Overview
The Corsair HS1 USB was designed with gamers who are in need of a long term audio solution for their extended gaming sessions, who are also serious about audio. It is made for people who are not only serious gamers and want the competitive edge that a 5.1/7.1 multi-channel audio system can give, but also audiophiles that enjoy immersive sounds on their music and movies.
Hardware
One of Corsairs first order of business in designing this set of headphones starts with the high performance 50mm drivers, created above and beyond the 40mm drivers that most other headsets use. The 50mm drivers help to give the system the dynamic range to cleanly reproduce bass, and also to help music, game effects, and the voices of teammates to be reproduced clearly with less distortion.
The ear pieces are a great sign of the ingenuity of Corsair as well, the circumaural design of the earpieces means the ear cups totally surround your ears, as opposed to resting on them. The circumaural design combined with the replaceable memory foam ear pads and a soft absorbent fabric to limit presperation, make it more obvious they were designed for prolonged use and comfort during intense gaming sessions. The closed back design of the headset was also created to isolate the wearer from outside noises and put you more into the game and less likely to be distracted during a critical match. The optimized baffle and geometry is designed to have a major influence in acoustics by making sure the ear canal is in line with the ear baffles. This was done in order to make the surround sound audio from movies and games more accurate and realistic when compared to other headsets.
The top design of the headset is made of foam covered vinyl for extra comfort, although the weight of the system is not a concern this little enhancement helps to maintain the comfort for hours on end atmosphere.
The unidirectional noise cancelling mic sits on a rotating boom to make it easy to move out of your way when needed. The mic also has a rubber lined middle piece that is bendable to help adjust the position of the mic to where you think it sounds best. The inline volume control was made with large buttons so you can adjust the volume on the fly, it also has a mute button, and changes the volume buttons from a glowing blue to a glowing red color to ensure you know whether your mic is muted without having to closely examine the control. Overall it was designed so you really don’t have to look down from gameplay in order to operate some of the most important features of the headset.
The USB wire is fabric braided to help with a tangle free experience. The USB connection helps to ensure the audio processing and EQ mappings are precisely in tune with the headsets design, and by using a USB design was made so that in can be used on any system regardless of the quality or presence of a sound card. The Dolby Headphone Technology utilizes HRTF (head related transfer function) to help deliver spacious virtual sound to user, and can be used to listen to native 5.1 and 7.1 audio sources or even down mix if you so choose. This Dolby technology also helps gamers enjoy multi-channel games that way the designers of game meant them to be heard, including positional cues in games to help locate enemies or be warned of incoming danger.