Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset Review @ [H]

Except the majority of PC gamers know what they're in for and to a certain extend enjoy fucking around with their PCs. If they didn't, they'd buy a console instead. You can't call someone gullible for repairing their own car if they enjoy doing it.

And the choice to spend hours and hours screwing around with drivers and hardware is a "choice" of the gamer. I've set up PCs for friends, spent half an hour installing a few programs and drivers, then they take it and game on it without touching it again. I've rarely NEEDED to screw around to get gaming things working on my computer... though I have spent many hours getting my work software up and running, that's work though, not entertainment :p

The dealership sells me a part and says, oh yeah, just plug it right in. You go home, plug it right in, and the car still doesn't run. Yeah, after three hours, I can see the fun in that! I've been there, done that. At some point in time, I'd like to drive the fuckin car, not work on it. I build my computers to be productive or play games. After, it's built, I want to see the damn thing perform, not crash in the middle of a game. Check the forum, you find complaint after complaint. If you care to reason why, it's because they just spent $50 on a damn game and problems prevent them from enjoying it.

I know, you'll reason that they "ENJOY' taking the time away from gamin because the game won't play right, and that they 'ENJOY' taking the time to exclaim "help!" in a fourm. Don't confuse the "Gamer" with the "Computer Expert Wannabe". The Wannabe may love it when the system crashes. Another opportunity to tweek something they got wrong in the first place. I'm a Gamer and I can't rashionalize myself into enjoying system crashes just at the moment when I was going to tear some ass. You can rashionalize anyway it suits you best. I've got no problem with it.
 
The dealership sells me a part and says, oh yeah, just plug it right in. You go home, plug it right in, and the car still doesn't run. Yeah, after three hours, I can see the fun in that! I've been there, done that. At some point in time, I'd like to drive the fuckin car, not work on it. I build my computers to be productive or play games. After, it's built, I want to see the damn thing perform, not crash in the middle of a game. Check the forum, you find complaint after complaint. If you care to reason why, it's because they just spent $50 on a damn game and problems prevent them from enjoying it.

Maybe you shoulda done some homework and bought the right part in the first place :p

Honestly, I build my own PCs and I build PCs for my friends... I've never spent hours getting something to work except for the odd self imposed retardation (buying a CPU cooler that's a pain in the arse to install, for example) or when something is actually broken. I update my drivers maybe once every couple of months, takes all of few minutes to do. Maybe you could say my steering wheel, I've spent a bit of time with that, but it worked straight away, I just spend a lot of time tweaking it to my liking... that's a different beast altogether, it works, I just want it to be closer to how I like it, someone else might like it different, its simply adjustability.

Of course forums are full of complaints. Its because gamers are nerds and when something doesn't work to their liking they decide to let the world know on the interwebs. I'm struggling to remember the last time I had a game or piece of hardware not work by design (opposed to not working due to broken-ness).
 
I don't use headphones. I guess I'm out of touch in the headphone world as I just like the sound (and feel) of actual speakers around me (with nothing on my head except my baseball cap). Anyway, the thought of paying $300 for headphones that are supposedly only good for games and not music or movies just sounds pretty ludicrous to me. Just my headphoneless two cents.
 
"I would never give up the audio fidelity I currently have in my two channel headset for Psyko's version in 5.1. Ever."

...and that folks, says it all.

thanks for the review.
 
That makes my choice pretty clear cut. I had originally intended on getting the Roccat Kave headset, then I saw this Psyko and it immediately conjured images of a Bose wave radio. Glad this was debunked as snake oil. ;)

Now before I actually pull the trigger, does anyone have any first hand experience with this?
http://www.roccat.org/Products/Gaming-Sound/ROCCAT-Kave/
 
That makes my choice pretty clear cut. I had originally intended on getting the Roccat Kave headset, then I saw this Psyko and it immediately conjured images of a Bose wave radio.

Well, the Wave radio actually works as advertised. It is a transmission line system, which is quite a well understood/established audio principle. Works well to increase bass at certain frequencies (around the Fs of the drivers). It is not a magic way to get real deep bass from a small speaker as Bose wants to sell it, though. However, it does do what it is supposed to do.

As for the Psyko's, I have no idea what they think their tubes are supposed to do. I suppose the idea is you build maybe quarter wavelength transmission lines at certain frequencies and then try to use that for surround or something. Whatever the case, seems to work like shit which surprises me not at all.
 
Bose directs the sound eminating from the rear side of the speaker, then by porting it via a separate path, allowing it to disperse, in phase with the sound produced by the front surface of the speaker. I purchased Bose speakers before they were a household name, back in 1975. There are better speakers out there, but for the money, they were the best sounding in my price range. Also, I had an inside track. While everyone else was purchasing the floor models, my entire system consisted of "tweaked demo" products. My boss was school mates with Bob Carver.
So..... Yes, then? I don't get it, were you disputing me?
 
Thanks for that clarification Sycraft.

Still curious if anyone's got any experience with the Roccat Kave.
 
Well, the Wave radio actually works as advertised. It is a transmission line system, which is quite a well understood/established audio principle. Works well to increase bass at certain frequencies (around the Fs of the drivers). It is not a magic way to get real deep bass from a small speaker as Bose wants to sell it, though. However, it does do what it is supposed to do.

As for the Psyko's, I have no idea what they think their tubes are supposed to do. I suppose the idea is you build maybe quarter wavelength transmission lines at certain frequencies and then try to use that for surround or something. Whatever the case, seems to work like shit which surprises me not at all.

I have a set of Psykos and I can tell you they are not crap. Other 5.1 headphones have the speakers in the cups.Three speakers and a sub.What you get is stereo from all those speakersmas they are all situated in right or left. The Psykos have the speakers in the Headband [5 of them] with sound delayed and directed to your ear drum through thier patented tube system. I am no audiophile and I have absolutely no idea how these things work but they do work as advertised .Understand,they are designed for Gaming only. If true positional and surround sound is important for your gaming experience,then the Psykos are the way to go. I ordered another set for my wife. She finds them a little heavy but she thinks they are awesome. Take care all.
 
What's up with someone who registered two days ago, saying that these cans are not crap? Seems a little...strange to me...A salesman, perhaps?
 
I have a set of Psykos and I can tell you they are not crap.

Let's just say I don't believe you. First you don't really understand what you are talking about if you are saying there's a "sub" in headphones. A sub woofer is a driver dedicated to low bass frequencies, generally under 120Hz and usually lower than that. I've never seen a headphone system with that. There are some IEMs like high end Shures and Ultimate Ears with three drivers, but their bass driver covers the whole range down.

Now, that said, there is the simple fact that the HardOCP guys say they are crap. Not only do they have no stake in anything, they have a good reputation. They've reviewed gear for a long time, and don't seem to bullshit people.

So sorry, but 'm going to take the word of Kyle and the guy he hired to do audio reviews over some random guy who's brand new to the site. To me, you sound like a shill.

I say: If true positional sound is important to you, then get a good 5.1 speaker system. Nothing can compare currently.
 
I have a set of Psykos and I can tell you they are not crap. Other 5.1 headphones have the speakers in the cups.Three speakers and a sub.What you get is stereo from all those speakersmas they are all situated in right or left. The Psykos have the speakers in the Headband [5 of them] with sound delayed and directed to your ear drum through thier patented tube system. I am no audiophile and I have absolutely no idea how these things work but they do work as advertised .Understand,they are designed for Gaming only. If true positional and surround sound is important for your gaming experience,then the Psykos are the way to go. I ordered another set for my wife. She finds them a little heavy but she thinks they are awesome. Take care all.

yea man - you don't sound like you're on their payroll or anything


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"y'know - just sayin...with sound delayed to your eardrum through their patented tube system..."

baahahahaha.
 
I am not a sales person nor am I a Shill. I am a recently retired Labour Rep. I registered on this forum because of the knowledge provided by members on this site that helped me solve some of the problems I have had since going to PC Gaming Computers.I saw that the Psyko topic was of interest to the members,and as I have a set I thought I would share my opinion.The information provided to me from Psyko, tells me that there are 5 30mmdrivers in the headband and 1 40mm subwoofer driver in each ear cup.Unless you have had a set on your head,there is not too much to say about them either Pro or Con. Yes,I have been a member for only a couple of days but everyone here was a member for only a couple of days at one time. As I said in my first post, I am not a true audiophile or sound engineer but I know what I hear and I stand by Psyko.
 
eslik said:
Understand,they are designed for Gaming only.

You know, for $300, they shouldn't be "gaming only". I sure as hell would expect it to excel in EVERY area for that kind of money.
 
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As I said in my first post, I am not a true audiophile or sound engineer but I know what I hear and I stand by Psyko.

I would suggest if you spent a few hundred more dollars on headphones to compare them to, you would not be so impressed with those you have. To be succinct, we never griped about a directional sound failure with the Psyco's, we found the sound quality to be terrible. So many of our games also have music in them now and a "gaming only" headphone does not do that justice ... at all.
 
What's up with someone who registered two days ago, saying that these cans are not crap? Seems a little...strange to me...A salesman, perhaps?

I was reading the posts and thinking the same thing myself...
 
Wow! You guys are cranky! All I did was give an opinion. Is that not part of what this forum is about? I am not a Psyko rep. I'm a Computer gamer that likes to buy neat toys. What the hell is up with all the negatives directed at a new member? My being a member for just a few days tells you nothing about who I am or what contribution I may have to this forum. Thanks.
 
It is the nature of how you gave your opinion that is suspect. First there's the fact that you join and straight away start defending this. Often that is a sign of a company doing PR spin. Then there's the fact that what you say flatly contradicts what [H]ard says. These guys have a really good rep for solid, correct, reviews. I've bought numerous items because of their recommendations and they've always been right.

There's also the style in which you wrote it, it sounds like marketing speak rather than something. As an example here's a short review of Audyssey MultEQ, a product I happen to like. First in the style I'd normally write it, second in marketing speak:

MultEQ is a very worthwhile feature to look for on a receiver. It really does do what it claims and can flatten out your room response a good deal. It can't make a bad system great, but it can improve the sound of a good system in a normal room. Unlike a graphic EQ solution like the DEQ2496 I find that the result both sounds and measures better. It does take a long time to set up, probably an hour to do all the measurements, but it is worth spending the time on. If you are looking for a receiver, seriously consider one with MultEQ. I don't think you'll be sorry.

Audyssey MultEQ is an innovative audio technology that uses a patented method that measures and analyzes the acoustical space to compensate for distortion. Audyssey MultEQ will equalize in your system in minutes for a clear, accurate, natural sound. With MultEQ, voice and dialog become focused and intelligible, musical balance is restored, musical instruments and sound effects become precisely localized, and surround soundstage is made seamless and enveloping. Audyssey MultEQ is a key component in your AVR – be sure yours has it.


See? The first is how I personally would briefly review MultEQ. The second is a cut and paste job of some of their marketing materials. Regular users don't go mentioning patents or parroting marketing terms.

As such, you seem like a marketing head. Of course I suppose you could also just be someone who bought them, and are trying to justify the large expenditure to yourself and others using their marketing material.
 
I see what you mean. It's not so much what I'm saying but how I say it. Believe me, I am not a rep of any kind. I am fortunate, in that I can buy pretty much anything I want as far as computer toys are concerned and I don't need to justify anything. I registered aa a member of this forum in good faith and I too respect the [H]ard guys information and reviews. If I have read most of this topic correctly,then I believe some of them agree with me.At least in part.Whether or not others choose to spend that kind of monet is up to them. What I said was not a review,it was an OPINION. Take care all.
 
Bose directs the sound eminating from the rear side of the speaker, then by porting it via a separate path, allowing it to disperse, in phase with the sound produced by the front surface of the speaker. I purchased Bose speakers before they were a household name, back in 1975. There are better speakers out there, but for the money, they were the best sounding in my price range. Also, I had an inside track. While everyone else was purchasing the floor models, my entire system consisted of "tweaked demo" products. My boss was school mates with Bob Carver.

I have never seen a BOSE product that wasn't 90% marketing fluff and 10% crappy speakers... and yes, I grew up listening to four 901's that my parents got suckered into buying. They sell convenience, remotes for the retarded, and otherwise low quality sound that they market the hell out of. Yes, it sounds better than your TV in most cases. Yes, the cubes are cute, and the wires are all color coded so your grandma could hook it up. Take apart those cubes though and you will find cheap paper cone speakers with small magnets that your TV's speakers would laugh at and a crappy frequency response. That goes for the 901's and all the rest too. Then, listen closely to the awesome 6" bass cannon... due to its porting (to get the most out of another crappy speaker), it only emits one note... just at different volumes... but yeah... no range at all. The $300 (or less) Logitech 5500's kill any of Bose's sub-sat (cube) systems. The 901's were considered the best Bose speakers ever, and maybe back in the 70's they were. The idea was to try to take as many crap paper cone speakers and pack them onto a box facing front and back. This 'effect' gives a artificial sense of 'space' and 'depth' to the soundstage of the music, but when it comes to the performance, response, range, and quality of the sound, it only makes its output sound good because it has changed it so much from how it was supposed to sound. Bose is crap. Period... even a beginner audiophile will tell you that.

These Psyko's are similar in that they use the tube porting (acoustic stethoscope headphones?), which is a neat idea in concept, but there is a reason why commercial airliners from the 60's and 70's abandoned this technology when they did... everything sounded like you were in a tunnel. Psyko's are just 'more complicated' acoustic stethoscope headphones. If you want true 5.1's that dont sound like butt, you should look at the Roccat Kaves, Sharkoon X-tatic, or Speedlink Medusas which put 4 speakers in each headphone to get 'surround sound'.
 
A bit off topic but someone mentioned ... "Bob Carver" ... a name I haven't heard since 1999.

My ex wife's father, whom I am still friends with. His dad collected Bob Carver amps. He had several. They were heavy and cube in shape. They really stood out as looking a lot different from what I remember from other amps.

I was given the task of selling these over the internet back in 99. I had 5 or 6 to sell. I can tell you this, I sold them all within a week. Some of them came from a few hundred miles away.

I can't remember the prices but each of them went from a few hundred to several hundred dollars.
 
I have one of the Carver/Sunfire True Sub's... its not my "favorite ever", but it is impressive for its size.

My Velodyne takes the cake though... if the house had a liscence plate, it could be rattlin' like a ghetto cruiser.
 
We offered them a new set and they refused. Unfortunate for both parties.

Is this true? Psyko claimed that the unit that you tested was damaged and offered to send you guys another headset to test. Why would [H] refuse to review a product a second time given the circumstances?

If it is true then this only makes [H] look bad in my opinion.
 
Is this true? Psyko claimed that the unit that you tested was damaged and offered to send you guys another headset to test. Why would [H] refuse to review a product a second time given the circumstances?

If it is true then this only makes [H] look bad in my opinion.

it could be [H]s opinion is that the set they receive from psyko is not a retail set?
I dunno =p maybe it takes a long time to test these things out
 
Psyko Audio got the review unit back and the waveguides had been split open. Psyko offered to send another unit for review and HOCP refused the offer.

Here is a statement offered by Psyko Audio.

"Psyko Audio was surprised and disappointed by these negative comments on their headphones and suspected there was something wrong with the headphone being used. Psyko asked the reviewer to send them back to us for inspection. Indeed, the headphones in the review had been damaged and the waveguides had split open. This is highly unusual. The waveguides are essential to delivering the sound and if they are broken they will not perform correctly.

If anyone else's Psykos are damaged and are not performing correctly please inform Psyko Audio for an immediate replacement. We have many customers that are happy with their Psyko headphones and say they perform exactly as advertised for delivering precision directionality in gaming. They are NOT intended for music or movies, but as a weapon to improve your gaming performance and experience.

Psyko Audio offered to send HardOCP a new set for a new review."
 
HardOCP had two pairs of these and both exhibited sound quality issues. We will not be spending our resources to re-review this headset.
 
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=950&type=expert&pid=5

They seemed to like the headphones. I don't understand why they just couldn't come up with a box that put the exact delay needed on the rear channels to make it sound like they were coming from behind the player. Why go through all the tubes?

Anyway, I like how Psycho thought out of the box on this idea. Hopefully their headphones do actually sound good. For $300 bucks, they should be able to provide good sound. I really don't believe many review sites. Hardocp is definitely the site I trust the most.

Maybe [H] can just make a deal where Psycho agrees to cover the costs of a new headset that [H] purchases online. If a third headset sounds the same, then it won't matter if the thing is defective, because then the odds of getting defective gear are WAY too high. A whole review doesn't need to be done, just an hour long sound test to check if they sound the same.
 
I noticed PC Per liked them too. I usually trust their reviews.
 
I noticed PC Per liked them too. I usually trust their reviews.

I did do at first but Kyle mentioned that he had 2 sets somewhere in this thread and that they were just as bad. So I'm leaving them to be honest
 
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=950&type=expert&pid=5

They seemed to like the headphones. I don't understand why they just couldn't come up with a box that put the exact delay needed on the rear channels to make it sound like they were coming from behind the player. Why go through all the tubes?

From what I understand, there's much more to it than just the delay. You brain also picks up the frequency variations from sound coming from different directions and I believe that's what the sound tubes are trying to somehow recreate.

I'll stick to a good stereo set up. I'm yet to hear a surround set up either in speakers or in headphones that sounds better than a good stereo set up and to me quality sound is more immersive than a "forced" sense of direction and lower quality sound. Of course I haven't heard any really high end surround set ups, maybe I'll change my tune when I hear $10,000 worth of surround speakers/amps/DACs.
 
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