I made the mistake of believing some dumb guide online that recommended the Razer BlackShark v2 Pro for Linux. Literally the volume control is broken out of the box lol.
I just want a wireless headset. For listening to audio. And a mic. Don’t care for fancy features. Apparently too much to ask for a linux user.
What are y’all using and how is it working for you?
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On the contrary, I have an old Razer Basalisk v3 mouse, and it works perfectly with linux. I installed openrazer to controll the rgb and everything works perfectly.
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Yeah lesson learned lol. I figured, I don’t need the fancy features. Turns out volume control is a fancy feature. And I’m not even talking about the volume wheel on the headphones. I’m saying, adjusting my system volume barely affects the headphone volume.
I have this issue because I have the same one. I have to reseat the usb dongle if I ever boot into a different OS or the volume control on bazzite won’t work next time I use it. Like I turn the volume up and down but the headphones stay the same volume. Once I do that, I can control the volume properly and I won’t have to do it again until I boot into a different OS (dual booted with win 11). I have the profile in bazzite’s audio devices for the Blackshark set to “Pro Audio”. Seems to work for me, maybe it can help passing it along?
Are there any companies that are especially friendly towards Linux? I’m not looking to buy anytime soon but I’d be curious to know.
Razer stuff is fine in Linux. I use several different Razer products on Linux and they all work fine, including Arch Linux on my Razer Blade 14 laptop. Their protocols are pretty well understood at this point on most of their devices.
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How? Mine have worked fine. At least until today when part of the plastic snapped but they are over 5 years old. Going to try glue it tomorrow.
May look for a replacement sometime, always used wired so far.
Are you married to the idea of wireless? The old suggestion of decent headphones and a mic are imo the best way to do things. I’ve got an old blue yeti I use when I need a mic, but been considering getting a modmic to attach to my headphones. I ran with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-880s for over a decade as my daily drivers with a FiiO DAC/amp combo, use a k5 pro now with some DT 1990s and found that to be a great combo.
I kinda am yeah :P I also want to use it for work, and I can’t sit still so I am always getting up. I wanna be able to participate in a call while I’m in the kitchen for example :P
I used to own a HyperX Cloud Flight. It’s the best wireless headset I’ve ever tried. It comes with a USB dongle, no Bluetooth. Worked out of the box on Arch. I bought mine before HP infested HyperX, but my sister uses a post-buyout one and she says it’s perfect.
Pros:
- Audio quality is great for fun (games and films), decent for music and critical listening. The frequency response has a common V shape, but the bass doesn’t blow out the top ends (eat a dick, Raycon).
- Eight-hour battery life, can be used while charge cable is connected.
- Aux input that bypasses the internal DAC.
- Signal can penetrate several solid brick walls.
- Comfortable even on my melon head.
- Mic is detachable. Quality is as good as an Aussie wanker can expect.
Cons:
- Micro-USB charger port.
- Volume control is a click wheel that sends volume up/down keystrokes to the PC. I had to remove it from mine because it wore out and would “bounce” and send several keystrokes every time I touched it.
- The earpads are covered in shitty leatherette that will fall off in a few months.
In general, avoid anything “Gamer”. You’re paying for the brand, not the quality. Even the cheapest “audiophile” headphones are better.
Wireless headsets will always be limited by their internal DAC. Another option is to get a decent wired headset and a dedicated wireless DAC. I currently use a modded Beyerdynamic DT770 and an AKG K-240, and if I need them to be wireless, I clip a Fiio BTR5 to the headstrap and connect it with a short cable.
avoid anything “Gamer”
to be honest I’m looking for general purpose headset to also use for work, but looking for business headsets landed me in some crazy price ranges, so I’ve been looking for gaming headsets since. gonna look into HyperX, thanks!
It’s less about the concept of a game-centric headset and more about the brands that sell themselves as “We Are Gamers” with angular shapes and RGB out the ass. Steelseries, Razer, Alienware, Aorus, ROG… I’ve had many bad experiences both personally and professionally. The only one I didn’t end up regretting was Logitech G. The G502 mouse is a beast.
I can second Hyper X for Linux. Using the USB dongle is perfect for wireless, as I dont like having Bluetooth enabled all the time. I only enable it when using my controller on my laptop. Headphones are great and not crazy expensive. I just wanted headphones that worked and they do exactly that.
Haven’t had a single issue with my Hyper X Stinger headset across the distros I’ve tried (PopOS, Nobara, Cachy, Endeavor).
Razer is awful, they are about as proprietary as it is possible for a consumer electronics company to reasonably be. Avoid them at all costs.
Logitech is generally a better choice when available.
Steelseries, although I don’t generally love their build quality, has worked well on Linux for me. I can’t speak for their cheaper headsets but I specifically am using a Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless in Bluetooth mode with a magnetic-tip USB cable for charging (leaving the Micro-USB tip in the headphones at all times, because fuck Micro-USB).
I assume the non-Bluetooth USB dongle works fine as well but I’m too lazy to use it and have probably lost it somewhere along the way so I can’t personally confirm that. Bluetooth is my jam though.
Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. They’re excellent headphones, decent microphone. Comfy, long battery life. It’s the swap-able batteries dock station type. So they’re decently popular and this exists:
https://github.com/elegos/Linux-Arctis-Manager/
Edit: also has Bluetooth support. I use them with my phone too not just the 2.4Ghz Desktop dock.
these seem great but 300 bucks is… steep
Agreed, but you never specified price range :p
I consider these my upper limit but I think I can feasibly get over a decade of use out of this headset especially with the battery setup.
I got a pair of Fractal Scapes. The software to modify them is just a website so it’s easy to EQ them on Linux (I run bazzite). The EQ profiles are also saved locally so once it’s set you never have to look at the website again. The works dick worked straight away and volume control+ play/pause work massively on Linux which is great
Bookmarking this suggestion. I’ve used fractal cases before with great suggest. Didn’t know they got into headsets.
It’s their first one and so far I’m quite happy with it! The dock is especially nice and one of the main selling points to me from a convenience perspective and it works great. I’m lazier than ever XD
Just got these recently they’re awesome. Wireless charging, Bluetooth support, flip mic to mute, really comfortable and sound great.
Same here, no issues so far!
No chat mix is what kills it for me. I’m spoiled with independent volume control between chat and game output. If I can find a solution for this it would open up a world of headsets for me. Steelseries used to do it on headset, now you need their shitty app on newer sets.
I have always used SteelSeries. It might not be the best (because it’s a gaming headset), but it has always worked on Linux and it’s Danish 😁
I love my Steelseries Arctis 7. It doesn’t need any software to configure at all, works out of the box in Linux. Has a nice hardware mixer right on the headphone so you can lower game sounds to hear voice chat better and vice versa.
Is it corded? I think I have a 3, and got the one with 3.5mm plug. Never had an issue.
I have the same, an old arctis 7, and it’s plug-and-play on Linux mint. It’s wireless with a USB-c dongle, but 3.5mm jack is an option.
Once upon a time, I was worried I had to buy another headphones, but I used an aux cord to plug it into a headphone-amp for my electric guitar, and it just works. It turns on & off automatically with the aux cord. I suspect it has to be charged to still work, but I haven’t tested that.
I had an old Arctis 7 that finally fell apart last month after 8 years of heavy use.
I got a new Arctis 7. It is complete garbage. Cheap materials, smaller to the point that it just doesn’t fit my head, my ears don’t fit in the cups.
And instead of having it register two devices for chat and game you get a single device and then have to use their software to mix the chat, which is a nonstarter for me on Linux. SteelSeries has enshittified hard.
This was my experience exactly. Luckily my old arctis still works I’m just terrified of the day when it doesn’t
Do you know about HeadsetControl?
Not sure how chat mix works on Linux though.
Wireless with a USB dongle. Analog will never have issues, but this fancy wireless one doesn’t either :)
How does this dial work which lowers game volume so you can hear voices?
The headset presents 2 separate audio devices to your computer, so you direct your games to use the headset game output and Discord or whatever to use headset voice. It’s pretty magical honestly, no tabbing out when you can’t hear a dude.
The one I use was discontinued years ago, so instead of recommending it, I’ll offer a suggestion:
Don’t look for “gaming” headsets. Look instead for well-regarded headphones and mic, or for a telephony (VoIP) headset from a brand that specializes in them, on sale. You’ll be more likely to find something that sounds good in both directions and lasts a long time.
Tbf, this holds true for any accessory, from chairs to computer cases: Anything branded as “gaming” is usually mid quality at a premium price.
It’s not a wireless setup, but in case someone else is looking: Audio-Technia ath-m20x headphones driven by a Fosi Audio Q4 DAC (because your headphones will only sound as good as their source).
Sounds great for a ~$100 budget. And the DAC has worked right out of the box with no driver issues on the few (fedora based) distros I’ve tried.
steel series arctis nova 7, working great
Sony wh xm4. Remember that Bluetooth audio will suck if you are using vocal chat.
Audio Technica M50X’s with a Fiio K5 Pro DAC/amp
I want to first say that if it was 2005, hi-fi was expensive. Today hi-fi is cheap and you quickly run into diminishing returns at like ~$300 for around ear headphones but IEMs are cost effective and you get good quality starting at like $20. The gist of the history is that ChiFi changed the whole audio market for quality at affordable prices
Any bluetooth headset will work from what I’ve tried. You don’t have to spend a lot. You can use the Anker brand Soundcore bluetooth noise cancelling headsets
https://www.amazon.com/Soundcore-Cancelling-Headphones-Comfortable-Bluetooth/dp/B08HMWZBXC
https://www.amazon.com/Soundcore-Adaptive-Active-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B0B5VHRX7F
Not sure if anything beats the Q30 at its price point but bumping up to the Q45 is an increase in build quality so even though my Q30 are multiple years old, I’ve heard from others who are more abusive of their gear it breaking. You can also use wireless TWS earphones. Like I have moondrop and earfun brand TWS (category of earphones that Airpods are). They’re cheap and are adequate at low prices though you can jump to the higher priced ones they have and get better mic quality. Examples such as
https://www.amazon.com/EarFun-Canceling-Snapdragon-Bluetooth-Detection/dp/B0D5M9SH1X
https://www.amazon.com/Moondrop-Space-Travel-Noise-Canceling-Low-Latency/dp/B0FGDBP2ZZ
The IEM market is insanely competitive. You can google best IEM’s for $30 and see dozens of brands you’ve never heard of but if you aren’t deep in the placebo, you’ll probably find any of them pretty good
This is linux_gaming, any recommendation of Bluetooth headsets needs to account for latency. There’s huge variance between models and the headset is only half of the equation, the transmitting Bluetooth device can have a big impact on the latency too.
I’ve also been on the search for the perfect headset. I have 3 requirements :
- I want two independent output devices to show up natively without software, 1 for main output and 1 for voice chat output
- I want on the fly mixing between the 2 outputs, preferably without additonal software, with a physical knob
- I want good sidetone, preferably with volume knob
Checking all these boxes has been near impossible. I currently have an older steel series arctis and it does it. Newer models tho and almost every OEM out there has some shit software that’s windows only. Newer steel series for instance only has the chat mix as a virtual output in software. I know I can achieve similar with Pipewire. The only headset I found that was close was the audeze gaming headset but the sidetone was awful, static and crackle.
If someone has a rec that can check all those boxes for me let me know.
I know you specifically want a hardware solution, but if you use pipewire I have something for you that took forever to figure out from the docs and does just what you want with a single static config file: https://pastebin.com/XigrzvfD
Put this in
~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/10-virtual-sinks.confand restart pipewire once. It is safe to try this. Once you remove the file and restart pipewire everything is back to normal.This creates virtual output devices that you can assign applications to and control with e.g. pavucontrol. It’s mapped to use my specific output devices, if you uncomment the lines and remove the node name expressions then all USB/PCIe devices are used.
It creates a setup of:
virtual:[Games, Media, Comms] -> virtual:Main -> virtual:All Physical Outputs -> [output devices]I wanted all audio to always play on all devices. You can of course adapt it to your use case. In my case the virtual Main is my global mute for everything. I never touch volumes or mute of the actual output devices.
I have the volume of these output nodes mapped to physical knobs to control games/voice/media independently globally.
EDIT: To control the nodes I use this script: https://pastebin.com/pANNDvup
Mute toggle:
volume.sh set-mute virtual:Games toggleVolume:
volume.sh set-volume virtual:Games %dYou will have to adapt that slightly as I use it with OpenDeck and a stream deck clone for control. OpenDeck outputs
[-]10but wpctl needs 10-/10+. There is currently no way to set an absolute volume with that script since I didn’t have the need.This is dope thanks man. I knew I could do it with Pipewire virtual devices, just hadn’t fully researched it yet. I been using the StreamController app for my elgato deck. It’s been solid, I’m wondering if I can adapt this to their knobs or I should look at open deck.
I’ve wanted to work out Pipewire for the specific case of threading music directly into a “Microphone” device to play into game voice comms for memetic moments. But, the extensive commandline setup and duplicative terminology has made it feel like a barrier.
