It offers decent stereo sound, an easy setup and a quality mic, plus it gives you a taste of Sony’s Tempest 3D AudioTech. The plastic build quality is a bit off-putting and the 12-hour battery life runs out fast, but otherwise this is a solid accessory that offers a lot for its $99 / £89.99 / AU$159 price point. It offers decent stereo sound, an easy setup and a quality mic, plus it gives you a taste of Sony’s Tempest 3D AudioTech. The plastic build quality is a bit off-putting and the 12-hour battery life runs out fast, but otherwise this is a solid accessory that offers a lot for its $99 / £89.99 / AU$159 price point. While it’s not without problems – its 12-hour battery runs out fast, its build quality isn’t the best and the 3D effect does take some tuning to get right – the Pulse 3D is a rock-solid PS5 headset and one that we’d recommend you pick up when you finally get your hands on the console. That said, if you’re looking for some alternatives, you could check out the Turtle Beach Recon 200 that’s compatible with the PS5 and priced at only $49.99 / £29.99 / AU$77.99, however you’ll be making a sacrifice in the sound performance department and overall feature set. The cans themselves house medium-sized 40mm drivers and the clamping force of the headphones – i.e. how much pressure the cups put on your head – is just enough to keep them on without them falling off. Sure, going for silk and metal might’ve made them a bit cosier on the ears and sturdier, but the pleather stays relatively cool and comfortable after extended use and the plastic, while definitely not ideal, does keep the cost of the headset down.
If you’re planning on buying a pair of headphones you can take with you on the go, the PlayStation Pulse 3D Wireless Headset isn’t going to be it. You can also plug the dongle into a PC’s USB port if you want to use it there, but you won’t get surround sound that way.
Of course, what you’ll really want to buy the Pulse 3D Wireless for is its compatibility with Sony’s new Tempest 3D AudioTech that it’s implementing in all its first-party games that give them a more realistic and immersive sound quality. The list of games that support 3D Tempest AudioTech is fairly limited at the moment – in fact, it’s just Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Astro’s Playroom, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Demon’s Souls – but you can also expect support for Gran Turismo 7, Returnal, Destruction AllStars, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon Forbidden West, Resident Evil Village and more later down the road.
As the de facto PS5 headset, the Pulse 3D Wireless should be one of the first accessories you buy for the new console as it enhances the experience and allows you to talk with friends. While the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset does provide you the best bridge to Sony’s new Tempest 3D AudioTech, the results aren’t going to blow you away. If that sounds like you, too, you might want to wait for a longer-lasting headset to come out – or at the very least, keep the USB-C charging cable by your console at all times as a reminder.
Sony PlayStation Pulse 3D Wireless Headset review
Designed to tap into Sony’s proprotory 3D Audio Tempest engine that targets more immersive sound when gaming, the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset makes for a compelling first-party accessory for your PS5. It’s not as sleek as higher-end wireless headphones, like the Sony WH-1000XM4 , but equally for the price, the Pulse 3D headset is surprisingly refined. This already makes the Pulse 3D a strong choice for PS5 owners who are put off by the traditional overly elaborate and brightly-lit ‘gamer’ aesthetic.
This feels like a consequence of Sony prioritizing the headset’s looks, since having the cramped controls means the outside of both ear cups are left plain.
It took me a long time to learn to do this consistently, since the limited gaps between the identical-feeling buttons make it hard to figure out where your fingers are. You can technically do this without wearing the headset as the LED flashes in different patterns to also show you a rough percentage.
Comparing this to the Audeze Penrose, a much more expensive headset, it was clear that the Pulse 3D isn’t quite as powerful in general, particularly when it comes to the low end of the mix. As you’d hope from 3D audio headphones, there was a well-designed surround effect, even though the Pulse 3D isn’t primarily designed for music or for use with a PC.
After recording myself speaking through the Pulse 3D on a voice note app, I too would agree I sounded perfectly audible, with little to no popping. When sound behaves like it does in real life, coming at you from multiple directions instead of just in stereo, the game world makes more sense, and you can accept the soundscape as normal and get on with playing. Some inferior surround-sound headsets I’ve tried just make everything sound distant, but this wasn’t an issue for the Pulse 3D on the PS5. While the name of the headset sounds like it’s a unique feature, keep in mind you can access the PS5’s 3D Audio system with any pair of wired or compatible wireless headphones.
Sony promises 12 hours of battery life from the Pulse 3D, and that seems pretty accurate from my experience having to charge it twice a week after spending my evenings replaying WipEout Omega Collection. It’s a common connection and filling up the headset’s battery only takes a short amount of time, even when plugged into a low wattage power source such as one of the USB ports on the PS5 itself.
The wireless adapter means you’re able to easily switch the Pulse 3D between PS5 and PS4 consoles, or to Windows or Mac devices. I was plagued with constant disconnects during both video calls and gameplay on two separate days, but I’ve been unable to replicate the issue since.
If you are afflicted with disconnects, or have simply forgotten to charge up the battery, then you have the option of connecting a 3.5mm jack cable for audio-only use. It makes for a good back-up option if you’ve forgotten to charge the headset, even while gaming since the DualSense controller features a 3.5mm port that you can route the audio through. If you aren’t looking for a gaming headset with all the possible bells and whistles, the Pulse 3D delivers the basics, on the whole, at their most finely tuned. Sony’s making a great case for buying extra PlayStation-branded gear with this handsome, great-sounding pair of wireless headphones, even if it’s not too hard to get much more impressive performance if you spend a little more for something like the Steelseries 7P .
Sony PULSE 3D Wireless Headset review
With a boatload of onboard controls and a black and white aesthetic to match the PlayStation 5, this headset angles to be the premier wireless companion to your living room’s newest addition. Editor’s note: this Sony PULSE 3D review was updated on May 11, 2021, to include a microphone score, based on our reader feedback poll.
The frame is made entirely of rigid plastic, with a rubberized suspension band that hits a slightly looser tension than its predecessor’s conventional headband, but still feels secure.
In fact, the whole headset isn’t all that accommodating to larger heads—the suspension band doesn’t allow for that much movement and there’s no way to change that.
The PULSE 3D Wireless Headset is more comfortable than its predecessor, but if you don’t fit into a rather narrow size range it won’t feel like it. The headset doesn’t struggle to achieve a decent seal around the ear, and sports a lot of on-ear controls, so you won’t need to look through your PlayStation 5’s menus to make adjustments very often.
On the left ear alone, the headset sports buttons and switches for controlling volume, game and chat balance, microphone monitoring and muting, and power. This kind of compatibility isn’t a huge deal—the PS5 is definitely the main platform here—but it can be a little jarring to turn down the volume on your PC and hear no difference in your headphones.
This cable expands compatibility to any platform with a headphone jack including mobile devices and consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X (through the controller).
Again, the quality of the gaming experience with the Sony PULSE 3D Wireless Headset varies depending on a lot of factors. If the headset fits well on your head and ears, it’s very comfortable, and very well suited to long multi-hour gaming sessions, though you may find yourself recharging it more often than you’d like. Gaming on the PlayStation 5, the headset handles the varied soundscape of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales very well—that includes the console’s 3D audio feature.
Part of the appeal of the PlayStation 5 Tempest audio processor is that it works with most gaming headsets without issue. In music, frequency response like this means the sounds of cymbals and some strings may be hard to hear in songs that feature intense bass.
Most of the funky instrumental parts come through clearly in Know That I Know by Lake Street Dive, but the higher pitched guitar strumming and plucking that punctuates a lot of the song often gets lost when you’re listening with the Sony PULSE 3D Wireless Headset.
If your home environment is pretty quiet, that may not be a big deal—it might even be nice to know you probably won’t miss any doorbells wearing this.
People in louder environments will have to crank up the volume to drown out outside noise; and folks, that’s how you get ants noise-induced hearing loss. This is especially a shame, given that the PULSE 3D lacks a boom microphone and a lot of gaudier design flourishes found in other gaming headsets—two aspects that often draw unwanted attention when using it outside the home. It represents a notable improvement over the PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset, with a much better microphone and build that’s more comfortable for more people.
Sony PlayStation Pulse 3D Wireless Headset review
Sony’s so-called Tempest Engine does all of the hard work so that any standard pair of wired headphones can deliver immersive 3D sound when plugged into the DualSense controller. Sony has decided to visually tie the Pulse 3D headset to the controversial design of the PS5, opting for the same white finish for the headband as on the faceplates of the console. They include a rocker to adjust the balance between game audio and chat, a switch for turning monitor mode on or off (useful for ensuring you don’t speak too loudly), volume, mute and power on/off. There’s no button to enable or disable the 3D audio feature as there was with the Platinum Wireless Headset, but that’s because the tech is built in more at a system level.
Battery life is 12 hours, which isn’t huge by Bluetooth headphone standards but should cover even the longest of gaming sessions. Surprisingly, despite all of the additional tech on board, the Pulse 3D headset more than stands its ground against sub-£100 wired headphones in most areas.
Dynamics are decent, too, with the headset able to convey subtle shifts as well as epic crescendos, and there’s more than enough detail for a pair of headphones costing this much. When music tracks become particularly busy, the Pulse 3D headset struggles to maintain a complete grip on each strand, and that can make these sections a little hard to follow.
Luckily, though, this timing issue isn’t apparent when gaming and the generally strong core sound quality translates well when you use the Pulse 3D headset for its intended purpose.
Switch to Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and the 3D audio gives a real sense of the cavernous nature of the CIA safehouse, the distance of each character as they speak and the echo as their voices hit the interior walls of the warehouse.
The Pulse headset is surprisingly accomplished at creating a 3D soundfield, but the placement of effects is even better with a properly calibrated home cinema system. If you don’t have the money, space or circumstances for a home cinema system, this is pretty much the next best thing as far as PS5 gaming is concerned, and that makes it a great buy.
Sony Pulse 3D Wireless Headset Review
Designed to complement the PlayStation 5 and its Tempest positional audio system, the Pulse 3D wireless headset does incredible things with PS5 games made to take advantage of the console’s new audio-centric powers. The top band’s simple but elegant curves imbue it with a minimalist mystique that’s especially noticeable when you look at it on a hook or a headphone stand.
Despite not having any real padding on top, the headset is comfortable on my head: At just 295 grams, I can barely feel its weight. The perfectly round earcups – uncommon for a gaming headset – are well-padded with thick open-cell foam covered by smooth leatherette. They’re smaller than what you’ll find in many premium third-party headsets, but that doesn’t detract from the precision or the power of its sound. From top to bottom, you have a dual rocker to balance game-versus-chat audio mixing, a microphone monitoring switch, a dual rocker for volume, a mic mute button, a USB-C port for charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack in case you’d prefer to set up a wired connection, and, lastly, a power switch.
There’s an oddly obscured indicator light near the power button, on the side of the ear cup just under the end of the frame. It works well enough that game audio will likely drown out any extraneous noise coming through – and my teammates reported as much when I tested the Pulse in online multiplayer. After more than 25 hours of testing in a room full of potentially interfering wireless signals, it delivered an unwavering connection. Wired mode is a tradeoff: On the one hand, the headset draws power from your controller, so it will work even when it’s out of juice (though the DualSense’s battery drains quickly enough on its own as it is). Though I’ve only tested it in a couple of games so far – Spider Man: Miles Morales and Astro’s Playroom – the Pulse makes excellent use of Tempest, delivering nuanced positional audio that goes beyond what I’ve come to expect from Virtual 7.1 surround sound in headsets. Standing in virtual Times Square, you can hear cars and people coming and going from every angle and every distance.
The 6 Best Headsets For PS5 – Fall 2021 Reviews
Wireless headphones are a great option for listeners who like to game from their couch and don’t want a long, tangled cord running across the room from their console.
Sony PULSE 3D Wireless Review
The Tempest 3D Audio feature compatibility is a unique selling point and is advertised as being able to generate a more immersive listening experience, though it’s only available on a couple of games.
Customer Reviews: Sony PlayStation Pulse 3D Wireless Headset (Compatible for both PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5) White 3005688
So far, I’ve played Ghost of Tsushima and BF1 with this headset and it’s kind of magical. Playing BF1, I can seriously hear enemy footsteps from like 30 feet BEHIND me and the location is SPOT ON.
So far, I’ve used the Pulse for a few sessions and the battery hasn’t budged from the 2/3 charge that it came with.
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