Guest writer Marianne ‘iNfusioN3’ Ruiz brings us a guide to gaming headsets.

There are vast collections of gaming headphones, as well as the brand names that come along with them. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand what the numbers mean for a gaming headset or any headset for that matter. I am not here to tell you BUY THIS ONE, because ultimately depending on your price range and level of activity you are involved in with the gaming community will help you decide which headset is a better fit. I have plenty of experience with many headsets due to the fact that I have been sponsored by many of these companies and have purchased well over 500 dollars worth of headsets during my gaming days. Let me give you a background of what I have done so you can better understand where I have received my knowledge on headphones and sound quality.

My name is Marianne Ruiz, I used to be what you would call a “professional” gamer. I played for Powers Gaming, Team EG, Acidreign, CB7, Panty-raid, Team Nonpareil, and so on and so forth. I have been sponsored by Intel, Monster Energy, Steel Series, Thermaltake, Razer, etc. During the time I began gaming I was in high school, and I quit my “professional” career once I began my junior year in college. I am studying to become an electrical engineer, I am at my last semester in which I only have basic courses to take (literature, political science, and all that jazz), so I already consider myself an electrical engineer. Electrical engineers create EVERYTHING that has POWER, cell phones, computers, sound cards, speakers, mouse, TV’s, microwaves, lamps, watches, speedometers, radios, etc.

This summer I will be working for Lockheed Martin at an internship as an electrical engineer in which I hope to land a job opportunity by the end of my internship. Taken from Wikipedia, Lockheed Martin is: United States aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. This means they create fighter planes, bombs, missiles, navigation systems, radars, renewable energy, and so many other devices and systems used in the military. Now that you know my background, let me continue with this guide for gaming headsets.

When searching for a good gaming headset, the order of operations in which I look at is the technical data, sound quality, price, and customer reviews on comfort level. I always look at headsets in this order, one being I want to know which headsets I want to be in a top level when the technical data comes into play. Customer reviews on the product are usually always the same, but I always scroll around till I find that one or two individuals who have purchased so many headphones and can elaborate on the difference between this specific headset and another headset (in which I hopefully have dealt with before). Then, I look at the price range out of all the ones I have not eliminated from my list and I see which ones I can afford. Next, I look at the customer reviews on the comfort level because if its summer and I have nothing to do then yes I will be head-shotting a lot and I need something I can wear for 2-3 hours without my ears hurting.

Technical Data:

Looking at the specification sheets can be rather frustrating, but that is why I am here to help. The following will explain each section that is important when reading about the specifications of each headset.

Frequency Response:

Taken from Wikipedia: The rate at which something occurs or is repeated over a particular period of time or in a given sample.

For sound the higher pitch the sound is the higher the frequency and vice versa. The average human can hear between 12 Hz to 20 kHz, but I have done several hearing “tests” and I can hear well better than the average human. My opinion is that most gamers who at least have competed in lans, cevo-m, cal-m, esea-m, have a good chance that their hearing is better than average. I always recommend trying to have the field of the frequency response to be lower than 10 Hz and higher than 21 kHz and if all else fails, then Google hearing tests and see what the lowest/highest frequency you can hear at.

Impedance:

Impedance means resistance, which means that the more resistance there is in a system the more power it takes for the system to function. Ideally there should be no impedance but that is ideal, in reality the super supreme headsets and speakers have a 1? (ohm) resistance while cheaper end products have anything higher than 200?’s. My recommendation is the lower the better, but when impedance is clashing with frequency response I would recommend having the frequency response as a higher priority than impedance.

MAX SPL: Decibels (dB):

Sound is measured in a unit known as decibels, this number given in the specification sheet indicates how much decibels the headset can withstand. MAX SPL is the maximum sound pressure level the headphones can withstand. So at 26 kHz let’s say the system is advertised to only 98 dB, but at 26 kHz it should be able to go up to 105 dB. This means that the headphones can go up to the range of 26 kHz but if they go up to that range, you will damage the headphones and you will forever hear them distorted or not as clear anymore. It is very important you see the levels especially if you don’t LAN that often and play most of the time in a quiet area, then lower decibels is fine but if you travel and are always competing then ones with higher decibels will be more ideal.

Distortion:

This is the measurement of how the headphones output the sound and whether or not it is reproduced exactly the same or is there a margin of error. The lower the percentage, the BETTER the sound is reproduced. The percentage means that’s how much is distorted so if its only 2% then that’s okay compared to 20%. Always look at distortion!!

To USB or Not to USB?

I always will recommend for sound cards, anything you can afford is better than onboard but NEVER use USB soundcards!!! USB stands for Universal Serial Bus; yes serial… are we in the 90’s? NO we use core i7 processors that can process a million times faster!! In a USB there are only 4 wires that are connected to the computer 1. Power (5 Volts), 2. Ground, 3. Data IN, 4. Data OUT. Data IN/OUT are sent serial, meaning one bit at a time, meaning very slow.

Parallel communication is supremely faster than serial, and by using a USB soundcard you are actually giving your gaming opponents the advantage over you when it comes to using your hearing to strategize over each other! So lesson of USB is to always buy an internal sound card and use that rather than a USB soundcard.

WTF is noise cancellation?

Dishing out the extra dough for noise cancellation is only recommended if you are actively participating in LAN tournaments and events. Noise cancellation is really just an extra microphone that gets any noise from around you (frequency), and then sends that same frequency to your headphones to cancel out the exterior frequency. If you have 2 sets of noises at the same frequency and they are output at the same time, they cancel each other out and you don’t hear either of them. This is good like I stated before, if you compete in tournaments and the environment around you is always noisy, if not though then it's a costly extra which doesn't have much use.

In conclusion I hope this bit of information and my knowledge has helped you in deciding what type of headset you will purchase. I would appreciate any feedback and constructive criticism for future articles if they present themselves.