Logitech Chorus Accessory Adds Off

Logitech this week announced a new VR accessory which aims to bring the great off-ear audio solution of Valve's Index headset to Quest 2

Valve's unique off-ear headphones were a elegant solution for powerful yet comfortable audio on the company's Index headset which launched back in 2019. The off-ear headphones approach means the headphones don't get in the way when putting the headset on, nor do they even contact your ears while wearing the headset. With large drivers positioned slightly away from the ear, this approach is also said to provide a more accurate sense of spatial audio thanks to the fact that the soundwaves are interacting with the geometry of your ears in a more substantial way.

While Quest technically has ‘off-ear’ audio, the headset uses a ‘sound-pipe’ design where the sound emanates from a small slit near your ears. The result is much less powerful sound with less accurate spatial audio because the slit doesn't really align with your ears. We’ve been saying since the original Quest that better off-ear audio on the headset would do wonders for immersion, but the suggestion has fallen on deaf ears.

But now Logitech may be headed to the rescue. This week the company announced the Chorus accessory for Quest 2 which clearly aims to emulate Index's off-ear headphones.

For $100 the Chorus can attach to a Quest 2 using either the default soft strap or the official deluxe Quest 2 straps from Meta. The Chorus connects to the headset via the USB-C port on the side, and thoughtfully also provides a passthrough USB-C port so you can continue to charge the headset without unplugging the headphones. However, Logitech warns that you can't use Oculus Link with the Chorus headphones due to the nature of the passthrough USB-C connection.

The company has also added its own smart feature to the off-ear headphones: if you flip them up into the folded position the audio is automatically muted. That makes it easy to quickly flip up the headphones to talk to someone in the room and then get back to your game.

The Chorus accessory itself weights 182g, which is a non-trivial amount of additional weight. Even without the accessory we’ve always recommended something better than the default Quest 2 soft strap, but with the added weight it’ll be even more important to have a better headstrap option. While the headphones work with all of Meta's first-party straps, it isn't clear which third-party straps they will be compatible with.

The Chorus headphones for Quest 2 are currently available for pre-order from Amazon and Logitech for $100 with a release date planned for September 2nd.

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This isn't the first audio accessory that Logitech has made for Quest 2. The company also previously launched a pair of headphones and earbuds that were supposedly specifically made for the headset, but neither option seemed truly customized for the VR use-case. Logitech has also dabbled in the VR space in a handful of other ways over the years, including experiments with a VR stylus and keyboard tracking accessory.

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I like the muting feature

If this sounds even half as good as the Index speakers, count me in !

This is pretty cool.

I have the logitech earbuds, which, they do sound good, but they also add a tiny bit of complexity and irritation to putting the set on and off, though I do like the privacy of not broadcasting every thing that I’m doing that can be distracting to people around me when using the set with the original speakers of the Quest 2.

In any case, I treated that as a "take my money!" pre-purchase, and hope to be able to comment them in a few weeks when they hopefully will arrive.

I’d only be interested in them if they used the 3.5mm jack, even if the sound quality took a little hit. Not bring able to connect the PC is too much of a compromise imho.

You can't charge the headset too without losing the sound…..

You sure can. That's precisely what USB C passthrough is for.

Ever heard about Air Link?

Yeah, it's garbage on my Internet.

It has nothing to do with the Internet. All you need is a decent dedicated router (access point) that is actually less expensive than the official link cable.

I don't have access to the router etc, I’m at the mercy of a terrible WiFi signal.

This is great and a shame that meta isn't willing to provide that kind of a solution from the get go.I‘ll stick to my utterly comfortable and great sounding Frankenquest though.

Neat solution, but BMR drivers typically use special digital amp with higher power delivery and psychoacoustic bass algorithms to generate that sweet sound

Otherwise BMR tend to lack range, bass is muted, do not minimize background noise = loss of presence.

Early Nvidia GPU driver bug applied -6 setting to pre-amp stage with horrible results for some Index users, adjusted using equaliserAPO brought BMR speakers alive.

If anyone buys these please report back?

Too heavy and expensive