Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
A premium look, feel and excellent wireless experience with many options is what Corsair is offering with the all-new Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE edition. It's a job well done. Now brutally honest, can I tell (hear) a difference compared towards their previous 50mm driver headsets .. gosh no not really but then again these already were very very good in audio quality. Now, I am a bit of a fan of the Corsair headsets, and also realize that not everybody will agree with me for one simple reason and fact, as sound is a subjective experience. What I deem and experience as great audio, you might hate. Here's where the flexibility comes in with iCUE, you gain that EQ and are able to tweak things to your preference. BTW I am writing this conclusion while listening to Hey ladies / Beasty boys on this very headset. Giving you guys an objective qualification on a headset however remains such a hard thing to do. What I might like in that audio envelope, you might hate. Some like deep bass, other normalized and so on with the audiophiles like the purest mode, which I personally dislike. Overall you get a rich and vibrant audio quality coming from the two big neodymium 50mm drivers. They offer a wide audio spectrum. But again, nothing is as subjective as sound can be.
Wearing Comfort
Subjective listening experiences aside, the headset offers a nice improvement in wear quality, it feels light enough (but not light) and comfy all way around, plain and simple. It's not that light at 360g really. We like how comfortable the headband is, you can wear it for hours and not get irritated. The unit has been redesigned to be much comfier while wearing for a long timeframe.
Wireless and wired
The wireless functionality is excellent, really. In a range of say 10 meters you will have perfect reception. Even a concrete floor below the transmitter we had reception. Outside the 10 meters things get difficult fast though, sound simply dies off when you are out of range (and will pop back online once you are in range again). Being wireless we have to talk about battery life. It's actually pretty good, we got a good 18 hours out of one charge so that will definitely get you through a few movies or FPS frag-fests. Once you are out of juice you can simply plug in the charging cable and continue to play until all your base are belong to us, and that is hard to beat. Mind you that you can simply use the wires 3.5mm plug cable as well and hook the unit into anything with a matching connector. And then, of course, you could go USB all the way. This does offer a lot of flexibility toewards the product.
Any Remarks?
Yes, two. First of the SE edition has the aluminum CPU inserts, they look bloody fantastic, but are prone to smudges. You'll need to clean them off on a regular basis. Secondly, and this is a bit of a thing at an MSRP of $209 for the SE model, this puppy should have had Bluetooth connectivity. While you can go wired and wireless, Bluetooth itself is not an option, and with the wide adoption of BT, that's just a miss. It blows my mind really that I am not able to hook this headset into my phone or TV or whatever, Corsair really needs to address this.
Concluding
The Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE edition is a sick looking headset, it performs much like the previous models we tested and audio-wise, we cannot hear a difference however that already was at a great audio quality level. So does it sounds 'different' or 'better' than say a Corsair HS70, honestly no? And yeah, some will actually not be okay with that default audiophile setup, however with the flexibility of an iCUE linkup, you can tweak. At default, the headset hits a pure audio sound stage, me myself and I needs more bass, treble and a hint in the mid- EQ spectrum and sure, some more clarity. The hardware is sound (pardon the pun), the wireless range is fantastic and works flawlessly. I like how RGB was embedded into this SE model, very subtle but also functional for battery charge status, etc. The MIC is fantastic and records incredibly clear, albeit a bit dimmed in sound volume (but that is easily fixed. The surround mode works fine the reality remains that it's 'guesstimated' or virtualized surround, 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. Whether it is gaming or listening to music, you'll enjoy the headset for sure. And yes, you will likely tweak with the EQ a bit. It is fantastic to not have a wire running to the ear cups, wireless rules and with this Slipstream setup last you a long time before you need to re-charge. We agree audio is a subjective thing, so let me close on a personal note as for design, audio quality and features, wear comfort and connectivity this unit deserves a recommended award quite easily. It's a stack of money though, then again it truly is premium. We do sorely miss a simple Bluetooth connection though.
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