Corsair HS55 Wireless Core Gaming Headset Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The headset looks absolutely stunning, and if you pay close attention to most Corsair products, you’ll see it’s similar to the design of the HS65 (wired) that was released last year. There’s a few changes though, such as the metal mesh back is now replaced with an etched disc giving the headset a closed back design to the ear cups.

They do look stunning though and I love how they capture reflections and diffuse the light. There’s no bright RGB on this headset, either, it’s just a classic toned-down design that makes for a great gaming headset. However, I also wouldn’t feel like a muppet wearing this in the office or on an important zoom call either.

Corsair has kept the branding minimal, as they have been doing on a lot of their headsets recently. There are the two muted Corsair ship logos on the drivers, as well as a simple HS55 stamp one of the ear cups.

The Corsair logo is on the top of the headband, but again, it’s kept smaller and looks more professional for it. So many headsets use all this space for the logo and it can often look over-the-top.

This being a wireless headset, on-cable controls aren’t really an option. Thankfully, Corsair has included a few on the headset its self. There’s a mute button on this side, with a nice mechanical click to it. Plus, an infinte scroll wheel that controls the volume, which has a lovely “bump” feel when turned, making it easy to make small step ajustments easily enough.

The Type-C cable port is bottom facing, so if you do have to charge while playing, any cables will hang down easily enough. The battery is good for up to 24 hours, albeit I got something closer to 16 hours myself, but I have been using it with the volume at or near maximum since I got it. Either way, it’s unlikely you’ll need to charge mid-session, but you may want to pop it on charge a couple of times a week if you’re a heavy user.

On the other ear cup, there are two more small buttons, one for the master power control and one for Bluetooth. Pretty self explanatory really! There’s a small LED in the middle, which can blink a few colorus to indicate various pairing and power functions, but again, it’s all reasonably intuitive stuff. When I plugged the dongle into my PC and turned the headset on, it paried up in about two seconds without any further action required.

the ear cups have really nice ergonomics, with a C-shaped arm mounting the ear cups to the headband. But it’s very closely fitted and recessed into the back of the ear cup housing. This means the earcups remain slim so they won’t stick out from the side of your head too much.

There’s a good range of ergonomic adjustment here too, with an adjustable headband, pivoting ear cups, and a small amount of tilt adjustment too. All of these features combine to ensure a comfortable fit.

The headband has a good range too, as few headsets fit my large head, but this one had extention to spare when I wore it, so that’s a big bonus as it’ll fit smaller/younger gamers easily and big-headed neanderthals like myself.

The ear cups rotate around fully too, not ideal for while you’re wearing it, but much more comfortable when the headset is hanging around your neck!

The memory foam walls aren’t too thick, keeping their profile a little smaller, but it is deep and has a wrap-around PU-leather covering that will help lock in the sound and block out ambient noise. Plus, they’re closed-back drivers, so you do get good isolation overall.

The padding is forgiving too, and helps soak up the clamping force of the headset. Plus, the headset is pretty lightweight anyway. I found them very comfortable even after a many hours long session on Apex legends.

The 50mm drivers are pretty decent, offering a sound the favours the mid and low ends a little more. It’s a warm and punchy sound but not over powering. It gives movies, music, games, or anything really, a bit of a punchy sound that I really like. However, I found some of the more treble focused EQ modes brightens up the sound well, and suited my audiobook addiction better, but the stock settings are impressive overall.

One of the biggest things is the quality of the stereo image. This isn’t a High-Res or overly expensive headset, but I found the stereo performance to pretty fantastic and just generally sound bigger than most of its rivals. The only difference from the HS65 is that this model isn’t quite as loud, but that’s hardly surprising given this ones battery operated and the last model had a powerful USB amplifier bundled with it.

The sound quality is great though, and even at 10% volume I found the headset still had a good depth to its sound and good low-end punch. I found all movies and music sounded fantastic though. The response is very tight, so even savagaely fast death metal or thumby electronic music sounded great. The same is true for games, guns and grenades have a suitable womp to them, but there’s enough high-end to hear ambient noises and enemy footsteps well enough.

The microphone is decent too, nothing particularly innovative or new, but just a good microphone with a nice bright and clear sound. It can be folded up out of the way when not in use, and it’ll mute its self, but there’s a manual mute button on the ear cup too.

As with most boom microphones though, I suggest push to talk rather than leaving the mic on as it can be a little sensitive to your Darth Vader impressions, but the longer boom does a good job keeping these issues to a minimum.

Overall, it’s lightweight, punchy, stylish and comfortable, making it well suited to the gamers or ever just in the office.