For a long time I kept my old SteelSeries headset around even though I already liked IEMs more. In the sim rig the cable was enough of a pain that the headset kept winning anyway. With wired IEMs, the cable coming out of my ears had to run all the way back to the computer, which meant dealing with it every time I got in or out of the seat, every time I stood up between stints, and every time I just wanted it to stay out of the way.
The headset still had one thing going for it
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless was genuinely good at being convenient. In a sim rig that matters more than it probably should, because there are already enough little chores before you drive. Launch the sim. Make sure the wheel is behaving. Make sure audio is going to the right place. Make sure Discord didn’t decide to break. Being wireless and always ready meant one less thing to think about. The dual-battery system helped too. One battery sat on the charger in the base station, one was in the headset, and when the headset died I could just swap it and keep going.
The tradeoff was everything else. Once the session got going I was always aware of it, getting warm, feeling bulky, and I would start adjusting it halfway through a race and then keep noticing it for the rest of the stint. Outside the sim rig it made even less sense. The headset stayed because wireless convenience mattered that much in the rig, not because I actually liked using it.
Why I wanted the IEMs anyway
IEMs were already better for everything I cared about. Lighter, more comfortable, sounded better, and made way more sense for normal life at my desk than a gaming headset I was never going to wear on a Zoom call. I was using them all the time already, for music, for calls, because I could throw them in a bag and not think about it. Bigger headphones had started feeling like a step backwards. They're lighter, nothing pressing on my ears, no headband. There is also something kind of funny about putting IEMs in before getting in the rig. It has a little bit of F1 driver putting the earpieces in before getting in the cockpit energy, which I fully acknowledge is stupid, but it does add to the immersion.
I did find a version of the cable setup that was at least usable. Running the IEM cable up my back kept it out of the way and stopped it from getting tangled with the wheel. That helped once I was actually in the seat, but it made getting in and out more annoying. I had to route everything carefully every time, and taking the IEMs off between sessions became its own small ritual. It fixed the “cable in the way” problem and created a slightly different version of it.
What finally fixed it
What fixed it was the LEKATO MS-02 wireless in-ear monitor system. A wireless IEM system is a separate transmitter and receiver that sits between your audio source and your existing IEMs, so instead of buying different headphones, you keep the ones you already like and just make them wireless. The transmitter stays plugged into your computer, the receiver clips onto you, and your IEMs plug into the receiver. The long cable run between you and the computer just disappears.
This kind of gear comes from live music, not gaming. Musicians use in-ear monitor systems to hear the rest of the band in real time, which means latency matters to them the same way it matters to me. Bluetooth IEM adapters already exist, but bluetooth adds enough delay that I notice it in the sim. Not for podcasts or walking around, but for sim racing it's immediately obvious. The LEKATO uses a low-latency 2.4GHz connection instead, which is what makes it actually work here.
Getting in and out of the rig stopped being a whole production. If I stand up between stints now I am not doing the ritual of pulling the IEMs out, managing the cable, and routing everything again when I sit back down. The receiver just clips on and the long cable run is gone.
The transmitter runs into an audio interface that already switches between my computers depending on which one I am using, so I never have to touch it. It just stays where it is. I also realized I could buy an extra receiver, keep one charging while I use the other, and switch when the battery dies. Same idea as the Arctis Nova battery swap, without the headset I did not want to keep wearing.
It also cut down on the headphone roster I had been maintaining without quite meaning to. A gaming headset for the rig, IEMs for everything else, over-ears somewhere in the middle. The IEMs just handle all of it now.
Where I ended up
The Arctis Nova was extremely good at the one job it had. The LEKATO does that job just as well and gets out of the way in every other way the headset never could. I can get in and out of the rig without thinking about cables, use the same IEMs at my desk for the rest of the day, and not maintain a separate pile of headphone gear for different situations. The setup has been running long enough now that I have stopped noticing it, which is usually the sign that something actually works.