Corsair HS50 Gaming Headset Review

Introduction

When we first started our journey of being computer nerds speakers were internal things that beeped. Then Soundblaster came along and we all converted to stereo speakers, something which seemed incredible at the time. For a long period speakers dominated the home computing world, usually in ever increasing numbers until people owned 7.1 setups with so many trailing cables their floor looked like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.

As PCs moved from the office/study/bedroom into the living room, so there has been a slow shift towards headsets. The explosion of eSports – whether you believe them to be a fad or a genuine threat to anything sports that are actually athletic – has meant that ownership of a good quality headset is no longer an option you pick to avoid annoying those watching TV whilst you frag your enemies, but instead is something everyone needs. Online gaming is now so dominant it is difficult to find a game which supports splitscreen play. Gone are the days when the best way to win was to poke your mate in the ribs, or cover their eyes, or just look to where they are hiding and go hunting.

If you’re in the market for a headset then you’ll understand that there is a huge difference in quality, with price not necessarily being a telling indicator of the excellence of the product. To some degree you get what you pay for, but that isn’t always the case. Corsair are certainly hoping to shake the market up with the introduction of the extremely affordable HS50 headset. Do they succeed?

Technical Specifications

Nearly every headset we ever review handles frequencies between 20Hz and 20kHz, but the design and other elements mean that they are all unique in their soundscape. We’ll have to listen to these before we can make even a preliminary indication of our expectations. However, the decision to go with the larger 50mm Neodymium drivers should ensure that we have great audio separation and fills us with hope that the HS50 can knock our socks off. With a light weight and a microphone certified by Discord all the stars have aligned in the specifications. How does it bear up under scrutiny though?