Thermaltake Shock One Gaming Headset Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Thermaltake Shock One Gaming Headset Review - While Thermaltake may be a familiar brand name to PC enthusiasts, the company is one of the newest competitors in the PC gaming headset market. Today, we take its USB model, featuring DTS Surround, for a spin in order to tell you if it is worth your hard earned dollar or if the competition in this segment of the PC audio market is simply too steep already.
 
Let me know in couple of months when the volume adjuster dies or mic goes out and you ask your self why did I just spend money on one of the these 2 in one headsets again. :(
 
Zarathustra[H];1037840402 said:
This unit must be for people with square ears :p
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eh my headphones have perfectly round cups and my ears are far from round :D

nice review Earl. sounds like it's way overpriced for what you get. the "control box" looks nice, like it's well constructed.
 
Porter_ said:
nice review Earl. sounds like it's way overpriced for what you get. the "control box" looks nice, like it's well constructed.
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Agreed. Thank you for this Earl. You always seem to be able to take something as inherently subjective as sound, and make a good review out of it, which is greatly appreciated!

--Matt
 
"Golden Orb". Wow, I haven't heard that name in forever.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I don't want headphones that require drivers. Give me good, old fashiioned 1/8th inch jacks and let it rip. I openly admit, I'm not an audiophile.
 
Grimham said:
"Golden Orb". Wow, I haven't heard that name in forever.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I don't want headphones that require drivers. Give me good, old fashiioned 1/8th inch jacks and let it rip. I openly admit, I'm not an audiophile.
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Actually that's the way to go for audiophile, or the larger jack 1/4 I believe.
 
best headsets on the market for a pc gamer?

i've been on the fence on the hs1 for a while...
 
fausto412 said:
they had it on sale today? shit i missed it!
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My Corsair HS1A headset just broke. Cheap plastic swivels.

Everything else was working fine. Except for little to no bass with the Corsairs.

I recommend it for people who never EVER drop their headsets and are very delicate with them. For the rest of us savages..no buy.

I bought another set of Logitech G35s. They lasted me well over a year and I dropped them many many times. They are more expensive but, they have bass, 7.1 and are built much tougher. They are still plastic but, much tougher.

Just my opinion if it helps anyone.


P.S. I'll shit myself when one of these companies actually makes a 5.1 or 7.1 gaming headset(with mic) out of aluminum or something tougher than plastic.
 
Bamboo said:
P.S. I'll shit myself when one of these companies actually makes a 5.1 or 7.1 gaming headset(with mic) out of aluminum or something tougher than plastic.
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The Creative Tactic 3D Sigma that we reviewed has a steel core reinforced headband and it has a much more bass heavy signature. That type of headset though will cut down on the amount of positionality that you perceive when targeting enemies or finding allies.

So no need to shit yourself anytime soon.:)
 
Bamboo said:
My Corsair HS1A headset just broke. Cheap plastic swivels.

Everything else was working fine. Except for little to no bass with the Corsairs.

I recommend it for people who never EVER drop their headsets and are very delicate with them. For the rest of us savages..no buy.
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+1. I bought my HS1As back in April or so. I haven't used them since August because the wiring has gone faulty and I get a lot of white noise and cutting in and out from one ear to the other anytime I do so much as just TOUCH the cord. The worst that I've ever done to the headset was run over the cord with my desk chair, on carpet, mind you. Never dropped, thrown, abused, etc., its just plain faulty wiring. The leather on the headband is also coming apart at the seams and is fraying, and yup, there is almost NO bass.

I applaud Corsair and Thermaltake and other companies for trying to expand into other sections of the PC gaming market, but the next time I buy a headset/headphones, I'm just going to stick with a company that is known for their audio products - or at the very least, Logitech, who may not be the cream-of-the-crop when it comes to audio, but is at least very consistent in terms of both the build quality of their products as well as the excellent customer service.
 
Thanks Earl!

I haven't played and good positional audio games since MW1. Well I played the other two but, not nearly as much. I can't even remember if MW2 or blops had good positional audio.

I'm looking for sounds good and tuff. If the G35s suck bad at hearing footsteps come MW3(I hope it's good) I'll be buying another set yet again lol. If I recall they were ok. They are just a little heavy, only detected 50% of the time on cold boot(win 7 64) and the nagahide/pleather ear cups make my ears sweat. Other than what I mentioned they were pretty good.

Oh well, I already ordered the G35s. I'll have to check out those Creative Tactic 3D Sigmas on the next round. Thank you though. =D

@SLiGuy - Yeah I too am happy to see more companies expand into the PC gaming market. More choices/competition is never a bad thing for the consumer.

Thanks guys. Have fun....

Gotta go. My wife is screaming at me. I'm a man of my word lol.
 
tho not specifically a PC headset, I love my new Sony 7.1 PS3 headset, which works great asa stereo headset on a PC. Very comfortable to wear for long periods.
 
how to buy audio equipment:

I have a little advice about headphones:
Buy them from a company known for making headphones.
 
DeFex said:
how to buy audio equipment:

I have a little advice about headphones:
Buy them from a company known for making headphones.
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That's kind of how I feel as well.

The loss in audio quality over something good by Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic or even Grado just isn't worth the convenience of an integrated microphone. Clip on's really aren't that troublesome, are they?

That being said, you'll likely need a decent soundcard to drive these though.
 
DeFex said:
how to buy audio equipment:

I have a little advice about headphones:
Buy them from a company known for making headphones.
Click to expand...

Zarathustra[H];1037849617 said:
That's kind of how I feel as well.

The loss in audio quality over something good by Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic or even Grado just isn't worth the convenience of an integrated microphone. Clip on's really aren't that troublesome, are they?

That being said, you'll likely need a decent soundcard to drive these though.
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This is where I think DeFex seemed to miss the whole point of the features of the Shock One headset or any other USB headset for that matter.

Realtek is hands down the most popular onboard sound codec there is. It has a headphone algorithm that is just plain poor. So if you buy a USB headset like Corsair's HS1 USB then you would know that it literally brings its own sound card with it. Easy install separate interface.

People can buy Grado, BeyerDynamic, or Audio-Technica headphones all day long for $100-$400 and if you are using onboard sound you are still going to have a really shitty experience. For all of the naysayers out there, we continue to point out that you have the same sound signature regardless of what PC you play on when you use a USB headset. If a gamer takes his Audio-Technica headphones with him to a machine with shitty onboard (especially laptops) sound, his experience is still poor no matter how much his headphones may have cost.

Corsair has utilized the best and most familiar looking USB sound interface that we have seen by using C-Media. C-Media's interface and capabilities are beneath all of ASUS' sound cards, and although unfortunately the HS1 is poor for music it does one hell of a job with games. :)
 
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EarlKeim said:
This is where I think DeFex missed the whole point of the features of the Shock One headset or any USB headset for that matter.

Realtek is hands down the most popular onboard sound codec there is. It has a headphone algorithm that just sucks balls. So if you buy a USB headset like Corsair's HS1 then you would know that it literally brings its own sound card with it. Easy install separate interface.

People can buy Grado, BeyerDynamic, or Audio-Technica headphones all day long for $100-$400 and if you are using onboard sound you are still going to have a really shitty experience. For all of the naysayers out there, we continue to point out that you have the same sound signature regardless of what PC you play on when you use a USB headset. If a gamer takes his Audio-Technica headphones with him to a machine with shitty onboard (especially laptops) sound, his experience still sucks.

Corsair has utilized the best and most familiar looking USB sound that we have seen, and although unfortunately it is poor for music it does one hell of a job with games. :)
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Agreed. If you are going to do a budget considered comparison you also need to consider the cost of the sound board (or other sound/amplification device) for the higher end headphones, and then it quickly becomes lopsided cost-wise.

Worth it - IMHO - but still lopsided cost-wise.
 
I have an Astro A40 Headset and wireless mix-amp. I just plugged the headphones (and mic) directly into a Claro Halo sound card, and it's the mostly unbelievably cool sounding thing I've ever heard. The Claro has a built in headphone amp for high impedance headphones, and the mic works great. It's also detachable. I don't even use the mix-amp.

The drivers works really well and the Dolby headphone DSP has terrific 5.1 emulation for games. Playing games with a high end headphone amp, very good headphones, and a dolby 5.1 mix is about as good as it gets. There's absolutely no reason to buy anything else.
 
And once again I'm looking at headphones. I replaced my G35 because my cat chewed through the cord. The HS1 I replaced it with was awesome; until last night the left ear piece came off where it swivles at. Looks like plastic fatigue did it in. Now I'm torn... I really enjoyed the HS1, but I don't want my headphones to be a 'consumable'.

~ MaddB
 
MaddBomber83 said:
And once again I'm looking at headphones. I replaced my G35 because my cat chewed through the cord. The HS1 I replaced it with was awesome; until last night the left ear piece came off where it swivles at. Looks like plastic fatigue did it in. Now I'm torn... I really enjoyed the HS1, but I don't want my headphones to be a 'consumable'.

~ MaddB
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They make everything so it breaks eventually, You just have to hope it doesn't happen when you really need the thing. Can't make money if everything lasts forever. Sucks.
 
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