The first thing you realize after playing a competitive FPS with headphones is that you should never play a competitive FPS without Headphones on. All games sound best with your ears sandwiched between two nice speakers, but in shooters, the ability to isolate background noise and detect the direction of footsteps, shouts, and gunfire can literally make you a better player.

This relationship between skill and sound is the only reason I read an entire blog post dedicated to audio in Black Ops 6, and why I’m frowning at a new “Enhanced Headphone Mode” that promises to To maximize audio clarity for these I’m willing to part with an additional $20.