I did search on here first and they were over 3 years old. Figured that tech has changed a lot since. So I am starting a new one here.
Well the Wife had enough of the kids playing on the PS5 with the volume on the TV a bit too high that it interfered with her work from home job. Kids are sad at the moment. Of course the solution is to get them gaming headphones just in time for Christmas. I tried to weed through the hundreds of reviews and it has already warped my brain with the details. My budget is $250 max for each kid unless there is a feature or proven reliability to warrant paying more than that.
We currently have the PS5, PS3, PS1, and 3 Nintendo Switch.
So what are you all using? Is it reliable and not likely to break? The reason I bring that up is that 2 of my kids have gone through a lot of standard headphones with their's that boggles my mind for breaking down or failing. It's maddening for me since it gets expensive quick in one year. One is using her 4th set of Soundcores (currently on Q45) in 2 years. The other is using JBL Live 660NC and has gone through 5 or so of a variety of brands. 2 broke from being dropped. 1 was shorted out somehow. It's always something. My oldest is using AirPods Pro (1 and 2) and they has been great so far. Unfortunately she doesn't like to wear them for gaming.
Looking forward to the recommendations from the game players on here.
On my gaming PC, I'm still using a Thermaltake wired headset I've had for way more than 3 years, on the wired side of things there's not much new out there. It sounds like you're looking for a Bluetooth headset. I've had a few Bluetooth folding headsets I use with my laptop and they tend to die from mechanical failures in the band, if not, a worn battery gets them. I've never had one that costs more than 2 digits so there's likely room for improvement there.
Fairbuds XL might be close to what you're looking for (being highly repairable), although they still exceed your already generous budget, and for gaming with voice chat something with a boom mic would be needed:
https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/buy-fairbuds-xl-63?ci=1
I have a set of Bluetooth HyperX 7.1 headphones with a mic. I got them at Best Buy about 2.5 years, maybe $125-140 somewhere in that range?
They sound pretty good and I typically get about 25 hours per charge using them with racing games.
Mndsm
MegaDork
12/17/23 2:32 p.m.
I swear by my Sennheiser game.zeros. They're 6+ years old. Not true wireless as you need to plug them into the controller, but they've worked with every console I've got so far, and I've got em all. A ways back they split into home audio and other, and epos was the new company that took over gaming. Epos has recently announced they're sunsetting their gaming line- all of it is dirt cheap now.
EPOS I SENNHEISER GAME ZERO Gaming Headset, Closed Acoustic with Noise Cancelling Microphone, Foldable, Flip-to-mute, Ligthweight, PC, Mac, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Smartphone compatible. https://a.co/d/0z6hOTF
This is the current version of what I have.
Your situation may be slightly different in that in the ps1 and the switch case at least- Bluetooth is not available, without some additional jiggery pokery. The ps3 does have Bluetooth, I don't remember if it's capable of audio or not- been a while since I plugged mine in. Depending on what you want and your end goal- you MIGHT be better off with a true Bluetooth headset that pairs directly with your TV, as long as they're not trying to talk with the homies. For that, we actually have the Microsoft Xbox true wireless headset. Pairs fine with my android tv. Using that as a throughput for audio to the headset should work with anything you've got dating back to Atari.
When my kid was burning up headsets (inexplicably as well....wtf do they do...chew on the berkeleyin things?) We went with a hyper x cloud... something. It has an aluminum chassis and was the most sturdy of all the ones I saw. As far as I know (assuming my ex wife hasn't sold it or given it away) it still works. This was 4-5 years ago.
JThw8
UltimaDork
12/17/23 8:51 p.m.
Mndsm said:
I swear by my Sennheiser game.zeros. They're 6+ years old. Not true wireless as you need to plug them into the controller, but they've worked with every console I've got so far, and I've got em all.
Another vote for the Sennheisers. They aren't the cheapest option but damn they're good. Had mine about 8 years now, other than buying replacment padding every 4 years or so they've been bulletproof and sound great.