[section_title title=”Performance”] Performance
First thing that’s noticeable about the Ceres 300 – and more so coming from the 500 – is that they just aren’t as comfy. The earcup itself feels very close to your ear and irritable. I found myself constantly re-arranging the headset to try and get my ears inside the cup without touching the walls and would maybe last ten minutes before tweaking them again. If the fitting wasn’t bad enough the padding itself gives off a sensation like you’re wearing a heard-foam lined bike helmet. You can push the earcups in and they do depress but when just resting on your head they feel very hard against your skull. I’m not sure why this is the case for the headset fit as the headband feels just as comfortable and welcoming as it did on the Ceres 500 and no matter how much the headband was adjusted the squashed feeling would remain – perhaps the headset is just too small.
If comfort isn’t great in a headset then sound performance automatically takes a back-seat; what good is a headset you can’t wait? I’m sad to report there isn’t much to be lost here, either. The sound from the Ceres 300 is just weak overall. It’s a a really flat and empty sound presentation with no redeeming qualities at all.
Focusing on games, and specifically Battlefield 4, even DICE’s audio treat couldn’t rescue the Ceres 300. Gun sounds are flat, all ambience seems to meld into one sort of flat leaf crunching frequency and switching between the games rather impressive EQ settings hardly makes a difference. For people familiar with the series the ‘War Tapes’ setting is something you can flick on for a ridiculous audio experience but even that’s diluted by the Ceres 300. Changing channel to League of Legends and the game doesn’t require or even service an out and out audio benchmark so the Ceres comes across as serviceable but noticeably the worst headset I’ve test at Play3r. Sound effects and character voice overs all sound as if they’re running the same frequency and when it comes to team-fights it sounds like signal noise is being sent to your ears rather than ten different champion’s spells.
The Ceres 300’s flat performance is compounded in our music and video tests too. Music suffers the same bum note our gaming scenarios were treated too no matter what is played into the Ceres 300. Listening back to ‘White Noise’ by Disclosure yielded an empty and hollow sound reminiscent of being harassed by someone’s overly loud music on public transport where in you can make out a basic rhythm and a constant snare but nothing more. Passing the baton over to House of Cards for our video proved just as underwhelming as expected by this point. Conversation during street scenes all blend into one giving off a sound that’s similar to some poor laptop speakers only a lot closer to your ears. It never feels like the volume is high enough but as you scroll the wheel up the chaff just increases with what wheat there is; overall an un-enjoyable experience.
If there is anything positive about the Ceres 300 that isn’t its lack of LED lighting it’s that for voice comms, it’s fine. The sound quality on the receiving end isn’t great compared to other headsets but it isn’t a crushing performance in this regard. Likewise, the microphone stood up to the blind testing over Skype and private recording in Audacity didn’t produce any major hiccups or crackle as far as I’m concerned.
