Introduction
Today we will looking at the corsair void RGB Wireless gaming headset. This headset was released in 2015 and boasts a 2.4 GHz signal with a 40ft range and claims to have 16 hours of gaming use from one charge. It offers up an Dolby virtual 7.1 surround sound experience and a standard mic on a swing boom arm that also has LED lighting to indicate when the mic is muted. This is the RGB Version and has 16 million colour variations to choose from.
First Impression
My initial thoughts on this headset when it came out of the box was just how good it looked, it really is one of the nicest looking headsets I have seen in quite a while and as well as looking good they are very comfortably to wear. They have 9 adjustable notches on both sides to ensure they will fit even the largest of heads. The ear muffs and top band are covered with a soft fabric covering memory foam. This ensures the headset has an extremely comfortably fit.
Specifications
Headphone
Microphone
Testing
As I mentioned it sends a 2.4 GHz wireless signal to the unit and has a range of 40ft. I have tested the range here in the Gimmegaming HQ where we have two floors and while I couldn’t walk a direct 40ft I found the signal cuts out before I reached the bottom of the stairs. Considering it was about 25ft but had walls and doors to go through I found that to be a good distance for the signal strength to reach. The microphone itself I found to be a bit muffled and echoey when doing recording tests. As for the likes of chatting on Teamspeak or mumble while playing with friends it is fine but if you are looking for a mic to stream with or do YouTube commentaries you might want to consider using a more powerful dedicated microphone. The Dolby virtual 7.1 channel experience I found to be great, the directional sounds in game where crystal clear and easy to locate which is what you want form a gaming headset. Voice chat as well as movies sound super good.
The Build
The body of the headset feels very high quality, you can see and feel the difference from their older Vengeance 2100 headset which felt flimsy by comparison, you have an ABS top frame with Steel arms connecting the frame to the ear muffs. The 18 point adjustable slider bars locks into place nice and tight so you wont need to readjust them every time you rest it on the arm of your chair. The quality of the foam and fabric is second to none and unlike the leather effect headsets, Corsair has on some of their other models in the past, I was able to wear this headset for long gaming sessions without my ears getting sweaty and hot. Over all the build is extremely good, they are a well made headset.
Software
While the Void headset will work straight out of the box there is software available to download from the Corsair website called “Corsair Utility Engine” You will need this software to use the RGB feature on the headset. There is 16 million different colour variants to set in 11 different lighting styles. Once you have tweaked with all the settings and got them to how you like it you can make different profiles, for multiple users. While at first not having used or looked into the software before I found it hard to find things, given only a few minutes I started to get into the swing of things and already had the lighting to the way I wanted and went on to the sound.
There is 5 Presets for the surround sound Pure Direct, Bass Boost, FPS Competition, Clear Chat and Movie Theatre. You can swap between each by setting a macro key or voice command and if you want to get more in depth you can you into an advanced mode for each and adjust the levels to your likings. There is so much more to go into with this software so I will leave it with saying this, after 2 hours of messing about with it I would say I have only found half of the features available. I will let you guys decide if that is a good or bad thing.
Comparison
I am going form the Corsair Raptor hs40 7.1 wired headset, and I will say straight off the bat that there is worlds of difference between them. Even though the hs40 is also 7.1 I can tell the clear difference them. I have used the hs40’s for a little more then 2 years now and found the sound quality has been dropping off them and they seem to be getting quieter, hopefully this is something that has been noticed by corsair and doesn’t happen to the Void. Apart from the sound quality difference I can say I find the void to be a more comfortable headset purely because of the fabric on the ear and top bar as a posed to the leather effect that had badly started to come off the hs40. Corsair have really stepped up there game and you can see they have learned from there mistakes.
Pricing
At the moment Corsair have the headset listed at $109.99 Ex VAT but if you look around on sites the likes of Ebay and Amazon I am sure you will find a better price.
Things I liked
There is so much I like about the headset, the comfort of the fit, how clear the game sound is with the virtual 7.1. The RGB lighting means no matter what colour set up you might have now or change to in the future you can match it. The build quality is really nice and the fact that you have metal arms instead of ABS right in the one key area that seems to break in most headsets mean they will last a long time. The look is so unique and stylish and you can tell buy the build it was well thought out for comfort as well as style.
Things I would change
While there is a wide range of colour variants to choose from at the moment my current setup is black and white and I couldn’t get the lights to be all pure white. There is a slight green hue coming for the bottom on both sides. I got myself the black RGB version instead of the Bright yellow the headset was originally released in but the wireless dongle and charging cable still had the bright yellow ascents attached, that just made it feel and cheap and impersonal.
Final Thoughts
As a wireless Gaming headset goes this is, in my opinion one of the best. With the adjust ability as well as comfort and style at an affordably price makes this a no brainier. I would recommend this headset to anyone looking for a wireless gaming headset but if you are looking to stream or want to use the microphone as your main mic for your YouTube channel content I would recommend against it.