Kind of a Big Deal

Gaming audio - I like sound. SteelSeries, Astro and TRITTON

I have no idea why but while working for Destructoid I developed a love of gaming headsets. I seem to be tweeting a lot about the various headsets I own as of late and when people ask me about them I find it hard to explain why I love or loath them in 140 characters or less. So here is my random thoughts on some of my gaming headsets that I use most commonly;

SteelSeries Siberia V2 - Now first of all I probably own more SteelSeries headsets than necessary; Besides the Siberia V2s I have the Siberia ear buds, the Siberia neckband, the Specturm 5XB wired and the Spectrum 7XB wireless which is a bit of an over kill as I pretty much only use the Siberia V2s.

Personally I love the Siberia V2s design and I also think its the best design SteelSeries have at the moment (but my God the new Flux range looks good). I personally rock the original white colour but since I got these nearly 3 years ago a ton of other colours and updated versions have been released, so if you are feeling ostentacious at the checkout you can go pretty wild. 

Unlike a lot of other massive headsets these actually look good when you wear them and have struck a good balance between fashion and functionality. I will happily wear my V2’s out in public, love seeing everyone use them in the professional gaming scene and the fact that the microphone is retractable (as opposed to one you remove and loose) is an added bonus.

They sound pretty damn good and the microphone is also great quality, while the V2’s aren’t compatible with console gaming they are with portable devices such as iPhones, which I do find important. On top of that SteelSeries products are damn durable (I treat mine terribly and they don’t seem to break), have a pretty damn good price point (with plenty of options for your budget) and as a company do so much for the EU gaming scene.

Also, if you care about that kind of thing I pretty much swear by SteelSeries Swift Keyboard and Kinzu mouse. 

Astro A30 - Ok, Straight up I bloody love how these look. The majority of gaming headsets are (for some unknown reason) bloody massive and that includes the Astro A30’s bigger brother, the Astro A40 headset. The A30s are the perfect size and design which means you can wear them pretty much everywhere, all the time and feel damn good about wearing them too; plus being able to customise the tags you put on them is such a brilliant added bonus. 

The sound quality on these is almost unbelievable and when I used them for the first time I was in utter shock. However, unless you are will to splash the extra cash for a mix amp, they will not work with consoles. Plus if you don’t spend that bit more and go wireless you will find that a spaghetti junction will appear next to your Xbox which is very annoying. In fact the wired mix amp annoyed me so much with all its cables that until I got the wirless one I pretty much only used my TRITTON headset or the SteelSeries 7XB headset when playing consoles.

While the A30s sound the best and look the best the price point is more than double that of SteelSeries or TRITTON which is crippling as the headset, the mix amp and custom tags (plus a rechargeable battery, which I assure you that you will want) will set you back over £200. However, if it helps the packaging on this product is amazing and it well worth displaying on its own (which I do).

TRITTON Gears of War performance headset - Let’s get one thing clear, while this headset is actually really comfortable there is no possible way to look cool wearing this and I’m not even going to bother trying.

When I first plugged this headset in, turned up the volume on Gears of War and got playing all I can say is OHMYGODTHISSOUNDSLIKEWOOOOAH, I was seriously impressed and they beat my expectations by 200% as until this point my heart was pretty much dedicated to SteelSeries and Astro (I know, I’m such an audio slut). I was amazed by the quality of the sound; it can support amazingly high volumes and deep bass without any distortion and if you want a real pro- tip crank that volume up and check out Closer by Nine Inch Nails - that is a senstation.

Sadly this headset is a USB headset which means I can’t take the headset away from my console or PC which is frustrating but TRITTON have priced this particular headset in the same range as the SteelSeries Siberia V2’s which is pretty competive.

However, if you follow this kind I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for their new Warhead headset, which is the first ever truly wireless gaming headset. I saw it at E3 and it looks and sounds amazing - I NEEEEEEEED IT.