You can tell a lot from a box. The packaging these headphones come in is slick looking, sturdy and well designed (there's no moulded plastic to hack through and bust your scissors on here). And the PC 350 set itself is built along exactly the same lines.

In fact the build quality is first-rate, and these headphones are solid and yet still relatively lightweight and really comfortable to wear. With their spacious ear cups cushioned with over a centimetre of black foam, we're going to go out on a limb here and state that the PC 350s are the most comfortable pair of headphones we've ever worn. Which is handy when you're settling in for a long session of Unreal Tournament.

The ear cups twist through ninety degrees, so the unit can be stored or transported flat, and there's a microphone boom attached, which again is sturdily built and flexible in the middle so you can bend it to whatever position you find most beneficial. A volume control and mic mute button sit half-way down the headphones lead, which attaches to your sound card's speaker and microphone ports via two standard 3.5mm jacks.

Right. Prepare for a trip to superlative city, where there's a bargain sale on "excellent", "fantastic" and "amazing". The sound these little fellows produce is all three of these rolled into one and then seasoned with a little more "superb". Playing games with these headphones, we noticed little nuances of noise that we'd never heard before.

In Race 07, the sound of pit mechanics tinkering in the background was bursting with detail - spanners turning, pit crew members mumbling, the lot. The bike on RedLynx Trials 2 sounded brutally raw. Guns in Half Life 2 were meaty and chunky, and the echo effects indoors were highly realistic.

The all-round clarity delivered was quite astonishing, and then same was true when listening to music. If there's one slight downside, it's that the musical performance with heavier rock tracks lacked just a touch of bass oomph. But we must stress this is a very slight nit-pick; we're not talking holes in the sound or anything like that.

The microphone is also a quality affair, and perhaps best of all, the PC 350's smooth styling makes the wearer look like he or she should be piloting Blue Thunder (or possibly Airwolf). It's true, the headset isn't cheap, but this is top-end audio hardware so you can expect to pay a premium. Besides, if you hunt around online you can get it a fair whack cheaper than the RRP.

If you're after the best gaming headset that money can buy - that we've ever used, at any rate - here it is. The PC 350 boasts superb clarity of sound, snazzy aesthetics, a top quality build and an excellent mic.