Help me buy my boyfriend an awesome XBOX wireless headset

November 20, 2007 9:02 PM

XBOX 360 question! Help me get my boyfriend a wireless headset he will love.

My boyfriend loves his XBOX 360 and plays a lot of Halo with his friends using XBOX Live. I want to buy him a really awesome wireless headset for Christmas. Price is not really an issue here, although 100 bucks and under would be good. I've looked at all kinds of websites for reviews, but I'm really clueless about this sort of thing. I want to make sure its comfortable (especially for long periods of time), has good sound, works well after owning it a while, is convenient, basically all the stuff that you can't really learn from online reviews. If you use one please tell me, what do you think? What should I get? Is there anything I should look for when choosing? Or, if you own one and love it/hate it, why?

posted by missmle to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)

Wow. Look at you being a great girlfriend.

I think this is a really player based preference. I have heard many mixed reviews about wireless headsets. I personaly use a Plantronics headset second one down. I've been happy about it. No pinching or soreness.

Ideas: see what his friends use and fight about? You could always try one on while they are playing (aka taking a break; they are in their caves, don't disturb.) and ask if it ever bothers them at all after playing for 10 hours.

Whatever you choose, just dont get one that wraps ontop of the head. I find it uncomfortable.
posted by thetenthstory at 9:28 PM on November 20, 2007

Whatever you choose, just dont get one that wraps ontop of the head. I find it uncomfortable.

Heed this warning. Your boyfriend's neck and ears will thank you.

Also, unless you two have a really similar head shape and size, what his friends use might not work for you. I'm female and what worked fine for my male friends would slip down on my head.

I don't have an Xbox 360 of my own yet, but try the list here at Newegg.com, sort however you'd like and read the reviews. I've been using the reviews there for years, and they're very reliable.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:05 PM on November 20, 2007

Also, unless you two have a really similar head shape and size, what his friends use might not work for you

What I meant here was in terms of trying something on as thetenthstory suggested.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:05 PM on November 20, 2007

My husband has the XBox 360 wireless headset, and swears by it. I've used it a couple times to talk to a few mutual friends on XBox and the sound quality is excellent.
posted by irishkitten at 3:57 AM on November 21, 2007

I've got the regular, wired Xbox 360 headset, and it's a piece of crap. Uncomfortable, bad-sounding and obviously built and spec'd through a process of competitive bidding. It's a very lowest-common-denominator, barely-acceptable kind of product, and reflecting on this has made me better understand the 360's ongoing problems with overheating, quality control, etc.

I realize that you asked about wireless headsets, but please don't be tempted by the regular wired one.
posted by box at 6:22 AM on November 21, 2007

Just a heads up here: The XBox 360 doesn't work with off-the-shelf (bluetooth or otherwise) wireless headsets. The 360 uses a proprietary 2.4 Ghz wireless protocol that Microsoft doesn't like sharing. Unless you want something with a dongle or a wired connection to a controller you're better off sticking with the Microsoft branded model. Mind, the MS model doesn't suck or anything, but much choice there ain't.
posted by Capostrophe at 7:38 AM on November 21, 2007