Thanks for the great review Ryan.
Boy what a headset! I have some mixed feelings about it. The price is certainly one of those things you ear about and can't avoid twitching. $130 for a gaming headset would certainly be a new experience to me. One I'm not sure I'm willing to ever consider in my lifetime. It's not the actual money; It's the pairing of that amount with the thing one is buying. An headset at that price becomes a luxury for someone with simple needs as myself. So -- if I consider myself representative of a large majority of gamers -- I would say Cooler Master has positioned this product for the hardcore market. Which is a bold move for a debut into the sound gear market.
And then we get to the problem of low quality bass. At this price, that becomes a bit hard to swallow. I'd rather have the low quality mid range you notice on other products, than low quality highs or lows, which my ears are more sensitive to.
The fact the headset is so demanding on the user who needs to constantly tweak levels isn't a sales pitch either. And I personally am not very happy with the idea of having one more thing cluttering my desk (a headset console! Really?). Neither I'm impressed, or would actually want to wear a Christmas tree around my head (no leds, please).
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The things that really impressed me though:
Two pairs of cusps. One foam and another pleather isn't just a nice touch. It's extremely useful.
The foam in the underside at the top of the headband is absolutely crucial to someone like me. I wear a buzz cut, and while my head is not large, I'm way more sensitive to prolonged use of headsets. My current headeset, for instance, actually causes discomfort and a sensation of sharp pain at the top of the head in about 2 hours of use. And let me tell you, it's not heavy at all.
The large cusps. These actually should be obligatory. Some ISO something that makers should respect. Small cusps can cause pain and migraines. At least on my case, I'm pretty sure some of tghe migraines I experience on a regular basis are caused by the small and cusps of my headset. I've been using these for years, and only this model has been giving me problems.
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The one thing where Cooler Master showed little thought:
The optional analog adapter should have included a volume control. Nor even asking for a complete mixer (which should have been great). But at the very least a simple master volume control.
