1
00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:06,080
In my unboxing of the Corsair HS1, which

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:10,160
uh was no small challenge getting it out of the box, I did promise more of an

3
00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:13,360
in-depth look at this particular headset. So, the first thing I want to

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,119
touch on, you've already seen the unboxing, I hope. If you hadn't, then uh

5
00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:20,480
go watch it now. But the first thing I want to touch on is the overall comfort

6
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:26,160
of this headset. Even when using it for an extended period of time with earrings

7
00:00:23,119 --> 00:00:29,119
or I had a friend who has pretty large

8
00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:32,719
uh really long ears. So, even if you have irregularly shaped ears or

9
00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:37,760
earrings, they're extremely comfortable to wear for a long period of time

10
00:00:34,399 --> 00:00:39,840
because the ear pads are so big. Also,

11
00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:44,320
at the top of the headset, it's quite puffy and padded, and it is completely

12
00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:49,920
adjustable for a variety of different head sizes. And really, you know what?

13
00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:53,440
Comfort is probably the first thing that was on Corsair's list when they were

14
00:00:51,920 --> 00:01:01,520
designing this headset because it should fit almost anyone very, very comfortably

15
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:03,199
for extended periods of time.

16
00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:07,680
Another thing I want to touch on is the overall build quality of the HS1. You

17
00:01:05,199 --> 00:01:11,040
can see Corsair starts with a very nicely braided cable that's going to be

18
00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:14,400
snagree. you're not going to have any trouble with it getting caught on things

19
00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:19,200
and you shouldn't have any trouble even if actually I have a couple cats as some

20
00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:23,600
of my viewers may or may not know and I found that with braided cables such as

21
00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:27,520
this one they have a lot less success chewing through them quickly than with

22
00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:32,960
the non-braided cables that were on a pair of Sennheiser PC 350s rest in peace

23
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:37,759
that no longer function due to a broken cord. Now this works extremely well when

24
00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:41,040
the microphone is on. The lights behind the buttons are actually blue. And when

25
00:01:39,439 --> 00:01:45,680
your microphone is off, the lights are orange, which is a great feature because

26
00:01:43,119 --> 00:01:49,119
for a gamer, you can quickly glance, oh, did I hit my microphone button? When no

27
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:53,200
one can hear you. And you can see without actually fumbling around with

28
00:01:50,799 --> 00:01:58,079
anything whether your microphone is off. Moving our way up, we have more braided

29
00:01:54,960 --> 00:02:00,880
cable. We have a very robust uh place

30
00:01:58,079 --> 00:02:06,240
where it joins the left earphone. And then we have some incredibly strong

31
00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:12,879
feeling hinges here. So, these are capable of folding down like this for

32
00:02:08,479 --> 00:02:14,720
travel. They're capable of rotating

33
00:02:12,879 --> 00:02:17,440
a great degree in either direction. Well, only a great degree in this

34
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:21,440
direction and then just a little bit in the other direction. You can see that

35
00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:27,040
while they have metal caps on them, they're actually large plastic uh ball

36
00:02:24,319 --> 00:02:33,360
and socket joints just like that, just like your shoulder. Okay? And those feel

37
00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:34,879
very robust. There's pretty much no

38
00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:39,680
likelihood that those would be damaged in the useful lifetime of this uh of a

39
00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:44,160
product like this. And moving up the product, we've got the

40
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:48,959
pleathery covering that's over the top of the headband, which is once again

41
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:52,800
well stitched. It doesn't look like it's going to come apart in any way. Overall,

42
00:02:51,040 --> 00:03:00,120
the build quality is such that I would feel confident dropping them on the

43
00:02:55,120 --> 00:03:00,120
floor and they will still work.

44
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:07,560
I did run and test that. They do still work in case anyone was wondering.

45
00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,920
Software-wise, the HS1 is a USBon

46
00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:19,120
headset, which might be a bit of a deterrent for some people because you

47
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:23,120
are going to be limited by the chipset Corsair is using in the headset itself.

48
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:26,879
You can't go ahead and plug it into a dedicated headphone amp or into an audio

49
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:31,519
receiver, which is what I normally do with headsets. And you are going to be

50
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:35,280
limited to the audio software that Corsair uses. You can't go and just

51
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:40,000
switch your sound card. There's a built-in sound card, but that can be

52
00:03:37,599 --> 00:03:43,599
very convenient for people like laptop users where you're stuck with what is

53
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:48,400
usually a terrible onboard audio solution and anything is an upgrade. So,

54
00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:54,560
something like a USB headset that is powered and run off the USB port and off

55
00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:56,080
an integrated audio chipset is very much

56
00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,840
preferable. Microphone recording quality was

57
00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:03,200
excellent. And I did play around with their voice effects feature, which

58
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:06,879
suggests that you modify your voice to amuse or terrify your friends when

59
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,920
playing games or making Skype calls. And the uh the high setting wasn't actually

60
00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:14,319
all that amusing. It was just kind of chipmunky. But the low setting was

61
00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:18,239
pretty creepy and uh my voice sounded very different, very, very creepy. So,

62
00:04:16,239 --> 00:04:21,919
the microphone is definitely a big plus on this headset. Now, let's get into the

63
00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:26,160
audio quality a little bit. For games, it was terrific. I was able to pinpoint

64
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:32,960
footsteps, which is the most important thing for any serious FPS gamer. And

65
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:37,360
what I found too was that the bass is not overwhelming. So, if there's an

66
00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:42,960
explosion nearby or some other kind of deep noise, it's not going to completely

67
00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:47,280
overdo itself and drown out everything else. But what that also means is that

68
00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:53,120
it's at a bit of a disadvantage for music. I found that the onboard chipset

69
00:04:50,479 --> 00:04:58,320
didn't do the greatest job of maintaining a level volume throughout

70
00:04:55,520 --> 00:05:04,479
the highs, mids, and lows of a music track. And it also didn't really reach a

71
00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:06,320
desirable loudness level on some tracks,

72
00:05:04,479 --> 00:05:10,160
but with others, by the time I turned the volume up to the max, it was pretty

73
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:13,199
much unbearable to listen to. So, there was a little bit of inconsistency to it,

74
00:05:11,919 --> 00:05:18,880
but I think that's the kind of thing that can be addressed with driver

75
00:05:15,280 --> 00:05:21,280
updates. Overall, it does what it's

76
00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:25,520
advertised to do. It's great for gaming. You have the convenience of being able

77
00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:30,400
to plug in by USB to any computer and get a consistent audio experience, which

78
00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:35,120
is something that you can't get if you're using onboard audio on a

79
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,199
motherboard or especially on a laptop

80
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:43,120
where most of the audio solutions are frankly just terrible.

81
00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:47,520
So, in conclusion, the HS1 does exactly what it's advertised to do. It performs

82
00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:51,680
very well for games. It has lots of great convenient features that are

83
00:05:49,039 --> 00:05:56,639
optimized, you guessed it, for gamers, such as the color changing uh volume

84
00:05:54,240 --> 00:06:02,160
buttons, the USB port, the excellent mic. It's very wellb built, which is

85
00:05:59,039 --> 00:06:04,000
again a great feature for gamers who are

86
00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:09,840
Yeah. Yeah. They're likely to drop their headset or spill Pepsi on it or whatever

87
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:13,840
else can possibly happen. I wouldn't expect it to damage the HS1 in the

88
00:06:11,759 --> 00:06:17,919
slightest. Overall, Corsair's put together a pretty good package here, and

89
00:06:16,319 --> 00:06:23,360
I just want to give them a big thanks for sending the HS1 for my unboxing and

90
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:28,720
review pleasure and your watching pleasure. Thank you for checking out my

91
00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:30,880
video review, I suppose, of the HS1. And

92
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:33,520
don't forget to subscribe to Lionus Tech Tips.