There are lots of reasons I'd recommend the Meta Quest 3 and its more affordable Quest 3S sibling. These headsets are some of the most approachable, feature-rich, and powerful VR devices ever put on the shelves. But even the best VR headsets have their flaws, and one of the Quest 3's weaknesses is its lack of support for wireless audio devices.
I've just tested three types of wireless earbuds and one wireless gaming headset with the Meta Quest 3, and even after firmware updates in 2024 were supposed to improve Bluetooth latency, I can confirm that audio lag is still a massive issue if you aren't rocking earbuds that have low latency as standard. You can absolutely use wireless earbuds on the Quest 3 if you're just watching YouTube videos or streaming content, but the second you launch a game, you'll start to notice a second or two delay between what's happening in front of your eyes and what you hear.
And yet, I'd still recommend the Quest 3 and 3S, partly because their on-board speakers are so good you don't always need to go looking for the best Meta Quest accessories. The integrated speakers have always been one of my favorite things about these devices, but ironically, I never hear others talk about them.
The speakers fire inward, meaning you won't exactly disturb anyone around you, and they convey positional audio surprisingly well. At the same time as immersing you with great audio quality, you can still hear your surroundings in the real world, which stays true to the mixed-reality promises of these headsets. Still, there are plenty of reasons people would want compatibility with other audio devices. Being able to properly close yourself into a VR game with noise-cancelling audio is the ultimate step in immersion, but that's not really an option with a Quest 3 device unless you're not using a wired headset.
Regardless of the Quest 3's lag issues, I'd still recommend these two sets of earbuds. I've been testing both recently, and while EarFun shows its strength in immersive noise cancelling and audio quality, OpenRock has a lot of versatility for use during outdoor activity.
EarFun Air Pro 4: $62.99 at Amazon
OpenRock S2: $98.99 at Amazon
The Meta Quest 3S doesn't even have a 3.5mm headphone jack, meaning if you do need to use a wireless headset or pair of earbuds, you could be stuck with latency issues.
I thought I would be safe with the low-latency earbuds I have. I tried out the mostly great OpenRock S2 earbuds. I've heard a few people talk about how VR's all-encompassing level of immersion makes them uncomfortable because they don't feel safe in their environment. Open earbuds would theoretically solve this issue on other headsets since you'd get immersive audio but you'd still be able to hear what was going on around you - a bit like Meta's internal speakers. I also tried the EarFun Air Pro 4s, but it suffered from the same issue that OpenRock's did.
Both of these have low-latency modes you activate through their bespoke mobile apps when they're connected to your phone, but this doesn't carry over when you connect to a different device. Meta's Quest store doesn't have the same access to mobile apps, and therefore you can't activate low-latency when you head into VR games.
I tested both of these, as well as a USB-C gaming headset, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7, and that didn't work at all unless I wired it up via the 3.5mm jack. A little latency might not seem like too much of an issue, but it just so happens that a lot of the most popular VR games are rhythm games where timing your actions with music is essential. Pistol Whip, Beat Saber, or my personal favorite, Maestro VR all play so much worse when your audio isn't in sync.
While conducting a virtual orchestra to play Duel of the Fates, I was about to recreate Whiplash by throwing things at my musicians for not keeping to my time. Bluetooth audio on Quest 3 just isn't an option when gaming, and although a few people have reported less latency with higher-tech gaming earbuds, I don't think most users should need to fork out for a specific set of earbuds just for VR play.
In short, this sucks. Even with excellent 3D speakers onboard, it's a real shame Meta didn't frontload the Quest 3 devices with better compatibility for the best gaming headsets and earbuds. Maybe further software updates will improve things in the future, or perhaps earbud makers could start making apps for the Quest store. On either front, I'm not optimistic.
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