Sony PULSE 3D Wireless Headphones Review

Their look stands out among gaming headphones. They're heavily inspired by the Sony PS5 console and share the same white-over-black color scheme, accented with blue indicator lights. The two-piece headband, with a white outer edge and a padded adjustable inner band, is similar to the ski-band design found in other gaming headphones like the SteelSeries Arctis 9X Wireless.

They're passably comfortable. The ear cups don't offer much range of motion and don't form a good seal against your ears, so the headphones have an unnatural, floaty feel. Thankfully, they're relatively lightweight and don't clamp very tightly. Their adjustable headband also lets them fit on a variety of head sizes.

The control scheme is passable. There are dedicated controls for volume adjustment and microphone muting, but no call or music management buttons. Unfortunately, it can also be hard to tell if your mic has been muted or not without feeling for the button. The buttons themselves are hard to tell apart, which isn't helped by the fact that they're all located on the left ear cup. That said, they mostly offer a good mix of physical and audio feedback.

On the left ear cup:

They aren't very portable headphones. The headset is bulky overall, and you can't fold it into a more compact configuration when putting it in a bag.

The Sony PULSE 3D Wireless have a decent build quality. The ear cup padding is lined with faux leather, while the inner headband is made of rubber. The plastic outer structure feels fairly solid and seems more durable than the Sony INZONE H3. However, the mounting points between the cups and headband feel slightly flimsy, as does the connection between the inner and outer bands.

They're reasonably stable. You can tilt your head at a steep angle without fear of the headphones falling off, even if you wear glasses, but shaking from side to side can cause them to slip off completely.

• Sony PULSE 3D Wireless headset
• USB receiver
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• User manual

These headphones have a warm sound profile. Their flat, even mid-range yields clear and present vocals and lead instruments. Unfortunately, their underemphasized low-bass range means your audio doesn't have much thump and rumble. Also, their uneven treble range can veil the details of some higher notes. On the upside, if you're gaming on a PS5, once you've updated your console to the most recent firmware, you can access three EQ presets and a graphic EQ to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

These over-ears have satisfactory frequency response consistency. You may notice a drop in bass if you wear glasses or have thick hair. Depending on their fit and positioning, they're also prone to inconsistent treble delivery. It's important to adjust the headphones to hear consistent sound each time you wear them.

The bass accuracy is decent. The underemphasized low-bass range slightly dampens the thump and rumble of sound effects in your favorite action games, but their fairly well-balanced mid and high-bass range results in sufficient warmth and body.

This headset has amazing mid accuracy. The entire range is quite flat and balanced, resulting in clear, present, and detailed vocals and lead instruments.

The treble accuracy of these headphones is poor. The range is wholly underemphasized, resulting in a loss of clarity for vocals, lead instruments, and lispy and dull sibilants. Instruments like the violin in the main theme for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lack some articulation and sound dull instead of bright. That said, since their treble delivery can vary depending on their fit, seal, and positioning, your experience may vary.

They have a decent peaks and dips performance. An extended bump across the bass range generates some boominess while a slight dip in the low through mid-mid thins out vocals and lead instruments and nudges them toward the back of the mix. A bump in the high-mid and low-treble gives some vocals and lead instruments a harsh quality. The alternating drop and rise in the mid-treble can make sibilants sound alternatively dull and piercing.

Their imaging performance is great, like most headphones from Sony that we've tested. Their weighted group delay falls entirely beneath the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are also well-matched regarding phase, frequency, and amplitude response, so objects like footsteps and voices are accurately placed in the stereo image. That said, imaging indicates the manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics and varies between units.

They have a middling passive soundstage, which is normal for closed-back headphones. It's a small and fairly closed-off soundstage, and sound seems to come from inside your head rather than speakers placed in the room around you.

The Sony PULSE 3D Headset is compatible with a 3D virtual sound feature called Tempest 3D AudioTech, but only on PS5 consoles and on some PS4 games. Using this feature, you can adjust the virtual center point between your ears, which raises or lowers the apparent source of your audio. The feature is intended to improve the virtual soundstage to help create a more immersive experience.

They have a decent weighted harmonic distortion performance. There aren't many spikes aside from a peak in the low to mid-treble range at moderate volumes, which won't be too noticeable overall. Audio reproduction is mostly clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test the Sony PULSE 3D Headset. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

Note: Unfortunately, while the headset could connect to both PS4 and PS5 consoles, we couldn't manually update its firmware or check the current firmware.

They have bad noise isolation. They filter out almost no ambient noise in the bass or mid ranges, so you're likely to hear both the low rumble of buses passing by an open window and the chatter of people in a nearby room. They do a better job of blocking out high-pitched background noise, like the hum of a loud AC unit, but their performance here is still mediocre.

They have a decent leakage performance. Most of the escaping audio occurs in the low-treble range, giving it a somewhat thin quality. That said, it isn't too loud overall and won't be disruptive to people nearby.

The microphone has okay recording quality. Your voice sounds fairly natural and mostly free of distortion but also somewhat veiled and muffled. If you're looking for gaming headphones with a better mic recording quality, consider the SteelSeries Arctis 7P Wireless or the Sony PULSE Elite Wireless, which has a retractable boom mic.

The microphone's noise handling performance is unremarkable. Online teammates may struggle to understand you if you're calling from somewhere even moderately loud, like a shared living room. If you're looking for gaming headphones with a better noise handling performance, consider gaming headphones with a boom mic, like the Razer Kaira X instead.

They have a decent battery performance. They supply over 13 hours of continuous playback, exceeding the manufacturer's claim of 12 hours, but they fall short of other over-ear headphones like the Sony INZONE H7 Wireless. However, battery life varies with use. You can also use them while they charge via the included USB-C cable. The 1/8" TRRS cable lets you use their mic and listen to audio passively.

The Sony PULSE 3D have a decent app. On PS5, you can access a 5-band graphic EQ plus three EQ presets: 'Standard', 'Bass Boost', and 'Shooter'. You can see a comparison of the EQ presets here. Note that we played our calibration file through a USB connected to the console and could only get a maximum of 95 dB. We also level-matched our original curve measured on our PC (tested at 100 dB) to the 'Standard' preset (tested at 95 dB), and you can see that graph here.

To access the sound customization features, you'll need firmware update 21.02-04.03.00.00-00.00.00.0.1 for PS5. Then press the 'PlayStation' logo on the controller and then click the 'Sound' tab.

These headphones come with a 1/8" TRRS cable allowing full microphone and audio compatibility with devices with an AUX port. They also come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging.

The Sony PULSE 3D Headset has excellent non-Bluetooth connectivity. The USB wireless receiver lets you use it wirelessly with PCs as well as PS4 and PS5 consoles. The headphones have low latency via that connection, so your audio and visuals stay in sync while gaming.

These headphones are fully compatible with PCs via a wireless connection using the USB dongle. You can also use the included 1/8" TRRS cable for a wired connection, which allows you to receive audio and use the mic.

These headphones are fully compatible with PlayStation consoles, either using their analog cable or connecting them via non-Bluetooth wireless. If you're gaming on the PS5, you can also access EQ presets and a 5-band graphic EQ to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

The Sony PULSE 3D have full audio and microphone compatibility with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X when you plug their 1/8" TRRS cable into the console's controller. However, they aren't compatible with the Xbox One or Xbox Series X when using a wired USB connection. If you're looking for a headset that supports Xbox Wireless technology, consider the Xbox Wireless Headset.

The Sony PULSE 3D Headset has a wireless USB receiver providing a low latency connection with PlayStation consoles.