LucidSound's volume control knobs are a smart solution for a thorny game problem.

In the digital age, it is sometimes felt that hardware gives way to software that removes devices. Button of the month is a monthly overview of the nature of some of these buttons and switches on old and new devices, and aims to understand how we interact with our devices physically and tactile.

It's hard to put a good button on a wireless headset. As I said before, wireless headphones must include audio playback controls, so that users can access them easily without having to watch. Some headphones have solved this problem by listening to music, like Marshall with his joystick control system, but the game heads are twice as difficult.

Gaming headsets must not only control the sound of games, but also juggle simultaneous input from voice chat. Some headphones do this with several volume knobs or identical buttons, difficult to use, especially without looking. LucidSound's gaming headsets do the job perfectly, with an intelligent two-dial system that turns the frustration of managing multiple audio streams into a children's game.

Photo of Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

What makes the LucidSound system so powerful are the big buttons and the clear controls. Instead of putting indistinguishable buttons or small fiddly knobs on the ear cups, LucidSound turns the entire outer surface of the two ear cups into buttons. There are two relatively large dials, in physical rotation, that allow you to adjust the volume, the middle of each earpiece serving as a giant mute button.

LucidSound divides the audio and voice chat controls on both sides of the headphones; the left side of the headphones controls the sound of the game, which allows you to increase or reduce the ambient noise of the game with the dial, while the right side controls the voice chat.

The mute buttons are also well thought out. The left-side button mutes the audio so you can hear if, for example, your roommate needs to ask you a question, while the right side turns off your own mic so that your snack will not be transmitted to the set. your team.

I'm using the LucidSound LS35X, which fits this formula a bit to work with the Xbox One, in particular, but vanity still works as well: huge physical inputs allow you to balance the balance. audio of the game and the cat without having to leave your eyes. from the screen. (Due to the way the Xbox handles inputs, one ear adjusts the balance between the sound of the game and the cat, while the other adjusts the overall volume.) This is not the best headphone that I've never used in terms of build quality or sound, for games, the control scheme helps to raise them compared to the rest of the pack.

Is this a perfect solution for all wireless headsets? Probably not. Music-oriented headphones require more controls than a single knob and volume wheel, especially with current features such as PDAs, noise canceling switches, and pairing buttons. But it's a creative solution, and we're already starting to see compositional control coming on more traditional wireless headphone models, such as Surface headsets.

For gaming – what the LucidSound headset is designed for and really excels at – it's an almost unbeatable control system that takes full account of the function it needs and creates a solution specifically designed to solve it. It's simple, it's elegant, and after using it, it's almost impossible to go back to another way of controlling the sound of games.