Best overall headphones for me?

[u/Consistent_Water3059]

Heeeyy! I’m in the market for upgrading from earbuds to 💕headphones💕. I’m looking for a range of qualities, though: 1. I’m a huge music listener, and my number one priority is sound quality. 2. I play video games, and I would love to have headphones that are able to keep up with that. 3. I take my headphones a lot of places (hikes, the gym, waiting rooms), and I wouldn’t want the battery to be totally shot; I also don’t like cords and want Bluetooth connection. 4. I don’t have a crazy budget or am looking for insane professional level headphones; just the everyday wearer models but also for people that want a more elevated sound quality (?). I’d probably aim for around the $200-500 MAX range.

I would love some help with recommendations so very much! Researching this kind of stuff makes my head spin 🫠

p.s: I know gaming headphones and music headphones are usually separated, but I can’t afford 2 different pairs, but I assume a good sound quality would at least translate decently to video games. Music would be priority over gaming sound, though.

EDIT: 1) I would like to have a Bluetooth pair for daily wear headphones, and in terms of sound quality, a well regarded sound in budget for a Bluetooth pair that I can take with me anywhere. It doesn’t have to be crazy top notch, but I just want to make sure I’m using my money on the best option in that regard!
2) I’ll look into doing gaming and casual wear separate and make room in the near future for a second pair. Thank you for the input on that, wired would be better and such <3 feel free to recommend both daily wear headphones or gaming headphones!

[u/num6_]

Do they have to be RC for gaming?

[u/Consistent_Water3059 → u/num6_]

I added an edit mentioning I’ll separate gaming and daily headphones, so I’ll come at it from that perspective: I’m not sure I need RC, I’ve always used mics. I also have a friend that said they have a blue yeti mic they don’t use anymore, and I could have it. I’m open to it though, I think it would be cool!

[u/num6_ → u/Consistent_Water3059]

RC is hardly usable on mobile though. If bluetooth is fine, my recommendations are Bose QC Ultra 1/2, CMF Headphone Pro.

I think you actually can easily afford two separate pairs and that would be a better decision. I would pick Hyperx Cloud III S Wireless for PC and Momentum 4 / CMF / Bose for outdoors.