Sony Inzone H9 II Review: The Best-Sounding Gaming Headset for PC and PS5

Gizmodo

9 hours ago

You don't need to do much more to sell me on a pro-level gaming headset than Sony did with its latest Inzone H9 II. Take the Sony WH-1000XM6 ANC headphones—currently the crème de la crème in both sound quality and active noise cancellation—and stick a mic on them, wash your hands, and call it a day. It was never going to be that simple. The Sony Inzone H9 II is simply the best-sounding gaming headset you can get right now. But for $350, you expect perfection, and you won't find that with the H9 II. You'll get an amazing audio experience packed in between some odd software choices and a battery life that doesn't sound nearly as enticing.
Sony Inzone H9 II
This is the gaming headset you get when you care about the sound most of all, even if you need to plug it in more often than most.
Pros
Cons
Sony launched a slew of new PC gamer products under its Inzone brand, including a new $300 Inzone KBD-H75 keyboard with magnetic Hall effect switches and a $150 Inzone gamer mouse. And yet, the second-gen headset is what catches the eye first. The first thing to know about the Inzone H9 II is it contains the same 30mm drivers as the Sony WH-1000XM6. Already, I can see you drooling. These are 'soft-edge' carbon fiber dome drivers that create a balanced audio profile with crisp sounds across movies and other passive content. So what does it do for game audio when you're not jamming out to the soundtrack? To put it mildly, the audio quality is impeccable. The low bass hits of rockets and crackle of automatic gunfire are immediately distinct from game to game. Using it for a title like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is the perfect match with its boisterous bass of every boltgun fired. The headset includes 360 spatial sound to get the sense of being surrounded by sound.
The Inzone H9 II is also a very light headset. At 260g, or 0.57 pounds, it didn't weigh me down as much as other full-spec headsets of its kind. The removable earcups felt extra plush surrounding my ears, though the headband sports a strange design that makes it odd to wear. Each side requires users to pinch a hinge to adjust its height. It requires a little more fiddling than other devices, but once it's on, the gaming headphones disappear into the background while the audio takes over. Here's another handy bonus of the Inzone H9 II: the pads swivel in both directions, meaning it's very easy to fold up into the included felt-lined soft pouch that comes in the box.
The original $300 H9 from 2022 was lacking in several ways compared to other peripherals. Though Sony laid out the H9 II's specs as if they were somehow the cream of the crop, the headset still seems out of step for a $350 device. It gets a total of 30 hours of promised battery life. That sounds like more than enough for two or three marathon gaming sessions, but I just got done reviewing the $250 Razer BlackShark V3 Pro with a promised 70 hours of total battery life with fast charging. HP's $300 HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 claims to get 250 hours of battery life before needing a recharge. Always-on active noise cancelling would necessarily require more power from the headset, but the Inzone H9 II is still on the lower end of headset battery life, especially for its price.
If I personally had to sacrifice anything for good sound and a comfy fit, it would be extra-long battery life. Sony will get egg releasing a headset so expensive but with less than half the expected battery life. The Razer Kraken V4 Pro costs $400, but it also comes with haptic motors built in and an OLED control hub that acts as the 2.4GHz dongle. The Inzone H9 II still beats Razer's headset in terms of raw audio quality, but there are other factors that Sony is still behind on when competing with headsets at lower prices.
The first Sony Inzone H9 headset arrived in 2022 along with the company's then-new PC gaming brand. It was clear three years ago Sony didn't have much of an idea what PC gamers were looking for. Sony's Inzone PC software has improved by leaps and bounds, but the wide selection of competing headset makers is leaving it in the dust. Inzone Hub only allows for three—yes, three—EQ profiles, all of which are a different variety of first-person shooter. The FPS-1 EQ calls out footsteps slightly better, though I would set it and forget it on either FPS-2 or standard if I wanted to hear the full force of gunshots or explosions. The FPS-3 mode muffles the sounds of battle, though I didn't feel as if it gave me nearly as much of an edge for the sake of mangling my enjoyment of sound effects in various games.
I took the headset into many matches of Counter-Strike 2 (I'm terrible at CS2) and Halo Infinite (where I'm only marginally better). If this was supposed to rank as an esports headset, it would fall a little short despite the various EQ profiles. Sony built the Inzone H9 II along with the pro gaming team FNATIC, with a focus on Valorant and Apex Legends. The EQ profiles were designed to make players perform better in each game, but there's no language in the app to tell users which one they should use. Sony kept reiterating this is a headset tuned for first-person shooters, but it's not like the average gamer looking to play Baldur's Gate III with friends doesn't want a great experience as well. There are no other EQ options for an RTS or RPG gamer. Even if the headset's flat audio profile offers a stellar audio experience, I wonder if Sony couldn't have spent some of its spare time fine-tuning some more game-specific options.
The Inzone H9 II is an odd beast to control. The headset includes a large mute mic button right at the top along with a large volume wheel. All of that's well and good, but it's still hard to know what settings you're using while wearing the device. Unlike other headsets that will indicate settings with full voice cues, the H9 II offers audio chimes when you turn on simultaneous Bluetooth or change from ANC to ambient modes. At least the mic includes a bright red light to let you know if your friends can hear you chewing in the background.
One of the big issues with the original Inzone H9 from three years ago was its mic quality. This time around, Sony seriously upgraded the hell out of its mic quality. I recorded myself compared to several other major headsets, including some of the latest Alienware Pro Wireless and Razer headsets, and the Inzone H9 II stood out easily as one of the better for overall voice quality. The new detachable mic supports a wider band of sound, meaning it can pick up on more minute differences in voice. Despite construction going on outside the office window three feet away, the mic didn't pick up any rumbling jackhammers or car horns.
One of the WH-1000XM6's best standout features is its excellent active noise cancellation that blocks out so much ambient noise I would fear taking a stroll with them near a busy highway. That headset uses a number of exclusive processors and AI assistance to limit outside noise. The Inzone H9 II uses Sony's noise sensors it has stuck with for its NC 1000X series, though the company didn't go as far as to claim it's the same as its latest headset. This isn't the device meant to survive being surrounded by a chorus line of jackhammers. Instead, the Inzone H9 II's sensors were more than enough to help me ignore the jet engine fans of multiple PCs and gaming laptops, along with an annoyingly squeaky office HVAC system making mammoth mouse sounds above my head. My editor was trying to talk to me a foot away as I was gaming, and with the volume on medium settings, I couldn't hear a peep from him. The device also has an ambient mode that can let some outside noise cut through, but there's no full 'transparency' setting that other headsets have, which may have offered better battery life. This is a headset meant to get you fully engaged with the content you're playing, to the detriment of your boss or partner desperate to get your attention.
The BlackShark V3 Pro is a gaming headset so dedicated to the 'pro' gamers it feels like it missed me personally. Every EQ option, aka the equalization settings, is geared toward honing in on enemy footsteps or gunshots. If you don't care too much about smashing face in multiplayer, the Inzone H9 II is more ideal.
The headset also supports PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. This is a Sony product, after all, which means you can expect it will feature excellent 3D audio on PS5 after you complete the lengthy setup process. The headset proved a great option if you swap between PC and Sony's mainline console for all your gaming needs. And yet, it could be so much more seamless. PlayStation Pulse products and Sony's upcoming fight stick controller use the PlayStation Link standard for low-latency 2.4GHz connection to the console. PlayStation's console gaming arm recently said this should allow for more than one device connected at the same time through a single dongle. Why can't Sony simply make PlayStation Link standard across its entire gaming hardware suite? It's as if the one hand of the Japanese tech giant isn't talking to the other.
All my many quibbles can't override the excellent comfort and the overwhelmingly balanced sound quality. It's a much better headset than the first Sony Inzone H9 and now it has a mic you'll actually want to use. But it's still damn expensive, even if you think of the Inzone H9 II like a WH-1000XM6 with a built-in mic. With its small but noticeable software and hardware foibles, the Inzone H9 II may not look like the part of a pure esports headset. But for when I want to ignore the world and bask in the exclusive bubble with just me and my game, I know I would reach for the Inzone H9 II before any of the many headsets I've used.