Gaming and audio performance, plus niggles
GamingTo test the gaming performance of the Logitech G35s, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was run with the sound options set to 5.1-channel sound.
Playing through the Downpour level and skulking around with the rain lashing all around, the G35s were set to two-channel and Dolby mode by flicking the switch.
Stereo sound was crisp and clear, even with the volume turned up to maximum. Explosions carried reasonable bass and weight, and the G35s performed much like a £30 headset. Playing the same portion through with a pair of studio-class Sony MDR-CD1700s, amongst the best £250 headphones a few years back, and the G35s sounded closed and boxy, but that's to be expected.
Flick on the Dolby switch and the sound becomes far more expansive, insofar as your brain can determine the gravity of an explosion with greater ease. The overall effect is one of the audio sounding bigger and wider rather than better in a positional sense, because even stereo headphones do a reasonable job of alerting you to footsteps from behind.
Trying a few other games and the result is the same, that is, a bigger soundstage. Yes, the Dolby processing works to a degree, but you don't get the 'it's-right-behind-me-and-i've-wet-myself' feeling that you would with a well-tuned discrete speaker set.
Audio
Listen to high-bit-rate mp3s and the G35s make an average fist of portraying a reasonable soundstage and vocals. Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors becomes fuzzy in parts, Paul Weller's Heavy Soul sounds as if the Modfather has a slight cold. The high treble of The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots also discombobulates the speakers, although the reference benchmark are the wonderfully adept Sony CD-1700 cans.
Niggles
The volume, controlled by the headphone wheel, tops out at a level where you want more, meaning that Logitech plays it on the safe side. Another 20 per cent extra oomph wouldn't have gone astray, but, then again, I'm partial to listening to music at higher-than-average levels.
Secondly, using both hands to put the G35s on, it's quite easy to inadvertently press the microphone button and switch it off.