How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want to bring your existing SteelSeries Arctis 1 headset back to life with a working boom mic, choose TNE 2; if you need a playful, soft silicone cat-ear upgrade to dress up a headset you already love, choose ONITOON Black Cat Ears. They are not competing products. One restores your microphone. The other restyles your headband. Knowing which problem you actually have is the whole decision.
• TNE 2 — biggest strength: A drop-in replacement boom mic for the Arctis 1 family, with a gold-dipped 3.5 mm jack, a unidirectional pickup pattern, and a bendable 360-degree boom that stays where you put it.
• TNE 2 — biggest trade-off: It is a mic, not a headset. No ear cups, no drivers. If your headphones still work, this is exactly the part you need. If they do not, it does nothing for you.
• ONITOON Black Cat Ears — biggest strength: Soft, skin-friendly silicone ears that snap onto a headband in seconds, weigh about 0.05 kg, and add personality without touching your audio chain at all.
• ONITOON Black Cat Ears — biggest trade-off: Purely cosmetic, and fit is not universal. You need a headband between roughly 0.9 and 1.9 inches wide, so measure before you commit.
• Who each pick is for: TNE 2 is for the PC gamer whose Arctis 1 mic died, crackled, or arrived secondhand without one. ONITOON Black Cat Ears are for the streamer, VTuber, or cat-ear fan who wants their headset to look the part on camera.
The TNE 2 is a single-purpose part, and I respect that. It is a replacement game mic built specifically for the SteelSeries Arctis 1 line, including the Arctis 1 variants used across PS4 Pro, PS5, Xbox One X, and PC. It connects with a 3.5 mm jack, it is wired, and the pickup is unidirectional, which is the pattern you want on a boom mic because it favors the voice in front of it over room noise behind it. The enclosure is ABS plastic with a foam cover, and the boom bends a full 360 degrees so you can park it near the corner of your mouth and have it stay there.
If you are a Windows PC player running an Arctis 1 through a 3.5 mm jack, this is the practical fix. Mics fail before headphones do. Cables fray, the detachable boom gets lost in a move, a used headset shows up on eBay without its mic. Buying a whole new headset over one dead microphone is the expensive way out. The TNE 2 is the cheap, boring, sensible way out, and it ships as a single item with one channel of audio input, which is all a voice mic needs to be.
Who should skip it? Anyone who does not own an Arctis 1. The connector and mounting are built for that headset's detachable port, so this is not a universal boom mic you can bolt onto whatever you own. Skip it too if you want wireless. The power source here is battery-powered, and the connection is wired, so plan on the cable. And skip it if you need a full headset rather than a repair part. In my opinion, the TNE 2 is a component, and you should buy it as one.
The ONITOON Black Cat Ears are the opposite kind of purchase. There is no audio here at all, despite what the spec sheet's impedance and driver-type fields might suggest at a glance. This is a pair of silicone ears, sold as two pieces, that snap onto the headband of a headset you already own. The material is soft, skin-friendly silicone, the color is black, and the whole set weighs about 0.05 kg, which is light enough that you will forget it is up there. Installation is a gentle snap-on, and removal is just as easy, so you can go from plain headset to cat mode and back without tools.
The fit range is the thing to take seriously. ONITOON lists headband widths from about 0.9 to 1.9 inches, and the product notes ask you to measure your band before ordering. That is honest and it matters. A wide suspension-band headset and a slim budget headset are not the same animal. If your headband falls outside that window, the ears will not sit right, and no amount of enthusiasm fixes a loose accessory.
Side-by-Side: Which Should You Choose?
• Best for a dead or missing microphone → TNE 2. It replaces the boom on an Arctis 1 and gets your voice back into Discord, in-game chat, or a call.
• Best for pure aesthetics → ONITOON Black Cat Ears. Silicone ears, snap-on install, zero effect on your audio.
• Best for Windows PC voice chat → TNE 2. Unidirectional pickup, 3.5 mm jack, wired, one channel. It is built for talking.
• Best for streamers and VTubers on camera → ONITOON Black Cat Ears. A cheap way to make your existing headset read as "cute" on a webcam.
• Best fit flexibility → ONITOON Black Cat Ears, with a caveat. It spans headbands from roughly 0.9 to 1.9 inches, but you must measure first.
• Best for durability under daily handling → TNE 2. ABS plastic body with a foam cover, and a boom that bends without losing position.
• Best for a quick, reversible change → ONITOON Black Cat Ears. Snap on, snap off, no disassembly.
• Best if you own nothing compatible → neither. TNE 2 needs an Arctis 1; the cat ears need a headband in that width range.
If I had to pick one, I would buy the TNE 2 — but only because I am assuming you arrived here with a broken or missing mic on an Arctis 1, which is the more common and more urgent problem. A silent microphone ruins your PC gaming sessions in a way that a plain headband never will. If your headset works perfectly and you simply want it to look adorable on stream, skip the mic entirely and grab the ONITOON Black Cat Ears instead. In my opinion these two should not be ranked against each other at all, because they solve unrelated problems. Buy the one that matches your actual complaint. And since prices shift, check the current price on Amazon before you commit.
how to connect headphones to windows pc
Plug the 3.5 mm jack into your PC's headphone or combo port, or into a USB adapter if your tower separates mic and headphone jacks. Windows usually detects it automatically and lists it under Sound settings. If the TNE 2 is the mic you are attaching, it goes into the Arctis 1's detachable mic port, not into the PC directly.
how to connect headphones to pc windows 10
Open Settings, then System, then Sound, and check that your headset appears under Output and Input. If it does not, try a different port or reseat the 3.5 mm plug. Wired 3.5 mm connections like these need no drivers, so detection is normally instant.
how can i connect my headphones to my pc
Use the 3.5 mm jack, confirm the plug is fully seated, and select the headset as your default playback device. For microphone input, verify the correct input device is chosen in the same Sound menu. If the mic is the TNE 2, make sure it is fully clicked into the headset's boom socket.
how to use headphones on pc
Once connected, set the headset as your default output and input in Windows Sound settings, then test the mic in your chat app. The TNE 2's bendable boom should sit near the corner of your mouth for the best pickup. The ONITOON ears, by contrast, change nothing about how your headset works, only how it looks.
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