Sound quality and final thoughts
Music audio performanceCorsair makes bold claims about the HS1's sonic abilities. We put them up against some studio-quality Sony CD1700 cans, costing $300 when launched, and the utterly transparent nature of the CD1700s makes them ideal benchmark-setting candidates.
Bruce Springsteen's The River is an emotionally-charged song that just drips with rawness on the CD1700s. While understandably not as refined as the Sony headphones, Corsair's HS1 does an admirable job of relating the urgency and sadness of the The Boss's laments during the song.
Likewise, Coldplay's The Scientist is clear and crisp, albeit with a little too much brightness. Moving to the other end of the scale, Leftfield's Phat Planet is reproduced without the booming bass that overcomes cheaper headphones. Instead, it's reasonably tight and consistent. Having collectively used over 20 different headphones over the last 15 years and personally been something of an audiophile, the HS1 headset leave us with an impression of decent-quality headphones.
Multi-channel gaming audio performance
Playing through Mafia II, Crysis Warhead and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in quick succession and with Dolby processing active, the HS1 does a reasonable to decent job in positioning sounds 'around' your head. Gunfire genuinely appears to come from, say, the left-hand side and explosions can be mentally pictured to be coming from one side or another. However, comparing the results to a true 5.1-speaker setup highlights that headphones still have some way to go when mimicking the real deal.
Our overall impression is that sound positioning is a little better than on the price-comparable Logitech G35 headset, and we feel one would need to spend considerably more in order to gain a fundamentally better headset gaming experience.
Verdict
Corsair's first foray into the audio market is represented by the HS1 USB headset. Arriving with a retail price of £75 that entrenches it in the premium category, build quality and comfort are both above average. Stereo sound, too, is very good for a headset, rivalling audio produced by quality headphones. The bundled software provides granular control over frequencies and general settings, and the 5.1- and 7.1-channel positioning is good, if not excellent. Perhaps the only aspects missing here is Mac and console support.
Bottom line: the Corsair HS1 USB is the best gaming headset we've come across and is certainly worthy of a recommendation if you're looking for a premium sound from a premium product.
The Good
Very comfortable and well-built
headset
Very good stereo performance
Decent, if not excellent, multi-channel gaming performance
The Bad
Does not work as a gaming
headset on Macs and
consoles
No 3.5mm jack for use with regular audio equipment
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS Awards
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Corsair HS1 USB gaming headset is currently on pre-order from SCAN.co.uk* at a cost of £74.47.
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