Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

The VOID surround is an interesting solution for those that need a little more versatility for their headset. It's intended for the guys that want the best out of their PC audio wise with surround, and then plug the headset into their smart-phone to listen to tunes or connect the mini-jack towards the audio output of a console or something. Next to a few aesthetic tweaks and wearing comfort these are the biggest changes for this VOID Surround headset. It works well, sounds well and looks well. That said, specs and audio quality wise it's of course more or less the same over its predecessors. The new VOID series are offered price competitive, I mean this remains a good quality headset with the two 50mm neodymium drivers. Combined with the USB dongle (let's call it what it is a USB soundcard) the set will cost you roughly 90 EURO/USD, and though not cheap  it remains good value for money. Interestingly enough (and I have written this in previous VOID reviews) at default settings the kit did not satisfy me. So pretty much if on a PC, the first thing you need to do after purchasing it is install the software and then change some stuff as fast as possible. Dolby Surround with music for example sounds pretty bad. Once disabled, sounds start to make sense, enable 'pure sound mode' and tweak the bass and treble a little to your preference. You'll find that after tweaking and messing about a little, all of a sudden this headset goes from okay to very good in audio quality. Let me also sate tremendously clear here that audio is perception and thus subjective -- so for a reviewer that's a big large grey area that we need to try and describe.

Wearing Comfort and Audio Quality

The VOID Surround series has a slightly tweaked and improved design and I must state that the wearing comfort is pretty sweet. The previous generation, for example, after a while of wearing would make your ears rather warm. Next to that the headband padding could cause a little irritation. The VOID Surround isn't bothered by that, a thicker yet softer headband in combo with a light-weight design seems to be key to that magic here. The ear cups have very soft padding as well but do offer a bit of necessary ventilation. Other changes over older generation products can be found in the design of the headband, whose hinges/swivel points have been redesigned to be much more hard-wearing. Audio quality wise pretty much everything was left unchanged, the 50mm drivers are good after tweaking and are specced at a frequency response of 20Hz - 20kHz and an impedance of 32 Ohms @ 1kHz. The headset has Dolby 7.1 as standard but well, try for yourself if you find that an interesting alternative. 
 

7.1 Dolby Surround?

The Corsair Gaming VOID Surround Headset, is it really a 7.1 channel set? Heck no, it isn't as it has two 50mm drivers and is thus in reality stereo. It's stereo that is being virtualized to 5.1 or 7.1. The overall surround envelope is wider in games and movies, but remains very average for music listening. Again stereo, each cup does not have multiple drivers, so to say. Surround during gaming and watching movies you might prefer, but for me overall I left the feature disabled. After you have tweaked the VOID a bit to your preference you'll notice that the sound quality is good, near audiophile-quality. 

Concluding

From both an audio and aesthetics point of view we do like the new VOID surround. It however remains to be an update SKU for those that need a little more flexibility in relation to its hybrid design. Hey no problem, that's cool right. Once you have had the opportunity to tweak the audio to your preference you'll learn to like it very much as there is a lot hidden inside the neodymium drivers in combination with the USB audio card and the CUE software suite. You can (and probably must) tweak the headset to your liking sound wise. You have the option to en/disable Dolby headphone mode and as such if the end-result is a good sounding audio picture then it's all good right? Design wise it is a good looking kit and ever so important the VOID is comfortable to wear. We discussed this in many headset conclusions already, we find the included Dolby surround mode is a very subjective matter. I found myself disabling it more often than should be necessary. However, taste in audio preferences are sooo subjective and differ per person, you might love the feature. The good thing is that Corsair will allow you to tweak this based on your preference, and that makes this headset hard to beat. I haven't said much about it yet but the MIC is great with noise cancellation that actually works. While I prefer wireless headsets (Bluetooth Corsair ... Bluetooth!) the VOID series are a class within itself. You will likely need to tweak here and there a bit, but hey .. you can actually do that. Once done the headset is pretty darn sick in terms of audio quality for the money really. If you like a quality headset with not too many whistles and bells, this one actually might be good value.

The MSRP is: 89.90 EUR so in few weeks time that popular 75~80 EURO bracket is on the horizon. Nice value and recommended as the new SKU offers more flexibility with its renewed connectivity.

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