The best gaming chairs need to ensure you have all the comfort and support you need for your gaming sessions, and the Boulies Master Series gaming chair succeeds in doing exactly that. Despite its simple, all-black appearance, the Boulies Master Series offers a tonne of features to help customize your comfort. So, if you’ve been looking for a high-quality chair that accommodates all, you’re looking in the right place. 

Featuring built-in lumbar support, 4D armrests, and a comfortable cushion, the Boulies Master Series gaming chair has a lot going for it, and its comfort, feature set, and ease of build all mean it does a good job of justifying the price for admission. 

Price and availability

The Boulies Master Series is at the premium end of the gaming chair price spectrum and has a listing price of  $499.99/£349.99. I’d say you’re getting your money's worth though since this product is as top-quality as its price tag suggests with its sturdy build and choice of materials.

The Razer Iskur is one of the closest competitors for the Boulies Master Series, coming in at $599.99/£499.99 and offering a lot of the same design features, but I’d argue the Boulies Master Series is more accommodating for everyday use alongside gaming due to its simple design, and slightly cheaper price tag. 

Assembly

The Boulies Master Series chair is fairly simple to set up and is certainly achievable by one person. I would recommend having a reasonable amount of space around you to ensure you can turn and flip the chair with ease as you attach different parts. Nothing comes pre-assembled, unlike a few gaming chairs which usually have either the backrest or armrests pre-attached (see the AndaSeat Phantom 3 gaming chair, for example) so you do have to build every element of this chair, but it’s not too long a process, as I built the chair in about 45 minutes.

The instruction leaflet that comes in the box is simple but clear and lists the pieces you have and what you need for the next step. The images and instructions are easy to follow which puts a first-time gaming chair builder like myself at ease, and the box also contains spare parts if you find yourself missing or losing screws and bolts during the process. Parts like the tilt mechanism which you fit to the bottom of the chair are labelled with which direction they face too, as are the instructions, making it easier to align and fix parts together. 

Although it is completely achievable to build on your own, having a second pair of hands would undoubtedly make it easier. For example, doing it on my own meant that when fixing the hydraulics and the tilt mechanism to the base of the chair, I needed to either rest the chair upside down and lean on the armrests, or attempt to fix the screws horizontally where gravity wasn’t exactly in my favor. 

Design and features

The seat of the Boulies Master Series is incredibly spacious, making it incredibly comfortable during long play sessions, and ensuring you never feel restricted. The cushion doesn’t feel particularly plush at first and the longer you sit in it the more it starts to mold to your position. I always sit with my feet on my chair, or my legs folded under me (which is terrible for your knees and you shouldn’t sit like that, FYI) and in a regular desk chair this can result in some uncomfortable pretzel-esque positions, but with the Boulies wide seat, I can happily sit cross-legged without any jagged plastic digging into me.

The back of the chair provides support to your lower back to ensure your posture is kept straight, and the support cushion that comes included sits behind your head. As someone who usually struggles with slouching and tense shoulders, I found it a lot easier to relax into the chair knowing that my spine and neck were supported in the right ways. After sitting at my desk for a few hours at a time, I didn’t feel the usual ache I’m used to in my lower back. Plus, because it’s firm but not solid, there’s still enough support in the cushioning of the chair to feel comfortable without feeling stiff. 

The armrests can also be adjusted to your preference, and they are firm enough to provide genuine support. With the amount of space on the seat, I rarely found myself relying on these armrests until I sat back in the chair - unless I was using a controller connected to my PC which is when they came in incredibly handy to, well, rest my arms on. The tilt mechanism and hydraulics move smoothly, freeing you up to move in whatever way is comfortable within the chair too which I appreciate as someone who always fidgets before getting comfortable. 

Performance

There’s a lot to praise about the Boulies Master Series chair outside of its sheer comfort too. The model prides itself on straying from the “one-size-fits-all” design of a lot of gaming chairs. You can adjust the 4D armrests in every way, be it height or how far forward the rest pads are, and this is incredibly easy to do through the built-in levels and buttons on both armrests. With a standard office chair this isn’t usually something I’d worry about, but being able to rest your elbows at a comfortable height helps relax your shoulders and enhances the comfort of the chair; something I really appreciated during my longer gaming sessions. 

The integrated lumbar support means you don’t have to faff around with a cushion either. I get incredibly frustrated if a seat has cushions moving about since it just becomes uncomfortable after a while, and a lot of gaming chairs offer extra lumbar cushions to compensate for a back that doesn’t include it by design. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about a lumbar cushion moving around behind you because of the effective built-in support which you can adjust with two knobs on either side of the backrest which you twist to your preference, which also helps keep your posture upright and comfortable. 

The wide back and seat of the chair accommodate you however you sit, and over long periods it feels as if the chair adapts to you rather than forcing you to sit in one position or change habits to adapt to it.

The tilt rocking function that you can adjust with a lever on the left under the seat also helps personalize your comfort with the chair. It’s an incredibly smooth mechanism that makes movement seamless. Whether you’re sitting back to relax into your game, or looking to sit up to increase your productivity, the 15-degree motion is freeing enough to help you find an angle that works best for you.

Should I buy the Boulies Master Series gaming chair?

As a whole, the Boulies Master Series gaming chair is a dynamic product that suits the needs of any gamer who isn’t fussed about decals or design, and who wants something for everyday work use too. Even though its appearance is incredibly simple, its personalizable features like its 4D armrests and adjustable lumbar support mean it has its priorities right. It’s comfortable and cuts no corners on quality materials, and while its price tag is a chunk investment, it's one worth making if you want a chair that is durable and well-designed with comfort at the forefront of its design. 

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How we tested the Boulies Master Series gaming chair

I used the Boulies Master Series gaming chair for over a month for work and gaming. Having used a standard, cheap own-brand Amazon office chair for several months before this, I can say with confidence that the Boulies Master Series is a significant upgrade and not only made work and gaming more comfortable but has also massively improved my posture when sitting at my desk working on my PC or laptop.

If you’re looking for alternative ways to improve your gaming space, we’ve got a list of all the best monitors for PS5, alongside the best wireless gaming headsets if you want to immerse yourself deeper into your favorite games.  

If you’re shopping around the mid-range level of the best PS5 headsets, you may well find the JBL Quantum 360P wireless model. Looking to offer a value-busting wireless option for PS5, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch, the 360P is a capable though relatively unspectacular headset.

While it sports JBL’s reliable audio quality, making the sound of all media shine, the set is let down by tacky, cheap build quality, and sports a mic that is relatively unexceptional. It also has tough competition in the space in which it’s pitched and struggles to shine through - though there is no denying, particularly in isolation, the value it can offer if you’re after a solid and handy wireless PS5 headset that offers a pretty rich soundscape.

Price and availability

Coming in at $129.95 / £79.99 the JBL Quantum 360P sits squarely in the mid-range price bracket. Despite coming from a well-known and widely active brand, the JBL Quantum 360P isn’t currently available in Australia. The price is about right for its mid-range proposition, but would certainly be even more attractive should it receive price cuts price-cut treatment at retailers or during sales events. We often see headsets in this bracket try to push the value envelope - specifically with those offering wireless connectivity - so the Quantum 360P has to do exactly that right from the off.

As mentioned, the JBL Quantum 360P is stacking up against the likes of the official PS5 Pulse 3D wireless headset, the Logitech G535, and the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 headset. This makes for tough company for the 360P with those competing headsets offering wonderful bang-for-buck value, top build quality, connectivity and flexibility, and excellent overall audio prowess. As a result, the Quantum 360P risks fading into the background of the conversation before it can even enter it. 

Design and features

The 360P’s design is immediately clear as something that’s geared toward being in keeping with the PS5’s own design aesthetic. White, black, and blue abound across the headband and the cups, and it looks right at home next to Sony’s console.

The headband offers some padding at the center which is a bit lean for my liking, and a little scant considering the north-of-$100 price tag. The leatherette cushioning on said cups is relatively comfortable and soft, but not the plushest or nicest I’ve experienced such as the ultra-comfy SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. Still, overall comfort is adequate and feels fine for sessions lasting a few hours - though I did notice the headband being slightly uncomfortable over longer periods.

The earcups house all of the headset’s onboard features, as well as some light JBL branding which is unintrusive. On the right cup, there’s the power switch and the power/connection LED. The left houses the mic port, USB-C charging and connection port, charging LED, mic mute button, volume wheel, and game/chat balance wheel.

Where the cups fall short is in the build quality. They feel loose in the build and readily freewheel from the hinges about all of their axes. At best, this never screams top-end build quality, and at worst, it’s frankly annoying and makes the headset unwieldy in the hands. What makes this latter point worse is the tacky-feeling plastic that the headset is finished in all over. It’ll do a job of protecting the set from most bumps and drops, but it is far more representative of something cheaper than its price tag would suggest.

The headset offers a streamlined wireless focus, epitomized by the fact that there are no wired audio options on the 360P; no audio jack, and no audio through the USB-C port. What you get instead in this cord-free set is a 2.4GHz wireless connection via the dongle as well as a Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity option. Neat and focused, as I say, but it’s always a plus to have a physical, wired connection as a backup. Nonetheless, the 360P offers versatility by being compatible with PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, mobile, and Mac.

While primarily geared toward PS5 and PS4 use, you can deploy the 360P on PC too, which will allow you to make the most of JBL’s Quantum software, where you can tinker and customize your EQs, mic levels, and spatial sound settings. However, it’s worth noting that settings are not stored on board, so can’t then be ‘taken back’ to another platform.

Lastly, JBL claims the Quantum 360P has a battery life of 22 hours when using the 2.4GHz connection, and 26 hours when using Bluetooth. In my testing, I have found this to be around right - I recently only had to put the headset on charge after 20-something hours of use (both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth).

Performance

No matter what you spend on a gaming headset, the proof is in the audio pudding. And in the Quantum 360P, the proof is very in keeping with JBL’s audio chops and known quality - no matter the media, the audio provided by the 360P is rich, rounded, and enjoyable.

To put the 360P through its paces, I tried several games and predominantly used it while getting the hours in for my Lies of P review, but also tested the set with Back 4 Blood with my friends, and when jumping back into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (in preparation for Assassin’s Creed Mirage). Across all those games, the audio delivered to me was rich and certainly channeled JBL’s pedigree. The bass was particularly fulsome and rounded, and no details or audio cues, no matter how subtle were ever missing. 

Guns were punchy in Back 4 Blood, and the awful noises all the Ridden make throughout levels were nice and clear; every mechanical clang of Lies of P’s puppet enemies was well-presented, and the cacophony of busy boss fights was well-balanced too; and the sounds of Valhalla’s world from trees rustling to the swish of arrows was lovely. JBL’s audio quality is certainly in the 360P’s DNA and experiencing this through the set’s 40mm drivers (about par for this range of headset) is one of the 360P’s best features.

In practice, the game/chat dial is nice to have but a little inconsistent and the differences were subtle at best, and the dual connectivity is certainly nice to have - though is rapidly becoming the standard in 2023.

JBL’s audio quality extended to other media in my testing too. All music, pretty much across the board, was rich and detailed - from background video game soundtracks to country and heavy metal, the 360P did a top job of acting as a daily driver set of headphones for music, work, and everything else away from gaming too.

Audio downsides were not totally absent, however. I found the top end of the soundscape cut across other audio quite jarringly at times; even down to Slack notifications being a little tinny and echoey as they barged through music. It’s also worth noting that on consoles you won’t get any onboard or JBL-own surround sound features - you’ll get the PS5’s own benefits on that console, but anything else surround sound wise is reserved for PC only.

The microphone being detachable is a welcome move so as to offer a neat solution for when it’s not needed, however, it too is lacking in build quality and doesn’t scream of a more-than-$100-price standard. It wobbles a lot, doesn’t hold a strong bend, and is finished with a cheap-feeling rubber. Team this with a solid but unspecial quality of presenting and carrying my voice, and it’s another middling feature on the whole. It’s relentlessly fine and perfectly serviceable.

The JBL Quantum 360P really is the definition of an unspectacular, gets-the-job-done mid-range headset, but for something that’s on the expensive side of $100, folks should expect more - especially from the robustness, build quality, and design.

In the face of its peers, and while the audio quality and dual connectivity do save the 360P somewhat, on the whole, it doesn’t do an awful lot to stand out above the competition - which is fierce at this level. Personally, for something PS5-specific at this price point, I’d choose the Pulse 3D, and for something beefier and multi-platform, the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2. As a result, it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend at its retail price - though it could be an attractive proposition during sales like the Black Friday gaming headset deals.

Should I buy the JBL Quantum 360P wireless headset?

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How we reviewed the JBL Quantum 360P headset

I used the JBL Quantum 360P headset as my daily audio-giver for PS5 and PC, for work and play, over the period of several weeks. As a result, I was able to test it with a variety of media, from different genres of games, meetings, and calls, to all kinds of music. I wore the headset for varying session lengths, from a couple of hours up to all day on my PC. The battery life I experienced was around that that JBL claim.

I was also able to directly compare the headset to my usual go-to PC set, the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro (2023), and my regular PS5 set, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless to see how the 360P fares against premium gaming headsets in both single player gaming, audio quality, and microphone qualities.

If you’re looking for a headset compatible with the other consoles, check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and best Xbox Series X headsets.