H6PRO Open

If I may, all of the above is solid advice but... also consider the Sennheiser PC38x from DROP (in all black). Very lightweight and a good mix. I use these as my travel pair, and have taken them to compete in several LANs. https://drop.com/buy/drop-pc38x-gaming-headset Or the EPOS H6Pro's in Open or Closed, as it originated from Sennheiser. These are my current daily drivers at home. Same headset more or less, but fancy & has a removable mic. https://a.co/d/2Pr3HyI As for me, I prefer to not use a headset mic. So I utilize a Elgato Wave 3 mic, with a low profile arm on my desk. It's a little pricey, but Elgato have a whole line of accessories like shock mounts and pop filters too, but ymmv. https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/wave-3-black

I've had numerous pairs of Astros A30, A40, and A50 headsets while competing in Halo & Gears of War. If you're going the wired route, some great bang for your buck can be found in Sennheisers & EPOS headsets. The PC38X (get the one from Drop) is fantastic, though its microphone can't be removed. The EPOS H6Pro (open or closed back) is more or less the same, but it's mic can be removed. Both are solid. But my current jam for a wireless headset is the Logitech G522 or the similarly renamed Astro A20 X headset. It's very light weight, incredibly comfy, has great battery life, a wonderful microphone, and can pair via Bluetooth or Lightspeed (via an included dongle). I use it for work, grinding ranked in The Finals, and pair it with my Steam Deck. There's a ton of range on its receiver, as I can easily walk all over my house with it. And its mic can also be removed if I want to use a dedicated boom mic, like an Elgato Wave 3, when at my desk. But honestly its mic quality is so good, I haven't for several weeks now.  As I understand it, the key different with the Astro branded headset (Logitech owns Astro) is it comes with an extra dongle that allows for more connectivity to consoles like the PS5, etc. I'm not a big fan of RGB on my devices, but thanks to their G Hub app, I can easily turn that feature off. Overall, really nice headset. I ended up liking it so much, I ordered a second. 

I cycle between two pairs of headphones while gaming, depending on my mood and I use either; Audeze Maxwell or Epos H6 Pro Open + Epos Gsx 300. I’d give you the following recommendations: Audeze Maxwell if you want closed back and wireless, Epos H6 Pro Open if you want open back and wired.

Thanks for the review! I switched from in ear headphones to an open ear headset ( to hear my surroundings better and also for the longevity and health of my ears) from Epos, the H6 Pro Open. But I am also wearing glasses and I get these straining pressure discomfort when using this headset. I was initially looking for a game version of these open ear earphones but I couldn't find any therefore I switched to open headset. Now with the release of this product I am tempted to get these ones for more comfort. I have a couple questions tho: -Is it comfortable with glasses (if you wear any)? -How is the sound quality vs Open ear headset ( if you have any)? -Can you only use one earpiece (like the right one only)? -Can you clearly gear your surroundings? -Disable the RGB to improve battery life? -Dongle only has power passthrough or also data? -Can you clearly hear all the audio from the game with these?

I have the Nova 5x and would say it's just okay for single player immersive style games. With the right EQ it can be slightly better than okay. I personally prefer the Epos H6Pro (open-back version) headset i just recently got. With them being open-back it really expands upon the open world of most games and really makes it feel like you're right there in the game. It is also great for FPS games if you dabble in those as well

Gotcha. Do you have any need for a mic? You could get IEM's (in ear monitors). They can easily be plugged in to a controller if you're on console and majority of them on the market have great sound. I have [this pair](https://a.co/d/0ejQPaJb) from Amazon and for the price I am highly impressed. The only downside is the mic is sub par and most IEM's don't have any included mic. Plus side is they sound great for music as well!

Thank you! I'm hoping with this new I can finally have a headset that doesn't hurt when I have glasses on and sounds great! If you're curious I bought the Epos H6Pro. It's discontinued, but I heard a lot of great reviews on it and figured I'd give it a go

Arctis nova pro is garbage in my opinion it just doesn't have any bass even when you EQ it remains very weak and thin sounding in this area however treble comes across very clear and detailled and the imaging is pretty good if you only play competitive gaming it's a solid option. Though if you like to play story games i recommand something like the maxwell it sounds absolutly amazing but the comfort is as bad as it can be if you are really big person with strong neck and very little ears it might be comfy to you but if not the weight of the headphones will kill the back of your neck in less than 2 hours and the shallow pads will hurt your ears and don't even think about changing pads yeah it fixes the depth issue of the pads but it adds even more weight. So as a all rounder headphones i recommand the alienware pro wireless it sounds almost as good as the maxwell and it's way more comfortable however you ears gets very spicy in about a hour because the space inside the ear cups is not really there but it really never bothers me even now with the very hot weather. Edit: Ah yeah and if you are ever interested by wired headphones you have two others headphones that are worth it the pc38x and the epos H6 pro i don't know how the first sound but it gets a lot of praise around the gaming audio community and if you take the h6 pro make sure to take the open back i've tried the closed back and it's not really good sounding headphones compared to the open back which has more bass more detailled sound and it doesn't have this echoing boomy sound that the closed back have

For budget they recommend in ears and a separate mic to get better quality for far less. And to be fair, you almost always do.  But from a gamer perspective, not an audiophile perspective, headsets are way more convenient. Plus, I think you can get good gaming headsets these days, you just have to be selective. HyperX Cloud IIs and now IIIs were some of the first to be decent. But Epos (which used to be Seinheisser) has some great options (like the H3x for $20 or the Open back H6pro for $80)

kinda cool you're doing this research for him. his brother gave a solid suggestion but yeah that xbox version works on pc - it's just overkill unless he has both. the pc specific arctis nova pro is actually the better pick here and saves you some money. i'd also look at the [SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless for PC](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=SteelSeries+Arctis+Nova+Pro+Wireless+PC) or the [EPOS H6 Pro](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=EPOS+H6+Pro+open+back) if he prefers open back sound. both are under your budget and way better than alienware. you're gonna nail this gift.