The JBL Quantum 100 gaming headset is a solid choice for less than $40 | CNN Underscored

How many times have you been called a n00b while gaming online and cried out, “No YOU’RE the n00b,” only to realize you’re a fallen tree in an unhearing forest? Me too, friend; I get it. So, I finally caved and bought the cheapest gaming headset I could find from a brand I know. The JBL Quantum 100 wired gaming headset ain’t fancy, and that’s just fine, because it’s $40 (with frequent drops to $30 or less) and it lets me hear the footsteps of the guy who’s about to shoot me, and tell him something I heard about his lineage as I lay there, my in-game avatar crying for a medic that probably won’t come without an active weekly goal to reward them.

I appreciate a functional piece of tech as much as I do gear on the bleeding edge, and the JBL Quantum 100 certainly falls in the former category. The sound is reasonably good, the built-in microphone is surprisingly reliable and it has a thoughtful design for the price. It lacks the convenience of Bluetooth, sure, but sometimes it’s nice not to have to worry about the finicky nature of wireless communication and go with good old hard-wired tech.

The JBL Quantum 100 headset is a great buy for gamers on a budget, offering a comfortable, user-repairable design and good-enough sound for less than $40.

The JBL Quantum 100 is a well-designed headset from a company with a strong home audio pedigree. It uses an over-ear format with well-padded ear cups and the braided audio cable is nicely flexible. The surprisingly sturdy, angled 3.5mm audio jack is a nice touch, too, making it comfortable to use without kinking the cable. On the left ear cup, you’ll find a volume wheel rather than a rocker, and a mute button; both simple, easy to use mechanisms.

It also has a bendable, removable boom mic that’s surprisingly good — I wouldn’t be ashamed to use it for a podcast or some background vocal recording in a pinch. The headset is otherwise made up of mostly pretty cheap-feeling plastic, as you’d expect, and it’s certainly not taking home any medals for its looks, but JBL clearly put at least some thought into ergonomics and convenience when crafting it.

Lightweight and comfortable

There’s an upside to the cheap materials here: the JBL Quantum 100 are very lightweight headphones, making them comfortable to wear for extended gaming sessions. The clamp force — that is, how hard they clamp your head — isn’t overly strong, but their feathery weight renders pressure points virtually nonexistent. I wear glasses, and unlike clampier headsets, I didn’t feel the need to use my thinnest glasses with them.

The over-ear cups fit nicely around my ears, and are nice and roomy compared to my AirPods Max, which have a tendency to put a little too much pressure on the outer, upper tips of my precious lobes, though they’re a little shallower than Apple’s ultra-premium headphones. The headphones can also be rotated or tilted for small adjustments if they get uncomfortable or you need to pack them away.

Lastly, these headphones have a nice range of headband adjustment, letting them stretch way bigger than my average, run-of-the-mill head calls for — I’d guess they’re good for even bigger noggins, given their generous, erm, headroom.

Related: Sony’s Inzone H9 is one of the most comfortable gaming headsets I’ve ever worn

A lot of tech is made so you can’t bust into it without either destroying it or having the experience to know how not to, but the JBL Quantum 100 are mostly user-serviceable with nothing more than a couple of screwdrivers and a soldering iron. The ear cups are clipped in and replaceable, and when you remove them, you expose a cover held in place by just a few phillips-head screws.

Inside, you’ll find the driver, hidden behind more plastic, and a few small boards with simple soldered connections. There is some glue used to affix the driver’s casing to the plastic cover, but it looks fairly easy to separate. I probably wouldn’t go to the trouble of replacing the driver itself, but otherwise, everything else about them can be fixed.

Unsurprisingly, the speakers aren’t stellar. Bass is almost nonexistent, and the low-midrange is beefed up to give the impression of a slightly boomy sound. Still, they’re perfectly inoffensive for casual listening and tuned well for in-game voices or other sounds. For comparison, they have a somewhat similar sound profile to wired Apple EarPods, and I prefer them to the old Sony WHXB700 Bluetooth headphones I happened to have handy.

The earcups don’t really do much to block out external noise, and neither does the microphone. So if you’re planning to game in a noisy environment, you’ll probably want to spend more and get something with better noise isolation or even built-in noise gating for the microphone to reduce quieter background sounds.

Still, with a very functional approach to audio and a superior microphone than you’d find on even much pricier headsets, they’re well worth the $20 I paid for them on sale. I don’t think I’d be upset if I’d paid their $40 list price, either.

Like I said above, these headphones definitely feel cheap. Although I see this largely as a plus for comfort reasons, it doesn’t bode well for their longevity unless you plan to baby them. The thin leatherette covering the ear cups will probably start peeling after a year or so, and there are several places where accidental mishandling or sitting on the headphones would probably snap something.

The audio cable is non-removable without some invasive repair work, so if you break the cable, you’re going to have to open them up to replace it, or just buy another pair. That’s not a big deal if you like them since they’re so cheap, but buying a second pair is inconvenient and wasteful, and that’s a shame.

Not that it’s expected given their simplicity, but you won’t find “features” in these headphones — unless you consider volume control a feature. They don’t have any special connectivity, apps or any ability to customize the sound at all. They’re just headphones with a microphone. It’s honestly refreshing, and I debated where this section fits in this review, as you could easily call this a benefit or not, depending on your perspective.

Compatibility	Anything with 3.5mm audio jack	Anything with 3.5mm audio jack	Anything with 3.5mm audio jack
Y-splitter included	No	Yes	Yes (with PC version)
Adjustability	Adjustable headband Rotatable ear cups Bendable microphone	Adjustable headband Bendable microphone	Adjustable headband Bendable microphone
Active noise cancellation	No	No	No
Bluetooth	No	No	No
Wired connectivity	Non-detachable 3.5mm audio cable	Non-detachable 3.5mm audio cable	Detachable 3.5mm audio cable
Microphone	Removable, adjustable boom microphone with pop filter	Non-detachable boom microphone	Non-detachable boom microphone
Driver size	40mm	40mm	40mm
Software customization	No	Yes	Yes
Price	$40	$50	$60

If you’re looking for a reliable wired budget gaming headset, give the JBL Quantum 100 a serious look. They’re cheaper than most other name brand wired headsets, have nice controls, thoughtful design and a surprisingly good microphone. They won’t blow you away with their audio quality, though they’re good enough for casual use. They don’t have any special features, but I’ve often found that once I’m finished playing around with extraneous options, I tend to forget about them unless they meaningfully improve the experience.

For better sound, it’s worth considering the Razer Kraken X — one of the best gaming headsets — which is otherwise very similar, albeit a bit heavier and not quite as adjustable. Their microphone is also distinctly worse, making them pretty useless outside of the context of gaming or video conferencing, if vocal quality is important to you. For better noise isolation, consider the $60 SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1. They don’t weigh much more than the JBL Quantum 100, and they block out background noise better. Both the Kraken X and the Arctis Nova 1 can be used with software to add audio features you won’t get with JBL’s headset, each offering simulated 7.1 surround sound if you want a slightly more spacious experience.