Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAwesome headset overall
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
Pros: Super comfortable, not too heavy, long battery life. Relatively plug and play on PC. Very good sound out of the box.
Cons: Overall a bit pricey given the build quality/microphone quality. Needs Sonar software to sound their absolute best, or to get the most out of the headphone/microphone. Yes, its free, but still -
Out of the box, sound quality overall is very good. On PC using Sonar EQ features, the headphones can be made to sound excellent overall, if still a bit etched/bright/harsh at time IMO. The microphone is overall pretty good with AI and other "enhancements", but I find adjusting the boom a bit annoying as I have to fight it a bit every time I pull it out to rest properly near my mouth. I can always see in in my periphery as well, which can be a little distracting. Its possible that there is better value to be found just investing in a separate dedicated microphone. But having the "all in one" solution is convenient.
I am very picky about audio quality, and I find these satisfying, especially after a careful tune. The 40mm drivers can really slam and impress, and there is lots of detail. The comfort is excellent, though the clamp is almost too light for my taste. That said, I can wear these for hours with no major comfort problems with or without glasses. Volume knobs are easy to find, though I'd like a little more resistance in them, and the ergonomics overall beat some of my other headphones for sure.
In terms of cons, I find these headphones a bit awkward to attach/detach from different devices with bluetooth. Its various beeps and boops and breathing LEDs do nothing for me in terms of figuring out how to disconnect from one device while staying connected to another. I'd like it to just tell me what it is trying to attach/detaching to like my 7 year old Bose bluetooth speaker. The 2.4 ghz connection does not seem to have a benefit over bluetooth in terms of sound quality, which is a shame, and I don't know what happens when I break/lose that dongle. The on-board amp gets very loud, though there is some hiss, and one apparently has to enter the Sonar software to shut off the volume limit to get the full volume anyway, a bit of a quirk.
Which gets me to another point: the "free" Sonar software is powerful, but it is also really needed to get the most out of these headphones. It is full of quirks - you need the "engine" menu to adjust or shut off the side mic feature, shut off the volume limiter, or to reduce game volume during calls. In the "Sonar" section, you can customize EQs for different inputs, but I found it impossible to copy an EQ I created for the "game" mode and set it to "media" or "aux" as well. Hence I have to repeat the process of doing my 10 point parabolic EQ over and over - tedious. Sliding with a mouse is fine for the uninitiated, but I needed to enter my exact values, and the software makes you click in the tiny boxes, and could not do Q values below 0.5. When listening to Music on my computer, it is also showing up under the "game" mode in the mixer, meaning I have to remember to turn on/off features like "spatial audio" since, while it is fun for games, it is terrible for music.
IMO there should be a way to set a "global" EQ (parabolic, not just the sliders which IS available in the "engine" menu, confusingly), if you want. There should also be hotkeys I can set up to turn on/off things like spatial audio, the EQ, or adjust the side mic or other mic features. Heck, why not let me set an EQ and save it to the headphone itself, so I can have it when using these with my other non-PC devices? That would make these more awesome and let me have consistent sound across devices. As an inferior solution, we could have an engine/sonar app for our phones/tablets, I guess.
When gaming I am still getting the hang of balancing chat/game sounds since everyone seems to have different microphone quality. I was hoping that one of the many features of this software would be to tame some of the hotter microphones out there. A pair of cheap, non-gaming bluetooth headphones I own seemed to do this a lot better.
For the full asking price, I think some of the compromises in terms of material choices, microphone quality, and features are a bit of a stretch. But for the sale price I paid, I think it is about right, especially since the Sonar software really does up the ante if you are going to do a lot of gaming. Lets hope it stays free, otherwise I might have held out for better overall "out of the box" performance.
