I have game volume maxed on the PlayStation and I am very aware that cranking the headphones instead of PlayStation will create noise. Like another user mentioned, the noise is unpredictable. Sometimes it’s loud, sometimes it’s hiss, sometimes it’s whirly, it happens in both ears, seems a little louder on the right.
I apologize, but I am going to be honest here and I have to back track on my earlier initial impressions. I truly want to be fair, but being fair here means I need to be straight forward. I am actually very disappointed in this headset, especially considering the cost. I’ve owned astro A50s, Sony Gold, Sony Pulse, turtle beach, Steel Series Artics regular and Pro, and Sennhesier gsp something or others. In the 2 days I’ve had these, I’ve had a more frustrating experience than any of my time with those headsets. This whirling noise is driving me nuts. My friends have complained about the mic. My ears are super sore from the pressure of the headband. I can’t go to the kitchen to get a drink without this woman’s voice saying “connected...connected...” over and over while I’m out of range and I can’t figure out how to turn her off. When I want to turn sidetone off when switching to a single player game, I have to turn on my PC, connect it there, and then disconnect it and do it all over again when I want it in. When I try and do Bluetooth and wireless at the same time, the headset will pair with my phone - say connected - and then sometimes (at least 5 times so far) completely turn off and then I have to do it all over again. Aux with the Xbox is wayyy too noisy. But this could be a mix of headset and controller for Xbox. Though, my hardwired v-modas are not noisy when connected to the Xbox controller.
Sound wise they are “good” and honestly nothing more or less. I am not dissatisfied with the sound at all, but I’m not floored with its gaming experience. For music they are great. But for competitive gaming, I’m picking up footsteps and direction worse than my astros and even my pulse 3D. I was hoping for more space and directionality. I don’t think anyone will listen to these and be upset at the sound. But I’m in no way floored about the sound experience, everything feels too “close” if that makes sense. And yes, I’ve done 3D audio on and off.
Overall these are a good sounding pair of stereo music headphones with a below average mic, below average user experience, uncomfortable ergonomics and lots of random noise, such as hiss and whirl wind interference, and full of annoyances - such as loud prompt alerts and random disconnections. I don’t play beta tester for final release products, so I’m not going to wait around for firmware updates to fix issues that shouldn’t be there, no am I going to entertain comments like “they said they’ll update that soon”. I buy products for what they are now, not what they could possibly be tomorrow.