I've been spending way too much time on Elden Ring recently, the first PS4 game I've really gotten into since building my first PC last year. But this renewed interest in my old console gave me a habit fans of gaming headsets might hate.
You see, I don't have a TV or projector - I plug my PS4 into my PC monitor (which only has an HDMI port, so I have to unplug it a lot when I switch between PC and console).
It doesn't have a built-in speaker and I live with people, so I won't be using a sound bar or external speakers; No, for now I use headphones.
And despite having a nice, stylish gaming headset with chunky cans, bright LEDs, and simple volume controls—basically all the bells and whistles—I found myself preferring to use my old Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones.
Yeah, instead of using fancy Logitech headphones that are literally made for gaming, I did my Elden Ring tests on my old wireless headphones that have been through so much war that I literally have to use duct tape to hold them together.
I don't even use them wirelessly. I hear the sounds of all those glowing dragons and spells and weird beetles when I plug the headphones into my controller via 3,5mm jacks. But I think I have good reasons.
Are gaming headsets designed for comfort? Nope.
There is no doubt that my gaming headset has good gaming features, but it comes at a price, or more accurately, a weight.
The helmet is somewhat bulky. It's heavy and the pads are huge, making my face feel like it has two giant suction cups on it. One of the novelty helms in the Elden Ring is called the Pumpkin Helm, and it's basically a huge metallic sphere. Well, when I wear my helmet, I feel like I'm wearing this.
When I relax and explore The Lands Between (and by that I mean running my horse in areas way above my level, hitting enemies with my sword, dealing no damage and running away, like a naughty kid) I want to feel relaxed. . If I have a giant helmet that weighs me down and squeezes my head, I'm always on the lookout for this accessory.
Not so with the Sony WH-1000XM3. It's soft and lightweight and looks as much like a comfortable beanie as it does a pair of headphones. I can relax so much more when I use these vented cans.
Having used some gaming headsets in my day, I get the distinct feeling that they're not designed for comfort, or for beauty pageants, even if I'm alone in my room, not on a podium, so it's excusable.
matching is boring
One big factor in my headset situation is that my gaming headset is paired to my computer, and by "paired" I don't mean "plugged in" but connected with an unbreakable link.
This bond is not unbreakable in the sense that "it cannot be broken" but rather that "I categorically refuse to break it." That's because I found the headset a nightmare to pair with my computer. If I unplug the thing, I'm afraid I'll never get it to work again.
And that's because of all the extra features that come with the headset: I had to install extra software that keeps the thing running on my computer, and adjust my computer settings to get the best performance. I also have a program that allows me to change the color of the cans. I don't even understand why, I don't see the thing when it's in my head!
I guess it's the cost of a bunch of fancy extras and add-ons.
I once made the mistake of unplugging my headphones and the computer nearly crashed. He wanted to start the whole installation process all over again, apparently not acknowledging that he had already done everything.
This is not a problem with my SonyWH-1000XM3. Since I'm using it with an audio cable, I can plug the end of the cable into any 3,5mm jack and hear sound instantly.
This means that I can also use the Sony boxes as my regular headphones or for other devices, and go directly from those devices to my PS4 in a flash.
The audio difference is minimal.
Despite the aesthetic gap, I'd be willing to use the gaming headset if I thought it did a lot more. But I'm not sorry.
I must clarify that I am not the biggest audiophile in the world. When listening to music, watching a movie, or playing a game, I can easily ignore the audio quality of my headphones to focus on the artistic, tonal, or atmospheric quality. In other words, if I'm listening to an absolutely smashing tune on rotten headphones, I don't care.
For this reason, Sony headsets and gaming headsets look basically the same to me. They both play music, sounds, dialogue and whatnot, and I just can't tell the difference between them.
Their similarities are enhanced by a gaming experience I had when I was younger. When GTA V first came out, and I was a teenager living at home, I used to play it on the cheap little 24-inch TV in my bedroom with wired headphones in the trash.
Then one day, when the house was empty, I took out my PS3 and plugged it into the TV in the living room. One big difference in audio caught my eye: On this larger TV, I could hear sound that I couldn't hear before.
All that sound was background audio: distant chatter, honks a few blocks away, the tired rumble of busy highways. In short, the kind of sounds a normal city makes when you stop to listen (but it really does).
I've never heard this kind of audio mixing in a video game before, and it created a more engaging atmosphere than any other part of the game, or most other games I've tried. It was this audio supplement that really transported me from the leafy suburbs of Bristol to the brick built suburbs of Los Santos.
To drive this incoherent story home, this jump from my bad audio setup to an awesome one really improved my experience with the game and I'm glad I did (well, until I got kicked off big TV and relegated to my no noise background).
However, switching between my roughly the same Sony boxes and my gaming headset didn't bring as many jumps in actual tangible immersion, so I don't think audio quality is an important metric in my decision.
TechRadar's audio experts were able to sit down with the WH-1000XM3 and my Logitech headphones and tell me definitively which one had the best bass, treble, midrange, and other features. But since the difference isn't going to give me any real benefit when diving, I stick with the ones that are comfortable and easy to pair.
I know some people take their gaming gear seriously, and my confession here may draw some stares. But for gamers who don't have cutting-edge this and that, I recommend using your regular gaming headset instead of buying fancy ones.