I promise I have searched and read threads, but my question seems to be one that hasn’t been answered.
What I am after is something I can use just for TS/Ventrilo while MMOing at my PC. My normal PC sound goes through a 2+1 system that I’m entirely happy with: I don’t want to switch to having all sound coming through headphones, because I like to be able to hear the real world, or music from my hifi.
So I’m looking for something that sits on my head, connects via USB (I guess, since my sound card outputs are occupied), makes noises in one or both ears, and has one of those comedy mic-on-a-stick things so that the mic is in front of my mouth. Sound quality is a complete non-issue, because this is only going to be used for the 3 kbps (or whatever) sound that these voice chat things use.
So is ‘headset’ even the right word? I’ve had a look round but all I’ve found is things that want to deliver all sound output to the headphones.
Actually I wound up getting quite spotty performance with the bluetooth headset. You have to fight a little with the PC to get it to recognize it, and then the people I was playing with said the sound quality wasn’t that great.
Here’s what I wound up doing. I bought one of these in Gamestop:
Plug that into your PC’s USB port, then unplug the cheap plasticky headset part (it sucks) and toss it away. It connects to the adapter using a standard 2.5mm mini-jack, the kind used by most cellphones. You then give yourself a massive selection of cellphone hands-free headsets to plug into it - I use a simply Plantronics earpiece with a little boom mic that works great.
Seriously, this is a great solution. Just think of the Mad Catz thing as an adapter and then you plug almost anything you want into it. The selection of devices available this way is so much wider than if you’re searching for an all-in-one solution.
It’s the easiest thing to do in the world, you can do it through your Control Panel sound settings, also through the TeamSpeak/Ventrilo options.
The problem with the stereo headphones like the Logitech ones linked above is that they’re just going to insulate you from the game sound/music coming through your regular PC speakers. You’re much better off with a single earpiece.
can you go into a little more detail on how you split your sound? I would love to just have vent coming through my headset and still be able to listen to music on my pc’s speakers. I’m using a usb headset as well and can’t really find a way to do it.
How’s that working out for you? I have a friend in Florida that has some nice surround speakers he uses for gaming and he really wanted a mono headset/mic setup (a lot like Larry actually). It turns out they are incredibly difficult to find, and I’m sure this would interest him. Does the “adapter” work well for transmitting voice when coupled with a decent cell-phone type earpiece/mic? The model that Larry ended up with is actively discontinued on this side of the pond (and pretty well impossible to find over here), so I’m not sure he’d want to spend the money to import one.
When I wanted to get a wireless headset for my WoW raiding days, I wanted something small and unobtrusive, so my family wouldn’t mock me (my computer is in the same room as the main family TV, so I don’t speak much, and I wanted to maintain the illusion that I was watching TV with everyone else). So a headset that covers both ears was out - and I didn’t really want a big boom mic either - I wanted something small and delicate.
I tried a Bluetooth wireless headset, but could never get the mic to work - earpiece was just fine, but no talkie. So I took that back. Then I must have had a bout of temporary insanity, because I spent $300 - yeah, three hundred freaking dollars - on this from Plantronics. Plain old USB. Plug it in, put the thing in your ear, and you’re off. All you have to do is swap the audio input in the control panel.
Works great, pretty comfortable, mic is good - never had any technical issues with it at all.
Now I think you could route the music through your speakers and the voice through this, though I never tried it. But there appears to be enough choices in the Audio control panel to do it.
So if you have a lot of dough, you might want to consider this.
I can simulate “single earpiece headphone” by placing the pad for the other ear to just in front of the ear (where the sideburns normally go). Of course this only works with over-the-head kind of headset, like that logitech one I linked to.
