Mark stared into a VOID and heard a distant rumble
Along time ago, in a distant galaxy, Corsair did only RAM. But these days it's got numerous fingers in multiple pies, ranging from water cooling to SSDs.
One of its expansion areas is gaming gear, and it's made some really nice keyboards and mice for those with time on their hands.
The VOID is a new range of four gaming headsets, targeted at those who want something comfortable to wear at their PC or console, so they don’t annoy others who live within a half mile radius.
At the top of the VOID pile is a wireless Dolby 7.1 special edition entitled ‘Yellowjacket’. Then the same hardware but less special: a USB connected 7.1 set. And the bottom rung, reviewed here, is the VOID Stereo headset.
The stereo option has a few critical advantages over all the others, the most obvious one being the lowest price. The other is that because this one doesn’t use USB, opting instead for micro-jacks, it works with just about any hardware, from a smartphone to a games console.
The cable terminates in a four-pole 3.5mm jack, which a provided converter then splits into two three-pole types, one for the sound and the other for the noise cancelling microphone.
As it's generally considered a good idea, the microphone is on a rotating boom mounted on the left-side can, along with a thumb-wheel volume control and a mic mute. There are no controls on the right side, so you only need to use your left hand to make a change when gaming.
Having used these for a number of prolonged computing combat sessions, I was impressed not only by how relatively light they are, but the balance and ear pads make them very comfortable.
In Corsair’s marketing material, much is made of the microfibrewrapped memory foam ear pads, but in this instance they do actually live up to their billing.
The only aspect of them that could be improved is that they tended (on my head) to leave small gaps for external sound to leak in. That’s fine for me, because I don’t like being surprised, but if you want total isolation, then it isn’t ideal.
One counter to that is the volume these 50mm neodymium drivers can handle, which is substantial. With my PC volume set to maximum, there was no appreciable distortion detectable by these ears.
Overall, in terms of sound reproduction, the VOID is especially good at the mid to low ranges, though it's also not bad in the treble range. There are designs with more bass and treble overall, but not for anywhere near this price.
If I have a valid complaint, it’s that the connecting cable is permanently wired into the left-hand side. The might not be desirable, and if the cable is damaged, there isn’t any user friendly way to fix it.
Even with that drawback, these are very nice headphones that do what Corsair intended effectively, and they don’t cost a fortune for the experience. Mark Pickavance
Affordable gaming headset that delivers acoustically.
Specifications
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz
• Impedance: 32 Ohms @ 1kHz
• Sensitivity: 107dB (+/-3dB)
• Drivers: 50mm
• Connector: 4-pole 3.5mm
• Unidirectional noise-cancelling with adjustable, rotating boom microphone