Hi Guys, Today we will be taking a look at the new Xbox Wireless Headset. We will be going over the design, sound quality, isolation leakage, and mic performance as well as its connectivity and active features. Lastly, we will compare it to some models and how it holds up.
If you want to skip straight to a section, use the YouTube chapters feature. In the box, you will get a 1.5 ft USB-A to USB-C audio and charging cable along with a User Guide. If ever you want to connect the headset to a PC that does not have Xbox Wireless Connectivity, you will need to purchase Microsoft Wireless Adapter separately.
Otherwise, you can connect it via Bluetooth. The headset has a sleek design and has a good build quality. It’s mostly made of plastic and offers a similar look to the MicrosoftSurface Headphones. Overall, it is well-built and feels sturdy.
The headset has a black matte finish similar to an Xbox controller or console with a green accent on the earcups. The headband has a metal band inside and has faux leather padding. The mic is not retractable, but you can store it by wrapping it around the left ear cup when you are not using it.
We noticed that while testing it, the headset makes a small creaking noise around both earcups. The dials on the cup also make a faint grinding noise and you can slightly lift them, exposing a little bit of the earcup frame. However, this could just be our model.
So please let us know if you experience this too. As for comfort, it is light on the head as it weighs 0.69 pounds. It also has a clamping force of 0.8 pounds, which is the amount of pressure that the headset exerts on your head when you have it on.
Its low clamping force means that it shouldn’t be fatiguing to wear it for long gaming or music sessions This headset also has decent stability, which should be good enough for gaming, but it can fall off if you use it during moderate physical exercise.
Although the ear cups don’t have any range of motion, they feel fairly spacious thanks to their depth while the faux leather padding is nice and plush. However, the headset passably breathable as it has an average temperature difference of 7.0 Celsius.
Since it has an over-ear design, its earcups trap a bit of heat. This could be unpleasant if you intend to use it for physical activity but should not be troublesome while you game. The Xbox Wireless Headset has a very easy to use control scheme that provides great feedback. Because this is a gaming headset, it does not offer certain controls like Noise Cancelling or Talk-Through.
The lack of these features does not mean that it has a poor control scheme but that it’s optimized for gaming over casual use. The left dial is used for channel mixing. It makes a click to indicate when you’ve passed the middle setting and the dial stops when you’ve reached the minimum or maximum setting.
Similarly, the right dial on can be used to adjust the volume. On the left earcups boom mic, there is also a mic mute button with a light indicator to let you know when the mic is on. Above it is a green power button that when pressed for 4 seconds also acts as a Bluetooth pairing button.
The headset has different pairing chimes letting you know if you are connected via Bluetooth or Wirelessly to PC or Console. If paired to an Xbox console, it will power it on at the same time you turn on the headset. Before we touch Sound Quality.
The Xbox Wireless Headset has an extremely bass-heavy sound profile that could be a hit or miss, depending on your preferences. We tested it using the default “Game” EQ setting, which is the flattest EQ in its companion app. Since it has a very overemphasized bass range, some of it spills into the low-midrange, which can make mixes sound muddy.
The rest of the mid-range is well-balanced and neutral though. In the treble range, vocals and lead instruments are slightly veiled while sibilants like cymbals are piercing. In all, they have an over-emphasized bass while their treble is somewhat uneven compared to our target curve.
Its sound profile can also vary depending on the headset’s fit, positioning and seal. If you wear glasses like me, you may notice a bass drop when wearing the headset. Keep in mind that we tested it using the GameEQ, so if its sound is not to your liking, you can always customize it using its EQ to slightly reduce that bass and give you a closer neutral bass as shown on this graph along with the EQ changes made to obtain them.
That said, this headset offers great imaging. The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble. Both the Left and Right drivers are also well matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response so objects like footsteps are accurately placed within the stereo image.
Headphones and headsets create a passive sound stage that helps localize spatial cues in your audio around you. If you wish to learn more about this then click on the link here. The Passive Soundstage on the Xbox WirelessHeadset is poor, which is in part due to its closed-back design.
The soundstage can be perceived as unnatural and as if the audio is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed around you. If you prefer, it does offer virtual surround support like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones. Moving onto noise isolation.
This headset struggles to block out bass and mid-range noises, but it does a better job at blocking high pitches noises like a hum of an AC unit or a PC fan. Like I mentioned earlier, its fit, position and seal are not very consistent which could impact its isolation and leakage performances.
It also has a decent leakage performance so if you are someone who likes to game or listen to audio at higher volumes, it is unlikely that it would bother those around you. One of the areas that the Xbox Wireless Headset does a great job at, is recording quality.
This headset uses a flexible boom mic, which can slightly be adjusted. Your voice will sound natural and clear. However, the mic struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise around you in moderately loud environments.
One of the cool features this headset has to offer is that it can connect your phone and your pc or console at the same time using both Xbox Wireless technology and Bluetooth. In its Bluetooth mode, it offers a Line of sight Range of 117 ft in our testing facilities.
You may come across different results in your home environment. It also has 249ms of latency when connected to a PC. With that high latency, I would not recommend gaming on a PC via Bluetooth. It did have better performance on smartphones with 0ms on the iPhone and 12ms on Android though.
Keep in mind that different apps compensate for latency differently so depending on the ones that you use the latency could change. Luckily, when connected via Xbox wireless technology, it has a Line of Sight of 189ft and a non-BT wireless latency of 51ms.
So, if you are connected in this mode, you should be able to game with minimal audio delay. Keep in mind we tested this headset while connected to a PC so we can’t confirm whether the measured latency is similar when connected to the Xbox Series X | S, or Xbox One.
Now if you are someone that prefers to game via a wired connection, you can use its USB-A to USB-C charging cable to play audio while the headset charges. Using this connection will get you an audio latency of 69ms which is slightly higher than that of its non-Bluetooth Wireless latency.
Its 1.5-foot cable isn’t very long either, which is not very convenient, but you can always buy a longer cable separately if this is an issue for you. Also if ever you are connected wireless to a pc or console and decide to plug them to charge the USB audio will override and take priority.
If you do need to charge this headset, it only takes 3 hours to fully charge when drained. It’s advertised to have a 15-hour battery life but when tested, it lasted 19.1 hours. This great battery performance paired with its auto-off timer should be more than enough to last through several gaming sessions before needing to charge it again.
We talked earlier about how you can adjust the headset’s EQ using its companion app. You can also adjust the brightness of the mute light on the mic. It also offers auto mute, a feature that will mute your mic automatically if no voice is being picked up.
Mic monitoring controls adjust how much of your mic audio is heard by the headset, but we currently do not test for this. The Xbox Accessories app is available both on the Xbox or windows but unfortunately not available on android or iOS devices.
So overall, the Xbox Wireless Headsets is a good option to get if you want to pick up a more affordable wireless headset with a sleek design and wireless compatibility with Xbox consoles. It is more on the bass-y side of sound profiles but it can be tweaked using their companion software’s graphic EQ presets.
While its mic struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise around you, its recording quality is great so your voice will sound clear. If you prefer headsets with a more neutral sound profile and less bass out-of-the-box, then consider getting the SteelSeries Arctis 9x Wireless.
However, like the Xbox Wireless Headset, this headset’s sound profile could depend on its position, fit, or seal. That said, it also comes with good mic quality and will be able to perform well in noisy settings. Plus, it delivers 28 hours of continuous battery life and it can charge in 2.4 hours, which is less time compared to the Xbox’s one at 3.2 hours.
Now let’s compare this headset to its rival: the Sony Pulse 3D. The Pulse has a decently balanced but warm sound profile. Unlike Xbox Wireless Headset’s strong bass and thumpy, boomy sound, the PULSE’s bass is underemphasized.
It has better mids which frees vocal and lead instruments from harshness. On the other hand, its recording quality is not the best we have seen and could sound somewhat veiled and muffled. The mic also struggles to separate your voice from background sound.
Its battery life won’t last as long either, providing you with 13.4 hours while taking 3.3 hours to charge. It does, however, offer a passive analog connection with full compatibility to either console, Xbox or PlayStation. In comparison, the Xbox Wireless Headset won’t be compatible with Playstation 4 or 5 since it does not have an analog connection.
Depending on what I’m listening to I preferer a more neutral sound profile with a bit of roll-off on the bass, flat mids and a slight V-shaped treble. This is my preference. What type of sound profiles do you prefer? And What do you look for in a gaming headset?
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So this concludes the topic for Xbox Wireless Headset. That’s about it for me, I forgot to tell you something, If you’re enjoying this article, please make sure to share the article. If you have any questions, comment down below, and I’ll try my best to answer them.
