Usage & Testing
For the most part, I have a set testing methodology for testing all audio products. There are a number of games I tend to play regularly when testing audio products. These include GTA V, a competitive shooter such as COD or Battlefield, Skyrim, just because it an excuse to play Skyrim and the newest game I’m playing at the moment. In this case, it was Red Dead Redemption 2 and the new Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. For music, I listen to a wide variety of songs and genres. My playlist consists of everything from 90’s rap and classic rock, to heavy metal, country, pop, and classical. I always include the Eagles Hotel California in my testing. My reason for picking this song is I once listened to it on Sennheiser’s $55,000 Orpheus headphones at CES several years ago
As for movies, I always watch Black Hawk Down as it won the Oscar for best sound mixing in 2002, and it’s a great movie, especially for testing surround sound. I also have a subwoofer test I like to run on headphones to check for distortion. As I was getting ready for the newest Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to release, I binge-watched the Vikings series using the SXFI Gamer headset as well. Great show by the way. As we’re testing Super XFI, I go with the clip played at my first experience with Super XFI. This is a clip from the movie House of Flying Daggers. It’s perfect for testing both surround sound and Super XFI products. To check out thises clips for yourself, click this link for my Audio Review Clips playlist. In total, I’ve spent upwards of 100 hours at the time of this review using the SXFI Gamer headset for everything from movies to music and video games. I have also used the SXFI Gamer a fair amount on my cell phone, the LG Q7+ via the 3.5 MM auxiliary cable included with the headset. The SXFI Gamer does sound really good on my cell phone. The LG Q7+ has what they call a HI-FI Quad DAC built into the phone. Essentially, it’s a headphone amp that does a decent job at amplifying sound. However, the true way to experience the SXFI Gamer is via USB Type-C. Not only can you use the SCFI Gamer on your PC via USB Type-C. but the SCFI Gamer also worked on my LG Q7+. To be honest, I was surprised that the SXFI Gamer worked on my cell phone via USB Type-C. I was even able to use the SXFI App on my phone with the SXFI Gamer. Great touch by Creative.
A gaming headset review wouldn’t be complete without a test of the microphone. So, we’ve uploaded a clip of the Command Mic on the SXFI Gamer, as a clip using the Audio Technica AT2035 through the Sound Blaster K3+. Click this link to learn more about the Sound Blaster K3+ XLR audio interface. Here are the clips below. What do you think of the Commander Mic Quality. Please leave a comment on your thoughts.