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Linus Tech Tips coverage of CES 2014 is brought to you by ncx.com, your source

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for great technology, selection, and service along with Corsair Memory and

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Western Digital. We're going to kick off our Sennheiser booth tour with a look at

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their game series headsets. Now, they

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did make a bit of a mistake here. They they spelled game wrong. They're like

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German or something. So, maybe spelling in English isn't a strong point, but

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designing headsets is. So, we're going to start with the game one. If you've

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ever used an HD 500 series headphone in

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the last little while, these will probably look familiar. They've got

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cloth padding. They have sort of a it's a soft but not memory foam style

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padding. The drivers inside them are actually very similar to 500 series

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drivers, but they've made a couple small tweaks to enhance things like sound

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effects as well as dialogue in games without completely destroying the sound

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signature because Sennheiser does know a thing or two about not destroying the

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sound signature on their products. They have also updated the ID. So, they've

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got kind of a white glossy design that's quite beautiful looking with a red

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metallic accent color that goes around certain parts of it. They've got a

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self-muting microphone. So, all you got to do is lower that to get it to work

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and then raise it to get it to stop transmitting. And then finally, to make

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it a gaming headset, they of course have a volume control knob on the other ear.

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Now, this is the lower end of the two, although both of them cost over $200.

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But this one right here is the one that I think many gamers will find quite

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interesting, where the Game One uses an open back design, meaning that sound

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tends to leak both in and out, which is not the greatest thing for immersion.

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Personally, I prefer open back just because it does give a bit more of a a a

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natural feeling to the sound. I think many gamers will be looking for the Game

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One. So, this uses a closedback design. They've got sort of a pleather synthetic

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leather cover on the ear cups. This enhances the noise isolation as well as

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being more comfortable for certain people, although I personally do prefer

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cloth. It also has a memory foam design

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for both the ear cups and for the headband. And as you can see, that

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happened while I was sitting here holding it. It has nice swiveing ear

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cups so you can easily hang it around your neck, as well as a folding design

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so you can pack it up and take it with you wherever you go. Now, both of these

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headsets use standard 3 and 12 mm jacks,

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which is great for PC gamers because with the way that sound card technology

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has advanced in the last little while, even on just integrated Oh, I just

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turned on those speakers because I unplugged this. Anyway, even with onboard sound, um I don't see a

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particular reason why you would need a USB interface unless you, you know,

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really had some special effects you wanted to apply to it. But the good news about it is that with this simple little

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adapter, you've got not only PC compatibility, but also PlayStation 4

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compatibility out of the box. This adapter is going to come at about

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$14.99. It'll be available in a little while. However, you know, even though

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we're standing in Sennheiser's booth, I'll tell you guys, there's nothing particularly special about it. It's a

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four-pole to dual three-pole adapter. You can pick these up almost anywhere

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and boom, you're ready to go on your PC or on your PlayStation with either of

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these Game Series headsets. We've got three significant updates to

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Sennheiser's Pro Series products. Now, I'll start with what they all have in

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common. They all come with a professional-grade hard case. It's

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actually super super nice. It's got gorgeous hard foam inside. I wouldn't be

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worried about damaging these at all. They both come They all come there are

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actually three models. They all come with two sets of ear cups. you whether

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you prefer more of a pleather feel or whether you want something that's a velour which is a little bit different

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from the traditional cloth ear cup that you'll find on headphones because it

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will tend to help with noise isolation a little bit more than a very very

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breathable cloth. They all come with detachable cables which you can actually

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plug into either side. So if you have mixing equipment that tends to sit more

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off to your left and you don't want the cable coming up that side, that's going

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to be no problem for you. And they all come with both a straight cable and with

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a coiled cable. The last thing that they all include is of course robust, rugged

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build quality, although one of them is a little bit ahead of the others in terms of that space. Then we've got the HD7 DJ

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and HD8 DJ. The key differences between these two are that the HD7 DJ tends to

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have a little bit of a brighter sound at the high end and has a uh metal and

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plastic construction. Other than that, they are lower impedance than the HD6

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Mix. So, at 95 ohms, they can be used on pretty much anything. And they both have

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ah, yes, this is a first for Sennheiser.

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Check this out, guys. They've got a swiveling ear cup design that has three

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distinctly locking positions. So, you can position them directly over the ear,

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a little bit kind of half off the ear, or

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way up there, so they sit on the head in a comfortable manner while being

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completely out of the way. Now, I'd like to move on to the HD8 DJ. This one

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features an all- metal construction, so it has some additional robustness uh to

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go along with the well DJ optimized

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sound signature. So, that is to say that unlike the HD6 Mix, these ones are

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fairly fairly more neutrally except in

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bass. So, they're going to be able to pound the bass and they're going to be able to pound it hard. They're both

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capable of delivering up to 115 dB of

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highquality sound to your ear, which is something that I wouldn't necessarily

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recommend doing. But hey, if you're in a loud club and you got to hear what

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you're working on, then I guess you don't really have much of a choice. So,

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thanks for checking out our Sennheiser booth coverage, guys. Don't miss any of

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our coverage of CES 2014 by making sure you're subscribed. And just as a

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reminder, our trip to the show is powered by ncx.com, your source for

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great technology selection and service, as well as Western Digital and Corsair

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Memory. A huge thanks to those guys because we wouldn't be able to be here

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without them.