Game on!

At times the hi-fi and gaming industries might seem like they’re worlds apart, but Cliff Joseph reckons they both share a love of high-quality sound

- Cliff Joseph

It’s not easy being an audiophile. Often dismissed as pretentious and having more money than sense, we’re a downtrodden minority in a tech industry that values 4K video and 3D eye-candy over audio quality. We’re even lower on the food-chain than wine enthusiasts.

Sometimes, though, kinship can come from unexpected quarters, and the ever-growing gaming industry has quietly begun to introduce hi-fi sound and equipment to millions of people who wouldn’t normally identify as audiophile. That trend had already begun before the Coronavirus pandemic, and the sheer size of the gaming industry – matching film and music combined – has tempted many traditional headphone manufacturers to get a piece of the action.

Companies such as Beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica, Yamaha and Master & Dynamic have all released gaming headsets in recent years. The lower end of the market is dominated by bargain-basement Bluetooth cans, so these audiophile manufacturers have mostly concentrated on high-end options with superior sound quality.