Wired vs. Wireless Gaming Headsets: How to Make The Choice

Introduction

Welcome to this blog! This blog and website are all about creating the most ideal man cave, home theater, and gaming room set up. Everybody has different situations and setups. For this reason, this site is meant to be the ultimate resource regardless of the space you are working with.

Choosing between wireless and wired headphones can actually be a really easy decision.

Wireless headsets paired with strong Bluetooth sensitivity (3 Mbps or higher) are a better than wired headphones because it gives gamers cordless and latency free gaming experiences. Wired headphones are more affordable but limit the distance from which you can game on your device.

To give you the best understanding of wireless and wired headphones, see the below decision tree to help you understand what is best for you.

Table of Contents

How to Decide

When You Should Go Wired

When You Should Choose Wireless

The Headphones I use

Good Product Examples of Each Type

Why I Don’t Recommend the Bose QC25 Series

How to Decide

I created this flow chart to help you reach a decision with all the necessary information. The rest of this article will break down each element of this decision tree in more detail. If you want any additional resources regarding this topic specifically, see the related articles at the bottom of this one.

Is your price point within $100-$150? This is the best price that you want to pay for a wireless headphone. If you are not within this range at all, then I do not recommend getting a wireless headphone. Any price for a headphone under $100 needs to have good audio quality. Wireless headphones below this price will probably skimp on quality, durability, or other features.

They could break easily if you get a knock off brand. Both wireless and wired headphones can provide you awesome sound quality, but they have to be within this price range if we are being realistic. Of all the research I did, this was the sweet spot for what headphones should cost. You can always spend more than this recommended threshold and get great headphones, but the decision to purchase more expensive headphones is outside the scope of this article.

Do you already deal with a lot of clutter and wires on your desk? Some people have more than just chords on their desk. It’s easy to clutter your workspace above and below the table. Cord management can be a real problem if you have lots of devices that are part of your set up. Sometimes adding a wired headphone cord can be more overwhelming to the desktop space.

Do you have enough space where you can wear headphones and sit at a reasonable distance from the screen? Not everyone has the flexibility to have a set up in which they can connect headphones straight into their PC system. Some people’s computers are not even in the same room as the room they are gaming in. Things like this dramatically affect people’s purchasing decisions of whether or not to get a Bluetooth headphone.

Do you plan to use your headphones for other activities? People who call clients or need to talk on the phone for work can benefit from having the freedom of movement to get up from their desks and walk around the room. I am one of those people, so a wireless headphone is going to have more utility to me than just a cordless headset.

Do you need more freedom of movement when you game or do activities at your desk?

With all of these questions in mind, take a look at the below sections for more details on wired and wireless headphones. I already mentioned this, but I understand that some of these details are obvious and some of them may not be. It’s worth a quick read through just so you are aware of all the details that each type of product will have

Reasons You Should Get Wired Headphones

Wired headphones are always going to be less expensive than wireless headphones. They are also going to provide better audio quality for a cheaper price. If you go with a wireless headphone, you’ll likely be paying double the price of its counterpart. There is more demand placed on wireless headphones then wired.
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Wireless headphones have to be built in a way that gives them a good range without sacrificing audio quality. They also have to accommodate input lag from the game or the movie that the user is watching. This all increases the price of a wireless product. Wired headphones don’t have to deal with this, so companies can invest more money into the audio quality and comfortability.
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You could easily spend the same amount of money on wired headphones but get different customization features such as a mixer dial or a headphone stand. Wired headphones give you a little extra money to save, which can be spent on other accessories to make your gaming set up even better. You could still do this with wireless headphones, but you will still be paying more money than if you were to go with just wired.
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You won’t need to charge wired headphones. If you forget to charge them or for some reason you play video games for more than 3 to 4 hours, then this can be a major interruption to your experience. Sometimes it’s just a mental handicap because you’re always aware of the draining battery life of your headphones every time you use them.
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If you listen to music on your headphones on your way back home to play video games, you might have to think twice about how much you use them during the day if you want them to be charged for your gaming session.

Reasons You Should Get Wireless Headphones

Wireless gaming headphones are better than wired for all of the opposite reasons. A lot of people make the argument that audio quality is reduced with Bluetooth headphones, but for the right price, you can still get the same quality of the audio. If you go to much on the budget end, then you will notice a decline in audio quality and input lag.
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Wireless headphones have less clutter and you won’t have to worry about chords bending or breaking. Ultimately, you can expect more durability from wireless headphones because there is less that can be damaged.
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Wireless headphones give you better freedom of movement as opposed to wired headphones. They are easier to transport during travel and you can easily adjust your set up without having to worry about connecting to your computer or desktop. A lot of people like to walk around and talk on the phone, and you can have this utility with wireless headphones as well.
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Wireless headphones give you a greater range of flexibility for viewing distance. There were a lot of times where I had to sit too close to the screen because my headphone cord wasn’t long enough. Sometimes you get headphones where the cords are too long and they become tangled. Cord management is one less thing you’ll have to worry about with wireless headphones. If for some reason you decide to move your gaming sessions to your TV living room, you won’t have to worry about connecting to your computer which is in a different room potentially.

Ultimately, they will make you feel more productive because of the freedom of movement that they give you. You also can easily adjust your set up as mentioned earlier but you won’t have to worry about cord management. Wireless headphones are great for other activities such as working out or listening to music while traveling.

The Headphones I Use [and Love]

The above pic is of the Sennheiser Momentums. I’ve used these for several years and they’re still going strong. I got them when they were on sale a while back because I wanted something better than earbuds. I’ve used these as a runner and during multiple workouts at the gym, but they also work great for gaming. Whether it was on PS4 or my gaming PC, my friends were always able to hear me well with the mic and the cord length wasn’t too long. I still use them today whenever I want really good sound quality and can’t use my external speakers.

As you can see from the picture, they are “on-ear” headphones, which means they don’t cover your entire ear. You won’t need to worry about sound bleed and my fiance can’t hear me with them on even when I’m playing a loud shooter game (I should probably not put them on full blast). Some people want headphones to cover their entire ear to feel more immersed and to trap the sound. If that’s the case then I would go with something “on-ear.” These headphones don’t need to cover your entire ear for them to feel and sound amazing.

Any cons? The only critique I have to these headphones is that they aren’t super comfortable for wearing glasses. They press against my temples that makes wearing glasses uncomfortable for long periods of time. I don’t really need glasses when I game so this isn’t a major hindrance to me but it is worth noting. If you do have a hard time finding good headsets or headphones, check out this article on the best headsets for gamers with glasses. I researched and put together a list of the top 5 I would personally recommend.

There is a wireless version of these headphones if that’s a feature you’re interested in. The wireless version is made from memory foam which would actually be more comfortable than the on-ear headphones in my opinion. Memory foam is the most comfortable material a headphone or headset can have. The wireless version isn’t that much more expensive, and for its current price, you won’t be losing sound quality because neither of these models is a budget product. This is me just talking from personal experience with both memory foam and other material types.

Other Good Product Examples

Some of these are considered gaming headsets. The headsets come with a built-in mic and some other features more specific to gaming. Some gaming headsets let you adjust the chat audio with respect to the game audio. Take a look below if you’re looking for a pair of these.

Wired

ATH M50x

These ones have better audio quality than the first because of their 45mm aperture drivers. It’s definitely more of a price jump but you’re also getting the quality you pay for with these ones. This was one of the most recommended from the Reddit forums I was on. I follow a DJ vlogger on Youtube and he only talks about using Audio-Technica. They make great products, even the studio recorders seem to think so.

Razer Kraken

All three of these headphones in this list are highly rated for comfort. But these are the most comfortable. These are great entry-level headphones for gaming with friends or alone. They’re not super expensive but they are rated well for durability. It’s hard to come accross a pair for this price that doesn’t break easily but these are the ones. You’ll likely use these for gaming or watching movies, probably not for working out.

Wireless

HyperX Cloud Flight- best for glasses wearers

Comfortability is one of the main takeaways with this one as well. It’s nice that a company really puts effort into this feature instead of skimping out and investing in mic quality or something less impactful. The comfort these headsets provide allows you to actually game for hours on end without any interruptions.

The soft padding will be easier on the frames of your glasses and won’t press against your head. There’s a lot of good reviews that talk about this aspect which is why it made the list.

Cloud Flight is a small jump in the price range from the ones mentioned above. The FlightX is a wireless series so you don’t have to deal with more cords. I put this one in here because it uses the same comfortable material as the Alpha 1. HyperX is well known for having a comfortable memory foam with all of their products.

You’ll enjoy the amount of bass they provide. They have 50mm drivers which give you enhanced bass reproduction (this helps them further emphasize low tones).

Sennheiser HD 599

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Sennheiser was one of the best brands I could have gone with. The above model is an extremely highly rated product they produced a couple years ago. Since then, this model of headphones has been one of the highest rated on the Reddit gaming community. If you can’t already tell, I tend to go to them to see the top recommendations. People on those forum pages are really helpful. These are also the next set of headphones I’m considering getting. Senneheiser is definitely going to be my personal recommendation since I’ve had a really good experience with their headphones already.

These ones also won’t break the bank. They go for just around $200 on Amazon. The battery life on these is amazing. You’ll only need to charge these once a week even after moderate gameplay or music listening. The only thing with these is that they’re not the best for people with large ears or a big head.

Why I Don’t Recommend the Bose QC25

I absolutely loved these headphones…for the time that they worked. When I was going through a lot of my old headphones I came across the Bose QC25. I remember how comfortable they were for my head. My brother and I absolutely loved these for the time that they worked, and that’s the problem. They don’t work that long. I thought maybe it was just because my brother and I got a faulty product. We didn’t even get a full year of use out of them before the noise cancelling feature or audio in one of the earpads broke.

I looked at online reviews to see if other people had this problem and unfortunately they did! You might see some people on Youtube do reviews of these headphones right after they open them out of the box. Bose generally makes great headphones but they really dropped the ball on this one. The Bose QC25 just doesn’t have any durability. For some reason, everyone who purchased these headphones swears up and down that they’ll just one day die- and that day comes a lot sooner than you expected. Bose makes other great models that are well-reviewed by the audiophile community, but not for this product model.

Additional Resources

Linus Tech Tips: I’m not sponsored at all by this guy but I do really like his expertise and authenticity. He has a TON of useful videos that talk about home theater and gaming setups. Whether you want more in-depth details on purchasing headphones, what the best gaming headsets are, or whether or not a curved monitor is a good option for gamers, then he’s got you covered! He’s one of the first people I look at when researching gaming products for myself. He’s a no-BS guy and he’s able to explain technical stuff in a way everyone understands.

Jims Review Room on Youtube: He has a bunch of random reviews on the most random stuff. But, if you are looking to buy a pair of headphones, he most likely will have it on there already. I don’t know how he’s able to cover so much content on so many different topics, but most of the headphones I’ve researched have also come up on his channel. It’s worth doing a quick search on his channel if you want a super comprehensive review of a specific product.

Conclusion

The decision to go with a wired or wireless headphone will ultimately come down to personal preference. It’s a matter of identifying what features you want your audio device to have, all while giving you good game and mic audio. If you haven’t already noticed, I personally prefer to have headphones that can be used for activities other than gaming. This is one of the few reasons why I tend to stay away from “gaming headsets” specifically. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good products in this category, they’re just harder to find and a lot of them are knock off brands. If I’m going to invest in a good pair of audio devices, then I want to be able to use them for more things than just gaming (it’s hard to use “gaming headsets” for working out).

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out at entertainmentden.ns@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to respond. I’m currently taking article or topic suggestions so be sure to send those over if you have any of them. I post articles on a regular basis so be sure to check back every now and then for the next article. A lot of these topics have been headphone-heavy but these are also things I’ve been looking at because I know I’ll need a new pair soon. My Sennheisers are still going strong but they’ve also been used for more than 4 years!