• Properly greenwashed
  • Free shipping
  • 14-day return policy
  • 2-year full warranty
  • Headphone repair service
  • Finnish company
  • Real customer service
  • Secure payment
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.

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

And that's not all

A mic for team chat

Wireless, the VMK25.2's mics handle team chat and calls. Talk time is 95 hours straight, more than any gaming binge will last. Hopefully.

There's no boom mic, so friends used to radio-announcer voice will be disappointed. The other end still hears what you say, including the comments you should have kept to yourself. Sadly, we don't sell a filter for that.

And when winning demands focus, the noise cancelling removes the fridge hum and the rest of life's background noise from the room. What's left is the game.

Long sessions

The battery lasts 55 hours with ANC on, meaning Friday to Sunday without a charger. We don't recommend trying it, but we won't stop you either.

The memory foam pads don't pinch or sweat, and after a sweaty summer of gaming you buy new pads, not new headphones. You swap them yourself, no tools needed.

The warranty is two years, and after that our own repair service fixes them if needed. An honest tip for the budget gamer: a warranty-serviced used pair does the same job for less, with the same two-year warranty.

Shipping is entirely on us!

Nobody likes it when one more mysterious fee appears on top of the price at checkout. That is why we pay the shipping and deliver every product free of charge, anywhere in the world.

In certain developing countries, such as the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom, the local despot may collect taxes, duties or other realm-maintenance fees on your parcel. Sadly there is nothing we can do about those.

In the civilised world, however, the price is exactly what you see on our site. No surprises at checkout and no delivery fee on top of your headphones.

They are also fully greenwashed!

They are also fully greenwashed!

Valco wants to look like one of the good guys and sell a lot of headphones. Since everyone else is doing this nowadays, we decided to launch an environmental campaign of our own. Of course it is greenwashing when a company plants trees. No point dancing around it. Let us be honest.

Explore the greenwashing

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.

What the media's saying about our noise cancelling headphones

F.A.Z. Kaufkompass

"We tested 48 on-ear headphones. For most people, the best one in our view is the Valco VMK15. It sounds excellent, is uncomplicated to use and sits comfortably on the ears even after hours of listening." Test winner

"On calls, the Valco VMK25.2 impresses with excellent speech intelligibility on both ends. (…) That leaves plenty of energy for a fresh, open reproduction of the mids and highs, which shine with very good resolution."

Mobiili.fi

"In the two-hundred-euro price range, the Valco VMK25.2 headphones are definitely an option worth considering."

io-tech.fi

"With ANC off, the VMK25.2 delivers the best sound quality Valco has offered so far, at least to my taste."

errori.net

"With a 199-euro price tag these are damn fine cans, offering exceptional value for money in the form of massive battery life and insane comfort." Score 8.5/10

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."

Beyond Pixels

"The music quality is second to none, and audiophiles in particular can go for these without batting an eye." Score 9.4/10

Basic Tutorials

"With the Valco VMK25.2, the Finns deliver an all-round convincing new edition. The overall package is pleasantly well-rounded and absolutely coherent." Score 88/100

Kopfbox.de

"Anyone buying in new or who skipped the predecessor gets one of the most sonically balanced ANC Bluetooth headphones in its price class with the VMK25.2." Score 9.1/10

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."

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.

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