2020’s Best New Gaming Headsets Under $100

Great wired and wireless headsets that won’t break the bank

With today’s focus on work-from-home strategies to mitigate COVID-19 transmission, the humble gaming headset is no longer a device that’s just for fun. Instead, it can pull double duty as a vital professional meeting tool during the day, and an essential component of safe home entertainment during off hours.

Here are the four best models I’ve tested that released this year, with official web site links for each. You can click away on these links without worrying about giving me a kickback, as I don’t believe in affiliate links.

UPDATE 9/15/23: I’m going through all my articles to make sure they conform to Medium’s current call-to-action guidelines, but I haven’t updated the links in the piece below. They might be broken thanks to the magic of the ever-fluctuating internet.

However, reviewing the content itself, these are all still awesome headsets that I think are just as good to use today!

UPDATE/EDIT: If I had reviewed the Roccat 7.1 Elo Air late last year, it also would have made this list. It’s excellent.

Photo taken by the author.

Razer BlackShark V2 X (MSRP $59, Official Page Here)

This $59 modern update of an ancient gaming headset is easily the best budget audio offering ever produced by Razer, and it represents a brilliant path forward for their sound gear. It features their new “TriForce” drivers, highly tunable diaphragms that have been tweaked to offer Razer’s best sound-to-dollar ratio, and one of the more enjoyable gaming headset sounds on the market today.

The rich bass response is their most prominent feature, but it’s backed up with enough detail in the mids and highs that these are a delight for just about any audio task. The ear pads feature real memory foam, a rarity at this low price point, and the cloth covering on the front side helps prevent sweat build-up.

Mic performance is also exemplary, with a natural resonant pickup and plenty of background noise cancelation. The aviation-inspired industrial design might not be to everyone’s taste, but the lightweight frame is highly adjustable and easily fits on my big head. The…