Usage & Testing
Now, we all know that audio products are very subjective, as are reviews. Please keep in mind that what sounds good to me, may not sound good to you. When it comes to audio reviews, I have a specific set of music and movies I used while testing headphones, earbuds, sound cards, or any other audio related products. The games may vary from time to time. But generally, I usually play Skyrim for audio review as it’s an excuse to play Skyrim. However, there is usually a first or third-person shooter thrown in as well. For this review, I played GTA V as both the gunplay and conversations throughout Los Santos are great for testing surround sound. I always watch the same movie when testing audio. That movie is Black Hawk Down. It’s great for testing 7.1 surround sound. It also won the Oscar for best sound mixing in 2002.
For music, there is a wide variety of music used to thoroughly test audio products. I always listen to the Eagles Hotel California. The reason for picking this song is it’s the song I listened to on Sennheiser’s $55,000 Orpheus headphones at CES a few years ago. But there are far more songs used to test audio. For example, to test out how well the headphones handle the bass, I use rap songs with excessive amounts of bass. This can help to determine the level of distortion that may be present and therefore, the quality of the headphone’s drivers.
When I first tried on the E900 Pros, I was pleased with how comfortable they actually were. There is ample padding on the ear cups, as well as the headband. I generally prefer to not game with a headset on. The reason being is over extended periods of time, they tend to get less and less comfortable. However, this was not the issue with the E900 Pro. I wire the E900 Pro for upwards of two-plus hours straight while editing images. They were never uncomfortable to the point where I had to remove them, even for a few minutes. When testing the E900 Pro, I abused them as much as I could. With every test, I thought this will be where they fail, but the never did. No matter how much bass I tried to pump into them, I never dealt with distortion, Even when attached to the Sound Blaster AE-5 Plus, and playing music with deep, heavy bass, the E900 Pro held up very well.
I spent a serious amount of time playing GTA V using the E900 Pro and its virtual 7.1 surround sound. In fact, I played the entire story mode using the E900 Pro. The Virtual 7.1 surround sound was a great addition while playing GTA V. I heard far more of the random conversations throughout the game and some are pretty funny or messed up. With the virtual 7.1 surround sound off, I didn’t hear as much of the game as I did with it on. The Virtual 7.1 surround sound also worked great in movies or TV shows. However, even listening to music on my phone using the 3.5mm cable, the music sounded great.
The E900 Pro has a detachable boom mic with a windscreen. I was pleased to see the windscreen. There are more expensive headsets that don’t include a windscreen. To say I was impressed with this mic is an understatement. When I first recorded the clip, I deleted it thinking I recorded from my XLR mic. I was wrong. This is one of the best boom mics on a gaming headset I’ve personally ever used. They often sound muffled and distant. However, the mic not he E900 Pro was crisp, clean, and clear. I have clips from both the boom mic on the E900 Pro, as well as a clip from my Audio Technica AT 2035 XLR mic hooked up to my Sound Blaster K3+ audio interface. I promise these clips were not recorded using the same mic.