The musical side of HS80 Max Wireless
The musical side of HS80 Max Wireless
The HS80 RGB Wireless performs very well in music, especially considering it’s a gaming headset. With a balanced EQ setting in Corsair’s iCUE software, the headset provided a strong and dynamic bass, clear vocals, and very good sound reproduction.
As for the testing suite, we used the following songs:
- Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven
- Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
- Limp Bizkit – Boiler
- Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On
We listened to all these tracks in lossless FLAC or played them on Spotify (320 kbps), and, as you can see, we covered a variety of genres. The HS80 Max makes the bass sound very rich. The instruments sound natural, and the vocals are represented correctly. We got the impression that the Dolby Atmos enabling makes the sound better. SoundID Technology also does its thing. Low-end instruments like the bass guitar and drums were reproduced deeply and fully. Bass drum reproduction is clear. The mid-range is good by default. The soundstage and resolution are great. Vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, and pianos came through clearly. Resonance felt natural. Midrange vocals had enough warmth. The upper end had a very minor issue with the treble. It sometimes felt a bit sharp, but high-hat clashes and higher-range instruments were clear enough. The Corsair Gaming HS80 Max has a V-shaped characteristic (common for gaming headsets), with more than sufficient bass and treble combined with a lesser midrange. Audiophiles will prefer a more neutral sound, but you are not the target for this headset if you are one. The frequency response is standard, so there are no extra points. Overall, the HS80 Max provided a sound of more than enough quality; there's a rather wide musical spectrum. The sound stage and the headset's capabilities were very good, with enough depth and direction. The HS80 Max is tuned to a very nice balance. You receive here dynamic bass and clear voices. SoundID Technology also does its magic here. There's no real reason to complain, especially considering this is a gaming headset, not an audiophile product.
