CM Storm Pulse R Headset Review

Introduction

The second of our CM Storm reviews is the Pulse-R, and immediately you can see from the image at the top of the review why we’re combining these into a single days worth of content. The aluminium plate with holes for an Allen Key speaks of customisation potential akin to that we saw from the Mech keyboard. 

We’ve previously reviewed two headsets from CM Storm, the Sirus and the Sonuz. The Sirus was slightly uncomfortable but had awesome sound quality from its 5.1 drivers, and the Sonuz was very comfortable but only with average sound quality. So far then the CM Storm diversions into the audio market have met with mixed results, so we’re looking forward to discovering what a return to the drawing board with the Pulse-R has brought us. 

Technical Specifications

With 42mm drivers the Pulse-R is somewhere near the middle of the pack in terms of driver size. Up to a point the smaller drivers can give excellent mid-range performance and a tighter bass than you find from the larger 50mm drivers. Otherwise, as always with headsets, the specifications don’t tell the whole story. The majority of gaming headphones have 32 Ohm impedance, so it’s quite surprising to see the Pulse-R have a 50 Ohm impedance. This requires a beefier sound card to drive (the higher the impedance the more power is required to drive the speaker), but thankfully we have our trust ASUS Xonar Phoebus to hand which can drive up to 600 Ohm.