Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma headphones

The Creative Soundblaster Tactic 3D Sigma gaming headphones have a list of features almost as long as the product's name, from the included sound card to simulated 3D surround sound and vocal effects through the plug-in microphone.

Well-built and very comfortable, they sit well on the user's head without being irritating, thanks mainly to the well-cushioned ear pads and steel-cored headband, which both make for a precise fit.

Gamers can plug the headphones into a PC or Mac directly using the pair of 3.5mm ‘jack' connectors, or the jacks can be plugged into the small supplied USB adapter which contains a Creative sound card and plugs into the PC or Mac itself.

The adapter, which offers better sound than computers' built-in sound cards, required a driver to be downloaded from the Creative website, which was hard to navigate. Once installed, it can configure the 10-band equaliser and sound effects.

If used, the sound card bypasses any on-board audio that the PC already has. The settings and equaliser provide plenty of flexibility for gaming and online chat – we found the voice effects fun for use on Skype through the better-than-average microphone, which plugs into a socket on the headphones and can be removed when not in use.

If the headphones are plugged in using the jack connectors they use the computer's built-in sound card, and in this mode they can also be plugged into any other device with a standard headphone socket.

The headphones produced warm, pleasing audio, making them good for listening to music, though because they weren't quite as sharp as possible, we wouldn't recommend them if you're making music. For films, playing games and chat, however, they were good.

Volume got uncomfortably loud through the large 50mm headphones, so the volume slider on the cable is useful. What wasn't so great was the amount of sound that ‘bled' from the headset into the surrounding environment when used at moderate volume, so they're not much use for listening on public transport.

For £80, the Soundblaster Tactic 3D Sigma headphones are impressive and offer better value than some similarly priced models we have tried.