[section_title title=”Performance”]Performance
There are three main areas to address when it comes to a headset, they are: Comfort, Audio Quality, and Microphone performance. I’m going to start off with what I consider the most important, and that is comfort.
Comfort
Comfort is an area where a headset can often show its price related weaknesses, however that is not the case with the Cerberus. The suspended headband design is great as its a faff free way of making sure that the headset will fit all shapes and sizes of head.
The ear cups are pleather and pretty well cushioned, being oversize 100mm ones they will clear even big ears like mine which makes them sit very comfortably on the head. I also have to mention that they play very nicely with my glasses too, I am able take off and put them back on without removing the headset which is great as it means you can adjust your glasses quickly and the frame is never digging into your head.
The headband itself is comfortable, I wouldn’t say you don’t know its there but its perfectly comfortable for a headset in this price range. To my taste the clamp pressure is a little high, by no means is it squeezing on your head but it is noticeably higher than that of my Orions.
As I said though its still well balanced and comfortable and the upshot of the large ear cups and medium clamp pressure are excellent noise isolation, so if you have background noise to contend with you will like these very much. The only drawback really is that if you are one of those weirdos with sweaty ears you might have to take it off for a bit of a breather every now and again but I didn’t experience any such problems myself.
Audio Quality
With a majority of more entry level headsets featuring 40mm drivers we sometimes see 50mm drivers introduced in the mid to upper range, mainly offering much cleaner sound and better bass response. So, if bigger is better there what does that mean 60mm drivers give us?
Well as I sit here with the Cerberus flat out, my earlobes are vibrating to the tune of the DJ Isaac and Technoboy Collaboration Digital Playground, I can tell you ASUS really weren’t lying about the bass on these headphones. You can really tell the difference between the 60mm drivers of the Cerberus and others with 50mm drivers when it comes to bass, which is all well and good but that should rightly lead most to believe that they are probably going to be lackluster in terms of the rest of the spectrum.
To a certain extent, you wouldn’t be too wrong. As its comes the Cerberus does have a fairly muffled sound to it, however with some EQ tweaking I got them to the point where the sound was pretty clear in more vocal music. Obviously, the bass is prominent regardless of settings but with some patient tweaking it is not overpowering at all. Thanks to their superb Glastonbury set I have been listening to more Metallica recently and in the classic Wherever I May Roam from the black album the vocals are clear enough and the guitars sharp however the signature heavy Metallica bassline is picked up by the monster drivers in what ends up as a very enjoyable listening experience for me personally.
Really, if you buy headphones that say ‘Thundering Bass’ on the box and then complain about a dominant bassline, its you that is the problem and not the headphones themselves. For me as a lover of EDM and Hip-Hop, bass heavy music, I really enjoy the powerful sound of the Cerberus and with decent EQ, they can sound fairly well balanced and certainly better than I would expect £42 cans to sound.
Microphone
Well, as the headset has not let itself down in other regards, is the mic the clanger as it often is in entry level headsets?
Happily, the mic is fairly good. As with a lot of budget microphones there is a constant background amplification hum, so it took some tweaking in mumble to stop this buzzing noise activating the microphone itself. Once I had this down though I didn’t receive any real complaints about voice quality. My chums certainly noticed the absence of the noise cancellation on my Orion’s mic but they had no major complaints overall.
So, the mic is perfectly good too which is a real bonus for an entry level headset as it is often the sticking point for me.
Well, a very well rounded package overall then. Lets tie things up with a conclusion…
