- David and Maceo here.
We are going to talk about
the best gaming headsets under $100.
We tested 12 pairs for
sound quality, mic quality and design quality.
Before we dive into the actual tests,
if you want to skip right to our results,
you could just use the timestamps
in the description section below.
Let's dive in.
- It's almost like a shoe box design on the inside.
Nice color accents on the cable.
- [David] It looks like it's made for abuse,
but sometimes they just look like that.
- [Maceo] There is RGB on this, which is nice.
They're pretty comfortable.
They pinch more in the back.
- They're light,
but the pressure is on the top of my ear
more than the bottom.
- Oh yeah, whoa.
- You know what I mean?
- Oh yeah, whoa.
- You know what I mean?
Maceo likes the way that they look.
I don't.
- The steps are quiet and the gunshots are also quiet,
but they still have a little thumps,
so you can still hear them and they cut through the mix.
In game the sound in this headphone is very mellow.
There's not much excitement in the high end
or much sub in the low end.
It's very mid range, heavy.
- Cloud Alphas.
Break it open.
- They don't seem like they're going to
snap in half anytime soon.
- Yeah, that's for sure.
I don't like the action figure packaging.
- Yeah.
- It's not as cool.
Do you remember Red Box?
- I do.
- Wow.
- That was my childhood.
- Was it?
It's also kind of like the Marshall Amps.
It's called like the tolex.
- There is a little wobble in the plastic in the metal,
but that's like all headphones that have the metal
and the plastic have that feeling.
Right here in the joint.
- [David] Okay so like where it connects to the headband?
- It's not bad.
It's not squeezing too hard.
- Pretty even around the ears?
- Yep.
- I'm going to be surprised if
other ones are more comfortable than this.
- [Maceo] The surround sound was perfectly smooth.
It's definitely a headset you could wear
for a long period of time without getting your ears tired.
- [David] I think we gave up too soon, Maceo.
- [Maceo] Oh there's a mic.
- No I think it's a (indistinct).
- Oh, I thought that was a mic.
- It sounds like farting.
(Mr. Krabs farting)
- For its price point, it does not feel bad.
Cause I know it's on the cheaper side of all headphones.
There's not much creak.
It squeezes a lot on the bottom.
- [David] This is super sharp,
like right there.
- Yeah.
Little loose too on the,
it's sliding.
- I don't know.
I think that they feel kind of cheap.
- The surround sound was pretty solid.
The high end is very clear and crisp on these.
The gunshots and footsteps on this headphone
are very present, but they're very unclear.
Like there's enough thump and everything,
but it's just in a muddy sound.
- What do you think about Logitech, Maceo?
- I love their mice,
their headsets are very subpar.
- Subpar.
This is your grandmother's headset.
- Yeah.
- [David] I kind of like that there matte
and kind of solid looking.
There's no exposed wires.
So this is like cheaper plastic.
- It's just too loose.
Yeah.
- It's definitely like a little pincher at the bottom.
I'm not too crazy about the look of this either.
Like how it's kind of loose and just kind of like-
(David making gagging noise)
Good if every other headphone on earth is out of stock.
- The shields and the looting really stood out
against everything else while the gunshots just blended in.
However, the sound, the low and high ends
are very crisp and clear.
- For gamers by gamers.
- No consistency with the clicks.
Comfortable.
I will give them that.
That is comfortable.
Zero padding up top.
Clicks,
terrible.
- I think it's too loose for like that for me,
like if I shake my head.
I think it's very comfortable
and I don't think the headband is like,
it doesn't bother me.
- Oh really?
It bothers me more than the other ones.
- Does it really?
Okay.
- When it comes to things like the load-out drop
and the precision strike and all these other sound effects,
they have a very precise thump,
which kind of reverses the whole point
of where the thumps should be.
No high end, all low end like muffle sound.
With the gunshots, there's no high-end.
It just sounds like a low rumble.
- Best gaming headsets under a hundred bucks.
Let's start with number five.
- Best of emotions under hundred bucks.
Sleep on the couch.
- On the couch.
David Lynch.
- [Maceo] This is the Logitech G432 wired gaming headset.
- Now, you don't like this headset?
- I don't.
- I guess that's why it's number five in the list.
Why not?
- It's a terrible quality overall.
The feel of it is terrible.
Feels a good break in a second.
And there's a metal piece for the fasteners of the ear cups
that are just very sharp.
- Yeah, it's super sharp
and I really just don't like this design at all.
If I can injure myself on headphones.
It just feels cheap.
It's like Fisher-Price quality
with a mic that sort of flips up and down.
It doesn't sound good.
- Yeah, no.
The mic on this has a really loud sizzle
and white noise to it,
which is very annoying,
especially for your teammates who have to
sit there and listen to you complain
about missing all your shots in the game.
Check, check.
This is Logitech G432 gaming headset.
- But the sound quality is so bad
that if you don't want to hear them complain,
this might be the headset to get, right?
- It is, cause there's no high end or low end on these.
It is only mid frequencies, which sucks.
- Tell us what you really think Maceo.
Okay, these suck.
- Next number four.
- [Maceo] This is the
Razer Kraken Tournament Edition gaming headset.
Overall, it was pretty comfortable
and the sound was just terrible.
There was so much low end.
It was just muddy to the next level.
- Yeah for you to say there's too much low end,
is saying something to people.
- There was no high end in these.
You couldn't hear any thing above 5k
and it was just disgusting.
- [David Lynch] Were you able to
hear things clearly important?
- Oh yes.
So I guess hearing things clearly is important.
In 5k or like, we're talking about like
consonant, syllables, things that intelligibility,
things that make it easy to understand voices.
- Speaking in a language we can understand Mr. Scientist.
- So it's kind of important.
- And they were not the best quality either.
They had some decent metal pieces to them,
but it just was not it.
- Did not scream quality.
Yeah, not to me either.
All right, number four, number three.
Corsair.
- [Maceo] Void RGB Elite Wireless gaming headset.
- What'd you think?
- Overall it was pretty comfortable.
It looked a little funky
and it did not have the greatest mic.
There wasn't great voice isolation to it.
You could hear a lot of rumble in the background
and the sound was pretty overall flat.
There wasn't much high end, not too much low end,
but there was more of that
than compared to some of these other headsets.
- Yeah so like not a terrible choice
for under a hundred bucks.
- Not at all.
- [David] It's got that RGB little logo on the side,
of course.
- [David Lynch] Notorious.
- Yep, notorious.
Never miss a beat.
All right next.
Number two.
- [Maceo] It's the HyperX Cloud Stinger S
wired gaming headset, 7.1 surround sound.
America's number one selling gaming headset,
which I don't know if I would or would not believe that.
It seems pretty close.
- Well like every one of the headsets
was number one in some way.
- Okay, but if you want help, how am I going to win?
- For its price range, this is outstanding.
The sound was great.
The mic quality was better than these other headsets
that are $200, which was amazing.
And yeah.
- Yeah.
- It just didn't feel the most quality.
It feels cheap,
but the sound and the mic quality make up for that.
- If you zoom in here, Colin, our editor,
you can see that it has that
same kind of metal sharp headband.
- The plastic is thicker on these,
so you don't feel those as much as.
- As much, right.
I wasn't, you know,
it's under a hundred bucks though.
Who am I complaining, you know?
But a good pair of headphones.
Headphones, headsets.
Number one.
- [David Lynch] Going to be the bestseller.
(men chuckling)
- So, I guess this is the number one bestselling.
- [Maceo] It's the HyperX Cloud Alpha S gaming headset.
- [David] All right.
What'd you think?
Why is it number one?
- The comfortability was pretty great.
It was a little heavy,
but overall the mic quality and sound quality are great.
Everything is just well rounded.
- Yeah, it's a great pair of headphones.
Feels good.
- And for under a hundred bucks this is great.
- [David] Bass adjustment sliders
if you like a lot of bass.
Maceo likes a lot of bass,
so intelligibility you liked.
The design you liked.
- Yep.
- Mic quality you said?
- It was pretty decent.
There was a little rumble and clicks here and there,
but it wasn't anything that
your teammates would notice while playing.
- Okay.
- Is that important?
Do you care about your teammates?
- I mean, depends on the day.
- So those are the best gaming headsets
under a hundred bucks.
Leave a comment below.
Tell us what you thought.
- Yeah.
- Do you have any other pairs you want us to test
in future videos?
- Let us know.
- Maceo, I just want to thank
for being such an awesome gamer,
testing Call of Duty, Dolby Atmos testing.
David Lynch is clearly,
yep, there you go.
Doing a great job back there.
Thanks for watching.
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