Despite being far more popular than the PC market, the console space is actually kind of a funny spot for gaming headsets. By and large, these problems won’t be fixed any time soon, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to settle for fewer features on a console. Editor’s note: This review was updated on April 15, 2021 to include a microphone score based on the results of our reader feedback poll.
Even slight pressures can become pretty acute after a couple hours of gaming, and this seems designed for too narrow a range of ears. The PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset connects to devices using a 2.4GHz RF USB adapter, so you won’t have to worry about the audio lag Bluetooth sometimes brings. Sony doesn’t make any claims about how long the battery for this headset is supposed to last, but in our testing we found it managed just over 8 hours and 8 minutes of continuous playback. Playing games with the PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset is a pretty easy experience, with a couple of drawbacks. The headset brings 7.1 virtual surround sound to PlayStation 4, without the need for added software—it’s just (yet another) a button on the left headphone (to be clear there is an optional app, but you’re not missing anything by ignoring it). Playing games like Fortnite and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, it became immediately apparent how well the surround sound function works. When you plug the PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset into a PC, the computer side volume control fully doesn’t work.
When playing games, this means you shouldn’t have any issues making out the sounds of footsteps or speech, even when confronted with a hail of gunfire. In music, the significant de-emphasis in the very low bass range means some sounds, many of which are most common in EDM, might be a little bit harder to hear than they otherwise should.
The Stan Rogers classic Watching the Apples Grow features myriad guitar and fiddle parts all layered on top, but the PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset never struggled with clarity at any point. The average open and close of a door or the whirr of the fridge aren’t exactly the big distractions and noises something like ANC is built for.
There’s a pretty significant issue with clarity here, and it seems to largely stem from the fact that the mic is embedded in the left headphone, rather than attached to a wire.
The inclusion of surround sound, and without the need for additional software no less, makes this is a very solid pair of wireless gaming headphones.
If you want something geared more towards extended voice chat sessions, even a wired headset like the HyperX Cloud Alpha or the Fnatic React would probably be better. If you’re in the market for something with slightly more battery life, headsets like the SteelSeries Arctis 7, HyperX Cloud Flight S, and Razer Thresher Ultimate are all great wireless options, albeit at increasingly higher prices.
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. 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 for PlayStation 5 Review
The Pulse 3D is Sony’s new, first-party PS5 wireless gaming headset, a sleek-looking set of headphones that carries a $99.99 price tag. The headband features a springy, padded suspension that automatically fits most head sizes, and the faux leather-covered earpads are nicely cushioned. The controls are tiny, but arranged to be easy to discern with your fingertips: The volume and audio rockers are separated by the clicky monitoring switch, the mic mute button below the volume rocker sticks out a bit more than the other controls, and the power switch is safely tucked in front of the headset’s ports where you won’t accidentally move it.
Test recordings made from the Pulse 3D result in speech that can be clearly heard in the context of a conversation (or in-game voice chat), but they sound hollow and a bit distant, as is typical for pinhole microphones built into headphone earcups.
The bass is strong, bordering on unsafe at high volumes, with solid low frequency response that you’ll feel in your ears even if it won’t rattle your head. The acoustic guitar plucks in the opening to Yes’ “Roundabout” sound nicely full and rounded, with a bit of string texture coming through in the higher frequencies. When the track properly kicks in, the electric bass takes center stage in the mix, showing a low and low-mids focus in the headset’s balance. The headset provides nice directionality with its simulated surround mixing through the PS5, letting me hear when my horse is galloping up from behind me to the right or left, and when nearby enemies are shouting to each other while I send them into a panic.
The headset won’t be mistaken for a true surround sound system, but the panning and mixing does a very good job simulating the effect. Sony Pulse 3D Wireless Headset for PlayStation 5 3.5 See It $99.00 at Amazon MSRP $99.99 Pros Strong sound, with good bass
Uncomfortable fit for people with large ears The Bottom Line The Pulse 3D is Sony’s take on a PS5 wireless gaming headset.
PS5 Pulse 3D Wireless Headset review
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.
Customer Reviews: Sony Gold Wireless Stereo Headset Black 3002498
Its battery life had dwindled down to almost nothing and the leather material on the ear cups had completely flaked off. I turned to the non-Sony world of headsets which included Astro, Razer, HyperX, and SteelSeries. (The ones with great battery life lacked surround simulation, the most comfortable sets had poor mic quality, the ones with the best audio only offered full surround sound on PC, some that almost seemed perfect required an external audio module that utilized unique software and drivers that were plagued with failed updates and a lack of support, etc). My second observation was that the headband was completely covered in the same leather material as the ear cups. I put them on my head and quickly realized that Sony finally achieved the right balance of secure and firm fitment while being extremely light and comfortable. One of the main issues with the Platinum headset is how uncomfortable the headband shape and materials are for extended periods of gaming.
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.
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 .
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