AkG
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- Oct 24, 2007
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Late last year Corsair released their first attempt at a serious gaming headset line: the Corsair HS1 USB 7.1 which created a virtual soundstage by leveraging the USB bus for multiple channels. This was quickly followed by an analog version dubbed the HS1a. As owners of both the USB HS1 will attest to, both may have been very successful in the retail market and comfortable to wear, they were only moderately successful when it came to providing the best audio gaming experience possible. Corsair never sits on their laurels for all that long and continually improves products so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the spiritual successors to the HS1 series are already upon us. The new Vengeance 1300 analog stereo headset and the USB based Vengeance 1500 7.1 gaming headset promise to take gaming audio to the next level or at least past the benchmarks achieved by the previous lineup.
Corsair may have gone back to the drawing board to fix the HS1’s minor sonic imperfections but that doesn’t mean they’ve ignored the long list of positive aspects introduced with the original award winning design. The 1300 and 1500 headsets both share the same– albeit slightly tweaked- comfortable design which graced the HS1 while retaining the same basic and well heeled 50mm headset driver. What has changed –besides the name – is some specifically tweaked acoustical properties which should set both products well apart from the competition. In fact, Corsair goes so far as to state that while the 1500 is meant to provide the best – for its price range - positional audio experience, the 1300 is engineered to provide “audiophile quality”. That’s truly a hefty claim which if true could put the Vengeance 1300 in an entirely different category of audio equipment and could make it the first “gaming” headset to pull double duty for music aficionados as well.
With an MSRP of $99.99 for the 1500 and an even more reasonably priced $79.99 for the 1300, Corsair’s new headphone lineup is certainly meant to be affordable but both will face extremely stiff competition from everyone from Sennheiser to SteelSeries to even Razer. If the new Vengeance headsets do have the audio abilities to back up their claims, they may just become the new darling of the industry as everyone is looking for not only great sound, but also a great deal.
Corsair may have gone back to the drawing board to fix the HS1’s minor sonic imperfections but that doesn’t mean they’ve ignored the long list of positive aspects introduced with the original award winning design. The 1300 and 1500 headsets both share the same– albeit slightly tweaked- comfortable design which graced the HS1 while retaining the same basic and well heeled 50mm headset driver. What has changed –besides the name – is some specifically tweaked acoustical properties which should set both products well apart from the competition. In fact, Corsair goes so far as to state that while the 1500 is meant to provide the best – for its price range - positional audio experience, the 1300 is engineered to provide “audiophile quality”. That’s truly a hefty claim which if true could put the Vengeance 1300 in an entirely different category of audio equipment and could make it the first “gaming” headset to pull double duty for music aficionados as well.
With an MSRP of $99.99 for the 1500 and an even more reasonably priced $79.99 for the 1300, Corsair’s new headphone lineup is certainly meant to be affordable but both will face extremely stiff competition from everyone from Sennheiser to SteelSeries to even Razer. If the new Vengeance headsets do have the audio abilities to back up their claims, they may just become the new darling of the industry as everyone is looking for not only great sound, but also a great deal.
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