Corsair HS1A Review

[HardOCP News]

Corsair's HS1A headset was just on the receiving end of a little review action by the gang at Overclockers Club today. For those of you that don't know, the HS1A headset is Corsair's standard mini-plug version of the HS1 USB headset we looked at last year.

Color scheme aside, the HS1A is the splitting image of the HS1. There's still a fine fabric sheet covering the inside of each baffle housing to keep debris away from the driver, and the earpads are still removable should they require a thorough cleansing. The headband still has the Corsair name and logo etched into it, the microphone is the same, and it exhibits the same variety of motions and adjustments. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Volumetrik]

Looks like a very nice headset. I hope that you can turn up the volume more than the USB version cause it is quiet.

 

[Tankerton]

Looks like a very nice headset. I hope that you can turn up the volume more than the USB version cause it is quiet.

The volume goes up pretty high. I don't know how anyone could comfortably listen past 60-70%, let alone max.

 

[ReCeVeR]

I've red the review and I couldn't disagree more with some of the conclusions drawn by the author. This is part of the reason it is so difficult to do a proper audio review, because sound and perception of sound is entirely subjective.
All the caveats pointed out by the author can be attributed to a user that is used to general headsets that boost low ends and flesh it out with high ends with significant distortions in between.
The HS1 in my experience offers a very stable sound reproduction across the board: From low to high ends, there is little to no noticeable distortion. I imagine the HS1A being so similar in appearance must share some of it's predecessors "stability" on the sound spectrum, and this is what the author of this review criticized.
Granted the loss of advanced dolby options on the HS1A is a big deal, and the author mentions that it essentially makes the HS1A an expensive headset that is priced only a few dollars away from it's feature-full predecessor.

Thumbs down to this article, overall, I cannot forgive the author's conclusion on sound quality that was based on his subjective perceptions that were evidently biased towards a different kind of product, though I'm not saying I'm not biased myself I'd be happy if these audio review included a few different views from different users, though in all audio reviews are probably the hardest to do.

 

[Sim]

I don't think they actually tested out this headset for gaming or listening to any music that has bass.
If you use this headset for gaming you will wonder why you paid so much for it when it sounds like $15 headset. This headset is comfortable and build quality is nice but all that means nothing when the sound quality is horrible for gaming and listening to any music with bass.

I have read user reviews and most of them do not like the sound quality of this headset at all. I have used it and i have to agree with them on the lack of bass and explosions in-game not sounding like they should for a $80 headset. I have used under $40 headsets that perform better for gaming.

It makes me wonder how many review sites just take spoon feed info and run with it instead of doing testing themselves to see how it performs like most people would use it. (for gaming or voice chatting on skype/ventrilo,teamspeak)