Creative World of Warcraft Wireless Headset Review @ [H]

Kett said:
This is an Audiophile product. As a non-audiophile regular guy who plays games, you clearly enjoy these. What makes you think "regular guys" wouldn't enjoy audiophile headphones? I wouldn't know anything about it; I was born as a non-gaming audiophile, straight onto a pile of million-dollar bills.


This will be my last post in this thread, since it's obvious people are completely misinterpreting them/not reading them.
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Haha maybe I went a little too far with that last statement. It's not meant to offend, but There seem to be two clear schools of thought here: those who can appreciate the [H] review at face value, or those who have (correct me if I'm wrong) written it off entirely because of the ignorance of the reviewers. My argument is that there are those of us here who would be approaching purchasing the headphones from the same perspective as the reviewers approached the review - as someone who hasn't experienced a wide range of audiophile-grade headphones with external amps, and we would probably draw similar conclusions, in general, as the reviewers if we bought the WOW set.

Of course non-audiophiles can appreciate audiophile products, but I think one of the differences between the two groups is that non-audiophiles can appreciate lower end hardware from a value perspective than those who have truly discerning ears.
 
gorb said:
the ad700s are very easy to drive - there isn't any reason why somebody wouldn't get good sound quality from them
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Most onboard solutions fare pretty well these days with respect to their analog output quality, so, yeah, there shouldn't be any huge discrepancies between a PC with a high-end sound card and a relatively new PC with onboard. The cans will sound very similar with both systems.
 
Some of you seemed to miss an important feature of this headset.

Wireless
 
I bought these and returned them within 2 weeks... they were really cool when they worked but then all of a sudden it stopped charging through the USB cable... basically malfunctioned to the point of death.

The price was high so rather than repair, I replaced them... your ears get extremely hot and start sweating over long use.. not my kind of thing but it had potential
 
gorb said:
the ad700s are very easy to drive - there isn't any reason why somebody wouldn't get good sound quality from them
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If the source is crap, the sound quality will be crap. I bet it'd sound horrid on my old Dell Inspiron 5000e, while Creative's offering would sound the same on my current machine or my old laptop.

badcaps said:
Glad to hear it about the lights: my #1 feature on "gamer gear" is being able to turn off the rice. First thing I do on every Razer product I own is load the drivers and shut off the flashing stuff. My computer room would be an epilepsy disco if I couldn't do that.

I might buy these now to replace my Logi USB Clearchat.
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I'm guessing the Logitech Clearchat are doing well for you. I was looking at them, as they're wireless and probably provide okay audio. I fear that my jinx with Logitech products will bite me in the ass if I get them though.
 
krotch said:
If the source is crap, the sound quality will be crap. I bet it'd sound horrid on my old Dell Inspiron 5000e, while Creative's offering would sound the same on my current machine or my old laptop.
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i bet a lot of things would be horrid on your old dell inspiron 5000e, like games or movies too
 
gorb said:
i bet a lot of things would be horrid on your old dell inspiron 5000e, like games or movies too
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Pretty much. It's still powerful enough to play dvd movies, old games, or music on it. So a decent PCMCIA or USB soundcard can turn this into an alright music system.

I by no means do this though. I just play with Linux on it.
 
Great review [H]. Ordered 1 for myself, pretty much just what I needed. So sick of my headphone and clip on mic wires. :cool:
 
Earl, Kyle - Nice review. Can definitely tell that it is a new segment of gear for the [H] to review, but it shows promise. Keep it real, like PSUs and GPUs. There is a market for quality reviews on audio gear from the [H] perspective.

Now then. This thread is horrifying.

I am no audiophile, but with a handle like Decibel you might guess that audio is one of the things I get geeky about. Up to this point I have never heard a wireless pair of headphones worth the price. Maybe I'll rent these from Fry's. *cough*

When you buy a pair of headphones you are buying headphones, period - two speakers and a headband. There is only one metric that counts - dollars to audio fidelity. Of course their are significant other metrics, like durability, but nearly everything else is fluff. If any feature detracts from the quality of the sound, then it is detrimental.

Wireless? So what, flip the cord over your shoulder and get back to fragging. Boom mic? Irrelevant. Lights? Completely worthless. WoW branding? A serious reason to steer clear.

Sound quality is all that matters. This headset retails for $160; I can think of some stiff competition that it had better compete with to be worth that kind of scratch.
 
That's you Decibel, not everyone. Some of us want an actual headset and want it to be wireless. If you don't like it, so be it. Buy something else.

Quite a few ppl don't care about getting the highest audio fidelity we can get at a $160. There are other factors for us, aside from just sound. Some take priority over others. First, it has to be a headset. If it's not, I don't care about it. Next, it has to be wireless. If it's not, then I once again, don't care. Third, comfort. Fourth, sound. I'd throw in positional audio, but I know it's never gonna be that great, so I don't even bother.

I'm not saying this is everyone's standards or even in that order. Audio fidelity being the only metric that counts? Hardly. I can tell you, if I can get the best sounding headphones in the world for $160, but it feels like a vice grip on my head, I wouldn't buy it.
 
Ok read the review, and the light bulb went off in my head "wireless headphones!" and I ordered some. So far so good, they have decent sound quality, they are reasonably comfortable and the installation went fairly smooth.

I could care less about the WoW branding. Now I can plop into my recliner located in the same room as my office and jam with tunes while I'm studying.

Definately overpriced but they fill a niche for gamers.
 
I would be interested to know how they compare with some reputable headphones in the $100 range
 
Seems like a nice h set, one thing maybe i missed it how was wearing these for extended periods of time, you watched few movies in a row with em, do need to remove em once in a while or they are fairly easy to wear for long movie or 5+ hour gaming sessions, no issues of long time wearing ? Most H sets get anoying to wear extended period of times, and for days on end ?Do they hold up to that type of use well??

Also definately agree with Kyle, Microsoft needs to make sound swaping work better,

"Switching between your speakers and your headset" and "Creative is left to the devices of Microsoft on this point but it would be great to see a bit more elegant solution"

An easy switch icon or something on the fly would be so usefull, vs MS current way.

Everyone please go BASH Microsoft in the head until they make us a proper sound control panel that works for swaping, like changing on the fly -p
 
When Kyle stated go try them ?? That also means take a trip to your local retailer, most have em on display for FREE, you dont need to buy stuff to try, visit local places that have demo's or rent one ??

Dont assume its other wise, guess kyle needed to spell out DEMO it some place for free before you buy 1st, you assumed he meant everyone go buy it and try it fashion.

Cheepy items no big deal, expensive stuff go check it out in person for free 1st always, insure its what you really need to spend your duckets on.
 
Decibel said:
Earl, Kyle - Nice review. Can definitely tell that it is a new segment of gear for the [H] to review, but it shows promise. Keep it real, like PSUs and GPUs. There is a market for quality reviews on audio gear from the [H] perspective.

Now then. This thread is horrifying.

I am no audiophile, but with a handle like Decibel you might guess that audio is one of the things I get geeky about. Up to this point I have never heard a wireless pair of headphones worth the price. Maybe I'll rent these from Fry's. *cough*

When you buy a pair of headphones you are buying headphones, period - two speakers and a headband. There is only one metric that counts - dollars to audio fidelity. Of course their are significant other metrics, like durability, but nearly everything else is fluff. If any feature detracts from the quality of the sound, then it is detrimental.

Wireless? So what, flip the cord over your shoulder and get back to fragging. Boom mic? Irrelevant. Lights? Completely worthless. WoW branding? A serious reason to steer clear.

Sound quality is all that matters. This headset retails for $160; I can think of some stiff competition that it had better compete with to be worth that kind of scratch.
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If performance was all consumers cared about then why do so many PC's have lights and windows? Some people may prefer a little style and flavor with their hi-fidelity. Just because a feature is useless to you doesn’t make it’s useless in general. Keep up the great work, Kyle.
 
I would love HardOCP to diversify a little into gaming computer audio. Maybe review the newer Asus Xonar soundcards or the upcoming Xonar Xense+ Sennheiser PC350 bundle? Maybe an article on if the conventional wisdom is true that "onboard audio is good enough".

Of course to be a true review you have to compare it to the other products available. The reviewer may be 'blown away' by how great something is, but is he just living in a bubble and would be 'blown away' by any decent headphone? There are a lot of options in the headphone/headset space. When I think of HardOCP-style reviews, I think of the direct comparisons between product X and product Y, or the power supply reviews holding a product to a standard. This review felt more like an extended unboxing.

Personally I just bought a set of ATH-A900's (~$200). I used to own a set of A700's that were amazing right up til they were stolen. So, already knowing how good they are, I doubled-down and went with the even better 900s. I use a desktop mic (rarely, not much of a chatter).
 
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krotch said:
That's you Decibel, not everyone. Some of us want an actual headset and want it to be wireless. If you don't like it, so be it. Buy something else.

Quite a few ppl don't care about getting the highest audio fidelity we can get at a $160. There are other factors for us, aside from just sound. Some take priority over others. First, it has to be a headset. If it's not, I don't care about it. Next, it has to be wireless. If it's not, then I once again, don't care. Third, comfort. Fourth, sound. I'd throw in positional audio, but I know it's never gonna be that great, so I don't even bother.

I'm not saying this is everyone's standards or even in that order. Audio fidelity being the only metric that counts? Hardly. I can tell you, if I can get the best sounding headphones in the world for $160, but it feels like a vice grip on my head, I wouldn't buy it.
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Hey Krotch. It's cool man. We all come here with different opinions.

I think comfort would count as a "significant other factor." Nice miss.

There are 160 reasons why I think sound quality is most important when talking about headsets. It's all about bang for the buck. That's my entire point.

Gamers don't somehow hear sounds differently. For too long our market has been saturated with overpriced mediocre products that someone threw some graphics and lights on and suddenly it's the best thing coming.

It's crap. It's profiteering from the undiscerning.

I want quality gear at reasonable prices; for headsets the metric is audio quality. Other features may add value, but the basic requirement is fidelity.
 
Ritorix said:
This review felt more like an extended unboxing.
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Understood. Here is a quick biography on our author.

EarlKeim said:
My name is Earl Keim and I wrote the [H]ardOCP article for the Creative World of Warcraft headset. I wanted to tell you guys a bit about myself ....

I currently live in Waco, Texas and it is my goal to discover or revisit good audio solutions for the PC. PCs have been my love for 16 years and I have built over 800 of them from the ground up. I worked for Compaq Computers Houston as an intern in college for two years. In that time, I came up with a lot of unorthodox solutions to fix PC games and most notably, their audio. I spent five years working in a movie theater as a projectionist and I have been to a number of professional classes for understanding and enforcing Dolby and THX certification standards. If there is one thing I have learned it is that what "everybody likes" is very subjective.Some people love bass, others hate it.

By the way, I despise onboard audio cards. Despise............
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Good to know Earl's background.

Kyle, what Ritorix said about focusing on gaming audio really interests me.

Back in the day, it seemed like PC audio got more attention when the SB Live, Audigy, or even when the X-Fi first came out. Eventually it was established that Creative was king of gaming audio.

However, vista and W7 totally changed the game, with the new driver model. And there are other options out there now, like the ASUS Xonar series.

I would love to know how the newer cards stack up against each other, and how they all fit in the grand scheme of the Vista audio model.

Also, keep in mind certain cards sound different based on whether headphone optimizations are enabled or whether a 5.1 setup is hooked up.

Anyway, PC audio is a highly important aspect of a good gaming experience, and honestly, even for someone like myself who tries to keep up with the latest trends, I am a bit lost when it comes to the different options out there.
 
Hello all,

My name is Ryan Schlieper and I'm the PM for the Headsets and Sound Cards at Creative. Just wanted to chime in here as the conversation has been quite "spirited" to say the least.

I've worked for Creative for quite some time and about 2 years ago moved over to focus solely on the headset and sound card lineup.

With all of that being said...I've been an [H] fan for quite a few years. So when I was contacted by Earl for the review I was both excited and a bit nervous as I'm well aware of how critical and exacting [H] reviews can be. This is actually WHY I'm such a fan of the site. The opinions of the fans as well as the integrity of the reviews makes it a very good place to set your bar.

So why am I jumping in here? (I mostly lurk). Well I wanted to tell you guys that in the years I've been handling reviews for various categories and especially the past 2 years here heading up this category I haven't had a single reviewer ask as many detailed questions or request clarifications as I had with Kyle and Earl. I could tell their goal was to get the story straight...and provide their readers nothing short of the [H] take on the product. This isn't being written to suck up to them...it was actually quite refreshing to have questions ...and CRITICAL questions be asked of us. I believe if you build a solid product you don't have to hide behind spin or typical "marketing" answers. And we've done that with the World of Warcraft headsets. We started from ground 0 knowing full well this would be the first headset to bear the THX brand..and also knew full well that the WoW fanbase has a set of expectations on their own. We made a purpose built product that didn't use just branding to mask flaws. It actually was an excuse to have some fun with the design and aesthetic aspects that were TARGETED towards a specific demographic. The MMO player that likes customization, likes to personalize, and likes to have a bit of fun with their rig. This is the same user that might have a Pandaren Monk statue sitting on their desk and a poster of Arthas on their wall. If you don't know either of those two references, you probably are one of the people that said they'd buy the headset if it didn't have the World of Warcraft branding in the comments above. And that's 100% OK! (we've got something YOU might like coming up later this year). Of course we knew full well some people would ask "Why do I need lights and illumination on a headset?". We didn't design the headset for that person outright. You're never going to be able to make a product that 100% of people will go "Oh man I gotta buy that!". There's a few people that have come a bit close...but there's also always going to be that person that finds a flaw in ANYTHING. It's just in their nature. It doesn't mean their opinion is wrong at all. I take it as a personal mission to strive for that perfect product knowing full well it's going to be unachievable because there will always be someone drinking Hatorade. That's what keeps you on your toes and keeps you refining your products and making better ones.

But I'm jumping way off my original intent here.

The original goal of the headset was to make a kick-ass tech heavy product in conjunction with arguably the largest brand in PC gaming. Oh..and couple that up with one of the most iconic quality standards (THX). We sat down with Blizzard and said "What would a WoW fan want in a headset". Tons of ideas came into play. And we ended up keeping I'd say about 80% of our original ideas. Blizzard made it clear we couldn't just slap a WoW brand on a headset and send it out into the wild. They wanted something unique in both form and function. The project was 3 years in the works. And mostly took longer to develop because the tech wasn't where we wanted it to be on the wireless side. We knew people would be skeptical of wireless...as most of us have had pretty heinous experiences with wireless devices period..let alone audio ones.

Here's the other tenets the headset was based around:

- Had to sound amazing. Not just good. Amazing. Even with wireless factored in. We had to qualify several sets of drivers and went through several revisions on hardware.

- Had to be comfortable. The litmus test? An actual qualifying test was someone had to be able to wear for 3 hours with glasses on and still be comfy.

- Had to be unique in design. No rebake of an existing SKU.

- Had to have customization ability...just like in WoW...you customize your character. The original design was to have the lenses be colored and illuminate with a standard white LED. We decided to go the more advanced route and use RGB LED's to allow someone to customize to essentially ANY color they wanted. Yes, I know..some folks think this is a gimmick. It's not a feature designed for those with that mindset (as I noted above)...it's one designed for the gamer that digs having glowing things on their desktop and loves to customize.

- Had to be able to use the full range of THX TruStudio tech. This meant we had to qualify the hardware through several more sets of tests that a typical headset would go through.

- Had to live up to the price point. You're always going to get people questioning the price point of a product when you co-brand. People think that they are paying for the brand versus paying for the technology. The WoW headset made no sacrifices to keep the cost down and pay for the WoW branding. WE COULDN'T DO THAT. Blizzard made it VERY clear. It had to live up to Blizzards quality standards (for which they are legendary) and still be at an approachable price point for the customer we were designing it for. Yes, it is expensive compared to other "gaming" headsets. But name me another headset that has uncompressed wireless technology, THX, and has the same level of component quality and performance as the WoW headset? You can't. It was a tightrope walking act of making sure we were building a solid product that delivered an amazing experience that lived up to Blizzards standards (as well as our expectations) and keeping it at a reasonable price.

- Had to be durable. One tricky thing about headsets. You gotta strike a balance between weight and "feel". Especially at the high end. If you make it too heavy..people complain that it hurts their neck and is heavy. Too light...people complain it feels "cheap". You need to find that balance..and most of the time that's found in materials you use during construction. In the case of the WoW headset we intentionally erred on the side of "lightweight" since people tend to play World of Warcraft for long stretches of time.

I had 100's of people tell me they thought the headset would be $300 when we launched. And I'm sure we could have launched them at $300 and sold quite a few given the nature of the fan base. Some might call us crazy for NOT doing so. But the point was to get these cans on many more peoples heads so they could experience this new tech and also hear what a huge difference a great sounding headset with REAL sound technology made versus standard "free" onboard audio. And the wired version does this for $40 less. And this might still be seen as too expensive for some. Well I hope one day to convince you otherwise..but also respect the fact that sometimes "good enough" is just that.

The largest point I wanted to make is that this headset SOUNDS great. That sits at the core of the whole product. It's solid performance technology with some bells and whistles thrown in that live up to the theme and spirit of that little game called World of Warcraft.

Sorry this has become a brick wall of text. But it's been a while since I've posted in here and wanted to let you guys see some of the inside thought process.

I certainly respect all of the opinions above. The beauty of making tech products is we all have a TON of options to choose from. And like I noted above..the competition is what really drives companies to make better and better products. And places like this forum are where you really have your mettle tested. And for those that were considering without the WoW branding. I'll be sure to pop in here in a little bit to give you some more info.

Definitely love the conversation that's been going on here.
 
Decibel said:
Hey Krotch. It's cool man. We all come here with different opinions.

I think comfort would count as a "significant other factor." Nice miss.

There are 160 reasons why I think sound quality is most important when talking about headsets. It's all about bang for the buck. That's my entire point.

Gamers don't somehow hear sounds differently. For too long our market has been saturated with overpriced mediocre products that someone threw some graphics and lights on and suddenly it's the best thing coming.

It's crap. It's profiteering from the undiscerning.

I want quality gear at reasonable prices; for headsets the metric is audio quality. Other features may add value, but the basic requirement is fidelity.
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If I were going for something that I would use for more than gaming, it'd definitely be going for a set of good headphones and live with a seperate mic. Maybe even non-wireless.

Whenever I go to lan parties, I'm always stuck taking my headphones off, putting them on, taking them off, over and over again. I easily do this a hundred times, if not more during the course of a single lan party and it's gotten real annoying. At home, it's not a big deal.

As for audio fidelity being an important factor, in many cases it is such. Not everyone is going to use their headset for solely gaming, but for those that don't, sound quality just isn't all that important. When I'm playing a game, I've got no music going and the only noises coming in through my headphones is gun shots or voices through like vent/teamspeak . It sounds the same on a set of $10 headphones or $1000 headphones.

For those that are going to do more than gaming, yes. I would agree with you. Sound and comfort are top priority.

CreativeRS>>

When you say later this year, can you give us a season? Summer? Fall? Winter? Also, will it be wireless? I can understand if you can't give out a lot of detail, just curious.

I'd definitely be interested in such a headset with zero WoW branding.
 
And when that one "without WoW branding" is made, I will have already called Ryan to see what its about.

Cheers,
Earl Keim
 
Thanks for popping in and standing behind your product Ryan.

Count me in to the group also interested in a non-WOW, non-bling version :)
 
krotch said:
When I'm playing a game, I've got no music going and the only noises coming in through my headphones is gun shots or voices through like vent/teamspeak . It sounds the same on a set of $10 headphones or $1000 headphones.
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This is one of those things I'm going to have to disagree with you on.

I used to play a lot of CS, hell I even played competitively for a bit. Practice made me good, good audio helped me be competitive. Stepping up to a pair of decent Sennheisers was one the single biggest improvements I ever made.

krotch said:
I'd definitely be interested in such a headset with zero WoW branding.
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And this is something I agree with you on.

*

Ryan, thanks for the details and the info. I love the idea of uncompressed wireless audio.
 
Decibel said:
This is one of those things I'm going to have to disagree with you on.

I used to play a lot of CS, hell I even played competitively for a bit. Practice made me good, good audio helped me be competitive. Stepping up to a pair of decent Sennheisers was one the single biggest improvements I ever made.
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I think that's all depending on where you started and where you went to. If you had a decent set and went to even higher quality, you won't tell much of a difference. It might sound better in music, but not much change for games.

If you went from some super cheap generic $5 headphones, then went to the Sennheisers, then yes. I would definitely agree with you.
 
Based on your guys reviews I bought these. I have to say, they are everything you guys said they were. Got a little BCB to reduce the price. Overall, best headphones I have owned, very comfortable, perfect sound. No complaints at all. Thanks
 
phide said:
Yep. It's been proven time and again that there's no difference.


These comparisons are largely meaningless. If there is a reference, an audible difference from that reference must be established in a blind testing environment. It's basically incorrect to say "this speaker sounds different from this one" or "these headphones have more bass than those headphones" because of perception-altering biases in sighted listening tests. When blind, the actual comparisons can be assigned to a metric through individual testing trials and even rated against a high-end reference (and a low-end anchor). This is impossible with headphones, though.

The best approach is to say "I like the way these sound"; "the bass sounds good to me"; "the high frequencies seem too harsh" because these are all referenced against the reviewer's subjective opinion of sound and his past experiences with it as opposed to being referenced against another set of cans. Don't get too specific — just specific enough to give readers a vague idea — and leave it at that.
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So your saying I can't conclude that ibuds sound different than beats by dre studios without a blind test? Many headphones sound very different and are easily distinguished from one another. Besides this these gaming headphones have many features that can be easily compared and that are not subjective in the least.

How can you value reference to personal experience when it is essentially the same as a comparison to another headphone. Peoples idea of sound quality comes from what they have heard before and this is probably other headphones or speakers.

Why give people a vague idea. If all you can produce is a "vague idea" then there is no point to a review. Just say go listen to this and see if you like it and just make announcements about new products.
 
That's precisely what I'm saying, yeah. That's not to say you shouldn't listen to cans before you buy them, and evaluating different cans back-to-back, but you shouldn't place too much faith in your ability to distinguish characteristics from one set of cans to another. Unless you're blind to potential biases, those biases may affect your perception of the cans' sound (and significantly so). There are obvious cases, where you compare a set of HD650s to iPod earbuds, and you would be able to easily say which is which 100% of the time in a blind test, but for scenarios where the differences seem more subtle, how can you be certain you can discern one set of headphones from another?

The key point of reviewing audio components is to determine whether or not the reviewer is pleased with them or not. If you have faith in the reviewer, then that faith translates to a level of trust in that reviewer's opinion. His opinion is what you're "buying into" when you read a review, since any extensive evaluation of sonic characteristics of headphones leads to potential "errors" in what's observed during sighted testing versus what is actually true (if you could do ranked ABC blind testing with headphones, then one set will rank higher than another in a given number of trials to a statistically significant degree). The more vague the reviewer is when describing the sound, the lower the chance that the reviewer's impression doesn't jibe with reality (doesn't resemble what a dummy head system might portray, for instance).

As for comparisons between headphones — that's all subjective and dangerous territory. If you can't effectively determine whether two sets of headphones truly sound different, and that you could easily tell them apart without knowing which is which, then you can't reasonably compare them in terms of whether the sound one set produces is objectively better or worse than the other set in one or more respects. So, the right approach is to put on a pair of headphones and try to determine whether they match your own personal set of subjective criteria for audio playback and for sound in general. Do they allow for music, games or movies to provoke a strong emotional response? Does any quality in particular seem "off" or "odd"? Does the sound "feel" about right? Do you like the high-frequency or response, or does it seem too overemphasized? Answer these questions and others like it, and you have a good review.

That's really the best you can do under the circumstances. Try to delve any deeper and it becomes nonsensical and suspect. That's the kind of territory you get into where pretty soon you're saying one cable is more "danceable" or has more "swing" than another. Useless, meaningless and far-too-specific subjective metrics that don't really correlate to anything real. They make the reviewer seem very impressive, but that's genuinely all they do.

Say whether you like it or not, be general in your descriptions and don't go around making the mistake of assuming you know something when you can't really establish that you do. In a sighted evaluation, that's realistically the best you can hope to do.
 
most audiophiles are schizophrenics. they hear things that probably aren't there. you should see them talking on head-fi after changing a cable on their $800 headphones. they'll say things like the cable change made the headphones sound more "bright," which is a retarded non-specific description. It's all in their head, and I don't trust them.
 
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Omerta said:
most audiophiles are schizophrenics. they hear things that probably aren't there. you should see them talking on head-fi after changing a cable on their $800 headphones. they'll say things like the cable change made the headphones sound more "bright," which is a retarded non-specific description. It's all in their head, and I don't trust them.
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I love this post. I can understand that there is a big difference between $75 cans, and $400 cans, but changing a cable, or jack, or something so minor, and claiming that it made a huge difference, then describing that difference with a term that doesn't even relate to the area of interest, is flat out crazy, and seems to be a favorite act of elitist audiophiles.
 
Got these headphones is a few days ago and I love them. Mostly because of the wireless but they do sound better then what I used before ( HD 555's). :)

Glad to see a creative rep supporting these headphones too, if I had not ordered before he posted I definitely would have after.
 
Hmm...I was looking at these when they first hit the shelves early at the local Fry's here in Vegas. I wonder if we can get them to make a batch for us with a big [H] Logo that glows red or has changeable colors as well.
 
dara said:
Got these headphones is a few days ago and I love them. Mostly because of the wireless but they do sound better then what I used before ( HD 555's). :)

Glad to see a creative rep supporting these headphones too, if I had not ordered before he posted I definitely would have after.
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Now *that's* a statement that has some meaning to me. I know the Sennheiser HD 555's aren't anywhere near the former flagship HD 580s and HD 600s, but they're a good set of cans.

For headphone specific reviews, I generally head to HeadRoom. They build Headphone amps, and test a BUNCH of headphone setups so they can accurately describe how well they work with their stuff. http://www.headphone.com. Kyle, I've read and been told that their service dept. is VERY helpful, and they may help you try to find some more objective tests to put the cans you review through.

One that that hasn't been brought up: Is there an audio input on the phones to where you can use them wired analog, like with a portable music player, or one of the aforementioned headphone amps? Or are they USB input only?
 
I need a new headset and I think I'm going to give these a try. I am mostly interested in the wireless aspect.
 
I have been thinking about getting these but im concerned about the cans breaking off.

I have gone through 5 KOSS PRO3AA for that exact reason. KOSS has a lifetime warranty so I get them replaced at no charge. However, those things hurt my ears.

To the people who have these, are the cans ear cushions deep? My ears stick out from my head and most headphones crush them making the headphones hurt after an hour or so.

I need cans that have some room for my dumbo ears.
 
It's almost painful to have read through this whole thread -

There are so many audiophile chest thumpers in here recommending higher end audiophile headsets. They are COMPLETELY missing the fact that these are wireless and have a mic and designed for gaming.

I have JVC HA-RX700 with a clip on mic, which are actually pretty great quality for the price. What drives me nuts is the wire and the clip mic. And yes I have used some higher phones in the past, but again not wireless and without a mic.

I've been looking for a quality wireless headset for a long time.

I really wished these were not WoW branded though, it would have made them so much better. I have and occasionally do still play wow.
 
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jellisii said:
Now *that's* a statement that has some meaning to me. I know the Sennheiser HD 555's aren't anywhere near the former flagship HD 580s and HD 600s, but they're a good set of cans.

For headphone specific reviews, I generally head to HeadRoom. They build Headphone amps, and test a BUNCH of headphone setups so they can accurately describe how well they work with their stuff. http://www.headphone.com. Kyle, I've read and been told that their service dept. is VERY helpful, and they may help you try to find some more objective tests to put the cans you review through.

One that that hasn't been brought up: Is there an audio input on the phones to where you can use them wired analog, like with a portable music player, or one of the aforementioned headphone amps? Or are they USB input only?
Click to expand...


Thanks for the linkage.

No, there is not audio input for analog. USB only.

I have a set of wireless Sennheiser 120s and the WoW cans blow those away in terms of sound quality.
 
zervun said:
I
There are so many audiophile chest thumpers in here recommending higher end audiophile headsets. They are COMPLETELY missing the fact that these are wireless and have a mic and designed for gaming.
Click to expand...

Designed for gaming usually equates to shitty with game related physical design and a $30 bump in price. What most of them seemed to be saying was -- if a set of cans are designed correctly then they will be great for whatever audio is coming out of them. That said, someone get the Creative d00d back in here to tell us when we can get these without WoW branding!
 
Suggestion for headsets to review, the Sennheiser PC-350, they are an Around-the-Ear type with a closed back, and amazon has them for $120 right now.

Or for the under $100 options the Plantronics GameCom 777 also an Around-the-Ear type, for 54 bux

I currently have the Plantronics Audio 770 and even though the audio is nice the mic SUCKS, after a few weeks of use it no longer stays in place it just flops around where ever, so if at all possible long term use updates would be nice as it would show issues like I found with the 770s, also the USB adapter they come with is about 3 inches long and prone to breaking as well as just not working very well. and yes they are an Around-the-Ear type... they at least from my experience are the best for more then 30min gaming sessions, as On-the-Ear types hurt my ears after a half hour of use.
 
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Let's hope the new ones come out soon, as my realtor stopped by my place to tell me to keep down the noise, or I'd have to move out.
 
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