Time to Vive in Style – Upgrading Your VR Experience

Performance

Here you can see the old strap, which ran the cables over the top of the head, and features three Velcro adjustment straps. There’s very little support at the back of the head and everything is simply elastic.

To install the new strap, simply turn these Vive clips downward until the pop off. Then simply push-click the new one in place and route the cables through the top section. It’s a five minute job and honestly, anyone could do it.

As you can see, the whole thing looks much more professional and high-end now. No more wonky Velcro straps hanging around, no more loose headphone cables, and a design that’s much more balanced from front to back.

All the cables now feed around the side of the headset, so they’re not going to dig into the top of your head while you’re gaming.

Sound performance

A replacement for your home cinema these are not. However, for gaming and interactive experiences, they’re amazing. They offer up a powerful and distortion free sound that’s sure to put a smile on your face. The only thing they lack is noise suppression, and if you’re in a noisy room, you’ll hear it. However, being able to hear your real-world surroundings while in VR is no bad thing for so many reasons.

Slackening the dial at the back is easy to do with one hand, even while wearing the headset. As you can see, when it’s slack, the side of the headband extends, making it suitable for all head shapes and sizes in seconds.

The new headphone cable replaces the old one completely, and the cable stays neatly tucked into its routing clip, so you’re less likely to get tangled up.

The greater surface area at the back of the strap is amazing. It goes much further down the back of your head too, so it no longer feels like it wants to slip off. The increased surface area combined with the thick padding and a flexible frame means it moulds to your head the moment you put it on, and this help balance out the weight of the headset, so it doesn’t feel like it’s pulling down.

VR Covers and Pads

Of course, we can go a little further to improve comfort. A fresh set of foam pads sparks new life into the headsets fit and comfort. Of course, picking pads that are a better fit for your face is even better. You could even replace the nose cone, although the stock one is perfect for me, so it’s left as-is. The VR Covers are a bit of a fiddle to install, but once in place, they look superb.

Greatly increasing the padding around the eyes, and giving you a softer contact area is no bad thing. Adding all the extra support of the strap keeps comfort at an all-time high too, and overall, you can game for many more hours in comfort with just a few easy to install accessories.

The headset looked great already, but I think these new add-ons really take it to the next level. It’s much more inviting, easier to adjust, more comfortable, better balanced, and the built-in headphones cut out so many cables and extra steps. Now it’s time to just put it on and game, with minimal fuss.