For a long time, gamers used big over-ear headsets. And very recently, gamers started switching to IEMs for gaming when they found out that they were smaller, sounded better, and were cheaper overall – especially for the sound quality it gives compared to those gaming headsets.
People used to just pick up whatever IEM was available, which were those made for audiophiles and music enjoyers. But as time went on, people started realizing that gaming requires very different things from someone just listening to music. Thus, manufacturers created an entirely new product category: the Gaming IEMs.
Now there are more and more IEMs released and marketed as “gaming IEMs”, and this segment of the market is growing rapidly in both the people buying them, and the amount of variants of IEMs made and marketed specifically for gaming.
The problem is that a lot of these companies are still figuring out what gaming audio is actually supposed to sound like. Many of them come from the audiophile side first, where the priorities are completely different and they may not necessarily have the experience or passion in gaming to get the audio just right. Others are approaching gaming tuning with a very narrow understanding of what players actually need by simply dropping a few frequency ranges and boosting others.
As a result, many gaming IEMs sound strangely underwhelming. Not bad! Just …meh. Mids are boosted by a lot, bass and treble are reduced, and while all of it makes sense on paper, the reality tells us something else entirely – especially when you use these IEMs on everything else but gaming.
Why Gaming Audio Prioritizes the Midrange
To be fair, there’s a reason the “gaming IEM” tuning exists.
A lot of important gaming information sits in the midrange. Things such as footsteps, movement cues, environmental detail, and even voice communication all live in this area. Bringing the mids forward can make these sounds easier to notice, especially in competitive games where reaction time matters.
From a pure functionality standpoint, that approach works.
The problem is that some manufacturers treat this like the only thing that matters. Instead of balancing the tuning around those cues, they boost the mids and drop everything else. In addition, a lot of gamers also conflate the idea that detecting cues easily also means you’re able to track sound accurately in game – this, obviously, isn’t necessarily the case. The ability of a headphone to highlight certain frequencies is very different from its ability to render spatial audio accurately.
All a gaming IEM really needs to do is follow the tuning principles of a desktop PC speaker: highlight and have a good control on the mids, and not too much bass or treble either. The problem is that speakers and headphones function completely differently.
How Mids-Forward Tunings Go Too Far
Unlike your friendly neighborhood desktop speaker, your gaming IEM sits directly outside your ear canal. So while desktop speakers can have the harshness of their mids-forward tuning get tempered by the room you’re in, your eardrums are taking in the full force of those jarring and grating mids. This is where many gaming IEMs start falling apart outside of very specific use cases.
To push those midrange cues forward, manufacturers often also reduce bass and smooth out or lower the treble. The end result is a sound signature that feels extremely focused on just the mids, which make it sound too “tinny” and extremely thin.
Yes, footsteps become more obvious. But explosions lose their impact, music becomes horrible, and even dialogue can start sounding flat or artificial. At this point, sound becomes too functional and informational rather than something that lets you enjoy the experience.
And while that might work for someone who’s laser-focused on becoming the next esports champion, most people don’t actually use their earbuds that way. And even then, most pro gamers game for long periods at a time where this tuning profile simply makes those sessions uncomfortable.
Why Does This Happen?
A big part of this comes from how ‘gaming audio’ is marketed – and no, we’re not just talking about the cat ear accessories for your headsets.
A lot of discussions revolve around hearing footsteps and competitive clarity, so manufacturers chase those talking points aggressively, and often blindly. They boost the mids, drop the low end, and suddenly the product sounds “gaming-focused” during a quick demo or comparisons. But then lose its sparkle the more that you actually use it.
The thing is that gaming doesn’t need just boosted mids (for lack of a better term), but instead accurate imaging, strong separation, and a good tuning profile. Also, you need good comfortability for long gaming sessions too – so simply reshaping the frequency response around a few specific cues just won’t cut it.
What Gaming Tuning Should Actually Looks Like
A strong gaming earbud should still have bass and highs, but you need a good control of both of them: nothing too overpowering that the bass covers everything up and the highs add too much sibilance. The mids should be pronounced but not too forward, so that you’re still able to maintain clarity without becoming harsh. Positional cues should feel natural, but also accurate and precise – like you’re actually in the game world and you can navigate through it through sound.
Therefore, imaging and audio layer separation are the things that matter far more than simply pushing one frequency range louder than the others.
The best gaming earbuds don’t force you to choose between performance and enjoyment. With the right hardware, they preserve enough musicality and immersion to stay enjoyable outside of competitive gaming, while still delivering the clarity gaming actually needs.
In short, balance and versatility matter more than being a one-trick pony.
Gaming Shouldn’t Come at the Expense of Everything Else
Listen, if you can afford to not just buy a pair, but also have the space to keep IEMs just for gaming, you do you. Gaming IEMs are a real thing now, and that’s a good thing.
It means we’ve got options. We don’t just need to settle for having audiophile IEMs that aren’t really good imaging for gaming, or need to lug around huge gamer headsets. We can now benefit from gear that’s specifically built for gaming.
But there’s a difference between tuning audio in the way that’s optimized for gaming, and overcorrecting for it.
The best gaming earbuds shouldn’t feel like one-trick tools that only work in one specific scenario, and fail at something else. Rather, they should excel at that one thing (i.e., gaming) but still sound good for music, watching YouTube videos and Netflix movies, playing single-player games, and just everyday use.
Because at the end of the day, most people aren’t buying earbuds just for one thing. And we believe you shouldn’t either.
We’ve got a list of some of the best gaming IEMs we believe are out there, that also happen to be pretty good with non-gaming stuff too. You can find our list here.
