At long last Sony has brought the DR-GA500 ($199) and DR-GA200 ($79) PC Gaming headsets to the USA. Check out more pictures in our previous post.
These headsets are perfect for those who play long online gaming sessions or frequently use Teamspeak/Ventrilo because of its open ear design. Many of the high-end PC gaming headsets currently out there have a closed-ear design that becomes quite uncomfortable after extended use.
Sony fixes this through a “newly developed triple-enfolding design distributes the headphone’s weight over a wider area, reducing pressure and improving air flow around ears.”
Many expensive PC gaming headsets have advanced sound, and the DR-GA500 meets that challenge with incredible audio quality. How?
The GA500 headset connects to a seperate unit, which has a Dolby Pro Logic IIx decoder with unique Sony Virtual Phones Technology (VPT) fpr 7.1ch 3D surround effects. The signal processing hardware is contained in a compact external unit.
The DR-GA200, which costs considerably less than the GA500, does not have 7.1ch audio but still has great sound.
With such sound capabilities, gamers have the ability to hear things in games they may have not heard before with lesser headsets. This enables the listener to precisely hear where the action is coming from. In my experiences, it is a real advantage in FPS, RTS, MMO, and other strategy games if you have a great audio system.
Sometimes when I snipe in games such as Battlefield: Bad Company 2, having a nice headset can allow me to know if someone is about to sneak up and kill me with a knife.
There’s also other handy features such as compression and FPS mode.
I currently own a Logitech G35 headset but I find it uncomfortable after a long period of time, and it always left rings around my ears from the headset pushing down my hair. These will be hard to resist.
