It's understandable that you don't want to spend money on gaming headphones for your desktop, earbuds for your commute, or audiophile headphones for listening to music and relaxing. More specialized equipment has its advantages, but it is an expensive and cluttered entity. But there is another option, and you don't have to sacrifice practicality or functionality for it: the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal headphones.

The Beoplay Portal headphones have the aptitude and attitude of the Scout Six. While some gaming headsets perform well on the desktop, this headset is perfect for on-the-go thanks to its built-in microphone, sleek and compact styling, Bluetooth and 2.4G wireless connectivity, and active noise cancellation (ANC). It can also connect to the PlayStation 5, saving you a dollar or two.

Let's start with the key metric of sound quality: we had high expectations for Bang & Olufsen, and the Portal lived up to them. With its closed-back design and solid noise isolation, I imagined spiky audio, but that was not the case. It is surprisingly vibrant and lush, making long hours of gaming and listening effortless.

To bring home the prize money and life from a "Hunt: Showdown" match, you need to be able to hear footsteps and gunshots, and "Portal" does exactly what I'm looking for. Offering a snappy, detailed response that doesn't interfere with gameplay, I'm not afraid to turn up the volume with these headphones, as Portal doesn't cause excessive feedback at high volumes and doesn't compromise sound quality.

Overall, the headphones are great for gaming and not lacking in music; Portal performs best in the mids and highs, a quality that is most clear and immediately apparent when high quality audio is put through the drivers. But if you want punchy bass lines to shine, you'd better look elsewhere. The bass response is there, but not the deep bass that is really needed for electronic music, for example. If you crank the headphones up to a fairly excessive volume, you can get a little more kick out of the lower frequencies, but then the mids and highs become quite spiky. In general, Portal headphones have a much better response in the mids and highs than in the lows.

Noise isolation in these headphones is decent enough, with plump, comfortable ear pads. However, vegans should be aware of one thing. The headphones are made of leather (apparently New Zealand lambskin), so the Beoplay Portal is definitely not vegan-friendly.

But when it comes to noise isolation, there is more than just passive padding and lambskin. Twin microphones on the outer edge of the ear cups, oriented away from the head, are used for ANC. And this is very impressive ANC. I recently took a 6-hour bus ride and thought it would be a good opportunity to really test the ANC of these headphones. And the Portal headphones did just that perfectly. With these headphones on my head and ANC enabled, I could barely hear anything but the pleasant tones of Tidal.

The flip side of this noise blocking feature is the Own Voice and Transparency modes. On-Voice provides feedback of your voice through the device while the microphone is in use, for example, while gaming or chatting on Discord. feedback to you while blocking repetitive noises. A practical example of this is hearing the doorbell ring even while using ANC. Both Transparency Mode and On-Voice are controlled by a swipe-action touch slider on the left ear cup. Which mode is active depends on whether the microphone is in use.

Both functions are impressive. I tend to leave ANC active without listening to other sounds, but as I have experienced on several occasions, having ANC active gives me a little more flexibility when I am waiting for a courier delivery. The Portal's ANC is really impressive, and this additional feature enhances it even further. [The Beoplay Portal is the first headset I have reviewed that I recommend reading the user guide before using. With so many features on board, you might miss something or not know how to get the most out of it if you don't have the guide. This is not something we say lightly, but without a thorough reading of the manual, for example, you may not know that there are touch controls on a metal plate on the outside of the headset. Also, if you don't look, you will never know that the functionality changes depending on whether you have a Bluetooth connection or a USB dongle connection.

By the way, the microphone is muted by tapping the right ear cup twice. Very convenient.

Let's talk about the microphones. Both earcups have two microphones, one part for ANC and the other two for voice pickup. Together, they form what Bang & Olufsen calls a virtual boom arm. Essentially, there is no microphone arm to get in the way when you take this headset into the bus, and all the functions are built into the earcups themselves.

However, because there is no physical microphone arm, the sound is a little different than headsets with a microphone arm; Portal is definitely quieter, and you may need to speak up to be heard clearly by your teammates, especially if your speaking voice is quiet. I don't have a very small mouth, so I was told a few times that I was a little quiet. Likewise, the quality is not that impressive, not bad per se, but middling.

You can listen to Portal's headphone mic in the Soundcloud embed below.

Ultimately, you're trading quality for convenience. Compared to cheaper headsets like the old official PS4 headsets, where the microphone is built into the earcups, the Portal is of far superior quality. However, the approach is different from those with boom arms or more direct and larger units, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

I prefer headsets with a compact boomless microphone design. That way, I can use these headphones anywhere without having to worry about whether or not I brought the microphone with me or if I look stupid flipping the microphone over the side of the headphones. That said, I admit that if the headset is purely designed for desktop use, I would prefer a dedicated microphone arm.

What we haven't mentioned, however, is the price: at $499/£449, the Portal is comparable to both gaming headsets and wireless earphones. There is no denying that this is a tremendous price for even a high-end headset, but it is only slightly tempered by its ability to serve many roles in everyday life. Thankfully, the headset has a high-end feel for a headset of this price. The headset's interface is simple and quick to use, and the wireless-to-Bluetooth connection is wonderfully seamless. If you really wanted to, you could even play a podcast and take a call on your cell phone at the same time.

With its compact and comfortable design, numerous context- and connection-dependent features, and comfortable battery life for a full day of use, Portal is the all-around headset I want. It's so convenient to be able to do any (reasonable) task with ease and style, and to use one headset on all my devices; the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal may be the one and only headset I need for modern life. But it doesn't exactly come cheap.