CM Storm Pulse-R Gaming Headset
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,206 words · ~6 min read
0:00
the Pulsar headset from CM Storm by Cooler Master feels heavier than it
0:04
actually is and I was actually surprised to find out that it only weighs about 8%
0:09
more than Corsair's Vengeance
0:17
1400s Hotspot Shield service makes your internet browsing safer more secure and
0:22
fully private click now to learn more maybe it's the higher density of the
0:26
materials used but the Pulsar feels solidly built which makes sense because
0:31
compared to other gaming headsets in this price range they're a bit
0:34
physically smaller and Cooler Master is using a lot of metal in their
0:39
construction notably here in the headband and here as well as here on the
0:43
side of the ear cups overall build quality I'd say is a strong point and
0:47
size adjustment is among the smoothest I've encountered with granular control
0:51
and a nice satisfying click for each Notch the ear cups clamped a little bit
0:56
too tight for me out of the box but a redeeming quality is that the smallish
1:01
ear cups that house the Pulsar 42mm drivers have very Supple pleather
1:05
covering on them and the foam on them is
1:09
nice and thick as long as you don't have big ears this should be a very
1:14
comfortable headset once you break it in unfortunately though there are some
1:18
negative things that I need to bring up about them physically first up I'm not a
1:22
fan of large beefy boom mics in general because they look kind of goofy and they
1:26
tend to be difficult to position anywhere but directly in front of your
1:29
your mouth where plosives are more prominent and I'm also not a fan of
1:34
detachable mics because they tend to get lost when you put both of these things
1:38
together you end up with an implementation that is particularly unappealing to me because the microphone
1:43
position is difficult to make fine adjustments to while you're wearing it
1:47
which you'd think would be a nonissue because you can just you know set it
1:51
once and kind of forget it right well then what about this this is something
1:56
Gamers do I can't fold it up and and now
2:00
the boom mic is hanging right in my face when I'm wearing my headset around my
2:03
neck so I I'll either have to move it meaning to readjust it I'll need to take
2:08
the headset off or I'll need to detach it another option that just kind of
2:12
sucks the inline volume control on the braided 9t cable is well built and a
2:17
good idea in theory but the problem here is a fundamental design flaw that I see
2:22
time and time again particularly on phones two opposing controls that
2:28
require the same type of Force making
2:31
accidental activations inevitable watch
2:34
what happens when I try to mute my mic with one
2:38
hand the volume slider moves this can be
2:41
avoided by you know handling it very carefully or using two hands but it's
2:46
not natural or convenient and with its competition moving towards onar controls
2:51
the pulsar's remote design feels distinctly last gen if you don't use
2:56
mute mic though that slider is hard enough that you won't accidentally move
3:01
it while you're trying to adjust volume so it's just the other way around that caused problems for me the proprietary
3:07
connector ah for the cable into the headphones themselves has a very
3:10
satisfying snap as you insert it but I'm still not a big fan of custom connectors
3:15
on audio gear I mean okay it allows you to have uh White illumination on the ear
3:20
cups and the microphone tip that turns off when it's muted which is cool but I
3:25
personally don't really care about that and neither do a lot of people I think
3:29
the removable aluminum plates that can be customized and then put back on are
3:33
actually really cool but that's because those work without plugging an
3:37
additional USB cable into my PC honestly
3:41
it seems like the only time that lights on a headset which you'll never see will
3:45
matter is in this product shot where ironically the illumination isn't even
3:48
that visible on to the listening tests I used my usual strategy of watching some
3:52
streams on Twitch and listening to top 40 music to come to the following
3:56
conclusions to my delight this head set
4:00
Bas is not overpowering so if you're looking for the equivalent of a Juiced
4:04
up car stereo listening experience you'll be disappointed but for me that
4:07
was great and on top of that it's surprisingly tight and Punchy this
4:12
combined with the Pulsar strong noise isolation makes for a very immersive
4:16
gaming experience with gunfire and explosions and other sound effects being
4:20
very easy to pinpoint voice Communication in games comes through
4:23
loud and clear but lacks the sheer impact of those deeper sounds and that
4:27
was the first hint for me of a performance deficiency in this headset
4:32
that was much more noticeable when listening to music it didn't bother me
4:35
at all while gaming but firing up almost any song with a vocalist made me acutely
4:39
aware of the lack of clarity these headphones deliver in the mid and high
4:44
ranges so I guess we'll round out our performance analysis with a microphone
4:48
listening test just so you guys know I'm recording this on an ASUS Thunder FX
4:52
external sound card I hope you like it I guess we'll round out our performance
4:56
analysis with a microphone listening test I'm recording this on an Thunder FX
5:00
external sound card I hope you like it conclusion wise this was a fairly simple
5:05
review for me the pulsars are solid and wellb built but with their small ear
5:10
cups and relatively narrow range of headband adjustments they're not made
5:14
for folks with giant heads or ears the microphone ergonomics are really a
5:19
turnoff for me but it's not something that everyone will care about and on a
5:23
more positive note they deliver some of the most satisfyingly Punchy base I've
5:27
ever heard in this price range and so if you're willing to compromise Clarity in
5:31
the mids and highs for it then that turns into a recommendation guys like
5:35
this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment and let
5:39
me know what you thought of the pulsars and if you enjoyed this video so much
5:43
that you want to do more than just like it check out the support Link in the
5:46
video description there's lots of different options everything from just
5:50
changing your Amazon bookmark to uh one with our affiliate code all the way up
5:54
to supporting us directly or buying t-shirts and all kinds of cool stuff
5:58
like that so we'd really appreciate if you guys guys did go ahead and click
6:01
that and see if there's anything that appeals to you and as always don't forget to subscribe to L techtips for
6:05
more unboxings reviews and other computer videos