How To Improve Your Gaming Skills: Headphones

 

I've always used headphones when I game; for me it's the only way to completely immerse my mind. I find they allow me to lose myself in the experience and forget about the many distractions that perpetually nag at my subconscious.  More than anything – and as many professionals will attest – headphones make me a more skilled gamer.

It all started way back in 2004 with Halo 2. I had just recently purchased my own Xbox after sharing one with my Dad for quite awhile. I grew tired of sharing the machine with him. He never really understood how 'sharing' was supposed to work. So, now that my Xbox was in my room and hooked up to my ancient Commodore 64 monitor, I needed sound. That's when I remembered that I had bought a pair of wireless Sennheiser headphones a few months earlier. I taped my broken headset to the headphones (anyone who didn't break the original Xbox's behind the neck plastic thing deserves an award), switched voice chat to speaker mode and started "pwning n00bz" in Beaver Creek. What I had essentially created was some sort of prehistoric version of today's modern Turtle Beach or Tritton gaming headsets.

Using headphones opened up a whole new world to me. Suddenly, I could hear exactly where my opponent's footsteps were. I could even pinpoint almost exactly what direction they were coming from. In many ways, this gave me an unfair advantage over my opponents. Even in single player games, I've always found that figuring out what direction an enemy is coming from through my headphones has helped me in a ton of games.

Eventually, I decided it was time to purchase some legitimate true surround sound headphones; stereo just wasn't cutting it anymore. That and the fact that my wireless Senheiser headphones were pretty much falling apart. So I bought the then top of the line console gaming headphones (this was beforeAstro headphones even existed I think) the Tritton AX360.

This was back in 2007 or 2008, so by modern standards they look a little clunky and dated. But wow, did these phones pack a punch. Instead of utilizing tradition subwoofers, a task that's somewhat hard to complete when shuving five speakers into a tiny little headphone cup, the AX360 used something Tritton dubbed, rumble bass. It was like I had a Nintendo 64 rumble pack strapped to my ears, utter bass prefection. I'll never forget the first time I heardCall Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare reverberating through my speakers. One thing still sucked about this headset though. They were heavy, bulky and the Xbox 360 chat feature was essentially just tacked on.

Recently, I decided it was time for a new headset (one of the speakers in my AX360 blew out). After doing some research I decided that Astro headphones were way out of my price range. This time around, I was more willing to settle for a simulated surround sound pair of headphones. This means that unlike my older Tritton AX360, these headphones wouldn't have 5 individual speakers in them. They'd be simple stereo headphones that utilize a special amplifier that decodes the audio signal and simulates surround sound in the headset.

After doing some research, I decided on the Turtle Beach X41 headset. I know Turtle Beach doesn't have the best reputation build wise, so I was rather hesitant. I managed to find an extremely cheap pair for only $90 on Kijiji. They usually retail for about $179.99 (I'm a student, I need to save all the money I can).

Although my fears about the X41's build quality was pretty accurate – they feel cheap and are basically completely made of plastic – they do offer significant advantages over my older AX360. First off, they're wireless, finally not having an awkward wire hanging from my headphones is great. They also offer a surround sound experience very similar to that of the AX360, even though they utilize a simulated surround sound system. They're equiped with a separate speaker that manages voice chat. All I need to do is turn the volume up with a separate dongle that plugs into my Xbox controller. With the AX360, voice chat is controlled with the same knob that controls the headphone's middle speaker, making adjusting voice chat volume rather awkward.

Tritton has fixed this issue with their newer wired true surround sound headset, the AX Pro and with their cheaper simulated surround sound headset, the AX 720. I considered buying both of these but just couldn't justify spending the extra money for a marginally better sound experience that was still wired. In the end, price and the fact that the Turtle Beach X41 were wireless, trumped all other factors.

The point of all this is that using a quality set of headphones can truly change how you game for the better. They allow you to hear and take advantage of countless audio features that you otherwise might miss. They also help with team communication and give a serious advantage when it comes to first person shooters (Why do you think all those MLG pros use them?). So, if you've never used a headset before for gaming, give one a try. You might just be surprised.  Headphones added an entirely new level to my usual gaming experience and will do the same for you.