[section_title title=”Performance and Testing”]
Performance and Testing
We will now look a little deeper into the performance and additional factors of the headset to see what we think of them. For an entry level headset with premium qualities and specification, we are expecting a fairly moderate level of performance.
So, after a total music spree of 8 hours and a total of 28 hours used over the past few weeks, we have put these headphones through some rough testing. A variation of bass, treble, volume increments in both increase and decrease stages were used as well as a variation of all to check for any fluctuation in performance or any black areas that suggest to us that the headset could not withstand what we threw at it. The headset and microphone were tested on multiple platforms too in order to see if the multi-platform compatibility was up to scratch.
Comfort
Comfort is an important factor for any headset, regardless of how long the device is in use for, so we scrutinize every headset we receive to ensure it sits right and is comfy from the moment it is placed on your head. The Arctic has 3 points of contact with the head, these being the two earphones and the headband. The headband offers a luxurious leather like material that gently sits on top of the head when in use. It is padded to prevent any “band burn”, a term used to describe headset headbands that rub when in use or being removed, but we found after long periods it seems to loose its ‘sponginess’ so leaves you with a little bit of padding and not much else. If you intend to use this for long periods of time without a break, for example on a long voyage, then you may find it a little uncomfortable once the headband has been worn in. We found this happened after about 20 hours of use and made for a dull ache on the head for the remaining test hours. Aside from this, the headband was more than suitable for the job and was very light weight in general. The earphones/cups sit on the ears and do not fully cup them, more like gently ease themselves on your ears. This was an unusual feeling, having mainly used earbuds and ear cup based gaming headsets for so long but wasn’t something I couldn’t get used to. The earphones sit lightly on the ears and don’t assert too much pressure. With the actual earphones being adjustable by height and are mounted in a way that let them sit on an angle, they sit much nicer than restrictive and pre-set headphones. Aside form the leather like material sometimes causing my ears to sweat after hours of use, expected as most headsets do, there was nothing more I can find that was negative about the comfort of the P614’s!
Sound Quality
Testing was on a variety of high quality .WAV, MP4 and other HRA files as well as a variation of platforms, from smartphones to PC’s. Specification wise, the P614 seems to be a lower-mid level headset but it certainly performs much better than the specification lets on. Once the drivers bed in a little bit, you then get the full experience from these headphones and I really was surprised by the quality. For a £35 headset, I wasn’t expecting much but as soon as the music started to play and bass started to drop, I was truly shocked at how well it performed. Every track was crisp, with no additional background hiss or note reverbs that you hear with cheaper drivers. I even went on to test further into a night of Grand Theft Auto 5, again performing well it was unusual to have a headset like this perform as well as what a headset twice its price would have. I was amazed.
Microphone Quality
Begin an in-line microphone, we did not expect much from it and once tested this did prove to be the case. Granted, the response time was very good and frequency range suitable for general Skype or telephone calls but what goes into the microphone just becomes heavily saturated and interfered. Simply, it is good for its intended purpose but don’t rely on it too much as there are better alternatives in the microphone spectrum. Overall, we are happy but did have fairly low expectation for the in-line microphone but is fairly reasonable for such a compact device.
