There are a lot of audiophile headphones that double as great gaming headphones. However, many of them still don’t include some of the ideal features that you might want from your gaming headphones, namely a microphone for voice chat. I recently talked about a cable from Strauss and Wagner that offers a great mic cable for gaming IEMs, and now they have one for headphones too. The Spiez is a dual 3.5mm cable that also terminates to 3.5mm. Its detachable boom microphone makes it unique, which lets you use headphones for voice chat that usually wouldn’t allow you to.
Of course, only headphones that feature 3.5mm headphone connectors will work with the Speiz, but that still includes some strong options. Most HiFiMAN headphones support 3.5mm connectors. Meze Audio also has some great options with dual 3.5mm, including the 109 Pro and both versions of the Liric. Imagine being able to use these amazing headphones both for listening and voice chatting. With the Spiez, these could be your next headphones for your gaming setup.
Strauss & Wagner Speiz Sound Impressions
The Spiez made a great paring with the HiFiMAN Edition XS, letting me game with complete immersion while chatting with my friends over Discord. Even with open-back headphones, the sound doesn’t leak through to the mic as much as you’d think. My voice comes through with a good level of intelligibility, with everyone on the other end able to understand everything I say. Its timbral quality is what you’d expect from most gaming headphones, a bit staticky but mostly clean.
If you’re worried about the game interfering with your headphones’ sound signature, the Speiz is carefully crafted using silver and nylon. The properties of a silver cable exist here, including better separation and slightly amplified treble. This was easy to notice on the Edition XS, but switching to the Meze 99 Classics made these modifications even more apparent. Better separation in the soundstage benefits the many intricate parts of a game’s soundtrack, making sense of all of its sound effects, music, and dialogue. The Speiz makes that possible, with a smooth performance and organized sound elements.
The Strauss & Wagner Spiez is available at Audio46.
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