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Reddit Reviews
from my research- i mostly used reviews sites like reddit vetted-these are a few safe bets: HyperX Cloud II/III just because they’re comfy and you don’t have to fight with software. nothing fancy, just works and the mic is serviceable. the AKG K612 or Sennheiser HD560S. super clean imaging, great for footsteps and they’re not hyped garbage. you’d just need a small dac/amp but even a cheap dongle drives them fine. also the Steelseries arctis wired models are still around and pretty chill. very comfy headband, decent sound and you don’t have to pray the drivers don’t explode
Arc Steel Series is another solid option. I have a wireless one I purchased for $100 two years ago and haven’t had a single problem. Crisp, clear audio and super comfortable too.
I use the Steelseries Arctic for 3 years. Still solid
What headset you recommend? Currently have a hypercloud 2 and it´s breaking down as I´ve got it for 8 years now lol, bought the hypercloud 3 and it´s whack, literally feeling pressure on my ears and the microphone is bad. Tried arctic steelseries and even that one felt like pressure on my ears.
Audeze Maxwell - Considered one of the best wireless gaming headsets. Popular with music creators as well as for gaming. Mic is reasonably good, though can clip a little. Comes with leather earpads, but they can be replaced easily. Drop + EPOS PC38X - One of the best wired gaming headsets for sound clarity and mic quality. Bass reproduction is a bit muted, which is common for older style EPOS / Sennheiser headsets, and common with open back headphones in general. The mic is essentially the best of any consumer headset you can buy. Generally can only be bought directly from Drop's site. Comes with both cloth and velour earpads. [https://drop.com/buy/drop-epos-pc38x-gaming-headset](https://drop.com/buy/drop-epos-pc38x-gaming-headset) Steel Series Arctis headsets are generally a decent middle ground in terms of decent bass and mic quality. The overall audio quality isn't as good as either the Maxwell or PC38X, but they're closed back so their bass response is more like the Maxwell. And the mic quality is generally better than the Maxwell, but no where near as good as the PC38X. Most (maybe all?) use cloth earpads. Nova Pro Wireless and Nova 9 are both quite good, with the Nova 9 being slightly better in terms of audio clarity and mic quality, but the Pro Wireless has better bass and noise cancelling.
This take is stupid. It depends entirely on what you're doing with them. I don't WFH, no zoom calls, and I'm not a streamer. I've found my Arctis headset to be convenient and perfectly adequate for playing BF6 or Arc Raiders with a couple friends. I have some Edifier MR4 monitors that I use when not using the headset. Picked them up for $80 on black Friday a couple years ago. Pretty happy with those as well, though I'm no audio engineer.
The Arctis ones do it with a cool little dedicated box where you can also control other things. I had some years ago and it was a very handy feature...though yes, windows now does much better, channel-based volume control. Still not as cool as a dial on a box though :)
Honestly reddit hates everything. I've learned sometimes you gotta just do it and see for yourself. I've had these for a few years now and I love them. Admittedly they hurt the shit out of my ears and the sound quality was pretty bad out of the box. But I bought some third party earcups and found a equalizer that makes them sound good and I've had no issues whatsoever since then. I also don't use surround sound either tbh, idk who would. The DTS sounds HORRENDOUS. Funny enough I got some steel series arctis something or others that I've wanted for YEARS. Returned them two days later and apologized to my Pro X Wireless for trying to replace it. Sometimes I think people just take it out of the box and use it, and that's their impression. Which I guess is fair, because it should just work right? but, idk. Gotta change a couple things sometimes.
Rankings by Use Case
Top recommendations from others in the same boat
Best for Competitive FPS footstep tracking

Top pick
Drop + EPOS / Sennheiser - PC38X
Best for Durable and repairable build

Top pick
SteelSeries - Arctis 7 Series
Best for Hybrid work and gaming

Top pick
Drop + EPOS / Sennheiser - PC38X
Best for Large heads and glasses

Top pick
SteelSeries - Arctis 7 Series
Best for Marathon gaming sessions

Top pick
SteelSeries - Arctis Nova Pro Series
Best for Mic isolation in shared rooms

Top pick
Astro (Logitech) - A50 Series





