Product Round-up I wish I had my own flat, but I don’t. Cue Slayer Reign in Blood thundering from upstairs. Six hours into a raid and my housemate comes home and turns the volume up on their shitty boombox above my head and I have completely lost any sense of immersion. Yes I could get into a ‘speaker-off’ with them but luckily I have some of the best headsets around to hook up and bring back my suspension of disbelief.
Yes, I tend to dribble at a decent amount of polygons but if you’re playing Amnesia: the Dark Descent, gameplay is all about the atmosphere and to really make the most of it you want to be sure you’ve got the best gaming headset that blocks out the most background noise. A lot of these headsets boast virtual 7.1 surround sound aimed at your lifer FPS gamer but really how immersive are they? To find out, I tested these headsets on World of Warcraft, Battlefield, Bad Company 2 and my favourite mixcloud of the moment.
1. Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma
Creative knows what its doing and prove this on a regular basis with top end gaming hardware. These are decent sounding gamer-spec cans featuring fairly convincing surround sound for the price. Pretty pretty, easy to instal and use, the THX TruStudio Pro software almost had me onside.
World of Warcraft PVP really showed off the intense, penetrating output this headset can deliver. From the off using the default settings, the Creative Sigmas can definitely do loud, without distorting. The main selling point of these headphones is the 3D audio – delivering 5.1 and 7.1 soundfields from just two drivers with Creative’s THX TruStudio Pro audio technology. Read the rest of this entry »
Accessory of the Week I’ve never been a fan of Bluetooth headsets, but Jabra’s Stone 2 is one of the first I’ve tried that I’d consider using regularly.
Jabra’s Stone 2: the design is ‘boomless’…
For one thing, it’s more discreet than many of its ilk. There’s no big black block poking out of your ear, blue light flashing for all to see. The power and Bluetooth LEDs are tucked round the back, out of view. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Hands-free connections for mobile phones have come a long way from wired earpiece-and-microphone combos. Mind you, it’s still a comic pleasure to see people using these as they hold the microphone near their mouths just to be sure. The arrival of Bluetooth nixed the cables but created problems of connectivity, complicated set-up procedures and often poor reliability.
Motion carried: Aliph’s Jawbone Era
The headset to really solve the faff of pairing was the first Jawbone from Aliph. It was simple, effective and beautifully designed – if laughably huge compared to the current models. Since then, Jawbones have evolved, though they still use the same underlying technology: a sensor rests on your jaw bone that monitors vibrations so it knows when you’re talking, activating noise-cancelling when needed. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Having just played Darkspore, and somewhat underwhelmed by the music and ambient sounds, I am definitely not above lowering games’ scores slightly based on sound quality. At times it appears that audio is the developers’ last thought and, likewise, I’ll admit that choosing the latest graphics card or mouse takes precedence over some new gaming headphones. Yet great sound effects, with thoughtful surround positioning, can create a unique gaming experience.
Spaced: Creative’s Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma headset
I have been using Razer Banshee headphones for the last six months and even though they are extremely large for my head – and can give me a bit of neck ache if I stick around for a raid or dungeon – I love the way they look and sound. On first glance, I am not sure these Creative headphones can compete. Read the rest of this entry »
Although Sennheiser does make a few to Bluetooth headsets to keep the mobile phone market happy, it has never been terribly keen on this technology. Indeed, the company has just launched a new range of headphones that use its own ‘Kleer’ wireless protocol.
Sound investment? Sennheiser’s RS 160
We tested the cheapest model in the range, the RS 160, which has a recommended retail price of £140. There are also two other models, the RS 170 and RS 180, which cost £180 and £220 respectively. Expect to pay these sorts of prices too, as we could only find minor discounts on those figures when looking online. Of course, £140 isn’t exactly peanuts, but the RS 160 justified that price and proved to be the best set of wireless headphones we’ve tested so far.
The main claim for the Kleer technology is that – unlike Bluetooth – it provides lossless, uncompressed wireless audio at full CD-quality: 16-bit resolution at 44.1KHz. You can read more about the technology here.
The system consists of a fairly conventional set of on-ear headphones – nicely padded for a comfy fit and good seal over the entire ear – and the separate TR 160 wireless transmitter with a built-in pre-amplifier that you hook up to your audio gear to broadcast the playback. Read the rest of this entry »
