A thank you to [H] for reviewing the Corsair HS1A headset

[Elledan]

Last week I upgraded to the Corsair HS1A headset, replacing the AKG K77 headphones I had been using up till that point. The [H] review really wasn't kidding when it said that the soundstage of these headphones is very wide, making it very easy to hear small details in music, movies or games. I'm hearing details in some songs I have listened to for years using Sennheiser headphones, 5.1 audio sets, the aforementioned AKGs (also far more expensive AKGs...), but the amount of details with these headphones is just amazing.

I haven't tried the microphone part of this headset yet, but if it's anywhere as good as the headset part, I'm sold. Way to go Corsair, and thank you for convincing me to buy this headset, [H]!

Small note: I have got the headphones directly connected to the line-out of the Realtek ALC880 onboard soundchip of my AMD 770-based mainboard. I plan to upgrade to a system with a dedicated soundcard next year, which should improve sound quality even more. I can't wait.

 

[Jonesyy]

They are good. The headphones part are amazing. The headset part is good ,but delicate. By this I mean the mic is good quality, albeit while it lasts. That said you get an excellent warranty so they are easy to replace as I did several times, it is just a pain when the mic goes tits up.

Enjoy!

 

[SpeedyVV]

Elledan, I just read the HS1 USB review and saw that they were on sale for $49.99.

Told my son about them, he bought them, and they are amazing.

He let me try them, and wow.

BTW, please ignore my title! Someone he at [H] is messing with me

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

I bought a pair, and really disliked them, they could have been defective, anyway they went back. Glad to see others enjoying them I would agree for gaming they are more than enough, however their price is a bit inflated IMO.

 

[Elledan]

They are good. The headphones part are amazing. The headset part is good ,but delicate. By this I mean the mic is good quality, albeit while it lasts. That said you get an excellent warranty so they are easy to replace as I did several times, it is just a pain when the mic goes tits up.

Enjoy!

I'll keep that in mind. I'm not using the MIC part a lot anyway. Fortunately Corsair has good customer support

BTW, please ignore my title! Someone he at [H] is messing with me

Someone called Kyle, maybe?

I bought a pair, and really disliked them, they could have been defective, anyway they went back. Glad to see others enjoying them I would agree for gaming they are more than enough, however their price is a bit inflated IMO.

What exactly did you dislike about them? You're the first one I hear who dislikes them

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

I'll keep that in mind. I'm not using the MIC part a lot anyway. Fortunately Corsair has good customer support


Someone called Kyle, maybe?



What exactly did you dislike about them? You're the first one I hear who dislikes them

I bought them as an all around headset to use on my computer, coming from an ATH-AD500 . My complaints where, Bass is terrible and the sound "fatigued" my ears and it seemed that they needed an amp when hooked up to a Prelude XFI card.

 

[Dan_D]

I've got a set connected to my ASUS ThunderBolt card which uses a Xonar setup based on the C-Media 6631 chipset. The combination sounds awesome. Though I've not ever had really nice head phones before so it's hard to make a unbiased comparison.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

I've got a set connected to my ASUS ThunderBolt card which uses a Xonar setup based on the C-Media 6631 chipset. The combination sounds awesome. Though I've not ever had really nice head phones before so it's hard to make a unbiased comparison.

I think the reference point makes a difference. if you're coming from $20 headsets, they will sound great, if you're coming from $100 headphones, you might not be all over them.

I still think they should be $40-$50 tops.

 

[Dan_D]

I think the reference point makes a difference. if you're coming from $20 headsets, they will sound great, if you're coming from $100 headphones, you might not be all over them.

I still think they should be $40-$50 tops.

The last headset I got was I think $39.99. At the time it was a good head set as far as I was concerned. It's an old KOSS set I believe.

 

[Elledan]

I've got a set connected to my ASUS ThunderBolt card which uses a Xonar setup based on the C-Media 6631 chipset. The combination sounds awesome. Though I've not ever had really nice head phones before so it's hard to make a unbiased comparison.

I have used AKG K272s for a while, which are $300 headphones: http://us.akg.com/akg-product-detail-us/k272-hd.html

While the K77s I was using the past months weren't very special, and the K272s were quite excellent (except for making my head hurt after a while...), I'd place the HS1As much closer to the K272s than the K77s. In particular the very wide soundstage, excellent separation of individual sounds (nothing ever sounds muddled), and solid construction makes it an excellent choice, and quite cheap too.

As for the bass comment, the HS1A has a very neutral frequency range, neither emphasizing or ignoring part of the range. People these days are very much used to over-emphasized bass and have come to expect it, ergo the popularity of junk headphones like Skullcandy.

On a sidenote, I got a chance to test the microphone part of the headset a few days ago during a Skype conversation. The experience was quite flawless and I never had to repeat myself. Thumbs up.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

I have used AKG K272s for a while, which are $300 headphones: http://us.akg.com/akg-product-detail-us/k272-hd.html

While the K77s I was using the past months weren't very special, and the K272s were quite excellent (except for making my head hurt after a while...), I'd place the HS1As much closer to the K272s than the K77s. In particular the very wide soundstage, excellent separation of individual sounds (nothing ever sounds muddled), and solid construction makes it an excellent choice, and quite cheap too.

As for the bass comment, the HS1A has a very neutral frequency range, neither emphasizing or ignoring part of the range. People these days are very much used to over-emphasized bass and have come to expect it, ergo the popularity of junk headphones like Skullcandy.

On a sidenote, I got a chance to test the microphone part of the headset a few days ago during a Skype conversation. The experience was quite flawless and I never had to repeat myself. Thumbs up.

I don't find their frequency range neutral at all, the bass is non-existant, it's not "lacking". and this is coming from ATH-AD500s, which are very bass-lacking. Drums sounded like someone smacking a wall, there was no presence at all.

the mids hurt my ears

 

[Elledan]

I don't find their frequency range neutral at all, the bass is non-existant, it's not "lacking". and this is coming from ATH-AD500s, which are very bass-lacking. Drums sounded like someone smacking a wall, there was no presence at all.

the mids hurt my ears

I find the HS1As to be quite pleasant with classical music, which is mostly mids. Maybe for bass-heavy music it's less ideal, but I do not listen to anything more bass-heavy than something like Blind Guardian and Dimmu Borgir

 

[mannyman]

I find the HS1As to be quite pleasant with classical music, which is mostly mids. Maybe for bass-heavy music it's less ideal, but I do not listen to anything more bass-heavy than something like Blind Guardian and Dimmu Borgir

Lol dummy burger, My borther inlaw invited my to one of their concerts but the autocoreect changed it to dummy burger.

If i ever need a headset with great customer service ill be throwing my money at corsair.

 

[Elledan]

Lol dummy burger, My borther inlaw invited my to one of their concerts but the autocoreect changed it to dummy burger.

If i ever need a headset with great customer service ill be throwing my money at corsair.

Auto-correct needs correction

Listened to the Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms album with this headset for the first time yesterday. Just awesome to listen to. Especially the Brothers in Arms track got reproduced in a way I had never heard it before, with such great separation that I think only a 5.1 speaker set with a properly prepared track could have matched it.Totally blew me away