There are going to be times when you expect nothing but the very best from your headphones, and for this, you can choose a Sennheiser HD800 premiere surround sound headset. This is going to give you, quite possibly, the most realistic sound that you have ever heard. As a matter of fact, these headphones bring so much to the table that it is difficult to know where to begin reviewing it. You can get the best price on one of these through this link. source
1 | MarkJ
Probably one of the most comfortable headsets I have worn ever, although I will admit my experience in open earred headsets is limited to only a few logitech, koss, and a few other assorted headsets. I’ve had this headset for probably close to two years, and have recently bought a Koss SB-49 off Amazon to replace this one (as a few of the things aren’t working anymore, but I will get more to that). I haven’t written a review for the Koss yet, since I usually wait a while before writing reviews.
To begin, I’ll set a few variables straight– you can adapt the information to your needs.
I am a small to medium headsize (unfortunately I don’t have a tape measure on hands, but I’ll edit this post when I get a chance).
The headset itself is very light on the head, probably due to the way they designed the adjustable head cushion, and there is virtually no pressure on the ears either, although you may tend to sweat a bit if you’ve had the headset on for a few hours (though this is true with most headsets unless they are specially built with ventilation in mind). Like I said, one of the most light and comfortable headsets I have ever worn.
The microphone is plastic with a rubberized sheath to maintain its adjustable length. One issue I had was that after a while the cap which serves as an axis on which the microphone rotates on no longer held its position and would just flow down. This made it nearly impossible to keep the mic level at my mouth, one of the eventual reasons as to why I needed to replace this headset.
The clothes clip which also houses the volume thumb dial(?) is kind of flimsy in my experience. It has a microphone switch so you can turn off the microphone (when you need to be discreet), but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well and people can still faintly hear you when you switch it off. This may just be my unit, but it is something to look out for.
Audio quality is decent. It won’t blow you away, but it is certainly high enough quality where you shouldn’t notice a difference between headsets of a similar calibre. Just don’t expect it to sound like a leading thousand dollar headset.
All in all, it is a decent headset, although the construction quality definitely leaves much room for improvement.
My personal recommendation: If it’s $25, buy it. Just don’t expect it to last forever…
2 | Ron Seaman
September 11th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
This isn’t meant to be a very technical review, but I will share my opinion with hope that I can answer some questions that I had when reviewing these headphones.
I’ve been using these headphones mainly for PC and PS3 games. For those of you with intention of using these with an xbox 360, be warned you will need to purchase a specific xbox360 adapter for the optical audio (I would have tested MW2 already if I had the xbox360 connection). The PS3 has and most newer PC motherboards even have the optical audio connection. If you’re really serious about having amazing PC audio, you might consider an aftermarket sound card … but then again, if you ARE really serious, you’d be buying an ACTUAL 5.1 system and not just headphones.
These aren’t meant for stereo sound and only do a mediocre job at best when just listening to music, unless you connect the 5.1 analog adapter and use the orange (center and sub channel), then it sounds better. I haven’t compared these to any other gaming headset, but I have no complaints on the sound quality. You do have the ability to adjust the volume of the front, center, rear and sub channels which is very handy for getting the sound just right. You can go further and adjust other settings, but I haven’t tinkered with that.
These headphones are also very comfortable. Most of the weight is on top of your head and not on or over your ears which greatly reduces ear fatigue. I have used them for 3+ hours with little discomfort!
Take note that these are in no way noise canceling headphones. If you have the volume down low, you will be able to hear what’s going on around you, and those around you might hear what you are listening to if you’ve got the volume up very high. That’s not a big problem though.
I’ve used the mic over Skype and in games such as SC2 and have had people comment on the good quality of the sound of my voice. It’s nice that the mic is detachable, but honestly, it’s never really in the way and I never detach it.
The headphones themselves glow green, quite brightly. This is a nice feature if you’re trying to impress people with cool hardware, but it’s annoying to have them sitting beside my bed on my desk at night when I’m trying to sleep — an acceptable annoyance.
The mess of cables isn’t really an issue considering I already have a mess of cables on my desk where I have a PC, PS3 and Xbox360. If you are worried about the mess of cables, you might consider purchasing a longer optical cable as the supplied one is quite short (approx 2 feet). This way you can have the adapter and all the cables hidden somewhere. The cable from the headphone is very long, so don’t worry about that.
One last note, this purchase was a shot in the dark. I had never heard of Sharkoon before and am quite pleased. I was debating over this and the TRITTON AXPRO and chose these. I don’t regret my decision!
