Corsair has a historical past of providing headsets with sound and construct high quality above what you’d anticipate for his or her value, and the brand new HS65 Encompass ($80 MSRP on the time of this writing) continues this custom. This new mid-range entry is a very new design that solutions a few of the aesthetic and management complaints about its predecessor, the HS60 Professional Encompass, whereas persevering with to over ship in construct high quality, consolation, and, most significantly, sound high quality. And with each USB and three.5mm connections, the HS60 works together with your PC, in addition to your PlayStation, Xbox, and Swap.
Not all the pieces in regards to the new design is a transparent win — the customized SoundID profile characteristic didn’t click on for me — however this enticing, great-sounding headset is unquestionably price shut consideration for avid gamers in search of a strong surround-sound headset that gained’t break the price range.
Corsair HS65 Encompass Specs
| Driver Kind | 50mm Neodymium |
| Impedance | 32 Ohms @ 1 kHz |
| Frequency Response | 20Hz – 20 kHz |
| Design Fashion | Closed-back |
| Microphone Kind | Omni-directional increase |
| Connectivity | USB 2.0, 3.5mm |
| Weight | 0.6 lbs |
| Wire Size | 5.9 toes |
| Lighting | Ex: 1 RGB zone |
| Software program | Corsair iCUE 4 |
Design and Consolation of Corsair HS65
The construct high quality of the HS65 Encompass is top-notch. The scarf and earcup mounts are strong aluminum, with tasteful matte black plastic earcups and an understated darkish steel grille design and Corsair brand on every cup. (A white and grey mannequin can also be out there.)
There’s additionally delicate Corsair branding on prime of the matte black headband. In the event you’re wanting extra for “tasteful” than “discover my superior gaming headset,” this elegant, understated design is unquestionably a step up from the fake camouflage of the sooner HS60 Haptic or the outsized mesh grilles and cross-stitched padding on the HS60 Professional Encompass.
The extraordinarily snug reminiscence foam earcups have fabric on the floor that touches your head and protein leather-based on the sides. This helps maintain them from feeling as scorching as cans with leather-based throughout can throughout lengthy periods, whereas nonetheless offering higher sound isolation than fully cloth-covered designs. There’s additionally thick, snug reminiscence foam on the underside of the headscarf.
At 0.6 kilos (282 grams), these aren’t featherweights, however they’re on the lighter facet for cans with 50mm drivers. The aluminum-reinforced headband gives strong clamping drive. On my largish head (I exploit the final two notches on a baseball cap), the HS65 Encompass stayed firmly in place with out feeling tight or constrictive. Nonetheless, the headset was clearly on the limits of its flexibility once I wore it, so avid gamers with even larger noggins would possibly discover it too tight.
Quantity is managed with a easy scroll wheel on the left earcup; that is a lot simpler and faster to make use of than fancy contact controls or buttons hanging off the microphone twine. Corsair’s earlier designs had a microphone mute button that didn’t clearly point out when it was pressed, however this new design has eradicated the button fully.
To mute the HS65, simply swing the non-removable increase mic as much as its saved place and it is going to be disabled. This could assist stop unintentional embarrassing or irritated feedback from leaking into recreation periods — should you select to insult your gaming companion’s talents, you’ll know you’re doing it.
The USB-A dongle doesn’t have any controls. I don’t want duplicated quantity controls, however a swap to toggle {surround} sound can be good (as an alternative, you’ll have to enter Corsair’s iCUE software program).
Audio Efficiency of Corsair HS65
The HS65 helps each stereo audio and, utilizing the included USB-A dongle, Dolby Encompass sound. The massive 50mm drivers do a strong job of reproducing the lows of bass and battle in addition to higher-pitched environmental and musical cues.
I performed Name of Obligation:Warzone with 7.1-channel Dolby Encompass enabled and the FPS Competitors equalizer preset enabled, and I used to be in a position to get good positional audio cues with out the bass of gunfire and explosions overwhelming the audio. I additionally chatted over Discord whereas taking part in, and swapping to the Clear Chat preset muffled the sport audio a bit however introduced out the voices of different gamers clearly.
Within the much less action-packed Microsoft Flight Simulator, I dropped to the Pure Direct EQ preset, which clearly reproduced cockpit and environmental sounds. Panning across the exterior of a airplane was nice for displaying off the effectiveness of the {surround} sound.
The USB dongle does an admirable job with each stereo and {surround} audio, but it surely additionally bypasses your PC’s built-in sound card. In case your rig is provided with high-end audio, you possibly can put the dongle apart and plug instantly into the three.5mm jack to take full benefit of your motherboard’s native sound capabilities.
Due to its 3.5mm plug, the HS65 Encompass can also be appropriate with consoles and older smartphones. I performed Halo: Infinite with the headset linked to a controller, and the Xbox’s Collection X’s Dolby Atmos for Headphones {surround} high quality was practically similar to what I heard utilizing the USB dongle with the Home windows model of the sport on my PC.
The Dolby Encompass audio additionally sounded nice once I watched films and TV reveals. The battles within the Halo TV sequence sounded as immersive as they do within the recreation, due to the headphones’ strong-but-not-overbearing bass and glorious surround-sound simulation. Dialogue was clear even throughout motion sequences.
Musically, I wouldn’t commerce the readability of my audiophile-focused (and admittedly costlier) Sennheiser HD3s for the HS65, however the HS65s sound fairly good for gaming-first headphones. I bought loads of bass in Daft Punk’s “Technologic.” However highs and mids in songs with acoustic devices, corresponding to Bowie’s “Starman,” had been crisp and distinct as properly. Music is faithfully reproduced throughout the amount spectrum, with no distortion besides on the very prime of the amount dial. Most quantity is loads loud; I used to be on the prime of my consolation stage with each the Home windows and headset quantity dials maxxed out.
The non-removable mic, which swivels out of the best way for storage, does an ideal job with a frequency response of 100-10,000Hz. Readability is superb, and its directional pickup did an excellent job of isolating exterior noise. The swiveling design means there’s no pop filter, however neither I nor my teammates seen any popping or clipping in recordings or throughout recreation testing.
Options and Software program of Corsair HS65
The H65 Encompass can be utilized out of the field with none further software program, however you’ll want Corsair’s iCUE software program to allow {surround} sound, customized SoundID profiles, and to regulate equalizer settings. (It’s the identical software program package deal utilized by different Corsair units, so you may also use it to regulate the RGB settings on Corsair keyboard and Asus Aura-enable units.)
The equalizer module permits you to toggle Dolby 7.1 Encompass assist and alter the microphone quantity. There are 5 EQ presets, and you’ll create customized presets as properly. Along with the Clear Chat, Pure Direct, and FPS Competitors presets talked about within the Audio Efficiency part, there’s additionally a Film Theater setting and a Bass Increase preset. The Bass Increase preset felt a bit overblown, however the others had been well-tuned for the HS65 Encompass’s audio signature.
New to the HS65 is assist for Sonarworks’ SoundID expertise, which in line with Corsair is designed to allow you to tweak audio to your private preferences. You choose an audio observe from a alternative of seven completely different musical types starting from distorted guitars to screaming steel to mellow vocals. SoundID performs the observe with varied filters utilized and also you select between A and B samples for every. When you’ve accomplished a sequence of those, the iCUE creates a customized SoundID profile primarily based in your preferences.
Sound profiles are, in fact, subjective, however the outcomes simply didn’t work for me. I picked the filters that appeared to carry devices and vocals to the forefront. However once I tried the SoundID profile with quite a lot of songs — starting from Pink Floyd to Kendrick Lamar — the soundstage appeared wider however the vocals sounded muddied and the devices much less differentiated. Sport audio suffered an identical perceived lack of readability. I love the intent, however I had a lot better outcomes making a guide profile with iCUE’s equalizer.
Backside Line
The Corsair HS65 Encompass delivers strong audio efficiency in a well-built, enticing package deal. It’s snug to put on for prolonged intervals of time, and each 7.1 {surround} and stereo audio are clear and correct. There’s an excellent quantity of bass, but it surely’s not over-accentuated to the purpose that it negatively impacts music accuracy — in contrast to some gaming headphones which overemphasize low frequencies. Corsair has a transparent contender right here for best choice in its value vary.
Different headphones to contemplate in an identical value vary embody the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which gives stiff competitors for the HS65 Encompass in each sound high quality and luxury areas however lacks a USB {surround} adapter, and the Fnatic React+, which has an identical characteristic set however a stronger emphasis on bass that negatively impacts music readability.