If you primarily play online games, your headset is a crucial piece of gear. It provides a real advantage by helping you pinpoint where your enemies are. However, the truth is that a “gaming” headset isn’t necessarily the best tool for the job. Here’s why.
The Many Downsides of Gaming Headsets
Gaming headsets are often marketed as the ultimate solution for hearing footsteps in games, but that isn’t necessarily true. While some models are tuned specifically for gaming, simply slapping the “gaming” label on a set of headphones and adding a built-in mic and some RGB lights does not magically make them better.
More often than not, there is a mismatch between price and performance. Much of the cost goes to premium “gaming” branding, design, and flashy lights. The built-in microphone on most gaming headsets is serviceable and fine for Discord, but it’s unlikely to impress anyone.
The worst part of gaming headsets is the sound quality. They rarely match even entry-level audiophile headphones that cost a third as much. They might work fine for games, but you won’t enjoy listening to music on them, as even AirPods and most other decent earbuds typically outperform gaming cans in non-gaming tasks.
Sound quality and price aside, one of the biggest issues with most gaming headsets is that they use a closed-back design. While this is great for preventing sound from leaking in or out of your headphones, it is not ideal for competitive gaming.
What you want instead is a pair of open-back audiophile headphones. In addition to offering far better sound quality than gaming headsets, open-backs have a wide, natural-sounding soundstage that makes them feel more true-to-life.
This works because open-back headphones use vents or grills behind the driver that let air and sound pass through. With less sound bouncing around inside the earcups, there are fewer reflections and standing waves that muddy the audio.
Another benefit of this design is better transient response. As Audio-Technica explains, transient response describes how quickly the headphone drivers can react to sudden changes in the audio signal. For instance, percussive sounds like gunfire and footsteps are reproduced more sharply and cleanly compared to closed-back cans.
This superior clarity and sound separation can provide a real advantage in competitive shooters, as it’s easier to detect approaching footsteps and their direction, even during intense gunfights around an objective.
All in all, using open-back headphones resembles using a surround sound speaker setup, except without the need for good room acoustics. You get spacious, accurate audio that makes it easier to locate footsteps in online games, while single-player worlds feel more open and immersive thanks to the added detail and separation.
I own the Sennheiser HD 599 open-back headphones and the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless gaming headset (which SteelSeries generously provided), and I consistently find spatial audio to be more precise and realistic on the Sennheisers. Plus, the Sennheisers are significantly lighter since they’re open-back and wired, which makes them more comfortable for all-day listening.
Although the SteelSeries headset offers plenty of per-game sound profiles, I find them to be more of a gimmick than a useful feature with a competitive advantage. This is probably because any well-designed FPS already has a headphone-optimized audio mix built in that provides excellent spatial awareness without the need for extra tweaking.
Single-player games benefit from open-back cans as well. Individual sounds in the environment and soundtrack are easier to pick apart, making the whole experience feel more immersive and natural-sounding.
While some gaming headsets are open-back and share these benefits, your choices are limited. Examples include the Drop PC38X (previously Sennheiser + Drop), the Corsair Virtuoso Pro, and the Turtle Beach Atlas Air. However, these still suffer from the typical downsides of gaming headsets, like inflated prices and underwhelming sound quality compared to similarly priced audiophile headphones.
You Can Pair Them With a Better Mic
If you are paying good money for a decent gaming headset, there is a good chance the included microphone will not be horrendous.
However, once you factor in the premium you are paying for the “gaming” label, it becomes clear that you could get far better value by investing in a quality standalone microphone and a pair of audiophile headphones instead.
My Shure MV6 is a phenomenal dynamic mic that holds its own against more expensive Shure models, though the price might be steep for some. Before Shure sent me this mic, I used the HyperX SoloCast, a compact and affordable condenser mic that still outperforms any headset microphone by a wide margin.
Plus, I find it more convenient to keep my mic and headphones separate. A standalone mic can be used for streaming, recording, or work calls with speakers, and if your headphones ever break or you decide to upgrade them, you will not lose your microphone along with them, like you would with a headset.
Audiophile Headphones Are a Smart Long-Term Investment
Once you get a pair of decent-sounding cans, it’s hard to settle for anything less. You’ll want to use them for gaming, music, movies, calls, and even YouTube. I found myself doing exactly that after replacing my old gaming headset with a pair of Sennheisers.
The best part is that a good set of headphones can last for years. Unlike phones, computers, or even cameras, headphones don’t evolve rapidly. If you like their sound signature (the frequency response that shapes how they sound) now, chances are you’ll still enjoy it ten years from today.
Brands like Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Beyerdynamic, Sony, and Philips are known for excellent build quality, and their headphones are built to last. Many people report using the same pair daily for over a decade—a level of longevity you’re unlikely to get from most gaming headsets.
In fact, they’ll last you so long if you take care of them that you’ll probably want to buy more audiophile headphones before those kick the bucket. Before you know it, you’ll become a headphone collector.
Open-Back Headphones Aren’t Perfect, Either
While I’ve praised open-back headphones for their phenomenal spatial sound and clarity, they do have some drawbacks.
First and foremost, open-back headphones leak a lot of sound. Everyone in the room can hear your games and your well-behaved teammates This isn’t an issue if you’re gaming alone, but it can be disruptive if someone else is around. My PC is in my bedroom, so as much as I love gaming on my Sennheisers, I usually switch to my SteelSeries headset when my wife wants to sleep or scroll through her phone in peace.
Sound leakage also works the other way—you hear everything around you, including loud PC fans when the graphics card heats up during gaming sessions. Active noise cancellation isn’t really an option either. So, if you live with loud roommates or in a noisy area, be prepared for distractions that’ll ruin the immersion, or just don’t get open-back headphones.
That said, it’s worth pointing out here that audiophile closed-back headphones are a thing, such as the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x. While these won’t have the same airy soundstage of open-back cans, they’re still overall a better option than gaming headsets.
Another downside of open-back audiophile headphones is that they’re typically wired-only. Cables can be inconvenient, which is why I reach for my SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless or my GameBuds when gaming on my TV or laptop.
Although wireless audiophile headphones are a thing, most of them are Bluetooth-only, which introduces a lot of latency—honestly, that’s a dealbreaker for competitive gaming. If you must have wireless headphones, then you might be better off with a wireless gaming headset that uses a proprietary 2.4GHz dongle, since its latency is much lower and essentially not an issue in practice.
If you can live with a wired setup and want the best overall sound quality along with excellent spatial audio for competitive shooters, open-back audiophile headphones will give you the best experience. While they leak sound and aren’t wireless, nothing else can match their sound accuracy, especially at a significantly lower price than high-end gaming headsets.
