[section_title title=”Conclusion”]
Well the sun sets on another headset review, what are my lasting impressions of the Echelon Forest?
Well, the elephant in the room is of course that colour scheme. For me personally it does very little, but for those who have military themed mice/mousepads/builds etc I can imagine it may be quite appealing. Happily though ASUS are also coming out with a much more attractive digital camo colour scheme with the Echelon Navy which puts the only possible reason I could think of to skip this headset to bed.
In usage terms when it comes to comfort I can often forgive flaws in sound performance if the headset is comfortable but with the Echelon Forest you don’t have to make that choice, for the price (and to be honest, regardless of price) it is a performer in both areas. My only real points of contention with the headset are firstly that where the metal rails fit into the ear cups and the headband there is a certain amount of play that slightly cheapens the feel of the headset in hand and secondly that the volume dial on the in line adjuster could use with being larger; hardly deal breakers if you ask me but definitely areas for improvement.
So, what everyone will want to know is whether they are better than the Kingston HyperX Clouds. It’s not a simple yes or no I’m afraid, when it comes to performance the Clouds do best the Echelon Forest by providing a more balanced audio range and when it comes to aesthetics I think I need not even elaborate; but there is one crucial area where the Echelon Forests beat the Clouds and that is in comfort. The massive headband pad and the huge 100mm ear cushions just make the Echelons much more wearable for the marathon sessions of wear I tend to engage in and for that reason, given the choice of the two I have to say I would pick the Echelons.
If you want a nice sounding headset that can be worn in great comfort for hours on end with the added bonus of PS4 connectivity the Echelon Forest headset from ASUS is a very compelling option for this sort of money and easily earns a Gold award.
I’d like to say a big thanks to ASUS for sending the headset in for review and look forward to seeing more from them in the future.
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Performance
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Design
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Value
Summary
Pros:
– 50mm drivers provide a great listening experience with punchy bass
– Oversized ear cushions and generously padded headband make the Echelon a very comfortable bit of kit
– Microphone quality is solid
– PS4 compatibility is great for multi-platform gamers
Cons:
– Colour scheme is sure to be polarising
– Doesn’t match some of the competition in build quality
– Microphone can be very sensitive to feedback from the ear cups
[…] in that price range that also offer PS4 compatibility such as the Kingston HyperX Cloud and the ASUS Echelon Forest. So, it’s not going to be a walk in the park for the Rage V2 but let’s crack on and see […]