Overview

Corsair is claiming audiophile-quality from its new Vengeance 1300 Analog Gaming Headset. Can it deliver?

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that this isn't the only new line of peripherals from Corsair lately – we've also got our hands on the Vengeance M60 mouse and Vengeance K60 keyboard.

While that kind of desk-furniture is completely new to Corsair, this gaming headset's less of a stretch from its comfort zone – our ears are still recovering from the divine racket that the SP2500 2.1 speaker system can wail out.

It's first crack at the headset cherry, the Corsair HS1, was a decent effort for a first go.

To make it's subsequent headset worth buying though, Corsair needs to take the SP2500's sound quality and add comfort, mic clarity, 3D positioning and intuitive controls.

No mean feat, and by promising 'audiophile quality' from a relatively cheap headset Corsair is aiming high.

50 mm drivers have been fitted to avoid distortion and cope with rumbling low-end frequencies, and both the earpieces and headband are generously foam padded to save your head in marathon sessions.

So can the Vengeance 1300 really deliver on all of its promises?

Verdict

Firstly, let's start by saying that using the phrase 'audiophile quality' is a mistake.

When you appeal to the most finicky members of a community, you'll always find a few snot-nosed know-it-alls determined to prove you wrong.

It's like saying 'hey, internet! This new thing is as good as The Empire Strikes Back!'

So, no, the Vengeance 1300 headset doesn't offer audiophile quality.

The low-end's too exaggerated for that, and it'll never offer better clarity and true frequency response than Audio-Technica's ATH-M50, even with those slightly bigger 50 mm drivers.

But a gaming headset doesn't need to offer that kind of quality – most gamers would rather spend their pennies on a GPU than a sound card, and since a headset can only blast our what the sound chip produces the chances are that this and most headsets are wildly overqualified for the job.

What we can say is that our ears heard no distortion even at frankly dangerous volume levels; it appears no dubstep bassline or BF3 tank fight is too much for the Vengeance 1300.

Background noise is deftly cut out as soon as you don the cans too, which is great for maxing out immersion levels or gaming near a construction site.

If you have a 3D soundcard, the Vengeance 1300 will give Creative's SoundBlaster Omega cans a run for their money in the positional audio stakes. Considering Creative's headset is pricier, that's impressive.

A-word aside, it turns out that SP2500 sound quality has been captured and crammed into these cans after all.

We're assured by anyone that would talk to us on Ventrilo that the mic sounds 'fine,' and we like the simple and effective volume and mute controls, but as much as we love the Vengeance 1300 for its sound quality, rugged build and clean aesthetic, it isn't the most comfortable set on the market.

The heavy foam-padding cuts out background noise brilliantly but after 30 minutes of continuous wearing the Vengeance 1300 starts to get uncomfortable.

We liked

In the sub-£60 price range, Corsair's sophomore headset is pretty much the cream of the crop.

Those looking to save even more pennies will find their basic needs sated by Sony's DR-GA100 set, but they'll miss out on the Vengeance 1300's great noise-cancelling ability and top-drawer sound quality.

We disliked

Comfort does become a bit of an issue even prior to the hour mark, and that's enough of a problem to prompt some shopping around, but headsets that find the balance between sound quality and comfort are rare, and headsets that do that for below £60 are even rarer.

The Vengeance 1300 strikes a good balance that the price sweetens further still.

Final word

If you're on a budget this is a no brainer, but if you can spend more you'll find more comfort to match the Vengeance 1300's sound quality.

Asus is well versed in giving gamers what they want when it comes to its great line of motherboards and graphics cards, such as the Asus Sabertooth X79 and the Asus EAH 6770 DC, but how does it do with its headsets? Unfortunately, in some areas the Asus HS-W1 wireless USB headset falls slightly short of our expectations.

The good news is that, on the whole, the sound quality is a very good representation across from highs to pleasantly deep lows. Bass is present and at about the right volume for music, although some more bombastic scenes when playing games lack the punch of headsets such as the Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 Championship.

Recording is pretty good with the small built-in microphone, with crisp and clear voices being recorded when the mic arm is rotated down. It's not entirely successful with noise cancelling, however, with some background noise picked up behind the voice. It's not enough to be too distracting, though.

When it comes to headsets that are going to be used for long gaming sessions or video chats, comfort is a big issue. With a pair of cans clamped on our lug holes for hours at a time, things can quickly become sweaty, sticky and uncomfortable. In this respect the Asus HS-W1 headphones aren't great, with a small and rather flimsy feel to them.

The ear cushions are rather flat, so while the Asus HS-W1 looks good, it's just not that comfortable to wear for long periods.

Verdict

The Asus HS-W1 wireless USB headset has very good sound quality, but it feels like Asus has forgotten to concentrate on other, arguably just as important, aspects that make a great headset.

Sennheiser X 320

Wireless? Pah, who needs it!? But seriously, do we really need it for headphones?

Well, actually we do. Sennheiser's latest set of headphones - the X 320 - are designed to be used with the Xbox 360, hence the obvious name similarity. And after a few minutes with them you might just be wishing that there was a wireless option available.

There are no less than three set of wires to contend with: one that goes straight from the headphones to the console, one that plugs into your TV, providing audio, and another wire that you plug into the gamepad to enable voice chat.

At times it feels like the spaghetti junction of wires - you would think Sennheiser might have tried to come up with some sort of smarter integrated solution that didn't involve multiple wire trails.

Thanks to the clear instructions, it's easy to connect everything and get started immediately. The length of the main cable is very long, so you can sit pretty far away from the screen.

The only problem with setting up the Sennheiser X 320 is its use of stereo audio connectors. Not all modern TVs come with stereo inputs, so if this is the case you'll need to buy the optional audio adapter for the Xbox 360.

A serious upgrade

The Sennheiser X 320 is a significant upgrade for those using the standard Xbox 360 headset, which, let's face it, isn't the greatest thing to start with.

They're pretty pricey though, at £89.99 in the UK or $149.95 in the US, but when you compare them to competing Xbox 360 headphones such as the Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega or the Tritton AX Pro Dolby 5.1 they seem slightly better value.

However, these other headphones pack a lot of audio technology into their cans, and the similarly-specced SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB is around £20 cheaper.

But, typical of a Sennheiser headset, the X 320 headphones deliver an impressive audio performance in games, as well as in music and movies.

The sound is tight and has plenty of punch to it, and it's very clear. They don't have the sort of enveloping sound that you might expect from a surround headset, but don't let that put you off, because they are excellent.

You can enhance the low end of the X 320's audio on the fly with the use of the Bass boost switch on the in-line control, and you can also adjust the game volume level and mic volume level independently, which is handy when you've got a team mate who's shouting down the line in-game.

You can also mute voice chat quickly and conveniently, simply by lifting the sturdy microphone upwards and away from your mouth.

Design woes

The only downside to the Sennheiser X 320's audio, much like other Sennheiser headsets, is that the ear cups are open. While this is supposed to keep your ears cooler for longer gaming sessions, in reality it doesn't make that much difference. It also means that you get sound leak, so if you want to game in the vicinity of others they'll be able to hear some of what you're hearing.

They don't do a great job of insulating ambient sounds either, so if you're in a noisy environment then you need to politely ask whoever is making all those noises to hush up while you do some important gaming.

While the sound of the Sennheiser X 320 scores points, the design of the cans is much less convincing. With very little in the way of adjustment, apart from being able to alter the length of the head band, the resulting fit on the head isn't all that great.

If your head was big enough, they would probably sit nice and flush, but for the smaller head they sit sort of bowed inwards, which means the ear cups don't quite sit flat and can be uncomfortable.

Verdict

The Xbox 360 green theme looks good and they feel quite sturdy, but - you know what - they just feel a little on the cheap side. Thankfully, the great sound of these headphones makes up for any shortcomings, but you'll really need to convince yourself that they're worth £90.

CMStorm Sirus Gaming Headset: Overview

It's a pricey gaming headset, but with 'true' 5.1 surround the CMStorm Sirus Gaming Headset is a serious set of cans.

Gaming headsets are a burgeoning market at the moment, it seems. Ask for one in a shop a few years ago, and the assistant might have two or three.

Today, Google spits hundreds of the bloody things back at you. Let's ignore the long tail theory and shop stock practicality for the sake of our point here.

For you, the discerning, bare-eared punter, the choice is pretty wide. Why opt for this CMStorm Sirus, faced with so much choice?

After all it's £110 - a big ask.

We still think the difference between the cheapest and most expensive headsets is too slim to justify paying more than £100, but as Creative's popular WoW Headset proved, most people don't seem to have the same fiscal hang-ups.

Designed for 'gamers and audiophiles' according to CMStorm's site (which is an extremely bold claim) the Sirus pack true 5.1 sound into its cans.

The 'true' bit of that statement means there are four drivers producing sound at different positions around your ears.

Other manufacturers take a different route: the Creative Soundblaster Omega cans achieve surround sound digitally rather than using multiple drivers, by interpolating the distance between two theoretical sound points.

So which is better, true 5.1 or the digital cheat?

CMStorm Sirus Gaming Headset: Verdict

We'd say it's subject to taste, but mapping out a soundscape digitally offers the opportunity to draw the sound away from the listener's ear; the Sirus with all it's drivers is limited to fixed points very near the ear.

If that's left you none the wiser as to the sound quality of this headset - it's good.

Pretty good. A bit bass heavy actually, which sounds great when you're gaming and emphasises all the sounds you'd want it to, but for listening to music (remember that audiophile quote earlier) the Sirus doesn't offer enough clarity to produce such an amazing listening experience.

Not that we'd say it to the Sirus's face; this headset could clearly have us.

It's an absolute meathead. Sturdy doesn't even cover it; we wouldn't be surprised if this headset's still trucking long after the nuclear bombs wipe out all living beings.

Somehow, it manages to be comfortable at the same time, too. It doesn't feel great at first, but after hours of play it never digs in, and that's hella rare.

The cords are braided and thick, and the USB connectors are gold plated. There two options for connecting the headset; either plug it straight into your soundcard's mini jack inputs (one for each channel) or hook it up to an equally well-built volume dial and connect via two USB connectors.

By messing about with the front and rear volume settings, you can amplify certain areas around you in-game - boosting the rear volume obviously pinpoints people sneaking up behind you or bullets aimed at your jacksy.

This is an area many manufacturers are messing around with. Creative Recon3D's Scout Mode, anyone?

You can also muck around with mic volume - and according to this reviewer's online compatriots, the mic sounds as 'good as any other mic'.

Now there's a seal of approval.

So we're back to the price - it's just a bit flipping expensive.

We want to recommend the Sirus; its incredible build quality and surprising comfort earned it a place in our hearts. But we must put our foot down - it's overpriced.

We liked:

The sound quality and build quality of this CMStorm Sirus is rather impressive. Two things that are absolutely vital in a gaming headset.

Second to that is comfort and the big surprise with these chunky cans is that they don't end up crushing your head during extending gaming sessions.

We dislike:

At over £100 it's tough not to be put off by the price-tag. They are impressive bits of audio tech, but it's quite an outlay for a gaming headset.

Final word:

The CMStorm Sirus is like a tank with comfy, velour seats. And like said imaginary vehicleit's a bit expensive.

Bearing a striking resemblance to a garment Mass Effect's Shepherd might wear to keep his ears from getting nippy, the Sony DR-GA200 gaming headset certainly makes a visual statement.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we're pretty taken with the visual design. It's a design we've seen before in the more expensive DR-GA500 package. In fact, it's the exact same headset as far as we can tell.

The GA500 costs more because it comes with a sleek black box that allows Dolby Pro Logic setups for console users, and compresses audio feeds like the passive aggressive tones of American Team Fortress 2 players, which is extremely welcome.

So the GA200 is just the headset, sans sleek black box, or 'digital surround processor' in Sony's parlance. On paper, a good idea. We thought the GA500 was a bit overpriced, and didn't cater for gamer's needs as well as its competitors.

Hard to justify

We also thought the headset was rather uncomfortable. Yes, the same headset we're talking about in this £50 package. It's fairly light but the discomfort comes down to the earphone material. It feels not unlike having your ears gently rubbed by a dry sponge. A softer fabric or even leatherette finish would help.

Mic quality is acceptable but the mic arm adjustments are limited on account of it being so tiny. The cheaper DR-GA100, priced at £30, has a more adjustable mic arm and its simple design makes for a more comfortable experience.

Not that you'll suffer any notable cranial malady; Sony simply made such a strong product with the DR-GA100 that this pricier model has a tough time justifying itself.

The Tritton AX Pro surround sound headphones ship with their own Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder module and employ a quartet of dedicated channel drivers in each ear cup.

Peel away one of the felt pads and you'll uncover a pair of 30mm drivers, one for the front left/right and the other for a surround channel, plus a 23mm driver for the centre and a large 40mm driver to handle the .1 LFE.

The system is compatible with any surround sound source. Run an optical lead from your chosen component into the AX pro DD5.1 decoder; this then feeds the speaker drivers via a 4m cable.

The AX Pro headphones are well built and substantial, with firm padded cups and head rail.

The resulting surround experience is undeniably authentic. Dialogue is anchored mid-forehead while panned effects encircle your skull. Aggressive surround mixes are surprisingly intense. You can also adjust the volume level of each individual channel, controlled by a lit in-line adjuster.

The Tritton AX Pro are at their best with games. In-game Dolby Digital processing dynamically steers audio effects based on what you're doing in the game.

The AX Pro headphones offer immersive multichannel sound. There's a sense of purpose to their sound steerage which replicates a multi-speaker sound system. The cans can also be used with a Blu-ray/DVD player, Sky box etc or games console (Xbox 360, PS3).

While steerage is convincing, the sonic quality of the headphones is less so. Their timbre is more brutal than musical. Not for late-night classical listening.

Also worth considering is while they are well built, the weight of the headphones becomes onerous after a while.

At first glance you might be put off by the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC v2 due to its price. If you do, though, you'd be missing out on an excellent Bluetooth device that, in our tests, exceeded our expectations.

There's no denying that charging around £95 for a Bluetooth headset is a big ask – Plantronics' own Discovery 975 is almost half the price. However, there is some excellent technology that makes the high price of the Voyager Pro UC v2 a bit more palatable.

To begin with, the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC v2 is very comfortable to wear, with most of the body made out of rubber. Discomfort is the Achilles heel of a lot of Bluetooth headsets, but not so here – we were able to wear the earpiece and microphone set for a number of hours without feeling uncomfortable.

Button placement is also excellent, making it easy to operate while wearing it.

The Plantronics Voyager Pro UC v2 connects to devices via Bluetooth, and also comes with a handy USB dongle that enables it to be connected to computers without Bluetooth connectivity. This allowed us to use it for Skype calls on our test desktop PC, then easily pair it with a PlayStation 3 for chatting while playing online games. This makes it a very versatile headset.

Sound quality is excellent, especially considering the small size of the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC v2, and it certainly puts other cheaper Bluetooth headsets to shame.

Even when used in noisy environments, sounds were clear and voices easy to understand.

The microphone is also excellent, with dual microphones for excellent noise cancellation – again the Voyager Pro UC v2 worked extremely well in our tests in a noisy environment.

While it is expensive, if you want the best quality sound and voice recording on a Bluetooth headset, then the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC v2 is leagues ahead of the competition.

Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega: Overview, performance

The Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega is one of the best gaming headsets we've ever tested.

People talk about sound quality a lot. Many products claim to deliver crystal clear audio and most press releases for these products declare an unrivalled attention to detail and sound quality unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Exclamation marks are often deployed at the end of these sentences!!!

Most of the time, of course, it's all a complete load of dingo's gonads. But the Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega is the real deal.

In the box

The Omega headset comes in a number of different pieces. In the box there's the headset itself, the USB soundcard dongle, various USB cables, a stand which you must assemble yourself, and some audio cables for connecting the dongle to a games console.

The headset itself is wireless, so you'll need to charge it for a good five or six hours (more like eight if you charge from a USB port) using a microUSB cable before you can use it. There's a USB port on the dongle itself which will relay a charge into the headset via your computer's USB port, but it's much quicker to use a proper microUSB charger – lots of mobile phones come with those these days.

The earcups contain 50mm drivers which offer a powerful punch and an all-round meaty sound. There's none of the treble-heavy audio that you get with many other gaming headsets. The headset is big and weighty, too, with a good headband for comfort and big, bouncy earpads for a snug fit as well as excellent noise isolation.

On the headphones you've got an on/off button which you press and hold, there's volume up/down controls as well as a microSD charging port and the port for connecting your Xbox 360 controller.

Cross-platform

The Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega gaming headset is platform agnostic, which means it'll work with a PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360.

With the PC and Mac, it acts as the system's soundcard and conducts all of the sound processing itself. However, when in console mode (there's a slide-switch on the front), the USB dongle acts as more of a conduit between the PS3 and Xbox 360's own sound systems, and the fantastic headset itself.

So while it acts as a two-way communications throughput for the consoles, you can also use the line-in port on the back with any other sound device. If you want to listen to your iPod using the headset, one way would be to just plug it into the 3.5mm port.

In theory you could use this method to hook a Nintendo Wii up to the headset too - you'd just need to attach your TV's audio-out port into the dongle's audio-in port - it would only work for sound though, the microphone wouldn't work.

Connecting the Omega headset port to a console is a case of connecting the Xbox 360 or PS3's red and white composite cables to the 3.5mm adaptor provided in the box, and plugging the dongle in via the supplied microUSB cable. You then have to change your consoles' audio settings so that they know to send the sound out through composite instead of HDMI – instructions are included.

There's also an additional inline volume control for Xbox 360 gamers - you plug one end into the headset and the other into your 360 controller just like you'd normally do with the 360's bundled headset.

In general it's not the easiest setup for anyone without a tiny bit of confidence with tech, but for anyone used to fiddling around with USB cables, audio devices and changing the settings on the consoles themselves, it's a fairly straight-forward process.

Traditional PC or Mac

The dongle and headset setup is a collaboration between Creative and THX, the former supplying a lot of sound-processing know-how.

Gone is the old X-Fi branding, and in comes the THX TruStudio Pro software suite which offers the same Crystalizer, Surround and Smart Volume features as we've seen many times before, but also improved bass boost and a fantastic Dialog Plus mode to enhance dialogue in movies and other media.

Many gaming headsets – including a lot of the good ones – work well for gaming, but aren't great for listening to music or watching movies. But the same cannot be said for this headset – sound quality is decent across the board.

Music playback has a delicate balance of meaty bass and delicate, precise treble while movies sound equally good. The software settings enable you to customise your setup for personal preference, too.

The Dialog Plus setting, in particular, works very well and does a good job of bringing dialogue to the forefront without compromising the rest of the sound spectrum.

There's also a customisable TacticProfile which enables you to save your own settings or use pre-configured settings from pro-gamers, as well as the now-standard programmable VoiceFX system for voice morphing into in-game characters or during VoIP chats. Yay for talking like an alien.

These settings are, of course, not available when using the headset with a games console. And due to the various cables that need switching and settings that need changing, this is not a device you'll be wanting to move around your home.

You won't want to be using it as your primary PC headset and your console headset – it's just too awkward and fiddly to be moved around like that.

Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega: Verdict

The Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega is a great headset. If offers truly excellent, versatile sound quality across the board which is something hard to find in many gaming headsets.

We liked:

The headset is very comfortable to wear and easy to set up on a computer – the software and drivers auto-install when you plug the dongle in via USB.

Sound quality is excellent, and the THX software works well and enables you to set up your sound profile any way you see fit.

We disliked:

Battery life of the headset is perhaps the only disappointment. We found the batteries last around 10 hours or so, though if you've got a long enough microUSB cable/charger, you can use the headset while plugged into the power.

The price is also a bit steep. £150 may be a good price for a headset that works with all these different devices, but you won't be using it with all your devices. It's only really designed to work with one device – it's too fiddly to be unplugging it and plugging it in somewhere else.

If we have to nit-pick we'd also say that the press-and-hold method of turning the headset on and off is just a tad too slow - it takes too long for the headset to turn on and off.

Verdict:

As far as gaming headsets go, this is a good'un. Excellent sound quality, mixed with versatility and a variety of settings and options make for a very attractive option. But can you justify £150 on a gaming headset?

Although the SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB gaming headset is compatible with PCs, and is perfectly good at playing music, it really comes into its own if used when playing games online on Xbox 360.

In games where communicating with teammates is essential, this is a fantastic headset.

Not only does the unobtrusive microphone (similar to the SteelSeries Siberia V2's mic) pick up voices incredibly well, the SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB comes with the SteelSeries AudioMixer. This is an inline remote with two volume controls – one for voice and the other for game audio. It connects to the Xbox 360 controller, so you don't have to move your hands far to adjust the volumes.

When using these headphones online, we found the ability to alter these two volumes on the fly incredibly useful – it can make a real difference in competitive team-based games.

The excellent comfort of the headphones meant that we didn't feel uncomfortable, even during the longest online matches.

The sound quality is good enough, but it has neither the depth nor the 5.1 surround sound positioning of its competitors.

The real selling points of this set are the SteelSeries AudioMixer and Xbox 360 compatibility – if you're a serious gamer, then the SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB can really help improve your game.

The Jabra Extreme is a Bluetooth headset that comes with a USB dongle for connecting it to a PC. It features excellent noise cancelling technology through two built-in microphones, and in our tests we found that it worked brilliantly, blocking out the background noise and making Skype calls feel less strained.

The sound quality is also excellent, some of the best we've heard on a Bluetooth headset of this size.

The small size of the Jabra Extreme headset makes it easy to carry about, but it's not that comfortable to use, with the volume control buttons in particular being a little too much on the small side, meaning they're fiddly to use.

The Jabra Extreme comes with two sizes of in-ear headphones, although we found both to be a little uncomfortable, and definitely not something you'd want to have in your ear all day long.

Pairing up the Jabra Extreme to a PC or Bluetooth is incredibly easy – it took us just a few minutes to connect it up to a smartphone and a PC, and it accepted calls from both without any problems.

This is an excellent Bluetooth headset that offers excellent noise cancelling and sound quality and is very easy to set up and use. Its only major flaw is that it can feel uncomfortable when used for long periods of time.