Gaming Headset Buyer's Guide & Roundup

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, September 23, 2010, 03:44 PM EDT

For PC gamers, the gear we use to play can provide a tangible edge in our games. Although much noise is made about backlit keyboards boasting gamer oriented layouts and fancy mice with odd shapes, the most important considerations for gaming are still the guts of the gaming machine, a comfortable desk layout, a good monitor and a quality sound reproduction device. While most gamers understand the need for a capable system and a quality monitor, they don't often appreciate that last bit about sound.

Any old speaker will provide the most basic audio cues, but you'll need something better if you want a real competitive edge. To that end, we're going to give you some tips on what to look for in a gaming headphone or headset, then show you several examples of what's available in a mini-review round-up. We didn't just grab the nearest gaming headsets in reach either. Our round-up includes gaming headsets using a variety of signal input and sound output methods to get you started on your headphone/headset hunt. We also threw in some standard analog headphones for comparison and contrast...

Gaming Headset Buyer's Guide & Roundup

Tags: Creative, games, Razer, Headphone, Headset, ultrasone, Sennheiser

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com