Corsair HS1 USB Gaming Headset Video Review Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2011-05-08
·
1,208 words · ~6 min read
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In my unboxing of the Corsair HS1, which
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uh was no small challenge getting it out of the box, I did promise more of an
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in-depth look at this particular headset. So, the first thing I want to
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touch on, you've already seen the unboxing, I hope. If you hadn't, then uh
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go watch it now. But the first thing I want to touch on is the overall comfort
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of this headset. Even when using it for an extended period of time with earrings
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or I had a friend who has pretty large
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uh really long ears. So, even if you have irregularly shaped ears or
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earrings, they're extremely comfortable to wear for a long period of time
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because the ear pads are so big. Also,
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at the top of the headset, it's quite puffy and padded, and it is completely
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adjustable for a variety of different head sizes. And really, you know what?
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Comfort is probably the first thing that was on Corsair's list when they were
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designing this headset because it should fit almost anyone very, very comfortably
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for extended periods of time.
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Another thing I want to touch on is the overall build quality of the HS1. You
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can see Corsair starts with a very nicely braided cable that's going to be
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snagree. you're not going to have any trouble with it getting caught on things
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and you shouldn't have any trouble even if actually I have a couple cats as some
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of my viewers may or may not know and I found that with braided cables such as
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this one they have a lot less success chewing through them quickly than with
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the non-braided cables that were on a pair of Sennheiser PC 350s rest in peace
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that no longer function due to a broken cord. Now this works extremely well when
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the microphone is on. The lights behind the buttons are actually blue. And when
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your microphone is off, the lights are orange, which is a great feature because
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for a gamer, you can quickly glance, oh, did I hit my microphone button? When no
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one can hear you. And you can see without actually fumbling around with
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anything whether your microphone is off. Moving our way up, we have more braided
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cable. We have a very robust uh place
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where it joins the left earphone. And then we have some incredibly strong
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feeling hinges here. So, these are capable of folding down like this for
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travel. They're capable of rotating
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a great degree in either direction. Well, only a great degree in this
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direction and then just a little bit in the other direction. You can see that
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while they have metal caps on them, they're actually large plastic uh ball
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and socket joints just like that, just like your shoulder. Okay? And those feel
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very robust. There's pretty much no
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likelihood that those would be damaged in the useful lifetime of this uh of a
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product like this. And moving up the product, we've got the
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pleathery covering that's over the top of the headband, which is once again
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well stitched. It doesn't look like it's going to come apart in any way. Overall,
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the build quality is such that I would feel confident dropping them on the
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floor and they will still work.
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I did run and test that. They do still work in case anyone was wondering.
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Software-wise, the HS1 is a USBon
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headset, which might be a bit of a deterrent for some people because you
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are going to be limited by the chipset Corsair is using in the headset itself.
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You can't go ahead and plug it into a dedicated headphone amp or into an audio
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receiver, which is what I normally do with headsets. And you are going to be
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limited to the audio software that Corsair uses. You can't go and just
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switch your sound card. There's a built-in sound card, but that can be
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very convenient for people like laptop users where you're stuck with what is
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usually a terrible onboard audio solution and anything is an upgrade. So,
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something like a USB headset that is powered and run off the USB port and off
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an integrated audio chipset is very much
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preferable. Microphone recording quality was
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excellent. And I did play around with their voice effects feature, which
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suggests that you modify your voice to amuse or terrify your friends when
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playing games or making Skype calls. And the uh the high setting wasn't actually
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all that amusing. It was just kind of chipmunky. But the low setting was
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pretty creepy and uh my voice sounded very different, very, very creepy. So,
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the microphone is definitely a big plus on this headset. Now, let's get into the
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audio quality a little bit. For games, it was terrific. I was able to pinpoint
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footsteps, which is the most important thing for any serious FPS gamer. And
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what I found too was that the bass is not overwhelming. So, if there's an
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explosion nearby or some other kind of deep noise, it's not going to completely
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overdo itself and drown out everything else. But what that also means is that
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it's at a bit of a disadvantage for music. I found that the onboard chipset
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didn't do the greatest job of maintaining a level volume throughout
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the highs, mids, and lows of a music track. And it also didn't really reach a
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desirable loudness level on some tracks,
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but with others, by the time I turned the volume up to the max, it was pretty
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much unbearable to listen to. So, there was a little bit of inconsistency to it,
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but I think that's the kind of thing that can be addressed with driver
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updates. Overall, it does what it's
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advertised to do. It's great for gaming. You have the convenience of being able
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to plug in by USB to any computer and get a consistent audio experience, which
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is something that you can't get if you're using onboard audio on a
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motherboard or especially on a laptop
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where most of the audio solutions are frankly just terrible.
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So, in conclusion, the HS1 does exactly what it's advertised to do. It performs
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very well for games. It has lots of great convenient features that are
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optimized, you guessed it, for gamers, such as the color changing uh volume
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buttons, the USB port, the excellent mic. It's very wellb built, which is
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again a great feature for gamers who are
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Yeah. Yeah. They're likely to drop their headset or spill Pepsi on it or whatever
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else can possibly happen. I wouldn't expect it to damage the HS1 in the
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slightest. Overall, Corsair's put together a pretty good package here, and
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I just want to give them a big thanks for sending the HS1 for my unboxing and
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review pleasure and your watching pleasure. Thank you for checking out my
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video review, I suppose, of the HS1. And
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don't forget to subscribe to Lionus Tech Tips.