[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
Design wise the H1500 is conventional, with the exception of the rotating ear cups. Padding on the ear cups is generous and soft but the inclusion of only microfibre pads is a shame. The headband on the other hand is quite thinly padded, it only really just about suffices to make the headset wearable and could really do with being thicker as there is no cost related excuse for it not to be at this price point.
Putting the headset on the first thing that strikes me is how comfortable the ear cups are thanks to the thick padding and recessed drivers meaning my ears don’t contact the inside of the ear cup which is something I often find annoying. The next thing is I noticed is that the clamp pressure is spot on to my tastes, the structural strength of the metal reinforced headband working against the thick soft earcup padding results in a headset that feels secure but it isn’t burrowing into your skull like some are so fond of doing.
The swivelling ear cups are also good for comfort because they help the ear cups sit more naturally on the head which combined with the well balanced clamp pressure and great ear cup padding material make this a comfortable headset to wear. The main improvements Corsair need to make are firstly the inclusion of pleather ear pads and secondly the headband could do with some thicker padding as it’s letting the whole package down at the moment.
Nonetheless this is a comfortable headset, make no mistake.
Audio Quality
When Corsair launched the SP2500s there were titters from the audio enthusiasts which were soon hushed when the reviews came out, and since then we have always expected good audio quality from Corsair. Nonetheless, I’m still a bit of a USB audio skeptic so I was unsure of what to expect when I first plugged the H1500s in.
The out of the box audio quality of the headset really surprised me, with the box talking about crazy bass like most gaming headsets do I assumed I was in for a pleasant, yet routine audio experience. Quite the opposite though, the reality is that if you put this headset on my head in a blind listening test I certainly wouldn’t say it was a gaming headset from the audio quality. I mean that in the best possible way though as most gaming headsets are optimised for booming bass at a sacrifice to the overall clarity.
The H1500s are a pleasant exception though, they are superbly well balanced with crystal clear highs and crisp mid tones which makes them excellent for music usage as the bass doesn’t dominate in guitar and vocal music like it tends to in a lot of gaming headsets. I really enjoyed a full listen through of Metallica’s black album with the drivers faithfully picking out the subtle post-Burton basslines as well as the mid ranged vocals and the crashing highs of the symbols.
Don’t get me wrong though the bass isn’t absent, its actually very nicely reproduced and feels natural. Say what you want about the man but Kanye West’s music is nothing if not well produced and listening to ‘Good Morning’ from 2007’s Graduation it was easy to appreciate how capable the drivers with the increased bass levels of hip-hop still not muddying the vocal and percussion touches West incorporates so masterfully.
There is really no type of music the H1500s can’t produce very nicely but I will say that people who listen to EDM exclusively and are used to having their head blown off by big drivers and software bass boosting +might be a touch disappointed with the H1500s. That’s not even because the bass is lacking though, more that to get the best bass from the drivers they need to be going flat out and for me at least that makes them unpleasantly loud in the rest of the spectrum.
Gaming performance is of course good thanks to the accurate sound reproduction, which would definitely help in sound centric games like CSGO where you need to pick out that flash hitting the ground or those couple of un-crouched paces. There is of course the Dolby 7.1 Surround option but as ever I really don’t think it is any good, especially in this case where it just muddies the impressive audio reproduction of the headset. That is my opinion though, and it’s Dolby’s fault not Corsair’s.
So the audio quality is basically great if you like a good balanced sound spectrum but it might be a touch underwhelming to those more accustomed to the booming slightly artificial bass of other offerings.
Microphone
At this sort of price point we expect good quality microphones as they are essential to communication in team based games. Happily the microphone on the H1500s is a good one, with the voice quality coming through nice and clear but also not sounding tinny which should prove great for both general use like skype but also in gaming where communication clarity helps greatly.
I do feel the mic ‘package’ is let down a bit by the software though, it does need some more options in the way of a noise gate etc due to the fact that Windows offers you very little help with USB mics. It’s still a good mic though and doesn’t feel tacked on like some mics do.
It’s time to wrap things up after the break.
