Creative World of Warcraft Wireless Headset Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Creative World of Warcraft Wireless Headset Review - While we at HardOCP have been focused on how games look for a decade, we have never talked about how those games can sound. Today we break that trend with a look at Creative's WoW Wireless Headset. While being marketed specifically to World of Warcraft gamers, we find out that they are good for just about everyone.
 
We're you reviewing these when you were out looking for wireless headphones yourself?


How'd they turn out btw (if they arrived)?
 
I was looking at these before, but I don't want WoW branding on it. I hate when companies decide to brand a product. Like the stupid Fatality crap on the market. At lot of times, I'm looking for the best available product, but it's got some game/gamers logo on it. That right there keeps me from buying the product.

The product should be able to stand on it's own feet and not need the endoresement of some game/gamer to sell. One of the reasons I'm still on an Audigy 2 ZS and not rocking an X-Fi soundcard.
 
I have to agree with those above. I just recently went shopping for a new headset and the choice came down to these or a G35. Took the Logitech because the colors and branding turned me off.
 
Drop the WoW branding and I'd be all over these headsets. Right now, I'm using some cheap 10 Euro headset that I bought in Germany. It's so crap that the only thing I do with them is plug in the mic. I just use my stereo system for sound. When I need to be quieter, I plug in my Sony headphones and continue using the mic. Good for music, horrid for games.

Edit:

I had the G35, but no longer. They hurt me after a few hours.
 
I'm in for a set of gaming cans, and these look very tempting, but I'm still on the fence about the wireless aspect of things. I know its said you can use it while plugged in, or at least that's how I think it read. But that kind of defeats the purpose of buying wireless headsets. lol

My hangup on the wireless is that its to my understanding that there is a potential for latency, where what comes through the speakers could be slightly delayed to what is on screen. I'm going to assume that there was no noticable latency in what was going on on-screen vs. what was coming out of the headset, since it wasn't mentioned? I was looking for that part specifically but couldn't find anything.
 
I did not have any latency problems when using the headset. The uncompressed wireless audio really surprised me. Delay in a normal wireless headset occurs because the audio is compressed when sent and then uncompressed in the cans. This does not happen here.

Cheers,
Earl Keim
 
Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but might want to see about battery life too. It says up to 9 hours, but at what volume settings? I like the noise and tend to keep my stuff turned up pretty high.
 
Of late, the company has expanded its focus to include products such as handheld HD-video cameras, MP3 players, speakers, headphones and gaming headsets
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Actually, Speakers were among the first non sound card products introduced by creative over 10 years ago, same with the MP3 players.

Sounds like a nice set of headphones but the price does seem a bit high. Maybe in the $80 range would be a "must buy"
Wireless headphones can be dicey though as I've had 50/50 experiences with them. I have a set of SENNHEISER RS 120 Supra Aurals that I used for awhile but I had trouble with them cutting out at random intervals although I could go 100 feet outside with them and still hear my computer. I also had trouble with them staying on my head and they were kind of heavy.
I relegated them to a box after tiring of their shortcomings. They didn't have a mike although I rarely have a need for it as I'm an antisocial bastard gamer.:D
 
krotch said:
Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but might want to see about battery life too. It says up to 9 hours, but at what volume settings? I like the noise and tend to keep my stuff turned up pretty high.
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I constantly switch my volume levels when using my PC. I listen to music extensively when writing email and articles, and depending on the atmosphere of the game. I watch a ton of movies as well. So the lengths of time I described in my article here on [H]ardOcp are of very typical usage scenarios. Low volume levels? No. Blaring and hurting my ears? no, too. But I was really "rocking out" for most of my usage time.

cheers mates!
Earl
 
I don't think the target audience of these headphones would really consider spending $300 on the Beyerdynamics. It's easy to always point out a superior product, which comes at the higher price point. Most of the people buying these will probably be coming from a crappy beige colored line-in mic paired with their $29 Logitech headset, and this will be leaps and bounds better than their old setups. For what these people are using the headsets for, I would say it's a pretty good fit.
 
That's true, it easily beats out the kind of headset you mentioned. But then again, the leap from the 19$ Logitech crapset to this is similar to the leap from this to the Beyer.

Therefore I would recommend saving some more and buy one great product instead of several mediocre ones. I went the "wrong" route, buying incrementally better headsets (sometimes grabbing one that was actually worse than the one before in the process), because the cheaper ones kept braking, wearing down their thin earpads, sounded like tin cans etc... Had I just bought one cheap to have something that "works" and then saved up, I could've easily afforded several Beyer's.

I mean - they don't get "old", you can take them from one gaming rig to the next, like a good case. You can spend 40$ on an el-cheapo box, or 300$ on a Silverstone or Lian Li, which is likely going to last for your next few builds. And even if you want a different look you can usually re-sell it for a pretty decent amount (I could actually sell my PC-777 for more now than what I paid for it).

I really wanted to like the Creative headset though, it's just that its twisted sound (nothing like the original recording, even with all "enhancements" off) and the cheap build quality put me off. If it was made out of foamed aluminium, it would still be lightweight, but not squeak so much, though this can also be attributed to the gimmicky but somewhat flimsy lighting mechanism (which is nice and cool btw, but not necessary for it to perform its purpose in any way).

On the other hand, I think that this headset holds a great promise as a base for modding the hell out of it, integrating it into a casemod theme.
 
I'm sorry but I do not respect the outcome of this review. While the technical aspects of the headphones themselves are truly marvelous, from what I can see of the build quality it looks far too feeble for any headset over $50. With just a thin little sliver of plastic holding the headset together; One of those ears is going to snap right off from wear and tear or just slight pressure and your going to lament ever recommending $150 headphones with the overall integrity of disposable airline headphones.
 
@Dainas: I've had them in my paws, and I would suspect the same. They remind my of the Plantronics Audio 90 - a headset that was also highly praised when it came out, but within a year most developed a short circuit in the microphone due to a badly routed wire, a lot of people also snapped the earpieces off or broke the microphone arm.
Similar things are just bound to happen to this. I wonder how much cheaper this headset could've been without the WoW-license.
 
Beyerdynamic DT770 80ohms are available for under $150. I can't really justify spending $150 on a headset like this, when vastly superior sound quality is available at the same price point.
 
Thank you sir for the extra eyes. Typos fixed. Kyle
 
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Alchemy also works with Audigy and X-Fi series soundcards, so its possible to get those compatability features if the appropriate sound card is owned.

When MS switched sound systems in vista (as mentioned in the review), they forced software emulation for directsound, and restricted it to stereo only. So any games that use directsound3d will be operating in stereo mode instead of surround in vista and 7. Any directsound3d games also cannot use hardware accelleration features of any sound devices under vista/7 (unless alchemy or something similar is used).

A quick google shows there are drivers for realtek and cmedia called "3D SoundBack" and "Xear3D EX" which also do similar things, but I have only used alchemy (since I have an x-fi) so I don't know the details of those.

I speculate that this sound architecture change was done in part to help xbox porting.
 
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jackknife said:
Now I've listened to quite a number of headsets and headphones over the last decades, and i get the slight impression that either the reviewer never listened to a real quality headset,

<snip>
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I was going to post something like this if you didn't.

My first thought when I saw the article was "Uh oh, I hope [H] keeps up their reputation and does this the right way instead of the way all the other hardware/gaming sites do it!" (Which tends to be the "I heard music coming out of it, it was clear, and it sounded pretty good!" way) No such luck! :( As soon as I read "After selecting my own EQ music preset, I am pleased to say that music playback with this headset is fantastic." I knew we were in trouble!

The rest of the review on features, comfort, etc was good but in order to do a proper audio review, you really need to have a good test setup as well as someone who is either an audiophile or at least has some experience with a selection of "good" gear from companies like Beyer, Audiotechnica, Sennheiser, etc for the headphones and then a decent Source. The X-Fi is probably pretty good, if only due to the fact that it's what most people on this site will be using for upgraded sound due to the other gaming features included, but you could certainly look into the Xonar line or some of Auzentech's X-Fi implementations.

I would say if Audio reviews are going to become a "thing" at the [H], you should pick up a couple of entry level or midrange "reference" sets of cans that you can base your reviews off of, or to just get some experience with. Certainly, buying $600+ headphones, amplifiers, special cables, etc etc that's always associated with audiophiles isn't necessary, but you could look at a couple sets like the following for a good starting point and maybe pick up a basic amplifier. (At the lowest end you could get away with the headphone jack on a nice set of amplified speakers you have hooked up to your source)

Audiotechnica ATH-A700 / AD700
-Good entry level sets. The Difference between the two is mainly that the AD is open backed while the A is closed for isolation and better bass response.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826402014&cm_re=ATH-_-26-402-014-_-Product

Beyer DT770 Pro-80
-These need some sort of amplification to sound their best. They can regularly be found on EBay in new or good condition for significantly less than MSRP. These are known for being bass monsters.
http://www.amazon.com/Beyerdynamic-Pro-80-Closed-Studio-Headphones/dp/B0016MNAAI

Ultimate Ears Triple-fi10 Pro
-These are excellent IEM-style headphones that are lauded for their clarity. They technically have an MSRP of $400, but you should be able to find them for way less than that ever since Amazon/UE had a gold box deal a few months back selling them for $99, which is where I got my pair. I know a few people on the forum bought extra sets at that time (I should have too!) with the specific intent to resell them at a gain / resell them to members who missed out. The fact that these paint such a neutral sonic picture makes them a good starting point for reviews.

There are about a bazillion more options across the whole range too. If I wasn't at work I might write a longer post, but all you really have to remember is that the key is getting out of the Logitech/Creative/Ipod buds section and into some "real" gear. You can check out head-fi.org for more audiophile info!

I still remember when Razer put out their first set of "5.1" headphones, the Barracuda. I went around to the various gaming sites reading reviews and almost without fail, every single one of them gave it a 9 or 10 out of 10, a gold, an editors choice/recommended award or what have you, after a review which consisted of mostly "They were comfortable" and "They sounded good to me!". The one or two actual enthusiast reviews I found and my own experience identified them for what they actually are: Tinny sounding crap with a poor soundstage in a flashy, yet poorly built and overpriced package. It's not like gaming headsets are cheap either; for the cost of the barracuda you could get the ATH-A700 recommended above, which is vastly superior in all respects. All you need to go with it is a $5 desktop boom mic. (My $5 boom mic sounded better than the headset mic on the barracuda too, by the way.)

As a final point, let me compare this to power supply reviews:
Back in the day, a power supply review seemed to consist of "I turned it on and it powered my computer so it must be good!" Then Jonnyguru came along and started doing them the right way. When the [H] started doing power supply reviews, was it done the old half-assed way? No sir, You went right out and got yourself a power supply tester and put the screws to 'em with a real test.

If you're going to start doing Audio reviews now, do them the [H] way! ;)
 
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Kett said:
Then Jonnyguru came along and started doing them the right way. When the [H] started doing power supply reviews, was it done the old half-assed way? No sir, You went right out and got yourself a power supply tester and put the screws to 'em with a real test.
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Nowadays I rarely bother to read a PSU review unless it includes the kinda stuff [H] and jonny has (internal build quality comments, DC quality, transient response, efficiency numbers, torture/load testing, etc). Unfortuantely, there are very few sites that do that. I really appreciate [H] especially for its PSU reviews.
 
Great... More clutter on the 2.4 Ghz band...

I can imagine the performance of these to be another story at a large lan party with several other sets in use.
 
I get the comparison to the PSU reviews, but I have not see a "load tester" anywhere for a set of headphones. If you have links to reviews on headphones that you think we should take some suggestions from, please post the links here, we would love to see what you think is "done right."

As for the guy that got banned in this thread, I have no problem taking criticism, but when you suggest we take bribes for reviews your participation is no longer needed here, ever. I simply will not tolerate it.
 
And I would like to ask of those posting that this review is worthless, have you spent a few days with the WoW headset? Because if you have not, I would suggest you are being very hypocritical.

If it looks like we will be doing many of these in the future, I do think you guys are very right on the fact that we need a solid baseline to compare from. I do not see us buying $300 cans though, as I do not see the average gamer and hardware enthusiast spending that kind of money. But surely we need to look around and grab some more in the $100 to $150 range for comparison.
 
As I posted on Newegg and Creatives site, they are really poorly made, the extensions are thin plastic and will snap if you have even a slightly large head.
Creative will not give you a refund and will not RMA them when they break, thank god for Amazon full refund and they paid for return shipping.
 
MADOGRE said:
As I posted on Newegg and Creatives site, they are really poorly made, the extensions are thin plastic and will snap if you have even a slightly large head.
Creative will not give you a refund and will not RMA them when they break, thank god for Amazon full refund and they paid for return shipping.
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Yeah, you may have a point here looking at the extensions and cranking on them. I still can't get them to feel like they are going to pop even with them bent outward. I wear a 7.5 to 7.75 hat so I know what a big head is about. And I do not have to extend headset. Your melon must be huge. :) Glad you got taken care of. I can guarantee you that Creative will be reading this thread. It will be interesting to see if Creative replies.
 
A guy in the guild I am in got these headsets. Let me just tell you how annoying the VoiceFX is. He started using that and half of the guild muted him on vent.
 
xBanzai89 said:
Kyle I love your reviews, but when you say this it can't really warrant a response. These are fairly expensive headset, so if you want people to experiment with them maybe you should send them a pair. Its just like when people were knocking on eyefinity. You told them to try it themselves, but that person would have to go out in excess of 600 dollars minimum on monitors and they may not even have a 5800 series card yet on top of that.

Wireless headset = me throwing it out the window when the battery dies. I hate wireless products. I bet the WoW part of this lets them jack it up at least 20 dollars as well.
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Then why did your respond? :) Yes, this is JUST like Eyefinity, it is a totally subjective and experience based review. And just like Eyefinity, no I am not going to send people headsets at my expense.

The battery on these just died, plugged it into my long ass USB cord an am happily charging listening to NPR. :)

I would not doubt that WoW branding is worth $20 or more per headset.
 
mngl1200 said:
A guy in the guild I am in got these headsets. Let me just tell you how annoying the VoiceFX is. He started using that and half of the guild muted him on vent.
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LOL! I think that is a user issue, not a hardware issue.

I was testing it out yesterday using "Human Female" and the guys I was playing with thought I was a chick. Pretty funny stuff. "Village Elder" is pretty funny too. Beyond a couple of laughs though, I think the feature is fairly worthless. Maybe might come in handy if you were doing a WoW podcast. :)
 
Kett said:
When the [H] started doing power supply reviews, was it done the old half-assed way? No sir, You went right out and got yourself a power supply tester and put the screws to 'em with a real test.

If you're going to start doing Audio reviews now, do them the [H] way! ;)
Click to expand...

We will get better at this IF it shows to turn pages. If not, I will not spend the money on it.

You are correct, I do not want to do half-assed audio reviews. Looking back we should have had a better bed of comparison products. We will do better next time.

Here is the next one we are doing.

What cans would you suggest we compare to? I need some suggestions on this that have a built in microphone. I checked your links above but did not see any with a mic.

And please link me to any reviews that are done "the right way." I am not sure that I have ever read one on gaming headsets.
 
I've got experience with expensive non-audiophile headphones that break after 6+ months of use because wearing them on my large head (hat size 7 3/4?), angled properly and stretched out all the way, stresses out the plastic until it one day snaps or cracks without any visible warning.

I agree you need to look for a high quality reference set of cups when judging quality, but for that job, do you want audiophile gear with money spent on getting the sound delivered in as high quality as possible, or marked up plastic that focuses on look and style like it was a Hollywood flick over substance?

If the Sennheiser HD-25 (mk1 or mk2) pop up in the $100-$150 range (looks like mk2 go for that new?), go for them. The mk1 makes my $200 studio monitors sound like cheap plastic PC speakers, I'm saying this because I bought a pair that the seller thought was defective for 40€ and they turned out to be working fine. The bass drum in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRlVxL36kIY is barely noticeable with the monitors, but with the HD-25s on my head it goes from head to toe in a most comfortable way, no matter the volume.

It also stands out much better in playing complicated instrument-heavy music than the speakers do. One way I describe that is that you're able to tell instruments apart from each other and separate them with your ears, like you're listening to an orchestra or a band instead of a recording coming from one sound source.

One drawback with high quality audio gear is that a bunch of trailers for movies and games will sound badly mixed because they are. Mixed in order to sound as impressive as possible on bad tiny computer/laptop/tv speakers.

Etc etc..



(Oh, Sennheiser do have headsets since they work in aviation too but that'd be stepping up in price. What I'm interested in seeing are those clip-on microphones, Razer have them out)
 
Did I read that right that has a usb charger? Makes sense and all, but would be nice if it had a charging station, you could just sit them on. As a former WoW addict, if I were still playing, I'd probably buy these. In all honesty, if I'm buying a headset, with microphone for gaming, I'm not going to use it for music listening. I didn't even know there was a foot pedal that could be used to toggle voice, that would be awesome for raiding.

How was the wife aggro rating? As in, do they work pretty well to hear conversations around you at normal volume levels?
 
MADOGRE said:
yes I had a pair for 3 weeks or so I agree they are great, but what I said is 100% true, they broke on the side were you slide them up or down its every thin plastic.
Other then that flaw they are great.
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My point was rather to all the people noting sound quality above. I wear a 7.5 or 7.75 hat and I do not even have to extend the ear pieces. Conversely, my 9 year old can wear them easily too. But yeah, if your head is stretching them out that much over and over again, you are right, they are plastic. :(
 
Redleader said:
Will they make a Non-WOW version of these?
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We can hope so, but we have no definitive answer at this time. I really like these cans, they sound great, and all the WoW branding does not put me off, and you can turn the lights off. But I would really rather not pay for it if I don't have to. I still think these are worth the cost though.
 
I have looked at these headsets a few times, since I have seen a lot of adds for these headsets as wow is one of my main games that I play. Honestly, if they were closer to the $100 price point I would be all over them, but I still think they are overpriced even with all the bells and whistles that are included.

Would it have been cool to see a bunch of tests or real numbers on the performance of the headset? Possibly...

But the subjectivity tests I think more than satisfy the average user that reads this site. The vast majority of the readers are not audiophiles and if you are one, you most likely would never even think about buying this product.

Overall I am pretty much satisfied reading the review, it goes over the installation, software setup, the different features of the software, and even goes over potential problems that came about with hardware/software configurations. I would go so far as to say that if I did buy the product and was having trouble with it, I would read what Earl/Kyle did with the different settings to see if that fixed my issues first.
 
I have seen others comments in the thread, and they refer to other headphones and headset that are WIRED and targeted to music aficionados. These are not. The fact that I really like these WITH music and movies too was a plus, but not a promise from Creative. The box says, World of Warcraft Wireless........or no wires for gaming to me. It did both of those damn well. The fact that it does have its own sound card? YEP!

Thank you for the comments.
Earl Keim
 
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Dekar12 said:
Would it have been cool to see a bunch of tests or real numbers on the performance of the headset? Possibly...
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Thanks for the kind words.

What exactly would you have liked to have see in the realm of "real numbers?"
 
I know from experience that Creative has been horrible for driver and software support. (After my Audigy 2zs and Audigy 4 cards, I swore off buying any Creative products until things change.) Does anyone think they'll be any better with these? I'm doubtful, but I'm willing to give them a chance if they might have changed.

From what I've looked up on Google, (searched: World of Warcraft Creative headset problem) it doesn't seem any different from before. However, these are pretty new, and it can take a little bit to fix software issues. I'll give it at least 6 more months, and if things haven't improved, I'll continue to stay away from Creative products.
 
Thanks for the review, and as for those bashing Kyles review, wtf? I've been here for over a year (registered a few months after lurking), and IMO, Kyles/HardOCP's reviews have earned credibility in my book. So he didn't have anything to compare it to, big deal. It was an honest review for what the average user would be interested in. Sure I could go out and buy some Senn. cans and an Zal. mic, but this is a one stop wireless shop, something to really take into account. There is no doubt these would out blast my 5year old $29 logitecs that I've had to resolder 2 times....

You know when a guy goes to the extreme to compare PSU's, HSF's, GPU's...he knows what he's talking about. I've never met the guy but from what I've seen, he definitely know his stuff.

As he stated, if there are more headphone reviews in the future, he's willing to listen to ideas for comparison or testing equipment. Its getting really anoying to watch nothing but thread bashing in the reviews lately. There is a difference between posting your opinion and being rude.
 
dgingeri said:
I know from experience that Creative has been horrible for driver and software support. (After my Audigy 2zs and Audigy 4 cards, I swore off buying any Creative products until things change.) Does anyone think they'll be any better with these? I'm doubtful, but I'm willing to give them a chance if they might have changed.

From what I've looked up on Google, (searched: World of Warcraft Creative headset problem) it doesn't seem any different from before. However, these are pretty new, and it can take a little bit to fix software issues. I'll give it at least 6 more months, and if things haven't improved, I'll continue to stay away from Creative products.
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I doubt driver support from Creative will change much at all. I've got a Zen X-Fi and Zen X-Fi 2. Only 1 firmware update and 1 software package update since either of them have been released. They work fine, but it would be nice to get some apps or better EQ features.
 
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