For a long time I kept my old SteelSeries headset around even though I preferred IEMs. The headset kept winning in the sim rig because it was wireless. My IEM cable had to reach the computer behind the seat, and I had to route it again whenever I got back into the rig.
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
I already preferred IEMs for music and calls. They sounded better to me, fit in a bag, and did not press against my ears or add another headband. A gaming headset made little sense anywhere except the rig. There is also something funny about putting IEMs in before climbing into the seat. It has a little F1-driver energy, which I fully acknowledge is stupid, but it adds to the immersion.
I found a cable setup that was usable. Running it up my back kept it away from the wheel, but getting in and out became more annoying. Taking the IEMs off between sessions turned into its own ritual. It fixed the "cable in the way" problem and created a different one.
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 need to hear the rest of the band without a distracting delay. The Bluetooth adapters I tried or considered did not offer the latency I wanted for the sim. The LEKATO uses a dedicated 2.4GHz connection, and I do not notice a delay between the car and the audio.
The receiver clips to me, so I can stand up between stints without rerouting a cable to the computer.
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.