For anyone who’s ever played with me in Rainbow Six: Vegas you know that sometimes my headset acts up and my voice cuts in and out. It only happens in Rainbow Six: Vegas so I’m not sure if it is the game or my headset. To try and figure it out I picked up a Plantronics GameCom X30 on Amazon when I found them for $17 since they retail for $30.

It is an under the ear design that is much smaller than the headset included with the Xbox 360. The design can be worn in either ear with the ear bug and the mic boom rotating to fit in either ear. The sound quality was good and the volume gets plenty loud. It has built in noise canceling that helps the people on the other end hear only your voice.

Even though it has good sound quality there are a couple things I don’t like about it. First, I have to take my hands off the controller to adjust the volume and mute. Sine I tend to need to hit the mute pretty frequently I found this pretty frustrating. If I did not need to use the mute then I would probably not mind the volume/mute being in the cord, but with a 7 month old kid running around my house the mute is essential to keeping my friends from hating me. One of the things I really like about the headset included with the Xbox 360 is that I can mute it without taking my hands off the controller. The other thing I did not like about the headset was that since it is an under the ear design after about 30 minutes it started to hurt in my ear since all the weight is on the ear bud. Even though it is really light it gets uncomfortable after playing for a while.

Ultimately, after trying it for a few gaming sessions I ended up going back to the original Xbox 360 headset. This Plantronics one just was not quite what I’m looking for. It anyone has recommendations of a good headset that I can mute without taking my hands off the controller please let me know. If you’re looking for a quality headset with an under ear design this one is pretty good. I just was not for me.