Sony announces PlayStation Pulse Explore earbuds and Pulse Elite wireless headset

Sony has announced the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds and the Pulse Elite wireless headset for the PS5 console. 

The Pulse Explore wireless earbuds are the first-ever officially internally developed buds for the PS5 and will retail for $199.99 / £199.99 (around AU$310) with an exact launch date or pre-orders yet to be confirmed. 

As revealed in a PlayStation Blog post, Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President of Platform Experience at SIE writes: "With Pulse Explore, we’re pleased to be one of the first companies to provide wireless earbuds to the mass consumer market using planar magnetic driver technology". This was first rumored back in February, but will now be officially released sometime this year. 

It sounds as though the Japanese hardware company will be leaning into the technology that has backed some of the best headphones and the best earbuds, including the stellar Sony WF-1000XM4. Nishino writes that: "Pulse Explore is our first set of wireless earbuds, providing a premium portable audio experience with dual microphones and AI-enhanced noise rejection capable of filtering background sounds". He continues: "It also offers lossless audio and comes with a charging case". We'll know whether or not these are some of the best gaming earbuds when we test them later this year. 

Also of note is the upcoming Pulse Elite wireless headset which will retail for $149.99 / £129.99 (about AU$230) as an evolved form of the Pulse 3D headset which launched with the PS5 console in November 2020. What's new with this pro-level variant is lossless audio, a retractable boom mic, and AI-enhanced noise canceling to filter out background noise. The package also comes with a charging hanger. Whether or not this new model can be considered one of the best PS5 headsets remains to be seen, but evolution on its excellent predecessor sets a strong first impression.

Little is known about the specific hardware inside the new gaming headset and gaming earbuds apart from the physical design. A teaser trailer reveals just how they will slot into the current PlayStation ecosystem, though, and this is bolstered by the PlayStation Link wireless technology which "delivers low latency, lossless audio and easy switching between multiple PlayStation Link hosts such as PS5 with the USB adapter and PlayStation Portal".

This appears to be a new 2.4 GHz wireless technology which will also be sold as a standalone dongle to use with other devices like a gaming PC or Mac. It's been confirmed that PlayStation Link can be tethered to one of the best gaming phones as a connection with Bluetooth when rigged up to the PS5, which is a neat touch.

Need even more options for gaming audio? We recommend checking out the best wired gaming headsets and the best soundbars next.