Corsair HS1A Gaming PC Headset Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2011-05-08
·
1,129 words · ~5 min read
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today I have a pretty interesting product to unbox this is the analog
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version of the Corsair hs1 so it's the
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hs1a A is for analog and I will be
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opening it up my expectation is that it will be quite similar to the hs1 except
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without the built-in USB sound card which for some people may actually be a
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benefit rather than a disadvantage so
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here are the technical specifications want to come in and have a look so 50 mm
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drivers that's an important one extra large circumoral ear cups with closed
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back noise isolating design so those make it very comfortable replaceable
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memory phone ear pads also for Comfort ooh moisture resistant microfiber covers
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excellent so if you're sweating and gaming then won't be a problem 3M cable
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okay noise cancelling uh rotation rotating boom mic and that's pretty much
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everything that I have to say from there amazing sound for intensive immersive
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gaming okay massive 50 mil drivers
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basically gives you louder sound deeper
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base all of that good stuff that just cannot be achieved because of the
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physics of the thing with smaller drivers so let's go ahead and extract
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these from their packaging I remember having quite a difficult time with the
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hs1 so hopefully the hs1a does not prove
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to be quite such a challenge
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for after all if you fool me once then shame
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on you and if you fool me twice then shame on me
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right okay depends who you ask if you ask George W bush then that's really not
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how the saying goes but that's how I always heard it all right there I have
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extracted it now I have extracted what
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appears to be a disc that doesn't contain a disc so we have a quick start
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guide which probably pretty much amounts to plug the thing into the thing okay a
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warranty guide which tells us that this product has a 2-year warranty which is
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also indicated on the side of the box that's it for that now let's have a look
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at the only included accessories so these are pley type ear cups these use
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memory foam inside wow they're really soft that feels really comfy and nice uh
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so you can replace the stock microfiber
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cloth ones with these if you should so desire something to be aware of is that
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not only is that going to change the feel of the earphones against your head
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but it will also change the sound characteristics of the headset so the
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pley ones will actually isolate uh outside sounds from you a little bit
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more and isolate the sounds you're hearing from the people around you a little bit more will make them sound a
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little bit more closed personally I prefer the sound of headphones uh
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without the the ple three cups with the uh with the microfiber cups but I prefer
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the feel of the leather one so you have to just find what works best for you so
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here's what the headset looks like you can see the boom mic is in increments of
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approximately this much it goes all the way down here just in case you're one of
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those people whose mouth is well down
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here um so this is probably the more useful level for most people it is
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adjustable in and out so you can make sure that it's always coming down in the
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right place for your mouth um in here
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you will see the 50 mm drivers you can
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see these are also made of memory foam they leave quite an imprint when you
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press on them with your finger but then easily relax back into their standard
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configuration the hs1 I always found
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very very comfortable that could not possibly be a complain I would have
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about the hs1 and so the same remains true the hs1a they've changed only a
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couple things about the headphones themselves you can see the color scheme is changed slightly where we used to
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have silver we now have black so the hs1a does look a little bit different
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lot lot of padding up here as well on
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the headband okay so they like I said very very comfortable overall build
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quality of the hs1a is unsurprisingly about like the hs1 very solid so while
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we do have plastic components here they feel very well built and like no matter
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how much you toss them around you're not going to manage to crack them or break
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them in terms of adjustments you can see they've got marked adjustments here in
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increments of approximately that much okay so you can make sure that they are
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going to fit on your head even if your
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head is shaped like this like if you have like a really tall head bu it just
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fine well I guess you could also have like kind of a wider head too so so
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either of those scenarios we've accounted for here uh I think that's
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pretty much all I had to say about the headphones themselves want I just come in and have kind of a closer look at
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them before we move on to the included
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oh yeah this adjustment is also present okay okay so let's have a look at the
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volume control and mic so there's a volume control dial right here and then
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there's also a mic mute right here so uh
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you wouldn't be the first person if you accidentally bumped this to the mute position and then uh you know tried to
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reconfigure all your audio settings to make them work to realize that you had
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hit that switch so watch out for that it is useful though when you know your
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mom's calling you and you have to be like I'm coming and you don't want to
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scream that into your mic so that's what it's really for uh you've got two
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standard uh 3.5 mil Jack so one for
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headphones one for mic and that is pretty much it so when it comes down to
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it I'd say pretty much hs1a if you have a high-end sound card or really pretty
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much any any after uh anything that's not onboard sound card if you do have an
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onboard sound card and you don't feel like buying a sound card then the USB is
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definitely a great option so thanks for checking out this unboxing don't forget
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