Corsair HS1A - anyone use them?

Kenai

Kenai

Kenai

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I'm looking for a 'gaming' headset around the £30-£40 mark and the Corsair HS1As look like a nice buy at this price point but I have read one or two criticisms of the bass performance from them.

Is this just people being over critical of a £30 headset or are they actually a bit lacking compared to the competition around the same price point?

Interested to hear any other suggestions for a decent buy around that price point if anyone has any. I don't game a huge amount so i'd rather not spend £50+ if I can help it.

Cheers
 
I've got them.
There's literally no bass in them at all from the get go.
However, I only got them as an interim pair.

After a while, and with my sound card, they're not that bad, but this is after a lot of usage.
 
I use them and just had to make an adjustment to the EQ settings in Asus control panel. Turned the bass up and that was it, very happy.

It will also depend on what soundcard/amp you pair them up with of course. Using the Xonar DG with the built in amp is fine for me.
 
I have them plugged into the front of my PC (which is hooked up to my Xonar DX soundcard) and I am very happy. My friend says my mic is so clear and in terms of sound they are excellent for £30. One thing is enable dolby headphone on the Xonar panel, this prevents the ear ache you get after a long gaming session.
 
Are the Corsairs USB or individual stereo plugs?

Ive got a pair of Roccat Kaves which have individual plugs, I find these great but I havent tried the Corsairs. I dont think any headphones are going to be very good with bass as the speakers are so small. Only a proper subwoofer speaker can give good bass.
 
I've ordered the HS1As now :)

If they're no good then i'll palm them off on someone else and buy something more expensive :p
 
They're a great headset for the price. The only negative is the bass response, but some EQ trickery can up that if you really care. I only use mine for gaming/voice stuff, if I want to listen to music I'll use my quality speakers/headphones.
 
I have a pair of these. They have weak bass out of the box so you need to adjust it with your soundcard settings.

After 4 months, the left earpiece stopped working. As a ghetto fix, I looped the cord just above the earpiece, so the cord is coming out of the headset at an angle. I don't know if this is a common fault.

On the plus side, the headset is comfortable and the microphone is excellent.

For £30 it's worth considering (I paid £40~ when they were released on the market).
 
Not a bad headset, but useless if you are using rubbish on-board sound like I am. I wondered where all the mid to bottom end had gone, then i plugged it into my headphone amp and they sounded great for the money.

Microphone is not bad either nice recordings from it, and if you are using Skype or Vent etc. I have had no complaints. :)
 
Martini1991 said:
I've got them.
There's literally no bass in them at all from the get go.
However, I only got them as an interim pair.

After a while, and with my sound card, they're not that bad, but this is after a lot of usage.
Click to expand...

You're certainly right about the bass from the off, literally nothing at all.

Hopefully they'll loosen up a bit as they wear in and develop a bit more.
 
Kenai said:
You're certainly right about the bass from the off, literally nothing at all.

Hopefully they'll loosen up a bit as they wear in and develop a bit more.
Click to expand...

They work better with sound cards with built in amp, something like the ASUS Xonar D2 which as a dolby headphone option and you can tweak the bass etc...

I tried a set over Christmas as family member got some as they are cheap and I didn't think much to the bass myself until I hooked them up to my soundcard and compared to onboard and my ASUS Xonar, is night and day. You need a decent sound card to make these phones sing..!!

Once you get them hooked to a decent sound source and tweaked I must admit they are good... My sennheiser 330D Game are so much quicker and have better bass without much tweaking but for the money the HS1A do seem fairly good..

enjoy..
 
I might look into a separate headphone amp, seems a touch overkill buying something like a D2 to replace a DS just for the sake of some £30 headphones :p
 
I got them in the sales a few months back and returned them straight away. The sound quality was poor enough not to justify the price tag. The mic was muffled and had constant background noise. Only positive was that they were v comfortable. If you previously owned a pair of headphones that were of really poor quality, then yes this will be a step up, but know that there are much better options out there.
 
The DG has a headphone amp.
I don't recall the D2 having a headphone amp?
I know my Asus Xonar Essence STX has one, but like I said, my headset is interim.
 
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Audio_Card/Xonar_D2-PM/e3255_xonar.pdf

Section 5.2.1 connecting headphones. Connect to Front out /Headphones Jack, has a high quality built in amp to drive headphones.

Well, it certainly worked with my ASUS soundcard, as the HS1A sounded much weaker using the onboard soundcard from the motherboard..??

To be fair, you could pick up a headphone amp for what?? £15?? However, by the time you've added the cost of the headset, not quite so cheap afterall if you hadn't already got something with an amp built into it.. Nice looking headset though..
 
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