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One of my favourite issues to do when I’ve a while to myself is play video video games on my PS5 Slim or my OG Nintendo Switch. I additionally love listening to music and noodling on my guitar, and typically, I’ll hearken to music whereas enjoying, say, a racing sport like F1 25 or Need For Speed: Heat.
As a self-professed audiophile, I consider music could make or break a sport, and the way in which you devour the audio can both improve or worsen your expertise and immersion. That’s why you have obtained a plethora of the most effective gaming headsets, ripe for the choosing. I evaluation gaming cans for a residing, in addition to the most effective headphones designed for music streaming. So, at some point, I believed to myself, “What if I ditched my gaming headset for wired audiophile headphones?”
And ditch my gaming headset for wired audiophile headphones I did. I put my Razer BlackShark V3 Pro and Alienware Pro Wireless aside, and I brought my Meze 105 AER wired cans from my home office to my living room. I absolutely adore the 105 AERs as they’re exceptional for detailed listening, and presto, of course they proved fantastic in gaming too. Here are three things I liked and two I didn’t.
What I like
Pinpoint clarity, everything is detailed
There’s no better way to get best-in-class sound than through a pair of wired headphones. Bluetooth and wireless headphones just don’t cut it if you’re an audiophile, and the same goes for achieving an immersive gaming experience too. The Meze 105 AERs are up to the challenge as they boast an incredibly wide, immersive and engaging soundstage — which is downright fantastic and peerless for both music and gaming.
Plenty of detail can be found in lows, mids and highs, and the headphones deliver a well-balanced sound profile with warm bass that doesn’t overpower everything else. I played many hours of Ghost of Yotei and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to see how the 105 AERs fared, and the result? 10/10. No notes.
In Ghost of Yotei, I really enjoyed subtle sounds that you’d miss otherwise if playing the game through your TV speakers or a lackluster gaming headset. The soft neighing of my horse in the distance, the subtle growling of my wolf as it ran towards me from afar, and the pinpoint crackling of fire and embers all added to my immersion.
Because the 105 AERs are designed for detailed, critical and analytical listening, I loved being able to hear every note plucked on Atsu’s shamisen. Even the subtle vibrations between her changing notes was clear. When I was infiltrating enemy camps stealthily, I could pinpoint the enemies’ positions too thanks to audio cues, such as them crouching and shifting the leaves underneath their feet.
Speaking of detailed listening, since the 105 AERs are primarily designed for music, there was no better game to play than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to test them out. Sandfall Interactive’s debut game is one of my favorites (I’ve Platinum’ed it, and I have a tattoo dedicated to it), and I even listen to the beautiful, orchestral soundtrack almost every day, so I’m very familiar with it.
Through the 105 AERs, Expedition 33 sounds even more stunning than I thought was possible. I played the new free DLC, Verso’s Drafts, and — spoiler alert — fought the big bad Osquio with the electropop track soundtracking the battle. Osquio took me an hour and a half to beat because he’s a difficult boss, but I also spent a few minutes just head-bobbing to the music.
There was plenty of low-end impact through the 105 AERs, and their airy nature (which inspired the product name) made the soundscape feel vast rather than simply in my head. Each instrument in the multi-layered track was thumping with power and it felt like I was at a techno gig. The 105 AERs’ layer and instrument separation is something to behold.
Perfect for all-day gaming
The earcups themselves are roomy and spacious, and they sit comfortably around my ears, never suffocating them. Unlike leather or faux-leather pads on gaming headsets, the 105 AERs’ ear cushions are made of plush, soft foam, so they’re breathable and don’t make my ears overheat. Combine the free-moving headband with the ear cushions and you’ve got yourself a set of cans you can wear all day long.
It’s also worth noting that the 105 AERs are extremely lightweight, weighing just 12 ounces. That’s about my ideal weight for audiophile cans or gaming headsets. For reference, the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro weighs 12.9 ounces while the Alienware Pro Wireless weighs 11.11 ounces. The 105 AERs, then, are my ideal weight.
Nearly every part is replaceable
The wireless gaming headsets I use regularly are accompanied by 2.4GHz dongles which need to be plugged into the PS5 to use them. It can be easy to lose these little devices, and many times, they can’t be replaced. Similarly, many parts of wireless gaming headsets can’t be replaced. If a part breaks — the ear cushions tear, for instance — you might not necessarily be able to replace it, and you may need to get a new headset entirely.
This is why I really like the Meze 105 AER headphones. These cans adopt a modular design, which means the headphones can be easily disassembled, serviced and repaired thanks to replaceable components, such as drivers, cables and ear pads. Broke the cable? Replace it. Ear pads not your style? Swap them for comfier ones. You can do whatever you like, and that’s a huge advantage that most gaming headsets just do not offer.
Aside from helping your headphones last longer, I also love that a modular design promotes sustainability. I hate the thought of plastic headphones ending up in a landfill somewhere and contributing towards pollution that’s already plaguing our planet.
What I don’t like
DualSense battery killer
As is the nature of wired headphones, they need to be plugged into your smartphone, laptop or other device, and they use the device they’re plugged into as a power source. In the case of the PS5, I plugged the Meze 105 AERs into the 3.5mm jack on the DualSense controller. And it proved to be a battery killer.
The DualSense’s battery life, in my opinion, isn’t anything to write home about in the first place. On a good day, my DualSense lasts about five or six hours. With the 105 AERs plugged in, I wasn’t expecting to get five hours of playtime between chargers, but I really wasn’t expecting the controller to turn off after about two hours.
But this isn’t a drawback of the 105 AERs. This will be the case with any wired headset or headphones you use with the DualSense (or even any other controller with a 3.5mm port). So, yes, I desperately missed my Razer BlackShark V3 Pro’s 48-hour rated runtime.
Perhaps you will have better luck with your controller’s battery life (depending on its age). There is, of course, a solution here: you can keep your DualSense plugged in constantly when using wired headphones, but that would mean having to handle two cables which restrict your movement.
No ANC
A significant drawback of using wired headphones over a wireless gaming headset, in my opinion, is the lack of active noise cancellation (ANC) on the former. My favorite genre is story-driven RPGs, which require players to immerse themselves in the story and feel like the main character. ANC helps with that, as it isolates you and makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world.
The Meze 105 AERs don’t feature ANC, and there isn’t much in terms of passive noise cancellation either — unless you’re playing video games at the highest possible volume (I don’t recommend this as it can harm your hearing). They also feature an open-back design, which helps with the wide soundstage and audio feeling spacious, but this also means that everyone around you can hear what you’re listening to.
Not much of a downside if you’re playing alone, of course, but I use headphones when my partner is doing her own thing and I don’t want the audio from the TV to disturb her. This isn’t possible with open-backs. Also, I can hear the outside world when using open-backs. I don’t want to hear the outside world. I want to be trapped in a little fantasy world with a bunch of pixels. ANC does that. The lack of ANC does not do that.
Looking ahead…
Having used the Meze 105 AERs wired headphones instead of a wireless gaming headset for a week, it’s been a wonderful experience. I adore these headphones for detailed listening when I’m at my desk, and I appreciate how roomy the earcups are how comfortable they are overall.
And now, the question arises: would I ditch gaming headsets permanently in favor of audiophile headphones? To be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure. I can see the upsides of using wired headphones or in-ear monitors for gaming, and I can see the downsides too — it takes a toll on your controller’s battery life and there’s no ANC (which is very important to me).
But these feel like a small price to pay for pinpoint clarity in virtually every genre, all-day comfort, and modularity. So, would I give up wireless gaming headsets? Let’s just say I’ll alternate between them. Whatever tickles my fancy on a particular day, we’ll go with that!
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