Advice/Suggestions on headphones or earbuds while listening to voices in the same room

ShroudedScribe
2025-11-30T20:21:27Z

Scenario: I am frequently playing video games with my partner, and we have our PCs side-by-side. I am looking for a comfortable set of headphones or earbuds that will also make it easy to hear each other so we can talk while gaming.

Main priorities:

Openness / Ability to hear physical surroundings

Comfort for long wear duration (I wear glasses, which rules out most over-the-ear)

Budget

Nice to haves:

Audio quality decent enough for gaming (doesn't have to be 3D positional or anything)

Audio quality acceptable for listening to music while playing some games (but nowhere near audiophile level, not expecting much bass from something light)

Wireless (but not against a wired option - can be USB or 3.5mm since this will be used exclusively with my PC)

I've really only ruled out one thing: I'm not interested in bone induction headphones. I tried out a pair of JLab JBuds Frames that sit on your glasses, and while they aren't bone induction, the pressure against that area of my head, combined with nothing in my ears, would give me a headache after an hour or two. I suspect I'd have a similar issue with bone induction.

In a world that seems to prioritize noise cancelling, my search for other options has been inconclusive. There's a lot of negative reviews about comfort in options like the Cleer ARC series and Baseus clip-on styles. I found some of the suggestions in a previous thread on bone induction headphones to be interesting, but nothing seems to meet all of my criteria perfectly.

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Comments: 21