USB headsets vs 3.5mm+W2 GA [Update]

Reserved

I just cite some comment from reddit:

Audio is stored on your computer as digital files. To play through your headphones, the digital files are reconstructed into analog waveforms by a device called a DAC (digital to analog converter). If your headphones plug directly in by USB, that means that there is a DAC in the plug. This is NOT good - a DAC within a cable is going to be pretty crappy. If you use a 3.5mm connection to your computer, the conversion to analog has already been done within your computer, either by a discrete sound card or by a chip integrated with the motherboard. This is preferable.
Many of us on this sub use an external DAC/amp, which is basically a sound card that sits outside of the computer, away from EMI interference. These devices are usually far more powerful than onboard sound cards, and cheaper for the same level of performance.

So I would recommend not to use USB headphones. I've never seen any decent variations of them. And may I ask: why do you need them?

3.5's more useful seeing as you can route whatever signal you're using through any number of external volume controls, or use splitters, or route it back to your microphone to record livestreams/podcasts/whatever in addition to your spoken word.

I get interference when I use a 3.5 jack and my wireless mouse. Not so with USB.

3.5mm will be the better quality but I currently use a USB one. I've always had really good luck using a Logitech USB headset. I only use this for audio in game and for teamspeak/vent/curse voice/etc.

Make sure you have your sound card drive updated and all that jazz what not and such.

i have only used 3.5 so far. never had problem

I almost always use usb headphones and I've never noticed buzzing. my last two sets were 7.1 surround ones and they made a fair approximation of it even if it wasnnt quite the same. Certainly takes up less space in my computer room. (When not using usb I use my bluetooth headset )

Well, first of all - I never used USB headphones, so I can't tell my experience with it.
But, you have to understand, that when you buy a USB headphones, you actually buying one more sound card for your PC, that is hidden inside of this headphones. Probably, in your case, this sound card is poorly shielded from actual audio, that's why you get interference in your sound.
It's strange, that you tried headphones in shop and there was no problems. This can mean that it's your PC that makes interference. I can't give good advice in this case, actually never met this problem, but you can try to adjust "spread spectrum" settings in your bios (of course, read about it first).
Good luck in solving your problem!

Good USB headphones are pretty sweet. I'm using the Razer Banshee, and it really has been worth the money. It's important to note that they're not in the same price range as the headphones you listed. Good headsets are expensive.

I've used USB Headsets all the time, and never had that problem, but I didn't buy them from gamestop. Right now, I'm using a wireless.

I actually have that problem with 3.5mm headsets but everything is fine with USB ones for me.

Sounds like a ground fault to me. Don't ask me how to solve it though. :D
(Try unplugging anything unnecessary from your computer, making sure you're using three-prong plugs and outlets on everything, and making sure the house/outlet wiring itself is grounded.)

(Crystal Gamer's post on EMI interference actually seems pretty sound too. Initially thought you still had the issue with USB and 3.5".)

Maybe it has to do with the computer's USB (3?) ports being set to enable device charging via USB when it's shut down. If so, disable the option from bios and try again or use another USB (2 maybe) port.

3,5mm because blocks no USB port and can be used on other devices.

I've have both usb and 3.5mm headset. I've never had trouble with either of them. But I have a 3.5 mm now just because its cheaper.

Are you using a laptop?
If not try to plug the headset to the back panel's usb. I always avoid using the front panel for headphones (both jack or usb), such panel's cables pass though a bunch of electromagnetic fields and fan vibrations which sure disturbs any analog signal. Bear in mind that every usb port carries 5V which is not healthy for your signal as well (but that's for audiophiles).
That buzzing even with computer off makes me think to a faulty ground somewhere. To exclude it's a faulty onboard soundcard problem try any cheap jack headphone, if you still can hear it then I'm afraid your only option would be a new soundcard.

Edit: As Thallassa reminded me, with a built-in DAC a faulty onboard soundcard shouldn't be your problem since the headset should figure as a standalone soundcard itself.
Still you need to find what produces that buzz. Since 2 fresh new headset had the same problem it must be your PC.

My current setup, if you're interested:
ESI Prodigy X-Fi NRG
Superlux HD-681 Evo
a Modmic-alike I built myself

Here we go again with the headsets... Dear lord.

Alright first of all, both USB and 3,5mm should (!) be able to work fine! The difference is that a USB-Headset has it's own DAC, the thing crystalgamer talked about - and, as in the post, it's pretty cheap stuff in there. The same, ofc, goes, needless to say, for wireless headsets, they're also getting the signal from that, where else?
In and of itself, that is alright, because USB is mostly pretty safe from interference, much more so than 3,5mm. The 3,5mm jacks get their signal directly from the audio-output of the PC or device, be it a dedicated soundcard or the on-board one on the motherboard. They both are relatively prone to interference, because they draw their power directly from the PCs power supply, which often doesn't quite deliver the exact current needed to drive these devices perfectly. On high-end devices (Meaning: high-end headphones) you can even hear a difference in sound between a good and a bad power supply in the PC. Even if the sound card has it's own dedicated power circuit, interference does occur quite often. In and of itself though, 3,5mm jacks offer the possibility to upgrade your audio via a better sound card. Although in case of headsets, the value spent for a sound card and the actual difference in sound audible, is very low, due to the phones themselves being very limited in their capacity.
In any case, neither USB nor 3,5 mm is to be preferred when it comes to headsets in any way. They're not technically identical, but there's no striking feature to prefer one of them. In other devices, like DACs and amps (soundcards, in gamer-terms), USB is the far more preferable option, for instance. A reason high-end devices exclusively use USB rather than, say, PCIe. Cheap devices also use it, ofc, but not exclusively.

So, what I reccomend you to do is like with any other headset-user:
1) go buy a Kingston Hyper X Cloud (There's two versions, the second has a cheap USB-Dac. Make your pick, but it's the only headset that's reccomendable in terms of being able to compete with sound quality of similarly priced headphones. Also the quality is more than the typical-headset-100%-fragile-plastic.

2) Go buy seperate microphones and headphones. It may come a tad more expensive, but decent (focus the decent, there's a lot, A LOT of trash out there!) The seperate microphone will do a much better job recording your voice, without intereferences, buzzing or whatever, while there's still plenty of options available. From usb-mics you can just put on your desk (they're very small, so don't worry) like the samson meteorite or go mic, or to mics you can put on the headphones with a magnet like the modmic 4.0 to mics you can put directly into the empty socket of a headphone with removable cables, like the v-moda boom pro mic.
A good headphone can last more than ten years, I've never seen anything with the label "gamer headset" do that. Parts are often changeable, so when the pads croak, you just buy new ones for $10, and so on.

Lastly, I know, everyone who owns a headset it like "Ermagerd, mah headset is the best out there! it's not bad! You're stupid for saying that!"
I've heard that a lot. That's mostly because you have to experience sound to know how it can sound and feel better, you have to experience comfort for the same. A lot, a whole lot of people just haven't done that open-mindedly or expandedly enough, maybe also not with the right headphone models. I urge everyone opposing me to go try a few good headphones or to at least just read up a bit on headsets versus headphones before telling me, I'm an idiot.

For a starting point, try these pages:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-4-8-2015-full-x2-review-update

http://www.head-fi.org/t/635504/headset-vs-headphones-gaming

Although I've stumbled on a lot of idiocy already while googling for helping points for you. Still the lies with the "audio designed for gaming" and shit.

If you're german, this is also kind of interesting: http://www.tomshardware.de/gaming-headset-sounding-theorie-surround-sound,testberichte-241717.html

Shame the english-speaking page of tomshardware doesn't even have that article, at least, I couldn't find it.