PC gamers are sticklers for the gear they use. Try to change the sensitivity of their mouse, and they may eat you alive. Give them a regular pair of headphones to play with, and they may feel insulted at the gesture. This is why there is a considerable aftermarket devoted to gamers. They know what they want, and Sennheiser and Creative are two manufacturers that try to deliver it to them with headsets like the two I got to try out.
I’ll preface my findings by making it clear that I’m not a hardcore PC gamer, and really never was, so my opinion is going to be a bit more generalized, as a result. That being said, sound quality and form factor can also be subjective things, and gamers are somewhat notorious for having wildly differing opinions on just about everything to do with the industry.
With that out of the way, Sennheiser’s PC 333D G4ME and Creative’s Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma are two notable headsets available now. Of the two, I found the Tactic 3D Sigma to be a better fit on my head and ears than the PC 333D’s. After about an hour, I felt a bit of a discomfort on my outer ear with the PC 333D, but had no such problem with Creative’s headphones. Both are stylish designs, but I give the edge to Sennheiser for using better quality materials.
I had very little to complain about when it came to sound quality. Both were superb in so many respects. Good range, solid bass and the surround sound feeling was palpable for me when playing through an intense sequence in any game. The PC 333D has 7.1 surround built-in, while the Tactic 3D Sigma has its own sort of 360-degree sound, but the point is that both make it easy for you to distinguish where a sound is coming from. Even playing music through both of these provided excellent results.
Creative’s THX TruStudio Pro feature helps you choose presets or to adjust the various levels for a more defined and compatible sound package. I can’t go over all of them here, but you can adjust things like surround sound, bass, dialogue plus (for crisper voices in games), the crystalizer (to add more ‘life’ to the sound) and even a smart volume feature, so that sudden changes in volume don’t hurt your ears.
And if you want to play around with the sound of your own voice, you can with Voice FX. Make yourself sound like the opposite gender, a ghoulish creature or a robot, among others.
Both also offer the option to connect the headset using the two 3.5mm jacks or via USB, depending on what your setup is (USB comes in handy more for laptops, whereas the two jacks are great for sound cards or speakers). One thing I did appreciate about the PC 333D was that I could mute the mic automatically by just moving it up to the side.
PC and Mac compatibility seemed to be smooth, but the Tactic 3D Sigma, while starting out well on a Windows 7 laptop, had issues with the mic thereafter. I can’t be sure if this was a hardware or software issue, but it happened after about three weeks. I’m also not clear on if it’s a 64-bit issue, since it worked fine on a 32-bit Windows 7 machine. The PC 333D, meanwhile, was flawless throughout.
Both of these are great at what they do, and should make gamers happy, but there is a price discrepancy to consider. Sennheiser’s PC 333D are $219.99 at Future Shop, while the Tactic 3D Sigma can be found in the range of $69.99 from other retailers. Both are worth the investment, in my opinion, especially if you’re a gamer who plans to use them a lot.
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