Gaming Headsets - problems?!

[iKingOfHouse]

Evening all

I just spotted your site on Twitter. Your main account was retweeted by Ricky Jervais which is pretty awesome!

I'm actually in the middle of some research, related to gaming headsets. I was randomly talking to a friend "Rubber Johnny" who, unsurprisingly, is called John and works with rubber for a living. He's been designing stuff all his adult life, mainly to do with health & safety workwear, but we got onto the subject of headsets.

Personally, I have an issue where mine gets really uncomfortable after prolonged periods of play. The easy solution is obviously to go out and get a life, but that's too easy.

I've discussed the problem in the first 10 minutes of this video.



Right now feedback is pretty mixed. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.

Long term he might - might - might - go out to the main headset companies and work with them to design a better ear piece. Obviously, that's quite an optimistic thing to suggest but you have to aim big these days

Thanks in advance - I'm off to browse the rest of this forum!

King

[Pedsdude]

Welcome the forums

I've got a Logitech G35, bought from PC World for £92. Highly recommend it.

I've also got a Steelseries Siberia v2, which I bought for £50 from a friend. I only use it to listen to music / watch films, I don't use it as a microphone headset for gaming. Also very good headset, nice and comfortable.

With both headsets, I haven't found any issues of my ears getting too hot or itchy, but I guess it'll depend on the person really.

[Drofder2004]

The easy solution is obviously to go out and get a life

That is a workaround, not a solution.
Welcome to the forums!

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After listening to your video (no intention of watching BO [especially on PS3]), I am going to actually accept that you are honestly conducting a research (instead of whoring your Youtube channel).

I am going to answer your question regarding the problem of comfort and totally ignoring the build and sound quality.

I currently use a Razer Carcharias, I used to use a Speed-Link Medusa and before that I used very cheap Amazon and Game store headphones with cheap synthetic ear cups. On the cheaper headphones, you will get a cheap material that flakes and can cause itchyness, but I have never had 'heat' issues. Now that I buy better quality headsets with fabric earcups, I do not get any problems at all (neither itchyness or overheating).

I can happily sit with my headphones on for hour after hour without issue, however I do know others who do have the problem with heating - and the one thing they have in common is their age - they are way above the 18-25 bracket.
That age group is hardly a market to be aiming at.

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And final comments:
Ricky Gervais, Felix Baumgartner did break the speed of sound (834mph) [awesomeness] and finally PS3 + MW3 = gtfo.

[F |Madness| U]

I think Peds and KS pretty much summed up my opinions in their posts. I own a Logitech G35 that was £55 on ebay (new) - a very good deal if I say so myself! I agree with KS' points about it being stable and not weak plastic etc, I sometimes find discomfort after a few hours without removing it, but generally I don't use a headset for over an hour at a time anyway. So yeah the only real improvements that I think can be made are on comfort- where I don't know if rubber could be used to make a more comfortable fit or not.

Also welcome to the forums.

[iKingOfHouse]

Thanks for all the feedback people, it is appreciated!

The more responses I get the more it looks as though I'm in the minority, which must be due to a combination of an unusually wide head and relatively long hair / stubble near my ears. (Woah, best not use that description on any dating sites!)

However it does seem a lot of people have concerns with overall build quality. I'm not sure this is something my friend could address as easily as solutions are less patentable and thus harder to sell into the bigger manufacturers. In any case, I'm going to keep spreading the word and see what happens.

Also, LOL at the "that's a workaround, not a solution" comment

[Sonic]

Welcome to the forums.

As for the headset thing, to be honest I personally don't like any headset at all.
I've had a shit load of headsets from Siberia, GameCom, Roccat Kave, even my DJ headset and they all seem the same to me.

I'm using in-ear headphones atm (the ones you use for mp3 or whatsoever) and they work perfectly fine for me, as for the mic I just use some regular cheap one. People arguing about "what headset is the best for soundwhoring" has always been (and probably always will be) a little 'war'.

What did help alot for me though, was upgrading my soundcard. I could definitely tell the diffrence between onboard sound and the actual soundcard's sound (quality wise). But that'd be another subject

But yeh, like Peds said. It depends on each person's likings.

Goodluck finding one!

[crazypanzer]

I have personally used several different Razer headsets and am currently using a combination of 3 different headsets on each of my gaming setups. I would also like to mention that I also have long hair like you (as in VERY long hair), and I also wear glasses (which play a large role in my headset choice factors).

Razer Piranha:

In the past I have had a Razer Piranha headset. This is an on-ear headset that was actually quite comfortable for me with nice cushioning on the ears, although it may take some time to find the perfect adjustment that doesn't feel like it squishes your head. They seemed fairly tight on my head at first but I did find an adjustment that was satisfying. Unfortunately I tend to have very bad luck with microphones on my Razer Headsets, the Microphone broke after a year of use, and the headset itsself eventually stopped getting sound to either ear, to the point where I had to squeeze on the little volume adjustment thing just to connect the wires to get sound. I will admit this was partially my fault though, I mistreated them considerably.

Razer Carcharias:

I have and am still using a Razer Carcharias headset with my laptop gaming setup. The headphone cups are large and comfortable and they will fit your head well no matter how big it is. The microphone has a nice sound quality but unfortunately mine broke after 1 - 2 months of use. I use a USB desktop microphone now and still use the headset for sound quality, they are comfortable and I can wear them for hours while gaming. Be aware that the comfort of the headset comes with a small price. The headphones have considerable sound leak since they set on your head lightly and dont hold sound in them well. Anyone near you can clearly hear what you are listening to if you have your volume up loud like i usually do.

Razer Tiamat:

I also have a Razer Tiamat headset that I use with my desktop gaming setup whenever I don't need to use a microphone. Excellent sound quality coming from these although the microphone is bad and stopped working after about 6 months for me. Although I must say this headset is VERY uncomfortable with my glasses. The headphone cups clutch around my ears very tightly and dig the sides of my glasses into my head, causing significant headache after a while. If you do not wear glasses this might not be a problem for you. But this headset definately has the best sound quality out of any I have ever owned.

Logitech H330:

Whenever I need to use a microphone with my desktop gaming setup I use a Logitech H330 headset (an older version without the USB plugin feature). It is a comfortable little headset with a good quality microphone. Unfortunately it only has support for 2.1 stereo audio. I happen to have a good sound card in my desktop though and have forced it to have a nice surround sound to it. The only major problem with forcing this surround sound is that there is literally no audio from anything directly behind me, but everything else has excellent positioning. The headset is slightly awkward at times and doesn't like to sit on your ears very tightly, but I've only had it slip off my head once.

It's mostly up to your personal preference for what headset you want to use. But I hope this helps you a bit.

[iKingOfHouse]

After listening to your video (no intention of watching BO [especially on PS3]), I am going to actually accept that you are honestly conducting a research (instead of whoring your Youtube channel).

Heh, I'm well aware a PC specific forum would be entirely the wrong place to pimp out a channel populated with console content I did PC game "back in the day" - started out with Duke Nukem 3D, played a bit of Quake / Quake II and Unreal before I turned 17. I didn't play anything from the time I got my first car until a 4/5 years after I left uni.

I got back into it purely by chance - nursing a NYE hangover we took a break from FIFA to check out Modern Warfare 2. The rest is... err, history I suppose

If I find the time I will no doubt get back into PC game at a later date. For now I enjoy the convenience of console gaming.

And final comments:
Ricky Gervais, Felix Baumgartner did break the speed of sound (834mph) [awesomeness] and finally PS3 + MW3 = gtfo.

At the time of recording they had said he failed - it wasn't until the next day the report was updated. You've just reminded me that I did mean to throw up an annotation on the YT video.

Don't worry about PS3 MW3 - I'll be PS3 Black Ops 2 before long

As with all the other comments, I appreciate your input on the headsets!

[Drofder2004]

Don't worry about PS3 MW3 - I'll be PS3 Black Ops 2 before long

[iKingOfHouse]

Hahaha quality! I hope you don't mind me borrowing this and sharing via Facebook & Twitter

[<LT>YosemiteSam[NL]]

First: welcome to the forums.
Second:
I only use 2 headphones and both give me uncomforteness(?).
With both headphones my ears get painful after 2 to 3 hours. Probably the size of peoples ears and the age are a factor too

[Drofder2004]

Hahaha quality! I hope you don't mind me borrowing this and sharing via Facebook & Twitter

Is it too late to mention legal issue and royalties?

Also, I found it via the wonders of google