Corsair HS60 Surround Multi-Format Gaming Headset Review

A Closer Look and Performance

The headset looks fantastic, and for a headset in this price range, it immediately gives the impression of being a product that’s far more expensive. Obviously, that’s an excellent thing, and Corsair does have a reputation to uphold here. It’s a shame the cable is hard-wired though, I do prefer detachable, as they’re easier to replace should anything become damaged, but it’s hardly a deal breaker at this price range.

The headset is pretty understated concerning its design, which I like. The Corsair VOID series looks gamer focused. However, the HS60 seems like a nice professional headset that would work at home, in the office, or at a gaming event. For the most part, it’s all black, but there’s some stylish white stitching on the headband, as well as a small white trim on the rear of the ear cups.

The HS60 has a few little perks that give it some advantage over most 3.5mm headsets. Firstly, you’ll find a volume wheel on the side of the left ear cup, giving you master volume control, and there’s a microphone mute switch too, which is perfect for those who play a lot of online games. It means you don’t have to remove the microphone just to get some privacy.

Build Quality

Corsair paid close attention to the details on this one. The headband is durable, with a metal band construction and metal mounts for the ear cups. They’re pretty lightweight, but feel strong and should take some severe abuse. They don’t pivot much, just a few degrees for a better fit. Their Void series earcups fold in completely, which makes them great to wear around your neck, but unfortunately, you can’t do that here. There’s some tilt to the drivers though, but again it’s just a small adjustment for a better fit rather than a folding design.

The microphone is detachable, but rather than leave an exposed hole; there’s a removable rubber stopper that will help keep dirt out of the jack.

Soft Padding

Some soft memory foam padding has been treated with some fake leather and lovely white stitching on the headband too. It’s very comfortable to wear, even after very long days in the office and nights of gaming. However, I wonder how white that stitching will look after a good few months of use… most likely it’ll be grey after a while, but at least it seems nice now.

Even the top of the headband has that leather effect, which again just gives it a premium quality look and feel.

The ear cup padding is very nice, providing an excellent amount of passive noise suppression, and providing very good weight distribution around your ears.

Finally, the headband has a good range of adjustment. I have a big head, so few headsets fit me well, but that wasn’t an issue here, and it’ll even go small enough to suit most pre-teen gamers too.

Microphone

The microphone is nothing remarkable, but it’s nothing bad either. All headsets have a similar microphone in this price range, and for team chat, Skype and a few phone calls, it’s more than up to the job. The more significant perks are that it is removable and also features a positional boom, allowing you to get the optimal placement with ease.

Listening back to your teammates is decent too, with the powerful drivers having no issue handling both the game audio and your screaming noob teammates. However, there’s a noticeable cut in the mid-range of the EQ on this headset, which isn’t a bad thing as such, but it’s most certainly tuned towards the “wow factor” end of the audio scale, and better suited for movies and gaming. There’s just a bit of warmth missing in some of my test audio tracks, but this isn’t an audiophile set of listening room headphones. What do you get, however, is bone-shaking bass and crystal clear treble. More impressively, there’s no distortion, and it doesn’t sound boosted as such, it sounds big and punchy. Like turning down the mids on a guitar amp to give it that heavy metal oomph.

Playing a bit of Battlefield 4, those explosions really rip through the drivers, and there’s plenty of range left to pick up the footsteps of your enemies behind you easily. Shame I lack the skill to deal with them, but at least I heard my killers run up behind me. The USB soundcard does work well though, and even throwing a few test files through it with Dolby Atmos for Windows enabled; which worked exceptionally well. There’s good channel separation in surround mode, and you don’t lose that low-end thump either, which is nice.