Earlier this week I decided to go to OcUK to pick up some new headphones, my sony mr-v700's are getting a bit long in the tooth and I wanted something good for games and would hold up as great gaming/entertainment speakers at the various lans I go to.
Here is a picture of them to give you an idea:
So I walked in bought them, drove home and opened them up, was very impressed with the packaging. I carefully took them out and plugged them into the back of my xfi elite pro.
First thing i did was change from 7.1 speakers to 5.1 and spend some time tweaking the settings in the xfi control panel as I had read they are not great without tweaking, first thing i discovered was the incorrect wiring of the speakers, when i tested the centre speaker, the sound came out the rear left, and vice-versa. That was a quick fix, however I did notice at this stage the front and centre speakers were overpowering and the rear drivers rather weak.
Never mind I though, time for some games, I fired up CSS and jumped straight into a game.
WOW. I was blown back at the new environment I felt like I was in, everything was very precise, however about 1 minute into the first round i noticed that any sound that came from behind me (out of the rear speakers) was very weak and quiet. Some more adjusting and it was a bit better but there was still the problem of an M3 manual shotgun right behind me sounding like a potato gun.
I moved across to a few other games; FEAR, COD2, BF2142 and DOD:S, all of them were fantastic with these headphones. Sound reproduction of people, grenades and guns were very precise and realistic and of good quality.
That's where my good times came to a sudden halt, I fired up a few more games. Dirt, NFS:C, SupCom, GTR1/2 and UT2K4. I wash shocked at how horrible it sounded, sounds were not clear or full, they were tinny, irritating. Things that came out of the sub and the rear speakers were quite frankly pathetic sounds and extremely poor in quality.
To be 100% sure I did the exact same tracks and maps with my hp1's and my v700's. The v700's were miles better, everything was crisp, full and were not lacking at all.
'OK', I thought, 'these are 5.1 headphones after all, not designed for this'
Moving out of games and onto films and music, I fired up a DVD of Hot Fuzz and watched the same 3 5 minute clips with both headphones. The hp1's were muffled, tinny and felt like I was using a set of headphones you can pick up from computer stores for about 50p. Music was the same, nothing was defined and some songs sounded horrible on the hp1's.
Finally I tested VoIP, I opened a convosation on skype with a friend and asked him how I sounded, he said I sounded like i was shouting to him through a brick wall. I checked all the settings and even moved onto another PC but the same problem. I plugged my el-cheapo Plantronics 60 headset in and he said it was perfect again.
In conclusion, these headphones are ****ing expensive, they are advertised as gaming headphones, they do a fantastic job in CSS, DOD:S and COD2 but they are absolutely rubbish for everything else.
If you own a high quality set of headphones, moving to these will be unbearable. I already have a set of good headphones and a good quality 7.1 speaker set so will not be keeping these expensive headphones.
I managed to get my hands on a set of these today:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-022-SN&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=502
They are in the same league as my v700's and miles better than the hp's for games and voip, they cost half as much as well.
I am disappointed with the HP-1's, I am a fan of razer and have had two copperheads but that was because the first one died. Which moves me onto my final point, on looking for a solution to the crap mic to see if it was a DOA problem I discovered 7 pages of poor reviews of the HP-1's on a very large American hardware retailers site, some last for a long time other break after a week to a month of use. The speakers eventually die and the volume dial on the control pod suffers poor left/right balance after a while. To say the build quality of the headphones is not great is a major understatement.
Overall, if your a gamer, avoid this product like the plague, get a decent set of stereo speakers and mic from a good brand like sennheiser. It will save you money, pain and your ears will thank you.
Hope this is of some use to gamers on the lookout for headphones and If any other hp1 owners would like to add to this thread that would be great. I'm not here to bash these headphones, just pass on my experience to other gamers alike.
Here is a picture of them to give you an idea:
So I walked in bought them, drove home and opened them up, was very impressed with the packaging. I carefully took them out and plugged them into the back of my xfi elite pro.
First thing i did was change from 7.1 speakers to 5.1 and spend some time tweaking the settings in the xfi control panel as I had read they are not great without tweaking, first thing i discovered was the incorrect wiring of the speakers, when i tested the centre speaker, the sound came out the rear left, and vice-versa. That was a quick fix, however I did notice at this stage the front and centre speakers were overpowering and the rear drivers rather weak.
Never mind I though, time for some games, I fired up CSS and jumped straight into a game.
WOW. I was blown back at the new environment I felt like I was in, everything was very precise, however about 1 minute into the first round i noticed that any sound that came from behind me (out of the rear speakers) was very weak and quiet. Some more adjusting and it was a bit better but there was still the problem of an M3 manual shotgun right behind me sounding like a potato gun.
I moved across to a few other games; FEAR, COD2, BF2142 and DOD:S, all of them were fantastic with these headphones. Sound reproduction of people, grenades and guns were very precise and realistic and of good quality.
That's where my good times came to a sudden halt, I fired up a few more games. Dirt, NFS:C, SupCom, GTR1/2 and UT2K4. I wash shocked at how horrible it sounded, sounds were not clear or full, they were tinny, irritating. Things that came out of the sub and the rear speakers were quite frankly pathetic sounds and extremely poor in quality.
To be 100% sure I did the exact same tracks and maps with my hp1's and my v700's. The v700's were miles better, everything was crisp, full and were not lacking at all.
'OK', I thought, 'these are 5.1 headphones after all, not designed for this'
Moving out of games and onto films and music, I fired up a DVD of Hot Fuzz and watched the same 3 5 minute clips with both headphones. The hp1's were muffled, tinny and felt like I was using a set of headphones you can pick up from computer stores for about 50p. Music was the same, nothing was defined and some songs sounded horrible on the hp1's.
Finally I tested VoIP, I opened a convosation on skype with a friend and asked him how I sounded, he said I sounded like i was shouting to him through a brick wall. I checked all the settings and even moved onto another PC but the same problem. I plugged my el-cheapo Plantronics 60 headset in and he said it was perfect again.
In conclusion, these headphones are ****ing expensive, they are advertised as gaming headphones, they do a fantastic job in CSS, DOD:S and COD2 but they are absolutely rubbish for everything else.
If you own a high quality set of headphones, moving to these will be unbearable. I already have a set of good headphones and a good quality 7.1 speaker set so will not be keeping these expensive headphones.
I managed to get my hands on a set of these today:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-022-SN&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=502
They are in the same league as my v700's and miles better than the hp's for games and voip, they cost half as much as well.
I am disappointed with the HP-1's, I am a fan of razer and have had two copperheads but that was because the first one died. Which moves me onto my final point, on looking for a solution to the crap mic to see if it was a DOA problem I discovered 7 pages of poor reviews of the HP-1's on a very large American hardware retailers site, some last for a long time other break after a week to a month of use. The speakers eventually die and the volume dial on the control pod suffers poor left/right balance after a while. To say the build quality of the headphones is not great is a major understatement.
Overall, if your a gamer, avoid this product like the plague, get a decent set of stereo speakers and mic from a good brand like sennheiser. It will save you money, pain and your ears will thank you.
Hope this is of some use to gamers on the lookout for headphones and If any other hp1 owners would like to add to this thread that would be great. I'm not here to bash these headphones, just pass on my experience to other gamers alike.
