The biggest shake-up is the microphone arm, which is now attached permanently to the HS55's left earcup and can be flipped up and out of the way if no longer needed. They can be a little sweaty on hot days due to the leatherette material they're covered in, but that's a pretty common drawback among gaming headsets in this price range. I wore this pair for the better part of a week, 8 hours a day, and I didn't feel the urge to throw them off at any point. The HS55 is also lighter, at 284g, which has a big impact on comfort over long periods. The plush earcups on the HS55 make for a stark comparison to the HS50's stiff and unbudging foam. The HS55 headset is much comfier than Corsair's previous budget models. Read our full Razer Blackshark V2 review. Though it has to be said that we've seen deals as low as $130 so it is worth looking at.īut overall price is the other stand-out feature of the wired BlackShark V2 headset you'll often find them for under $100 and that makes them an absolute bargain. They use the same drivers, but use a lag-free wireless connection, with a great battery life. There's only one reason I no longer use them as my daily drivers, and that's the arrival of the wireless version, the rather more expensive BlackShark V2 Pro. Where there's a warmth to the musical experience that means I've been oscillating between the melancholy of Swift's Folklore and the toe-tapping of Seasick Steve's latest, I'm feeling kinda shellshocked after an explosive Battlefield V tour of duty. The BlackShark V2 may not quite have the glorious clarity of a well-worn planar magnetic set, but the tonal quality of the TriForce drivers, surprisingly with the THX software in music mode, makes for a fantastic experience.Īnd they're great in-game too. They're great, for music and gaming, but those advanced drivers make them expensive. My usual headphones are the Audeze LCD-3, a particularly lovely open-back pair of cans rocking planar magnetic drivers. I'm a teeny bit of an audio snob sporting an obsession with Tidal's Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) offerings, and I don't quite have the words to express the slap-bass joy of Rage Against the Machine's Take the Power Back when played loud on really good audio equipment. I'm also a big fan of the restrained design of the headset, and I've found them to comfortable enough to wear for marathon gaming sessions. I'm feeling kinda shellshocked after an explosive Battlefield V tour of duty.įor me, the sound is one of the stand-out features of the BlackShark V2, and is far and above what you will get with most other sets in this price point. If I'm being very picky I'd maybe say that I can hear a little more separation of the higher frequencies with the HyperX Cloud Alpha-mostly when the THX software is enabled- but there is a richness to the mids, and some velvety bass notes, that you only get with the BlackShark V2. They're like a tribute to HyperX's own design, and no worse for it.Īnd it gives a level or aural clarity to the BlackShark V2 that makes me doubly surprised to hear it from a headset that costs just $100. The result is a richer sound than a standard set, and keeps it on par with HyperX's 50mm dual-chamber neodymium driver headset. The 50mm TriForce Titanium drivers are designed with discrete ports to separate bass, mid, tremble tones from interfering with each other. Of course, if you do want to spend more, the premium options sound pretty incredible and we've obviously got those covered here, too. It's got practically the same great audio as its wired cousin and comes with a class-leading 300 hours of battery life. And if you want to ditch the cord, the best wireless gaming headset is the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless. The best gaming headset is the Razer Blackshark V2, a supremely affordable and great-sounding set of cans that ticks pretty much all the boxes. The best gaming headsets offer more balance drivers that require minimal tweaking on your end, and you won't need to spend hundreds of dollars. Quality drivers ensure you get the best audio, and we're against gaming headphones that overdo low frequencies, as it provides terrible bass response in most cases. Between us we've got decades of experience of the best and worst audio gear ever made. The top headsets offer the best sound for gamers at each end of the budget spectrum. The headsets on this list are chosen from the dozens the PC Gamer hardware team and myself have tested.

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