HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2013: Editor's Choice - Part 1

Best Gaming Headphones

Best Gaming Headphones

Headphones which can be classified as being intended for "gaming" need to not only handle movies and music, but must also possess excellent virtual surround sound capabilities and mimic 5.1 or 7.1 channels of audio. We focused on all of these characteristics when we tried to sieve out the best gaming headphones from this excellent group of candidates. The price bracket of our final seven shortlisted headphones range anywhere between S$150 and S$400; however, you'd be surprised that sometimes, the most expensive isn't necessarily the best.

Nominees:

• Armageddon Avatar Pro X9
• ASUS ROG Orion Pro 7.1
• CM Storm Sirius S 5.1
• Corsair Vengeance 1500 7.1
• Creative Recon3D Omega Wireless
• Razer Tiamat
• Roccat Kave 5.1

And the Winner Is...

After thoroughly testing the field, the battle for top spot was fought primarily between the Razer Tiamat and the Creative Recon3D Omega Wireless. The latter eventually won thanks to its fine balance of features, performance, and value. For the uninitiated, the product is actually a bundled set of wireless headphones and a dedicated USB sound card. Audiophiles generally scoff wireless headphones. But for gaming, cutting the cord makes sense. Not only is wireless connectivity convenient, removing the hassle of wires when gaming, the use of the 2.4GHz spectrum for connectivity by the Creative Recond3D makes the connection robust while offering good data transmission rates when compared with competing technologies such as Bluetooth. Furthermore, with the Sound Blaster Recon3D external sound card, the headphones are capable of meeting THX TruStudio Pro levels of surround sound quality (in other words: they sound great). In addition, a Scout Mode is provided to expand the soundstage for gaming. Its excellent rendering of audio directionality, actually helped us play FPS games with better proficiency.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.