Func HS-260 Gaming Headset
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,794 words · ~8 min read
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Hotspot Shield service makes your internet browsing safer more secure and
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fully private click now to learn more the funk HS 260s come in a white box and
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we I guess we could do like a sort of pseudo unboxing there's really not much
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inside though they have a fairly barebones accessory package which goes
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along with the you know fairly value oriented pricing of them so they come
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with the headphones the microphone which is right here the cable which has a
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black and orange sort of color scheme just like we've seen with their other pereral is quite long it's approximately
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you know two Linus ARM spans and finally
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replacement pleather ear cups uh the pleather ones are easy to swap and take
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less than a minute per ear cup if you use the right technique but I really
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prefer the cloth ear cups on the HS 260 I felt they improved sound quality at
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the cost of a little bit less noise isolation but that it was a worthwhile
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trade-off and apparently Funk thought so too because they Ship by default with
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the cloth ones so I I went ahead and I uh I left that I left these off so what
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can I say about them well they're a little bit on the heavier side but then
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maybe I don't mind them a little on the heavier side and they're I mean they're
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not unreasonable or anything they're quite similar to the Vengeance 1400s
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from Corsair um with all plastic construction there it's a little tough
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to achieve a premium feel but I still think they've done a fairly good job
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there the soft touch finish helps a lot and a couple of tap tastfully applied
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shiny plastic accents also help a little bit like on the ear cup right here the
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ear cups themselves in terms of ergonomics here have a tiny little bit
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of swivel but no more than necessary so if you like to fold them flat when you
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put your headset around your neck you can pretty much forget about that um the
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headband is one area where the build quality looks a little bit janky if you
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twist it around like this but it actually holds together quite well now
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this is a cool little ergonomic trick you can actually plug the mic or the 3
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1/2 mm cable into either port on the bottom of the headset and that's cool I
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mean to me it's a bit of a fringe case because I think we're mostly used to the
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cable coming up on the left hand side and our you know Cable Management schema
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being built around that and I generally don't like detachable stuff it tends to
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get lost whenever I'm around but this is something that's very much Personal
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Taste and you guys could completely disagree with me about it so let me know
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in the comments do you like the flex cable swappable design or do you just
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think it doesn't matter at all um the flexible mic on the other hand is a big
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Plus in my eyes and gives the HS 260 a big leg up on its main competitor the
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Vengeance 1400 which has a boom mic that lowers instead placement of a flexible
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mic at the corner of your mouth is much easier than one that just lowers and is
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whatever sort of distance in front of your mouth as it wants to be whereas
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this one you can put wherever you need to um another great ergonomic choice on
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these headphones is the inclusion of on ear controls for both volume and the mic
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microphone mute when you compare that with fussing about trying to find an
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inline control pod this is a great step forward and something that we've started
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to see a little bit more of now in terms of fit um they seal adequately on my
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head in spite of the large thickly padded ear cups they're a touch on the
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heavy side as I mentioned before but the good news is that the headband is wide
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and the padding is thick with that said it's a fairly hard foam in here um so it
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will take some Breakin time before it molds to the shape of your head but once
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it does it should pretty much fit like a glove um I wish Comfort wise that they
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actually had a little bit more clamping Force out of the box this would improve
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base response a touch and would also allow the headband to put a little bit
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less pressure on my head but the flip side of that is that people with larger
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heads mine's a medium would likely be uncomfortable out of the box and you're
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better off going with something that feels okay to everyone out of the box
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and breaks in than going with something that's uncomfortable to people might
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cause them to return it so they get a gold star from me for comfort were no
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obvious problems all right so let's get into
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listening tests when I fire up gaming headphones I'm basically expecting a
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base heavy mess but maybe everyone is just growing out of that now the overall
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sound signature of the HS 260s is actually fairly flat and Funk was even
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willing to provide the frequency response curve when I asked them it's
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nice to be them to see them be so upfront with the specs of their
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headphones this is a significant difference at this point in my mind
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between Funk and their competition who simply provide that meaningless
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frequency response range on the box I
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bear in mind though that if I were to compare them to audio file grade
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headphones that are available near this price range such as the ever popular
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Audio Technica ATM 50s which can sometimes be found for as little as a
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hundred bucks the hs6 260s do fall short
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I mean I think we're a long way away from a headset an all-in-one type
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product made by a gaming company competing at a similar price range with
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a dedicated pair of headphones from an experienced Audio company I mean this is
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this should be fairly intuitive and is similar to the whole phone versus a
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dedicated camera conversation yes a
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proper dedicated device is going to take better pictures than this I mean you
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could even make the argument that it's better to carry a flip phone a camera a
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portable gaming system a flashlight a level I'm sure you see where I'm going
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with this um compared to a jack of all trades device and you might be right but
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ah it's not for everyone I mean I don't use a headset anymore I've put on my big
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boy pants and I now have a mod mic that I can clip with magic I mean a magnet to
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whatever pair of audio file grade headphones I happened to be using at the
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time and that works great for me but the cold hard truth is that not everyone
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wants that solution and so for the folks who are only shopping for 100ish doll
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headsets I did all of my comparative listening with the HS 260s against its
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competition the Razer Kraken Pro the steel series Siberia V2s and the cors
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Vengeance
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1400s to start with the HS 260 and the Vengeance 1400 sat about in the middle
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for me in terms of Base boom they managed to make explosions and other
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action noises you know shake without drowning out everything else the way
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that the Kraken Pros did making those um very very difficult for me to listen to
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and very difficult for me to recommend um compared to the Siberia V2s they
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definitely delivered more punch for me but during my listening tests I actually
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made a bit of a personal Discovery I had always wondered what all the fuss was
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with the Siberia V2s sure they're incredibly lightweight they're
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inexpensive um but they always sounded horrible to me the issue is that they
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don't seal correctly on my head there's a gap down here and they use a one-size
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fits all suspension system so I can't even adjust them that makes their base
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response absolutely abysmal on my head
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um by using my hands to to actually push them down onto my head they still don't
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Boom the way that any of the others do but the base is quite tight and
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responsive and not completely absent so while they're still not a good choice
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for me at all I at least get it now uh
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as far as mids go they were full and not obscured by bass making them more
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suitable for music than the Siberia V2s which even with the manual correction
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are stronger in both the high and low ranges and then where highs were
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concerned compared to the Siberia V2s the HS 260s didn't seem as clear and
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detailed but they did sound better than the Vengeance 1400s in this department
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overall if I had to describe them as like something but different I'd say
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they are similar to The Vengeance 1400s but with less base oomph and a little
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more detail in the highs which is not a bad place for them to be which leaves us
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with the mic test go ahead and have a listen this is my microphone test on the
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funk HS 260 I hope you guys enjoyed it
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okay I think we're back now so considering that they come in at
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slightly more expensive than the Siberia V2s and sound better with a much better
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mic and that they sound similar to the Vengeance 1400s and are priced similarly
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to the Vengeance 1400s with what I'd consider to be a slightly better
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sounding mic and improved ergonomics with the onar controls the HS 260 looks
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like yet another solid product from Funk
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so I think that's pretty much all there is to say like this video if you liked
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it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment in the lonus tech chps Forum
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which is linked below where you can find the pricing for the hs26 as well as
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other people who want to discuss this headset with you and as always guys
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