X-bit labs

XFX Quakes Up Your Mind: XGear Multimedia Gaming Headset Review (page 4)

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/21/2006 | 01:05 AM ]

Performance and “Vibration Audio” Impressions

Any measurements of headphones’ sound quality is very subjective and depends on various factors, like audio card’s quality and peculiarities of listener’s perception. An obvious problem with testing headsets is that there are no available tools to do that.

Overall, the quality of sound that the XFX multimedia gaming headset produces on music is acceptable, but do not expect it to be close to higher-end products, even not very expensive Philips SBC HP840 produces much better quality when it comes to music compared to the XFX Mindquake. On the other hand, for an inexpensive headset with 40mm driver unit and 20Hz – 20KHz frequency range, the XGear multimedia gaming headset plays great. Moreover, it does not distort, like typical cheap headphones on high volumes, at least, until volumes are really high! For games, the headset also provides very fine quality, but the better audio card you have, the better effects and 3D positioning will be.

The quality of the microphone on the XFX multimedia gaming headset is pretty fine as well, but a problem with it is that it is omni-directional and can catch some unnecessary background noises.

The shocks that the device produces whenever the bass sounds are very impressive. It, however, works very simple: the device filters the low frequency bass sounds and whenever they are involved, it turns on the so-called XFX FX-audio bass-shock engines. Unfortunately, the level of vibration produced by the motors is not particularly dependant on the level of bass sound within the game, so, it is not a force-feedback type of headset. Still, it really brings a lot of fun!

Theoretically, the XFX FX-audio bass-shock engines can work pretty well in movies as well, on the other hand, given that the audio part is made very thoroughly in movies, a typical subwoofer should create a more pleasurable effect. So, the real advantage of the XFX Mindquake technology is additional interactivity within video games.