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So my headphones finally gave out last night. Sigh. And now I am tasked with finding a new gaming headset wkth a price point that my CFO (wife) will approve. I use on board audio processing and I am curious about USB headsets. Does anyone have any advice for me?
USB actually by passes some of the audio control stuff that jack style headphones use. One of them being a grounding issue. On my old laptop in Ventrilo before we migrated to Raidcall and I got a USB headset, I sounded like a poor leprachaun stuck in a blender (Fog's wording). So that is something to think on though the more I look at headsets out there, the more USB ones I keep seeing. Now I know there are a few people out there that have gotten some good headsets. There was even a discussion in the last couple weeks about this on raidcall in the GW2 lobby. I think one of the other issues in that discussion that came up was the sizing of the headset and how some of them clamped the head like a vice. I can't point you at what would be good, but USB versus jack and fit are probably what you need to determine and then see what is in your price range.
http://www.nox-audio.com/Products/Specialist-1 or http://www.nox-audio.com/Products/Ultimate-Gaming-Bundle-6 (what I have). Well actually I'm using a Logitech G35 set that I won from SOE contest, but I love that NOX headset and bought them based on reviews, universal usage across several devices, and being very affordable.
Logitech seems to have a wide variety of headsets in various price ranges. That's what I'd look into for the time being.
I've had a few headsets. The problem that I have with the jack headsets is that I keep having the jacks go bad on my computers, which results in a lovely screeching sound whenever I talk into them. Two of my old headsets also lost all the padding, which made them uncomfortable, so maybe that's something to consider when looking - what material they use for padding. The headset I use right now is a USB headset that came with a Rosetta Stone language software package. I love that one, and the material on the ears is like a plasticy cushioned on the inside that works very well and doesn't fall apart into fuzzies. I've used that headset with no issues on both RaidCall and Ventrilo, and you can buy it separately on their website for $29.99.
Rylssa, on a side note - what did you think of the Rosetta Stone language software? Been debating on whether I should spend money on it to help with some language stuff. Yeah and the funny thing is with ports on computers, it was the usb card that was trying to die on my laptop not the jack part. So I guess it depends on the computer and how much you jack in and out of things. =) I also only use a headset for chatting so have always gone with the one ear with a mic deal. I've actually taken some blanket/heavy liner like cloth and made an ear cover before on a headset. ::chuckles:: Didn't muffle the sound and worked pretty good until the wire finally broke on the mic part and new headset was needed.
Rosetta Stone, well. I would say it might not be my favorite way to learn a language. To clarify... We actually got two of them - Italian (1-5) and Chinese-Mandarin (1-5). With the Italian, we bought it a few months before our wedding & subsequent honeymoon to Europe, which included a visit to Venice, Italy. I was unrealistically optimistic about the time I would have to actually get through it in the middle of wedding planning and didn't actually get very far, maybe through the first two chapters of book/part 1. What I didn't like was they didn't start with phrases I found useful. I learned how to say people were running or walking or maybe having a glass of water, but not where is the bus or where is the hotel or words for different foods, which is more what I wanted. The lack of more useful language knowledge didn't help me stick to it. But, if you have more time and aren't preparing for an imminent trip it might not be bad - the romance languages aren't that hard to learn for English speakers (I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and still remember a decent amount, which helped with the Italian.) For the Mandarin - I took four years of Mandarin in college, so we bought that more for my husband. I found it was highly insufficient to get the sounds correct in the language. They have a feedback mechanism that would always say my husband was saying it right even though he was garbling things horribly. Not his fault, Chinese is a very hard language, but they weren't giving him good feedback. I spent hours upon hours in the language lab in college repeating things over and over and over again to get it right, and on top of that had class time where we were constantly corrected by our teacher, a native of Taiwan. So, I would say the romance languages is a maybe - they are much easier to learn for English speakers, but any Asian languages I would take a class with a native speaker.
Hijackers! I joke. Thanks for all the feedback. I think USB will be the way to go as the sound quality ans speed on my MB is pretty lousy as is. I want to stay around $30 as i am saving up for a better processor.
I just purchased the Plantronic Gamecom 780. They are a USB headset. I love them as they are both comfortable and sturdy. The sound is excellent, as well. I haven't tried the mic out, yet, however. They are $80 at Best Buy, but I got them to price match Amazon at $47 and then had a $10 discount for using my debit card.
Oh that is a nice one! I love the large earpads...really don't like the ones that apply pressure to the ear
The Carcharias by Razer would be my suggestion. These are a 3.5mm jack headset but the sound quality is crystal clear. They don't have strong bass response (it's there it just doesn't thump) so they aren't for music audiophiles but for hearing videogames and voice I haven't had a headset that's beaten them, 3.5mm or USB. They aren't the least expensive headset on the market but between the sound quality and the comfort (I've worn them for over 6 hours and been fine, yay for all nighters to write a paper that's due the next day) they are worth the investment IMO. http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-carcharias-for-xbox-pc
» Edited on: 2013-01-02 21:22:43
» Edited on: 2013-01-02 21:24:29
