oh my god imagine if Corsair would release a golden gaming headset yeah
that would never happen RG Beto am i right
yep the microphone is legit it is so fancy so this is the Corsair
virtuoso RGB wireless man virtuoso what a name so there's the SE or special
edition version with aluminum sides and then there's the non SE model and the
price Delta between the two is $40 the three main differences between the two
include a bigger microphone aluminum side plates instead of nasty gloss and a
carry pouch is included with the SE RGB on the sides is of course free and so is
the service from today's sponsor privacy.com that keeps your mind at ease from
credit or debit card theft with the use of their virtual cards so you never
share your personal information when making purchases online more on that
later so I have to give Corsair props for such
a well-built headset it's very simple with aluminum joints sturdy sais
extensions that are numbered and they don't even have the Corsair text on the
headband like we see from them all the time the only branded thing is the
Corsair logo cut out on the sides on the SE there using this micro perforation
for the RGB that look like pixels very unique while the non SE has this
traditional but much brighter illumination with your usual full color
palette to choose from the problem on this micro perforation is literally dirt
clogged up because the holes are so tiny and because this whole like aluminum
side is circular the dirt ends up finding its way into the center and
clogs up those pixels or micro perforation and no way to really clean
this thing you could turn off the illumination by lowering brightness to
zero in the settings but this is an example of QC gone wrong during the
design process however I do appreciate their commitment to cohesive design
elements across the USB dongle the type-c cable and the serious microphone
with that awesome dotted pattern now comfort wise the headset is light enough
without excessive clamping force so glasses are not an issue I do like the
low profile rotation of the ear cups to rest on your neck it's super awesome for
a wireless pair the padding is memory foam like unfortunately the driver wall
is completely flat and not angled or curved in any way to avoid contact with
your ears so for me both ears are making contact with that internal wall making
wearing this headset not very comfortable the good thing is the
clamping force is pretty neutral so it's not pressing against my ears but I still
prefer thicker padding or some sort of curved or angled or angled or Wow or
angular section on that internal wall now for controls we have a smooth volume
wheel with great resistance below that is the wired or wireless switch that
also acts as your power button when in the latter position on the opposite side
is the USB type-c port that is used for charging or using the headset in Wired
mode plus we also have that 3.5 millimeter analog port to use with
controllers or smartphones and then there's the mini USB port for the
removable microphone so on the SE the omnidirectional microphone is nine point
five millimeters pretty massive you can mute it with a button under the mic that
then turns the illumination ring red and that is always in your peripheral vision
so you can see when the mic is muted when it's on and we also have voice
prompts in case you want to hear when you do mute the microphone and when the
microphone is unmuted we do not have any noise cancellation options in the
software aside from your mic volume and side tone and unfortunately despite them
calling this broadcast quality I feel like at lacks clarity and it sounds a
bit closed off despite having pretty decent bass it is kind of muddy and the
funny thing is what you listen to now is that recorded by this smaller microphone
the non SE version and this one sounds more natural to me with the extra
clarity great vocal pickup it's not as muddy or bass heavy as the big one so
let me know which one sounds best to you in the comments and just to establish a
quick baseline comparison this is the GSP 500 from Sennheiser it is a wired
headset but I use as the benchmark for gaming headset microphone audio I think
it's the most natural in terms of vocal pickup great bass great clarity and the
Corsair is not too far off from it with a small microphone but the se microphone
sounds much worse as for my performance in the USB mode it is cleaner and less
compressed versus Wireless and you can hear that around sharp S's in particular
kind of disappointing as Corsair slipstream is supposed to provide high
bandwidth wireless communication and really improve the microphone quality on
the wireless front but it does sound better in USB mode and
finally let's talk audio I find it really strange that you cannot enable
surround sound on the headset itself there's no like surround sound button
you have to do it through the software only which is super inconvenient for a
gaming headset you have to exit the game unable that in the software why
but surround sound performance is actually not too aggressive with
environmental expansion sounded pretty decent in control but I still would use
only stereo mode for games and music and movies to the volume levels are great
they're equally powerful in both wireless and wired mode I cannot hear a
difference but I have been spoiled by external amp solutions that are much
louder but the hundred percent volume this thing is satisfactory as for sound
performance to my ears they sound pretty neutral with nice roll-off on the
highlights not too harsh it's not too mellow the bass is present and control
that doesn't overpower into the mid-range which is very well detailed
this is the best Corsair headset that I've ever heard and this is definitely
in my top 5 in the wireless pairs they actually EQ very well without distortion
too so if you prefer a little extra bass kick or sharp or treble that can be done
in a software when you connect this thing via USB you get 24-bit 96k Hertz
fidelity sound so high resolution and there's actually a distinguishable
quality difference in compression and the controlled or the detail of the bass
in Wired mode which is so much better versus when it said Wireless but still
it's quite decent in Wireless mode with their slipstream technology the wireless
range is about 7 meters in my apartment with direct line-of-sight which is about
average two other wireless gaming headsets until I start to hear
interruptions and signal processing errors and the battery life is rated at
20 hours I still don't get why Corsair doesn't just give us a percentage
indicator instead we have this battery status buried in the settings for some
reason and personally I like everything to be transparent so let me tell you
about today's sponsor privacy.com it's a free service that lets you create
virtual credit cards for online merchants like Amazon Netflix iTunes and
others so your real credit and debit cards stay protected in case of bridges
from online merchants setting up cards is no hassle at all with the Handy span
limit customization for each card so you don't worry about canceling a
subscription or changing a card if one gets hacked Plus
you get notified if the card is used elsewhere the service is free it's
encrypted and comes with a handy Chrome extension so visit privacy com.com/HWC to
get five dollar credit towards your first privacy purchase that is privacy
comm / hwc alright so let me conclude with this virtuoso RGB wireless and
wireless se headsets in terms of build quality they a fantastic job but I feel
like the SE model I mean there's too many compromises in terms of having this
dirt clogged up and the micro perforation the microphone for example
sounded so much better on the non SE model I don't know why and for the
$40.00 saved the only disadvantage I would say would be the glossy side I
don't know why they went with the glossy size just go with the matte exterior or
like choose a different texture you know be innovative and they sure were but not
in the right spaces I guess and for $180 that is the model I would recommend out
of the two and I'm guessing it's kind of competitor versus like the really
high-end stuff in terms of audio quality like the GSP 670 $350 the artist Pro
Wireless is somewhere around there too so this is basically half the price and
it does sound better than whatever you can get from HyperX in the wireless
department but then the main culprit here would be comfort and that internal
lining and how flat it is and how close it is to the ear but everything else
they pretty much nailed it the microphone quality here is so much
better than the SE model the build quality is awesome the wireless range is
good and battery life is what you would expect from a wireless gaming pair so
yeah the non S II is my recommendation alright guys hope you guys enjoyed it
make sure to check out this other relevant content subscribe for more I'll
talk to you and next video