19
votes
Low/no latency wireless headphones for PC - Recommendations
I need to replace my Logitech G935s, the plastic on the top broke on me. Ideally I would replace with something with:
- more battery life
- better sound stage
- well built/premium feel
It's very hard to tell what is good out there - with so many options, and my concern is if I just buy any bluetooth enabled headset it will introduce audio latency which isn't something I can live with in games. But I cannot stand having a cord attached that gets all twisted up.
I'm not tied to it having an attached mic, as I can buy one separately but its a plus.
Anyone out there have any good recommendations? What does everyone else use?
I kind of gave up on wireless headphones, and gaming headsets in general. It just seemed exceptionally hard to find good ones.
My preferred setup these days is a good pair of high quality headphones and Antlion's wireless ModMic. The ModMic came with extra magnets, so I actually have multiple pairs of headphones that I use it with.
Popular high quality headphones for gaming:
These headphones and their peers will last decades if taken care of. Replacements for parts that wear out, like the ear pads and headband, are easy to source.
Modmic is a solid recommendation. I have one in my bag at all times. While I recommend the AIAIAI in this thread, at my desk I will probably never move away from a wired pair of headphones for the same reasons. There's simply no way to beat wired for sound quality, latency, and customizability.
While I personally haven't tried the DT-700 or DT-900 I do use the DT-1990 pro's for gaming and couldn't be happier, but pretty expensive and probably wouldn't buy them solely for gaming.
As for the HD-600's I'm not exactly sure I would recommend them for gaming unless its strictly PC gaming with a DAC/AMP as they aren't the easiest headphones to drive. The Sennheiser HD 598's are probably a better choice. While they aren't as accurate, marginally, they are more comfortable (longer gaming sessions), cheaper, and easier to drive.
I use wired Sennheisers as my daily driver, and I'm a big fan for the reasons you mention (sound quality + durability/repairability)... but for anyone considering it, I would strongly caution against their bluetooth offerings in particular, given the thread we're in.
I got a pair of their Bluetooth headphones three years ago, and they were a buggy mess that were slow to pair (10+ seconds?!) and would periodically drop connection (to phone, computer, and car). They didn't play nice with bluez, and liked to randomly switch to a low-energy A2DP profile and refuse to swap back. There were several rounds of firmware upgrades available that probably would have fixed some of that, but the only option to upgrade firmware was through Sennheiser's proprietary mobile app.
In a stunning display of professionalism, their iOS mobile app's firmware upgrade process was broken, and had been broken for months, with no word of a fix in sight. I contacted support asking if I could send them in, and they told me they couldn't do that, and I should find an Android device instead.
So buyer be warned: the software side of Sennheiser is an ugly, evil twin that does not match the quality of the hardware.
Sennheiser's product line ranges from $20 supermarket earbuds to $50,000 monster cans. As a result their name alone doesn't mean a whole lot.
These were $3XX PXC-II, so not discount hardware by any stretch. I feel relatively comfortable asserting their Bluetooth lineup is crappy though, given that all their offerings in that line shared the same firmware codebase* and updater apps.
Turns out they never fixed the app, either: https://old.reddit.com/r/sennheiser/comments/im3169/pxc550ii_firmware_updates/j9ouurv/.
As you identified, Bluetooth is really not good for any of your criteria. There are some good suggestions here, but AIAIAI TMA-2 STUDIO WIRELESS+ probably has the best latency and sound quality, is made for real-time applications (live musical performance).
I’m going to go against the crowd and say not go for anything Logitech, at least when audio is concerned. I’ve had three different Logitech headsets, of which were two different models, and the longest any have lasted me were just under a year. The only good thing I can say about them were that the battery life was good.
I had issues with the mic not being detected (even with the Logitech software being installed and reinstalled several times, issues with audio being choppy (the wireless adapter was less than 5 feet away with nothing blocking it), and the build quality was terrible every time (creaking right out of the box, and something breaking off soon after). Their battery life was great, but everything around them felt cheap, even though they cost north of $100 USD.
I ended up moving to a wired blue yeti mic, and just use my bluetooth Bose QuietComfort 35s. I recognize that setup would cost most people more than $300 dollars, but I personally already had the headphones, so a high quality microphone was within my budget.
If you prefer an all-in-one solution, I fully understand, I would personally just stay away from Logitech. My experience was horrible. And this is coming from a guy with two of their mice and one of their high end wireless keyboards.
This is slightly off topic, but I have a Logitech G Pro Wireless gaming mouse that had problems with the click switches after about 8-12 months. I was able to stave off the problem by clearing out trapped dust (suggested by their tech support), which worked... until just outside the RMA period. At that point it became obvious that the switches were just going bad, and frequently having it in my bag without a dedicated clamshell case didn't help.
I ended up relearning how to solder and put new switches on it, plus got a cheap backup mouse I take with me on the go while this one stays at my desk. To this day I've had no more issues, luckily! It really surprised me to learn that they cheaped out so much on the switches that were supposed to be for a premium quality mouse.
I currently use a Steelseries Arctis Nova 7 and I'm really liking it. Solid build quality, good sound and long battery life (38 hours). No perceivable audio latency.
Bluetooth latency is pretty good if you can use a low-latency codec. I use Bluetooth headphones with Aptx-LL all the time for watching movies (where bad A/V sync really bothers me) and it's super workable.
There aren't a ton options for headphones with these codecs, but there are some out there. I personally do a weird thing and use Sennheiser 6XXs that I've modified to have a Fiio BTR5 semi-permanently attached. I'm pretty happy with that, but if you're not into tinkering you'd definitely be better off with normal headphones.
There's also a bit of an issue on the source side of things with these codecs — I think it's pretty tricky/impossible to get Windows to use these codecs. It works out of the box on Linux (on the off chance that helps), or you could get an external Bluetooth audio transmitter that supports it and hook it up to the line out on your computer.
Sticking to Bluetooth over some proprietary RF thing might be kind of nice if you want to be able to use them with your phone or whatever. If you know only want to use them for your computer a regular gamer headset might make more sense, but it might be worth looking into this stuff if you want something more general purpose.
I also use a FiiO BTR5 with HD 6XXs, and I can confirm that they work great. I tried half a dozen other wireless headphones before going with the BTR5, and the 6XXs blew them out of the water as to comfort and sound quality.
For the Windows codec issue, I personally use an Avantree Oasis instead of my MB transmitter, which lets me select the codec and has much better range, as well. I think the FiiO Control app lets you disable individual codecs, as well, which should work.
Wow, I use the same transmitter too. Pretty crazy to me that there's other people doing the same weird specific thing I do.
But yeah, I think this approach does work really well if you're willing to accept things being a little more complicated in exchange for making fewer compromises on the sound side of things.
This likely miss on the sound stage, but I'm extremely happy with my Turtlebeach Stealth 700 Gen 2 headphones. They offer dual connectivity:
A wireless dongle for gaming/low latency
Bluetooth for connecting to a phone.
Both devices can play at the same time, so you can have game audio fast while listening to music on your phone.
In general, you'll need something with a usb dongle.
I did the whole gaming headset thing for a while, and I ended up switching to Bluetooth headphones and condenser mic. It's a lot more expensive but I much prefer the experience. I went with a HyperX Quadcast and Sony XM5s. I don't really notice any lag, due to only using the headphones for sound about both sound and voice.
Before this, I had the Corsair Virtuoso. I believe they have a model with Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz now so that you can switch between your phone and PC, but what I liked the most is that they look like regular cans, especially when you remove the mic. Sound and mic quality we're also decent (pretty good for a gaming headset).
If you're still okay with the Logitech headsets, I can recommend the G733. It's a great headset, has a detachable microphone (I use a Blue Yeti, so the mic was superfluous), and I haven't had an issue with them yet.
If you want a different company, I can say that the SteelSeries Arctis 7 is a great headset. The only reason I switched from that to the G733 is the interference I had, which I attribute to it not being the only Arctis 7 in the house (I think the dongles may have crossed signals. I can't be sure, but switching to a Logitech fixed it, so twelve of one, half dozen of the other.)
Neither headset is Bluetooth, they both have a proprietary dongle. No Bluetooth was pretty much my hill to die on, for much the same reasons as you. Also, both will work while charging, so if you can stand wired for a short while, you don't have to worry about accidentally forgetting to charge when not in use.
I've got a set of Arctis Pro Wireless and I think they'll tick all your boxes. Lossless/no latency audio over a dedicated connection + bluetooth simultaneously. The wireless connection is strong enough that I can be 3 or 4 rooms away from my desk before audio starts to cut out. They've got a very sturdy build - I've had mine as daily gaming and work-from-home setup for almost 3 years with no build issues at all. They come with 2 batteries, one that charges in the base station while the other is in your headset. They last about 2 days of continuous use on a charge, and then recharging is a 15 second matter of swapping the batteries. I don't even need to take the headset off to swap anymore. Audio quality is good, bordering on great. They're certainly not audiophile grade, but they're a step above any other 'gaming' headsets I've tried.
I have had these for 2 years and they have been great. Logitech G733
So I'm a bit of an audio enthusiast and would potentially have some recommendations, but it really depends on your budget. Can you tell me your budget? That really dictates how many of your criteria would reasonably be matched.