Razer hypes their stuff, but my Barracuda set had terrible construction quality and broke. - Edit 1
Before modification by Zalis at 13/02/2011 02:54:56 PM
Just in case you were looking at their products. Unless they've vastly improved in the last two years, I can't recommend them. Personally, I'm still using a Plantronics DSP-500 set that was given to me for Christmas 2004. They have some quality products that are worth checking out, too.
Remember three things when selecting a PC Gaming headset:
1) Do you want DSP or ones that plug into your sound card?
The difference here usually comes down to portability. If you don't have a quality, dedicated sound card, I would recommend getting a 'set with DSP. (think sound processing built-in, if you're unfamiliar w/ the term) If you have a high quality sound card that's already going to give you a slight gaming performance advantage, go with regular jack ones. (benchmarks usually only show a few FPS improvement in these cases, but you might as well go that way if you have one)
2) Comfort. Do you wear glasses?
If so, while there's no way to test this while buying online, consider yourself warned. (especially if you do any lan parties or long gaming sessions w/ friends) After an hour or more, some 'sets get downright uncomfortable.
3) Mic quality. "Can you hear me now?"
Some 'sets have good mics, others just don't. It sounds obvious, but you never want to be that guy that nobody can understand. Sometimes, bad mics can be compensated for by minimizing ambient noise, tweaking input volume, etc.
You'll notice that I didn't include 5.1/7.1 surround, noise cancellation or sound quality at all. That's because those things are all preferential. Some people swear by them and some say it's not a big difference. Also, a common complaint I've read (and experienced w/ the Barracuda) with 5.1 and up in headsets is that the rear sounds tinny. YMMV, though.
Good luck!
Remember three things when selecting a PC Gaming headset:
1) Do you want DSP or ones that plug into your sound card?
The difference here usually comes down to portability. If you don't have a quality, dedicated sound card, I would recommend getting a 'set with DSP. (think sound processing built-in, if you're unfamiliar w/ the term) If you have a high quality sound card that's already going to give you a slight gaming performance advantage, go with regular jack ones. (benchmarks usually only show a few FPS improvement in these cases, but you might as well go that way if you have one)
2) Comfort. Do you wear glasses?
If so, while there's no way to test this while buying online, consider yourself warned. (especially if you do any lan parties or long gaming sessions w/ friends) After an hour or more, some 'sets get downright uncomfortable.
3) Mic quality. "Can you hear me now?"
Some 'sets have good mics, others just don't. It sounds obvious, but you never want to be that guy that nobody can understand. Sometimes, bad mics can be compensated for by minimizing ambient noise, tweaking input volume, etc.
You'll notice that I didn't include 5.1/7.1 surround, noise cancellation or sound quality at all. That's because those things are all preferential. Some people swear by them and some say it's not a big difference. Also, a common complaint I've read (and experienced w/ the Barracuda) with 5.1 and up in headsets is that the rear sounds tinny. YMMV, though.
Good luck!