional soundscape where you've got basically horizontal sound emission and if you start needing more spatial awareness it's probably time to look at the higher-end headsets if you want vertical accuracy and things of that nature it's good to look into DTS or better dobby support now this does have Dolby Surround but will generally disable it for a lot of different applications because it kind of muddies the soundscape a little bit it produces a overwhelming sense of ambient noise which is undesirable for games like counter-strike go where you don't want to ambient noise all you want is footsteps and things of that nature so either way the 780 is a very good headset at 50 bucks but if you step it up to the next level there's the $68 SteelSeries Siberia v2 and this is a headset that's been around for quite a while as the 780 has been the Siberia v2 is pretty well known in eSports environments it sees a lot of you set conventions at vendor booths and it comes in numerous colors it's a very simple headset that focuses just on gaming quality for things like MOBAs and fps and MMOs and what-have-you where you don't necessarily need the insane level of immersion that $150 headset would provide but you want a little bit more than a cheaper option would output the Siberia v2 has an open back design so it's different from these other headsets and that means you have some sound leakage from the ear cups but that's not necessarily a bad thing it really just depends on what you want as a user so with an open back design because there is no containment for the sound as its output in the headset you do have leakage to the sides but it means that you've got some more awareness to your surroundings as well so if you prefer to not be totally isolated in your gaming world and you want some understanding of what's going on around you then an open back design is not a bad consideration in that instance it does less than it's usability as a headset you'd want to wear on a plane for example because you get more of the engine noise through the ear cups but it's good for other things so the SteelSeries BTU is 50 millimeter drivers and a 3.5 millimeter jack the Plantronics uses a USB jack our next headset is the HyperX cloud 2 which is a cue pad headset that was designed and developed in cooperation with HyperX a kingston division and the HyperX cloud 2 is some reviewed previously and called one of the most versatile and travel friendly headsets we've ever worked with this is actually what I use when I do all the convention trips so when I go on planes this is the headset I take and the reason for that is because it's very isolating it blocks a lot of the outside noise with the closed back design and with the vinyl or leatherette whatever you want to call it your cups you can replace these with included foam ear cups they're a bit more comfortable and don't get us hot but these block out a lot of noise which makes them awesome for travel the headset is also very durable it can withstand a lot of abuse because it's a metal frame and none of the wiring is exposed other than where the headphones actually connect to the computer and that wire is braided which gives it a bit of extra strength and looks better the cloud 2 makes one major change from the cloud 1 headset and that is that this version includes a 7.1 sound mixer in the form of a dongle that connects inline to the cable and that has the Dolby Surround technology in it you can toggle it with a button and that adds some virtualization of your positional audio the HyperX cloud 2 is a $100 headset and our next headset jumps up to $150 but it has a $130 variant so this is my current favorite headset it's what I'm using right now as I'm reviewing it and it's the corsair void wireless SE there is a non SE version which omits the inclusion of a wireless range extender that's $130 so you you've lose $20 on the price in exchange for losing that wireless range extender this headset is wireless as I've just said a few times it's also got RGB lights in it so it's the first headset and our lineup to have RGB lights if that's something that interests you you can also disable them if not the headset connects to micro USB and then USB on the other side for charging but you can use it wired if you run out of charge however in my testing so far I found that the battery has lasted a little over 13 hours it might push to 14 but I've gotten some beeps that indicate it will die soon and testing so either way more than 10 hours of battery life and that is with the RGB light and enabled and with constant use for music or games or microphone input the void offers excellent frequency tuning options through software if you want to tune for different frequencies for example footsteps and FPS games or gunshots or bass your dungeon noises for Skyrim things like that you can tune through the software setup and then the rest is done with Dolby Surround there is no DTS headphone X in this headset as there is not in any of the other headsets we've discussed so far but there is DTS headphone X in the next one which is the Logitech G's 633 a $150 wired headset the G 633 is a brand new headset it's got a wireless brother the Jean line 33 for $200 although on Amazon's 250 right now because of supply and demand and at $150 it is one of the only RGB headsets on the market alongside the Corsair void it's got slightly more audio output capabilities than the void does in some ways and one of those is a DTS headphone X which is a surround virtualization technology similar to Dolby but a little bit more effective we think for gaming so this does positional audio simulation so that you have effectively a speaker on the top right top left the middle the back and the sides things of that nature so it's a 7.1 virtualized setup and then you can configure that for different modes so wide or front audio depending on the type of game you're playing this is very useful in some games like titanfall for example where you have a lot of vertical movement this gives you a bit of an edge in positional audio locating where your enemies are vertically and horizontally but it's not great for some other games again csgo is a classic example because in a game like csgo you really just have one plane of audio output and you you don't want any ambient noise to muddy your ability to locate enemies all you're caring about in csgo matches is the nearest threat we encountered a few issues with it but nothing too bad it just kind of depends on what you're looking for in a headset so check out the review before I buy there and then the final headset in our lineup is from a pro audio company Audio Technica and they are in direct competition with another pro audio company sennheiser for a high gaming headset in the $200 price bracket the audio technica g1 directly competes with the Sennheiser game 0 and their price about the same they're both high-end audio solutions that output superior audio quality to any of these but they're more expensive so you're spending two hundred to two hundred twenty dollars and the major difference between the two is that the Sennheiser headset uses a different back design as you can see here and the audio technica one has both open and closed back designs if you have a preference between the two the Sennheiser headset also has a higher impedance rating so you do want some kind of amp in your line to amplify the signal so that you can get the same audio level output as the audio Technica's g1 the g1 has a lower impedance so you can get a louder audio output from the headset when looking at the decibel output level that's all for this quick guide check the link in the description below for the article and links to all the products in the description below if you have interest in any of these do check out our article and our standalone reviews on the headsets and hopefully that'll help you out if not leave a comment and as always if you like this kind of content check out our patreon link in the post roll video helps us out a lot and I will see you all next time