Sony PlayStation Pulse Elite Review: The PS5’s Perfect Wireless Headset

Sony’s first-party PlayStation gaming headsets will be hit or miss. Excellent news! The most recent model, the Pulse Elite wireless headset, is extra of the previous. It prices $150, can pair with a number of gadgets directly, and even comes with a wi-fi charging hanger.

This headset’s predecessor was a miss, touting 3D audio and spectacular sound, but it surely was made out of harsh, flimsy plastic, did not help a Bluetooth connection, and worst of all, it wasn’t even essential to get all the advantages of 3D audio. Sony’s Tempest 3D audio system works with loads of different headphones.

The Pulse Elite cures a lot of these points. It helps Bluetooth audio—which you should utilize concurrently alongside the PlayStation Hyperlink adapter connection. The earcups are extra snug, and the plastic is much less flimsy; it simply feels higher throughout. If that was all of the Pulse Elite improved, it will be value the additional $50 over the older mannequin, but it surely’s the wi-fi charging hanger that cinches it for us.

Hanging Design

The design aesthetic of the PS5 struck a chord when it first dropped, and since then all the company’s equipment have adopted swimsuit. For higher or worse. These headphones are most likely nearer to the “better” aspect than, say, the PS5 camera taco. The white headband extends down across the earcups, with a swoosh towards the entrance. The built-in mic slides out of one of many pointed white ideas. It’s a placing design with out trying outright foolish.

There’s a mushy, cloth strap inside the scarf that retains the headphones supported with out weighing on the highest of your head an excessive amount of. The mushy, plush earcups wrap round your ears, serving to to isolate them with out urgent too arduous on the edges of your head. You may alter every earcup up and down to search out the right match.

The one factor I discover significantly annoying is how the earcups are hooked up to the headset. Every is held on by a sort of ball joint that may rotate freely in any course. In concept, this helps ensure that the earcups aren’t resting in your head at a bizarre angle, frivolously jamming into the edges of your head. In observe, the ball joints shift rather a lot. There’s additionally a slight, virtually imperceptible clicking noise because the joint shifts round. It will be imperceptible if it wasn’t proper subsequent to my ear.

That is solely a difficulty when I’m transferring my head, however even slight actions end result on this low however troublesome clicking noise. I are inclined to fidget greater than most, so it may be an issue only for me, but it surely was annoying to have this frequent, irritating noise intermixed with what’s in any other case nice audio.

Delicate Sound

The annoyance of the earcup clicking apart, these headphones sound glorious. The Pulse Elite makes use of planar magnetic drivers. These use a skinny, flat diaphragm that’s bigger than the everyday dynamic drivers in most headphones you’ve most likely used. They’re additionally extra delicate, which permits them to provide extra exact, correct sound.

The result’s that, when enjoying video games like Overwatch 2, I discovered it simpler to listen to particular person sounds that sometimes are blurred collectively on different headsets. I play because the character Mercy (and occasionally as Lifeweaver), and with the ability to hear the delicate footsteps of a Genji or Tracer—or the much less delicate footsteps of a Reaper—behind me can imply the distinction between life and demise. With these headphones, distinct sounds are just a bit bit simpler to make out.

The Pulse Elite comes with a PlayStation Hyperlink USB dongle for a low-latency wi-fi connection, and it could additionally pair concurrently by way of Bluetooth. That is most useful if you wish to, say, play some music out of your telephone whereas you’re delivering packages in Dying Stranding.