Corsair HS1 or HS1A: Which to get?

[ipaine]

Ok, so I am looking at getting some new headphones and right now (until tomorrow night) the Corsair HS1 (USB) and HS1A (analog) are on sale for $49.99 and $44.99 respectively.

I am just trying to decide which one to get. As for the price from what I see the USB is the better deal but is that the one I want. I will be using this headset just on my desktop and it will not get use anywhere else, at least not enough to warrant mention. As for what I will be listening to, I would say about 65% games, 20% music, and 15% movies, give or take a bit.

Now the chipset in my machine is the Realtek ALC889. So that is what the HS1As will be plugged into and of course the HS1 will use its own built in audio chipset.

Which do people think I should go with? I think I'm leaning a little towards the HS1 (usb) but not totally convinced. Thoughts?

[Jackquelegs]

Buy the HS1. Saves the analogue ports for something more worthy. No matter how you look at it, the HS1/HS1A's choice of driver tuning led it to sound like crap and hollow, and it's just not worth taking up my analogue ports

It's decent for games in terms of separation and positioning, but falls down on its face for music and movies. At least with the USB version you'll get some opportunity to play with the software (which is decent and makes up for..some of the inadequacies).

[ipaine]

Originally Posted by Jackquelegs

It's decent for games in terms of separation and positioning, but falls down on its face for music and movies. At least with the USB version you'll get some opportunity to play with the software (which is decent and makes up for..some of the inadequacies).

Hmmm, I know I read that it was not the greatest for music, but I thought it was really good with movies and true 5.1 audio. At least a few reviews said as much. Thing is my current headphones aren't bad, and are decent for music, but they get uncomfortable after not too long. And with the Corsairs on for so cheap I figured that I might as well get one of them.

I guess for me the real question would be is the chipset in the USB version better then the chipset in my board?

[Dzzope]

The sound is fine in the HS1's.. are they top quality.. no.. but then the realtec soundcard isn't either..

IMO the biggest bonus with the HS1's as USB is that you can set various programs to use different outputs and have speakers for music / movies and then headset for games and comms.

OR

if you leave everything as default, when you plug in the usb sound everything (well most) will auto - switch to using that without having to screw around with anything else.

Whereas with the normal analogue ones it's them or speakers.



Comfort, they take a lil getting used to (they are heavy) but they are VERY comfy.
Can easily wear them for 6 hrs at work (with lil breaks) then take them home and use them to call home and game for a few more hours.
Have worn them for 6 - 8 hrs straight and they are about as good as I've ever had. still not perfect, but very good.

Mic quality is not what i would expect and there is no noise-cancellation. that is not to say that it's bad.. just not excellent.

[Eluder]

I have the HS1's and they sound pretty good for games, but for music you really have to tweak the EQ.
Plus to be honest, I don't find them that comfortable, I constantly have to adjust them to find a comfortable position on my head.
And the build quality leaves a bit to be desired. I went on vacation for 3 weeks and when I came back and used them, they now creak, though they were just sitting on my desk for those 3 weeks, so ya, not the Corsair quality I was expecting.

[ipaine]

Well picked up the HS1's and so far I am quite pleased. I haven't gamed much with them but they did make Crysis sound better.

[Luay79]

Good call! The HS1A were designed as pass-through for PCs that already have a dedicated sound card.

[Apathetik]

Just got the Corsair HS1 this morning and have to say I am pleased in ever single area. Comfort on them is by far amazing. Feels like there is marshmallows on my ears. No side pressure squeezing my head, like the Logitech G930's did. Very soft on the ears and haven't really noticed them on my head at all to be honest after about 5 hours of use. They may however be slightly heavier then your previous headphones, but they are very comfortable nonetheless.

Sound quality is very good. Checked out some FLAC format music for an hour or so, and have nothing bad to say about these. The bass was lower then my G930 by a bit, but after installing the control panel, I manually adjusted the lows in the equalizer and now its set perfect and fairly bassy. I also checked out a war scene in "The Pacific" in 1080p quality with the 7.1 virtual speaker shifter option on and was amazed at how accurate the sounds were for virtual 7.1 sound. Using the headphones in a ventrilo with the highest quality codec, I can hear my friends crystal clear, as well as them hearing me perfectly and clear without any background noise or static. I noticed in reviews a lot of people said the mic was average or good, but not great. After talking to several people, they say its better then all my previous ones and sounds amazing, so I assume the people commenting on the quality of the mic are in some low quality codec team speak or mumble server that sounds awful to begin with.

Other things I liked about them was the quality of the cord. The cord is very robust and nylon braided or cased, like the G500 Logitech mouse if anyone has that or can relate. The sound controls on it to raise or lower volume are a nice touch and don't feel cheap. The overall cable length is very long too so plenty of room to move around or adjust your distances. When muted the volume control turns from a blue light to red to show you that you are muted. Finally overall the build comfort and quality are very strong and not junky feeling.

For the price of these on most sites at $50 for half off, you really cannot go wrong with them, as I would be willing to pay full price after using them. I could not be happier. Hope this helps. Cheers!

[Beastylemon]

Anyone notice that the mic is REALLY quiet on the HS1A? And when u add boost, there is tooo much static. (intigrated sound)
Would using a sound card better the mic pickup?