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  • 2-year full warranty
  • Headphone repair service
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Mies pelaa tietokoneella Valco-kuulokkeet ja puomimikrofoni päässä

Do ANC headphones work for gaming?

You sit down at the computer once the rest of the house goes quiet. Ahead of you: a few sacred hours of game, team, and you.

Gaming headphone makers have their own answer to this moment: a dragon logo, RGB lights, and a plastic hinge that snaps in year three. Headphone forums are rare in their unanimous agreement here: don't buy gaming headphones, buy real headphones.

We agree with the forums.

Real headphones come with top-tier sound, active noise cancelling, and a 55-hour battery. Over the cable, latency is a flat zero, and the mic runs on the same cord for team chat. And once the session ends, the same headphones are fine to wear on the train and on the plane, unlike that LED monstrosity built for a 12-year-old's sci-fi fantasy.

We're not claiming to make gaming headphones. We're claiming that good headphones handle gaming better than bad gaming headphones, and they handle everything else on the side.

Buy one good pair instead of two bad ones.

Three honest reasons to game with Valcos

Mies pelaa konsolia sohvalla Valco-headset päässä

One good pair beats two bad ones

Gaming headphones are usually headphones where you pay for blinking lights instead of sound. Buy one real pair instead, and you get top-tier sound quality, noise cancelling, and headphones you can actually be seen wearing in public.

You can wear the same headphones to travel. Wearing the LED monstrosity, you can't even open the door for the pizza guy.

Lähikuva mustista Valco-kuulokkeista puomimikrofonilla

Latency is zero over the cable

Included is a 3.5 mm cable, and your money buys a wired boom mic, in case you need to yell at your teammates.

An analog cable is the most boring technology imaginable, and that's exactly why it works: no latency, no pairing, and ANC still stays on.

Pelaaja eläytyy peliin kannettavan ääressä Valco-kuulokkeet päässä

Wireless? Why not.

A review found our previous model's wireless latency unfit for gaming. We took it personally, and the VMK25.2 got a new chipset.

Now you can actually try gaming wirelessly too, and Bluetooth LE plus aptX Low Latency make it genuinely possible, as long as your transmitter supports the same.

This still won't make you a good player. That would be some pretty shameless marketing. But at least you can't blame your headphones for your endless losing streak anymore, which is a small win for us and an unpleasant truth for you.

55-hour battery life

55 hours is long enough to fly from Helsinki to Hong Kong, change planes, fly to Australia, hang out with dingos with the headphones on, fly back, and still have battery left for the train home. The battery lasts almost as long as one Chinese factory worker's shift. If you get stranded in the wilderness with your Valcos, you'll die of thirst before your headphones run out of juice. We haven't tested this, but we think it's likely.

Built to last. We'll fix it even after that.

Built to last. We'll fix it even after that.

Headphone repair customer reviews
4.9

With electronics, it usually goes the same way: the warranty runs out, the device breaks, and your options are the bin or a new one. We repair your headphones even after the warranty's gone. Even if you sat on them drunk, the dog chewed the headband, or your kid decided to find out if they can fly off the balcony.

Check out our repair service
Load video: Jasse Kesti esittelee aktiivista vastamelua

What the hell is noise cancelling?

In the video below, our audio technician Jasse "Jazmanaut" Kesti breaks it down in plain terms: what noise cancelling actually is.

Note! The video tests the VMK25 headphones, which have slightly weaker noise cancelling than the newest VMK25.2 model.

What the media's saying about our noise cancelling headphones

AVPlus

"The sound of the wireless Valco VMK20 noise cancelling headphones is clear and well-defined. The bass also comes through nicely. The VMK20 are good headphones, and overall they're among the best in their price class."

Hifi.de

"With its controlled bass and sound that's arguably even too detailed, the Valco VMK20 shows just how much headphone you can get for little money. Noise cancellation and build quality are good, and the promised battery life of up to 45 hours is unmatched. A simple crowd-pleaser with an impressive price-to-performance ratio."

Tekniikan Maailma

"The Valco VMK20 and Urbanista Miami were reviewed using the same criteria and weightings as the previous Valco Valcoitus Bass in the three-headphone comparison in TM 4/2020. Valco's performance improved clearly, and Urbanista ended up with the same score as the Philips PH805 from our comparison."

(In the 4/20 comparison, Sony scored 8.3 and Valco 8.3, Philips scored 8.0. In the rematch, Valco scored 8.7)

Headphonecheck

"Valco is certainly not a bargain-basement price, but it offers a complete package that includes a secure Bluetooth connection, excellent battery life, top-tier ANC functions, and a warm, well-tuned hi-fi sound."

konsolenfan.de

"I wouldn't have believed I'd write this, but my old Beyerdynamic Aventho Wireless headphones got sent into early retirement. Valco's headphones won me over completely."

Sitegeek.fr

"Personally, I can't find anything to complain about, and I think they're a bit better than my own Bose QC 35s. Valco has completely pulled off its gamble of offering quality headphones at half the price of the competition."

Basic Tutorials

"Fresh and cheeky over-ear noise cancelling headphones that deliver great sound and comfort."

Score: 90/100

LB Tech Reviews

"The Valco VMK20 is, in fact, a really good wireless over-ear headphone model whose noise cancellation works really well. The headphones sound better than we expected, and in our opinion they're the best noise cancelling headphones at the budget end."

Kuulokenurkka.com

"The Valco VMK20 headphones impress above all with their sound quality. I haven't heard better noise cancelling headphones so far."

"The VMK25 isn't the most feature-packed noise cancelling headphone on the market. But for anyone who values ease of use, durability, and good sound quality, it's a perfect choice."

Questions about gaming

Do Bluetooth headphones have latency for gaming?

Cheap ones do, and you'll notice it in shooters. The VMK25.2 supports aptX Low Latency and Bluetooth LE, which bring wireless latency down to gaming-ready levels, as long as your transmitter supports them too. For absolute zero latency, use the included 3.5 mm cable. ANC works over the cable as well.

Does the mic work for game voice chat?

Wirelessly, yes: the VMK25.2's mics handle team chat, and talk time is 95 hours. There's no boom mic, so friends used to radio-announcer voice will be disappointed.

Why buy these instead of gaming headphones?

Because you can wear these outside the house without embarrassment, they can be repaired, and the battery lasts 55 hours. If RGB lights matter more to you than sound, go buy gaming headphones.

Does ANC block footstep sounds in competitive games?

ANC dampens steady background noise, not the sounds in your game. If you want to hear the room too, transparency mode switches on with one tap. To the competitive FPS purists, we'll say it straight: a lot of you would rather play on open-back headphones anyway, and that's completely fine.

Do these need an app?

No. No app, no account, no firmware drama. The buttons are on the headphones, and they work.

...and one more thing

Valco Oy isn't some faceless website. We've got our company registration number and the owners' names and faces right there on our site for everyone to see. We're real people who enjoy the small pleasures in life.

The money you give us goes honestly toward beer, child support payments, big gold watches, and sports cars. Whatever's left over, we put toward the Death Star.

Unlike our competitors, such as [Big Asian Conglomerate], [World's Biggest American Corporation], and [Big German Microphone Factory Owned by a Swiss Holding Company], Valco's founders are actually reachable and could even go grab a beer with you.

Try that with [Megacorporation].

At Valco Oy, we're proud to be real people with real faces who genuinely care about our customers. Join the club and feel the difference!

Alright, you talked us into it