Corsair Vengeance 2000 Wireless Headset Review
Tim Mammatt / 12 years ago
Gaming & Music
As with all our headsets, we like to run the tests over a decent length of time to see if we can discover any issues that might not be present at first. We’ll throw a multitude of different audio scenarios at the headset and see how it fairs. First up we’ll use the headset for gaming to test how well the the surround sound is. For this particular test we’ll play some Left 4 Dead 2 – as it supports 7.1 surround sound and we’ll also play our current favourite, Battlefield 3. So after launching a game of Left 4 Dead 2, the first thing we noticed was just how comfortable they were, they caress your ears, putting next to no pressure on your head. Later down the campaign, it was very clear just how good these 2000s are – every sound could be heard and placed accurately like you were actually there. If a boomer was hiding around the corner, you could hear it and tell exactly where it is hiding. Witches were no longer a problem as not only could you hear them a mile off, but you would know with reasonable accuracy, where they were.
Battlefield 3 was where the headset really rose above the rest.The experience was amazing: loud, deep bass, hammering gunfire, explosions – the lot, they really immersed you in the game with crystal clear audio and accurate positioning. We also played a variety of different audio tracks, from dance music, to hip hop and R&B, all of which the headset took in it’s stride and played back beautiful crisp tones and deep bass for those more energetic songs.
Movies
Of course this wouldn’t be a proper testing stage without playing some movies and testing out the surround sound on them, so we loaded up Transformers 3 with 7.1 surround sound and hit play. The Transformers films are renowned for their explosions and sound effects so it makes a perfect test for the headset. Straight into the movie we were impressed with the sound quality of the headset, the bass was very deep and loud, ideal for this type of film and it really immersed you within it. The audio was clear and the positioning was very accurate – it actually made us look behind us several times when a noise supposedly came from behind us!
Mic
The rotating mic was was easy to position, especially with the flexible mid section that allows you to correctly angle it for optimum performance. When testing over mumble, the sound was very clear with minimal background noise – thanks to the noise cancelling. The clarity of the audio was crystal clear when using Skype, so no one had any difficulties hearing what we had to say.
To complete the performance review phase we tested the headset out using a frequency test audio track that basically pushes out sound from 10Hz to 40KHz. When running the frequency test, we did notice that the tone was not constant across both drivers – often down to incorrect balancing. This wasn’t really noticeable during the real life tests such as gaming or watching films however.
Battery Life
Throughout the testing we found that the headset would need to be charged roughly once a day. The 2000s produced a “beep” when the battery got too low and the LED around the charging port would flash orange every few seconds. Having enough battery to last the day was ideal for the 2000s, as we could simply plug it in overnight and be ready to rock out in the morning – so A+ to Corsair for giving it so much juice.
Range
The headset has a reported range of 40 feet, which you can kiss goodbye to if you have thick walls – even if you are just next door and under 3m away! Of course this wasn’t an issue in a straight line, with no obstacles, in fact we even managed to push the reported 40 feet by about 6 foot extra before any interference or loss of audio started to kick in.