Hello this is the Provoked Prawn and this is the Corsair HS65 surround this is a premium
7.1 surround sound gaming headset from Corsair that's yet affordable and interesting
and it works with a number of different devices including PC mac Xbox series X Playstation 5 with
tempest 3D audio support if you're interested in that Nintendo Switch and mobile now it works with
a 3.5 mm connection connected directly to the headset but it also has an included USB dongle
to give you superior sound with 7.1 and audio on PC but it also more importantly has Sonarworks
sound ID technology which you can use within iCue software to personalize the sound that
you hear from the headphones which makes it very interesting and I'll show more about that later on
and what it does and what it means but in this video I'm going to be unboxing and
showing off the headset and talking about his various features including what it's like to
wear the comfort the overall look and feel the microphone which I'm using now by the
way for the voiceover for this video so the entirety of the video will be using the mic
from the headset and there are some complaints I have about the microphone and I'll talk about
those as well and this is obviously the white headset there is a black variant as well but I
think the white one looks particularly nice some of the things that you will have noticed already
is it has quite an interesting mesh grille on the outer side it also has some really plush
memory foam faux leather ear cups with a soft fabric and more on that as well
but basically it's designed to be comfortable all day long now it's also lightweight at 282 grams
and yet constructed from solid sort of aluminium parts to make it both adjustable and durable and
to fit and be comfortable for the majority of the day and I'll talk a bit more about comfort as we
go through as well because that's an important part of any headset now the HS65 is part of the
lineup from Corsair obviously I've done a video previously on the HS80 which I thought very highly
of that was a very comfortable headset and I'll even compare the two in a minute side by side so
you can see what they look like because there's an interesting comparison in terms of the earcup
design but this is a step down from that it's not as premium it is obviously a wired headset and
it has as I said a 3.5 mm connection which isn't terribly long but it's obviously designed to work
with multiple different devices I'll leave all the specs in the description so you can find out
the sizes and things like that but you can see bundled up with it is this USB dongle which is
reminiscent of the Logitech G Pro X wired headset that I tested out a while ago so I'll probably do
a versus to compare those two essentially the 3.5 mm plugs into that USB and then when you plug that
in on PC you can use that sonar work sound ID tech as I said but also virtual surround sound
so as standard out the box with a 3.5 mm this is a stereo headset that obviously works on console
and other devices and it has a single plug so it's a single 3.5 mm cable and gives you stereo sound
which reasonably loud pretty loud headset and a nice bit of sound out of the stereo I'll be honest
it is also an interesting look and feel to it I felt like when I was stretching it out here the
headband looks a bit unusually shaped as you'll see it extends out quite nicely and there's some
good metal parts in there and it seems like it's pretty durable and strong you're not gonna be able
to snap it very easily there's also some nice plush padding on the top of the headband and
those are also quite large and plush as well close-up shots of those in a minute but one
of the things I noted almost immediately is just the weight of it so it's very lightweight at 282
grams or thereabouts and that is remarkably light for a headset which means that as well as having
soft cushioning it sits nicely on the head and doesn't weigh you down terribly
a close-up look at the design you'll see there's no RGB lighting here however you do have this sort
of outer mesh finish on it and then these easy swivel ear cups so it clamps to the head fairly
nicely and fairly tightly as you'd imagine from the sort of narrow looking headband at the top
but you can tilt and twist those earcups into a nice and comfortable position they use memory
foam cushioning and you can see some of that and as I said it has this sort of soft material and
a faux leather so it blocks out some external noise it's worth noting that there is side tone
on the microphone but only when you're running it through iCue software using the USB adapter
so bear that in mind I'll talk a bit more about the mic later on but the adapter itself is very
straightforward because it's plugged in is automatically recognized by iCue and then you can
switch to surround sound if you want to and also obviously customize the audio with that Sonarworks
sound ID stuff basically allows you to tweak the levels it's quite an interesting design because
it basically goes through various different soundscapes and as you select your favorite one
kind of in the way you would lenses if you're getting tested by the optician and working
out which one you prefer from them is kind of quirky and unusual but it actually delivers an
interesting sound now ear cups are twist to remove kind of like the HS80 so you can see
that you can take those off with relative ease now one of the things I noted is they do seem larger
than previous headsets and they're certainly not round like the Corsair virtuoso so in theory
more comfortable because they're more ear shaped they also have a relatively good depth to them and
overall size but one thing I did know is I have found that there is still a bit of pressure on
the top and bottom of my ears but only if I don't adjust the headband properly so I did find out how
to make sure the headbands extended long enough so that is not sort of pulling my ears about
but you can see a difference when you compare them with HS80 which obviously has been used a
bit ignore the stickers on there that's my door to put those on and my wife has been using these and
she's obviously a bit messy but you can see the difference in the shape and size of them so the
has like these d-shaped earcups whereas the HS65 has longer ones with perhaps a less natural ear
shape but they still remain comfortable now I do prefer the soft plush cushioning and material
on the HS80 I think that's a nicer headset but the earcups on the HS65 are certainly very nice
as well and if you get them both off and just compare them side by side you'll see more of the
sort of size and shape difference the bonus of the HS65 ear cups is because of that leatherette
memory foam setup basically blocks out a bit more external noise which means when side tones off you
don't have to worry too much about the external noise around you you can just focus on the game or
the music or whatever you're doing and just enjoy the sound there the memory foam cushioning is also
very comfortable although naturally with a sound like this you find your ears get a little bit
warmer and I mean that might be problematic in the summer but the setup is fairly straightforward and
obviously it's nice to be able to have the earcups removable you'll see there's a volume wheel on the
left and also you have this axis for where the headband twists and how that works and the flip
to mute mic one of the problems I do know is that if you flip that microphone to media then try and
twist the ear cups it becomes a problem because it hits the top of the headband but that's not really
an issue when you're wearing it and as you'll see the microphone is also quite bendable so you can
bend it around to fit towards your mouth now when you've got it plugged in you can also get audible
cues from PC and I will say while I'm using this that I have used in both 3.5 mm and the USB modes
and I've found that you do get the best experience with the USB connection because you have those
extra sound options but also for simple things like you have an audible cue to let you know when
the is muted when you flip it up but you don't get that if you don't have a USB connection if you're
only using the 3.5 mm the headset sort of becomes dumb in that it doesn't have as many options or
as much intelligence as it would do if you're using the USB connection so it's a lot nicer
and that isn't a surprise because Corsair seems to have their headset mainly focused at PC but then
other things are an extra thought that's not to say it doesn't sound good with a 3.5 million it's
far from the best headset I've tried but this price point is actually delivers a pretty good
sound the bass is a bit lacking I feel like it could do a bit more bass it can feel a little bit
hollow in terms of the overall sound but it does deliver a good soundscape and it is rich enough
for music and movies and for gaming I haven't I've enjoyed using it for gaming for sure
and obviously the advantage of blocking out some of that external noise and letting you
just focus on the game is very welcome I also like the finish on it it is a nice fit on the
head and it is easy to wear as long as you make sure you adjust the headband into a big enough
size for your head you'll find that it sits nicely it holds nicely onto the head the clamping force
isn't so strong that it puts pressure on the head unnecessarily and the ear cushions are comfortable
enough that I don't feel my ears are touching the drivers for example and they're not being squashed
horribly like they were with the virtuoso and you can see just how squashy they are when put on the
Pacman head as an example so a very nice setup for the most part now I'm going to dive into
the iCue software and show you the tweaks that you can do in there here we are in windows 11
in iCue software now before I get into that I want to note the sound settings if you go into
the sound settings you'll see it's plugged in with the USB adapter you right click on it and go into
here you can find under advanced that is actually set to 24 bit 96 kilohertz studio quality which is
interesting because the headset itself has a 20 000 hertz frequency response but a 40 000 hertz
frequency range according to the documentation I don't believe this is a high-res headset in the
same way as the virtuoso but it does still give an interesting sound obviously also I've already
said that you have the option of surround sound as I'll show you but when you go into windows you
also have the spatial surround sound options so you can see one dose sonic for headphones and DTS
x ultra as well those are separate options for example is a paid for service but it shows you
that you do have the option of other things now if we go into iCue you'll notice at the bottom
that we have an option here to change between stereo and audio surround modes and you can click
into those as well as an auto audio repositioning button and then we have some mic dials more on the
mic in a minute because I want to talk about that specifically but you can also go into the sound
ID personalization now this is the Sonarworks sound ID so what you can do is you can set up a
test which basically allows you to personalize your sound exactly
according to your personal preferences and taste so it basically adjusts the audio so the test
basically takes you through and lets you select a soundscape or a different track so we can just
you can basically pick a sound that you like the sound of and then you can click next on there
and then what that does is you can basically then decide which one you like so you have to go a or b
so you can see like b is basically but this is obviously going to vary depending
on your ears and what it's like and then you basically go through and choose these
separately and pick whichever one sounds best to you and it adjusts the audio accordingly
some of those sounds are quite significantly different in the way they work and the influence
that it has when you're selecting which one you prefer obviously this is also a personal
preference in how you set it up but it's worth bearing in mind if the sound's off it might be
part of that and you can then tweak that as necessary so you can do that any time you can
also turn it off entirely if you don't want to use it and then you have the option for the various
different soundscapes you can see there are various eq presets for competition FPS bass boost
pure direct movie theater and more in here that you can also use if you prefer there's also a
voice mod option if you want to unlock that which is paid for things so this is obviously one of the
selling points of the headset but one that you can only do with iCue and I believe at
the moment you can only do it on PC as well not on mac now I want to talk to you about the microphone
because one of the things I've noticed while doing this voiceover and in general is that
the microphone seems to pick up some background noise but actually more of a electromagnetic
hum when you use with the USB connection so you can't necessarily hear it through the side tone
but I definitely have noticed it when doing the voiceover for this and had to counter it a little
bit now some of this has required some tweaking to the sound setting so you'll notice if you click
on device settings you can adjust the microphone boost I found it started it's actually very quiet
out of the box it was set to about 70 percent mic volume and I played around with the various
settings including the turning the mic boost up I also went into window sound settings
and changed things in there so I ended up going into the recordings tab and finding the microphone
and right clicking on that and then adjusting the levels in here and trying to tweak things around
in there as well and I found that basically that wasn't really working very well I ended up playing
around with the mic volume putting the mic down and putting the gain up and other things I have
noticed that there is a little electromagnetic hum now maybe I've got a defective headset
or it could be a wider problem the other thing with this mic is it does seem to be quite
compressed it's nowhere near as impressive as that on the virtuoso or the HS80 in my experience you
can watch those videos I've done separately I'll link to in the description you'll hear the mic
difference I'm a bit disappointed with the mic on this one by comparison it's quite compressed
and it's picking up that background noise I also have noticed you can see that you have a side
tone option down here in the software so you can turn it off so you can no longer hear yourself
and you get an audible cue to let you know this is then makes life difficult we just can't hear
myself in the headset but also it's beneficial in a way because one of the things I noticed is when
the side tones on you can hear yourself but you can also hear a white noise which might be related
to the state static hum there is a white hiss very low but constant and I've noticed this is
also there if you have the headset on full volume even with the mic muted if you turn it all the way
up there's just ever so slight very very silent but very very annoying once you notice it and it's
not a problem I've seen with other Corsair sets but it's especially prominent when you've got the
side tone turned on and I found maybe you need to turn that off so if you if you do experience
that's the problem turn the side tone off and you won't hear it anymore at least not as much
and try not to hit the maximum volume on the headset itself and just use
windows sound for that you shouldn't really need to turn it up all the way though it is quite loud
headset but yeah the two complaints I have is the mic seems to pick up electromagnetic hum and also
there's just a white noise at the top level and off the microphone so but otherwise all in all a
very interesting headset from Corsair affordable comfortable and capable in number of ways I
would however personally recommend going for the HS80 instead. This has been the Provoked Prawn,
hope you found this video useful, interesting, hilarious, or otherwise. Take a look at these
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