Music tests

Asus ROG Strix Fusion 700, RGB Gaming Headset Review - Musical/Song Testing

Corsair HS35 Headset - Music Tests

Time to shuffle up the music playlist..? Here, we put the HS35's through some music tests with a wide range of songs, in the hope to expose any flaws in sound quality. It is worth noting that the HS35's are, categorically, not marketed as an audiophile or 'music listeners' headset, at all. They are first, and foremost, a gaming-focused product. This generally means one thing, and that thing is bass. It also means (as a side note) that any criticism leveled at the product in this segment of the review should be taken with a significant pinch of salt and reservation, i.e. 'it's a gaming headset, not for music.' So, shall we see if that is the case? Short answer... yes.

The Killers - Mr. Brightside

Quite apart from being a song that is essentially considered the UK's 2nd national anthem, I also just happen to really like it, with the joke being that every Brit is born knowing the words to this 2000's classic. If you want to see what I am on about, do a YouTube search for the performance of this song at Glastonbury 2019. Fairly sure even Brandon Flowers couldn't quite believe the crowd's reaction, judging by the look on his face. Anyway, free advertisement for The Killers aside, how do the HS35's fare in our first test?

In a word, and right off the bat, they were... ok. The HS35 has a definite lacking in the mid and upper-midrange, leaving instruments sounding relatively hollow. Vocals, however, sounded fairly reasonable to my ears. An immediate switchback, granted, to my regular Hyper X Cloud II's yielded an immediate change for the better. I mean, it should, as at release the II's were well over double the price of the HS35's (and, if you add inflation into the mix, the II's would retail for nearly £110 in today's money).

Now, to the HS35's genuine credit (and I mean this), even with my PC's master volume cranked up to the max, along with Spotify and the headset's, there was absolutely no hint of distortion whatsoever. I was surprised by this, given the initial earlier results. To be fair, the lack of any distortion makes sense. Corsair well knows that gamers are the type to play their favorite titles with the volume (potentially) cranked up, so there not being any distortion was probably a design goal from the very start.

What about the rest of the range? Well, the bass that 'Mr. Brightside' does is very much on the down-low, so it was 'there,' and that was about it. This isn't to the product's detriment, it just is genuinely not a bass-heavy bit of music. All in all, though, a fairly average start for the budget boy of Corsair's lineup.

Suns & Stars - Really Slow Motion

I have found that if ANYTHING on my music playlist tends to really separate the distorted from the non-distorted, it is this bit of music coming up next. So, did they break the HS35's? Well, to my absolute shock, no. The unit flew through this distortion test with flying colors. Now, granted, it is not all good news. The aforementioned 'hollowness' in 'Mr. Brightside' came through here as a very much muddied instrumental section, with instruments that I am used to hearing loud and clear getting slightly lost, all seemingly jostling for position. This definitely wasn't an especially good listening experience, sadly. Was it passable? Absolutely, yes, and I made the point earlier that this is - first and foremost - a gaming orientated 'budget' headset. Music ain't going to be its strong point. Onwards, then, to the final track in this shortlist.

Disturbed - The Sound of Silence

Musically (and I am very sorry to say this), this is where the HS35's fall apart a little. 'The Sound of Silence' is a track of two halves. The first is some very, very powerful vocals, and the second is a lot of bass. Bass is an area that - generally, as already mentioned - gaming-focused headsets tend to do well in. The same is certainly true of the HS35's. The bass is strong, and that cannot be taken away from the product. However, to my ears, the bass is to the detriment of other parts of the range, to the extent where you really do feel like you are 'missing something' with the ones I have on hand. I have already alluded to this earlier, though. Normally this would be where I say 'Now, don't get me wrong...', however, this time, I can't. The fact remains that - for purely music listening, there are £20 earbuds that - in my view - provide a better music listening experience than the HS35's. I would also say, however, that if you are buying the HS35's in order to listen to some tunes on the tube/bus/train into work, then... well, you're a bit of a plank. That would, in effect, be like me buying a purpose 'road' bike, and then wondering why I wasn't doing all that well on an off-road competition. The bike would probably make it, but there are smarter choices. See my point?

All in all, then, a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to music and more 'general use'. Then again, I wasn't really expecting anything else. Shall we move on to testing in a couple of games?