Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
The H1500 as reviewed today obviously is nothing major new compared to its predecessors as changes mostly are aesthetically to match the new Corsair Gaming line of professional gaming gear. The good stuff got improved a bit, and was re-released. Now as with pretty much all our headset reviews, we start by stating clearly that audio is subjective -- so for a reviewer that's a large big grey area that you need to try and describe. It's loaded with subjective perceptions and what we 'feel' is good / bad combined with technical facts. That makes it very difficult to review, as I for example am more of an audiophile opposed to somebody that needs a headset for hardcore gaming with amplified sounds like gun triggers in the background to give them that competitive advantage.
Changes - Comfort and Audio Quality
So the tail goes like this, Corsair have been very consistent in the design, features, and quality of their products, it shows with the Vengeance headsets and now is advancing into the Corsair Gaming line. As such the H1500 is an advancement over the Vengeance 1500 however I can't state that the H1500 is a better unit in terms of sound, judging solely by audio. The H1500 is slightly improved for wear comfort and of course the dark and yellow color. The primary difference can be found in the design and the headband, whose hinges/swivel points have been designed to be much more hard-wearing. The 50mm drivers are pretty good I must say, with specs at a frequency response: 20Hz - 20kHz and impedance: 32 Ohms @ 1kHz. The headset now also supports Dolby 7.1 as standard. The H1500 at 325 grams is fairly lightweight and very comfortable to wear. The adjust-ability of the headband and pivoting action of the ear cups ensures they should provide a proper fit for just about anyone. The ear pads are made of micro fiber and are very soft and comfortable. The sound quality is good, I probably would not dare to state audiophile-quality but it is certainly above the level you expect for a $80 headset. The good thing about the USB based H1500 is the fact that you can tweak the sound to your liking through the equalizer. The equalizer pre-sets are not just generic presets but are fine-tuned by the pros and that lifts up the product really well. Since Dolby is virtualizing, we would like to see some more options to tweak that segment ourselves though.
True 5.1 and 7.1 ?
Now is the Corsair Gaming H1500 actually a 5.1 or 7.1 channel set? 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 experience is good though, let's not make a mistake there. But each cup does not have multiple drivers, so to say.
Something to moan ?
Sure, the volume is loud, so loud that it can easily damage your ears. A comfortable setting for me was a volume of like 10~20%, Corsair should put a limiter in the software that you can unlock and go loud as once truly needed. Secondly the MIC boom stick can be improved, I like to see it mute once I push it upwards, a little more flexibility to shape the stick would be nice as well.
Concluding
It is getting a repetitiv story, but the overall wear-comfort is nice, the MIC sounds great and clear, and with a little EQ tweakage the sound will most be tweaked to your liking and preferences.Though the surround mode is really good, but it remains to be 'guesstimated' or virtualized surround. As such it will never get close to real perceptive 7.1 sound for that matter. For videos and audio in combo with the EQ, the surround mode however works very well so overall the H1500 simply is a good set of headphones for many usages including movies, music and gaming. The Corsair Gaming H1500 shines in a nice deep and dynamic sounding bass, clear voices, and and the treble that we increased a notch totally fits my personal sound flavor. These factors combined satisfy my personal audio flavor real fast. Tweak a little on the equalizer if you like to do so and you'll have excellent audio. The software suite is a little thin in terms of options, but you can configure all important aspects and the reality is this: it is a simple software suite. And simple often works best. The include Dolby mode is a bit of a subjective matter. Overall the conclusion is simple, the Corsair Gaming H1500 is a nice product that will suite anyone. It is a comfortable to wear headphone set with good audio quality throughout the book.
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