Like the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL keyboard – except as astute readers will notice, this is a headset – the BlackShark V3 Pro is something I’ve welcomed into my everyday PC kit for months, yet apparently needed the invention of a new review format in order for me to talk about it. Whoops. Still, the length of that happy headwearing should tell you something: I like it, a lot.

In truth, there’s not even anything particularly exceptional about it. Its parental favourite brother, the BlackShark V3 Pro, is the one that gets all the fancy active noise cancelling gubbins; this non-Pro version does share spatial audio support, but what impresses more is how well it nails the essentials. It sounds great in pretty much everything, with fine detailing and enough low-end punch to shake some skulls without losing control to unrefined boominess. It rarely needs charging. Mic quality is, as Julian said in a recent call, “really good.” And the memory-foamed earcups are easily among the most comfortable I’ve worn, maybe even more so than those of my beloved HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless. That comes wrapped in a higher-quality leatherette, which helps if you like your gaming headsets to feel as if you’ve shoved your ears against the back seat of a Cadillac. But the BlackShark V3 is lighter, and not as tight ‘round the noggin.

Why this and not the BlackShark V3 Pro, though? I’ve tried that out as well, and besides the fact that it offers only marginally better sound quality for £100 more, enabling its ANC always produced a Bluetooth-like hiss that was noticeable (and noticeably offputting) during quiet moments. Knock it for a lack of uniqueness if you want, but the BlackShark V3 keeps itself free of such outright flaws.

Quick Kits is a hardware review series about pouring as much fully-tested PC gear knowledge down your eyes as we can – within two or three paragraphs.