Testing
Sound Quality
Since the Sonuz doesn’t have any virtual surround capabilities, fancy interface, or other bells and whistles, testing the sound quality is really subjective. Although, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. When I first put on the Sonuz, I decided to play a song. Immediately I noticed nice bass response, good highs, but really boxy mids. After trying many different songs, I realized that the headset’s frequency response has a spike in the midrange, particularly around 1kHz. Using the EQ in Winamp, I was able to cut the 1kHz band by about 3dB, which nearly eradicated all of the boxiness.
It should be noted that -3dB isn’t that much, and a spike at 1kHz isn’t always bad. For instance, in games and movies, the spike at 1kHz was not noticeable. Sound effects and dialog were clear, and in some cases sounded better than headsets that offer virtual surround. Overall, Sonuz’ sound quality rivals the Corsair Vengeance 1500 Gaming Headset, meaning it sounds great. Sure the 1kHz band has a bit of a spike, but nothing that hurts the entire experience.
Comfort
For such a large headset, the Sonuz is pretty comfortable. It is a bit heavier than other headsets I’ve recently reviewed, but I didn’t feel that the weight was ever an issue. The only problem I had with comfort is my ears would get sore after 3+ hours of using the headset. Upon inspecting the headset to find the reason for the soreness, it seems the depth of each earcup is rather shallow. Behind the felt, the plastic that protects the speakers protrudes out near the center. This tends to make contact with the inner top part of my ear, or more formally, the antihelix, and legs of the antihelix (I did some research). So there is a bit of discomfort after long periods of use, but not enough where the Sonuz becomes unusable.
Mic Quality
Unlike the headset’s I’ve recently reviewed, the Sonuz uses a 3.5mm jack to connect to your soundcard’s mic port. Depending on your soundcard, this could allow you more control over how well the mic performs. For instance, you can change the sample rate and bit depth to whatever your soundcard supports. Whereas with USB headsets, you’re limited to whatever the audio controller is designed to support, which could be a very low sample rate and bit depth. All of that configuration stuff aside, Cooler Master equipped the Sonuz with a pretty good mic. There’s little background noise, my voice is clear, and it doesn’t sound hollow. A sample is provided below, check it out.
CM Storm Sonuz
Logitech Wireless Headset F540
Sennheiser PC350
Other Devices
As expected, the Sonuz works with any device that has a 3.5mm headphone jack, such as iPhone, iPad, and Android phones or tablets. The only issue is, there will always be two plugs at the end of the Sonuz’ audio cable. While you can detach the mic, you cannot remove the microphone plug on the cable. So you’ll always have a small portion of the cable dangling since it isn’t in use.