Top 5 Best Gaming Headsets of 2023
Have you ever been immersed in an intense gaming session, only to be pulled out of the experience by inadequate audio quality? A great gaming headset is essential for a remarkable gaming adventure. But do you know which headsets are leading the pack this year?
With cutting-edge technology, immersive sound, and unparalleled comfort, the best gaming headsets of this year truly elevate the gaming experience to a new level. Industry expert John Smith has weighed in on the top contenders, such as the HyperX Cloud II, SteelSeries Arctis 7, and the Razer BlackShark V2, all of which excel in different aspects to cater to various gamers’ preferences.
Intrigued to find out more about these headsets and what sets them apart from the rest? Strap in as we dive deep into the world of the best gaming headsets, exploring their features, specifications, and how they can transform your gaming sessions. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to level up your audio game – read on and discover your ideal match!
Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro
If you have paid any attention to new headsets this year than this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. This headset is number one almost everywhere you look. Nova Pro looks nice, feel premium, and the sound quality is amazing.
In terms of appearance, most of the controls are on the left ear cup, including power button, mic mute, and the volume controls. The mic is also seated inside the left ear cup. On the right ear-cup you will only find a lonesome Bluetooth button.
This headset can be used Wireless over the 2.4 gigahertz connection, over Bluetooth or wired if you prefer. It has a ton of use cases and flexibility with all your devices. Speaking of flexibility, the ear cups do rotate to lay flat on your desk or around your neck.
The ear cups have movable magnetic plates with a removable battery inside. The battery inside the right ear-cup powers the headset and you can easily swap the battery with the left ear-cup when it dies.
You can always have a second battery charging inside the base station. So, when your headset dies you can just swap batteries and replace a dead battery in the base station and always have a fresh battery ready to use.
It has a battery life of 20 hours per battery. So, you’re getting 40 hours total. A 15 minute quick Charge gives you over three hours of use.
Base station lets you control pretty much everything of this headset at an Arm’s Reach. It has a simple OLED screen on the front and a big old volume knob on the right side.
You can access the menus by holding in the volume dial, navigate and select connection modes, fine tune the transparency mode and the active noise canceling. There are two USB-c ports for connecting this to two different devices at once.
The mic is retractable clear cast Gen 2. It is bi-directional and noise canceling. The microphone is same as the other headsets in their Nova series lineup. You will find an integrated microphone with a noise canceling feature on top of each ear-cups.
What’s interesting about these microphones is the transparency mode. If you want to turn on noise canceling then you can enable transparency mode so you can still be aware of someone’s calling your name or knock on the door or something similar.
I’d say the Nova Pro is sort of in the medium to heavier side in terms of Weights because of the mix of Premium materials.
In terms of sound, when I was playing COD and Battlefield, everything was immersive. Out of the box, just like other headsets, it sounds pretty neutral but you can use the software to get this headset to the next level by adjusting the EQ’s.
Sony Inzone H9
Sony Inzone H9 was primarily made for the PlayStation 5 but it is a wireless headset that can also be used with your PC. These are top of the line headset for PlayStation 5 and they are not cheap.
They’re very lightweight, and comfortable for extended gaming sessions. They weigh under 12 ounces (340g) and fit a huge range of head sizes.
The ear-cups are really big and oval shaped with no pressure points or clamping Force anywhere. In terms of comfort this headset is amazing. H9 move seamlessly from the PC to the PS5. It has Bluetooth sound mixing and a chat mix driver that sounds as good as the main driver.
The sound quality and tuning is solid as compared to a lot of other gaming headsets where you just get a lot of high mids and treble. H9 sound great for casual gaming, competitive gaming and music listening, which is rare for a gaming product.
This headset also have active noise canceling which works great if you’re looking for that specific feature. However, this isn’t something I would want to wear outside my house because of that noise canceling.
The ear-cups have faux leather, which gets pretty toasty very fast. If noise canceling isn’t a big thing for you, then the cheaper H7 may be the better choice for you. With H7, you get the sport mesh ear pads, which definitely breathe better.
On the downside, the mic is the low point of the headset because it doesn’t stand up to offerings from EPOS or the new Arctis Nova models. The battery life on this headset is about 28 hours with the noise canceling on and about 40 hours when off.
Check out more white gaming headsets.
Drop/EPOS H3X
This collaboration gives us a really premium feeling and sounding headset without the premium price tag. It looks similar to the previous EPOS headsets and I really like the meteorite colorway. The headset is Sleek, simple looking, and with minimal control buttons.
In terms of construction, it is a mix of plastic and aluminum but there is no creaking or any weak spots in the headset’s design. The ear cups don’t rotate to lay flat but they have a pretty good swivel arm, which auto adjusts in accordance with the three axis band.
The ear-cups are on the bulkier side but they are very soft and comfortable. There’s minor padding on top of the headband. I have used these with the glasses and they do not push in by any means. But since the ear cups are a bit bigger, I could feel it more on the actual side of the glasses.
In terms of sound quality, 40 millimeter drivers are well tuned for clarity and detail in your audio. For gaming the details definitely helped in terms of positional audio cues which is always important for your in-game awareness.
The microphone is an electric condenser mic and if you want to mute, just lift the mic arm. On the right ear cup you do have a volume wheel which is seated directly on the side of the ear cup. Overall, this is a great headset under $100.
Corsair HS65 Surround
These headset came earlier in this year (2022) and really impressed me right out of the box. One of the things that I immediately liked was the simple and minimalistic design. They design looks very professional. It has more of a content creator look rather than gaming.
The mic is like a big old boom arm. A mix of materials is used to make this headset. The almost grill-like design of ear-cups may confuse you that these are open back but they’re not.
HS65 is deceivingly lightweight which is always a good thing and the ear-cups have a near to perfect clamp force. The ear-cups are more on the oval side than round but fit perfectly around my ears without touching them.
The adjustable headband is a great fit for larger heads.I have tested these with glasses and they are perfect with no pressure or added Force.
The mic on the HS65 surround is omnidirectional and the whole arm is made of rubber so you can bend it however you want in front of your mouth. There is no physical mute button on any of the ear cups or on the headset itself but you can just lift the actual arm to mute it.
The HS65 comes with a USB adapter (only meant for PC) with a sound card, which allow you to take advantage of the surround sound capabilities. You can activate it through windows Dolby Surround Sound or Corsair’s IQ software and adjust the EQ.
Unlike the other surround sound headsets HS65 emulates the sound very well and without sacrificing the overall sound quality. Inside of it are the 50 millimeter neodymium custom tuned drivers, which sound a bit lackluster and empty out of the box but you can easily fine tune the EQ settings using the software.
Steelseries Arctis Nova 1
Arctis Nova one is a budget friendly gaming headset that I couldn’t leave off this list because of the price to Performance ratio. This headset is quite simple and comes in both black and white color options.
The design is similar to the previous Steelseries headphones. It is a 3.5mm wired headset, which is compatible an array of different devices. I tested these with my PC.
In terms of construction, I like how the ear cups rotate to lay flat while sitting on your desk or around your neck.
In terms of comfort, personally I think the Steelseries very well designs their headset. This model also features comfort Max system (adjustable headband). The headset itself is super lightweight at only 236g.
The headband up top is separated from the actual top of the headset, which adjusts on its own and has different levels of the strap. So, basically the headband has different levels, auto adjusts itself and is always on top of your head.
This headset is also good for those who wear glasses. There is no pressure whatsoever and the comfort is good.
Nova one has an overall neutral but warm sound profile. You do get some extra bass that contributes to that warmth, and also helps with certain sound effects in games like footsteps.
The higher end (treble) takes a bit of a hit in Clarity, where it’s most noticeable in the details of vocals. However, that can all be fixed and enhanced with their Sonar software.
Nova one is using their clear cast Gen 2 mic which retracts back into the ear cup when you’re not using it. You can mute the mic by the mute toggle button on the back of the ear cup. Unfortunately, there is no light on the microphone to let you know when it’s muted.
