Corsair HS80 Max Wireless Review

Verdict

The Corsair HS80 Max Wi-fi is a unbelievable gaming headset, providing immersive audio, full with microphone, fashionable seems to be and loads of padding besides. It might be just a little heavy, however provides wonderful connectivity and battery life to make it a winner for players with the money to spend.

Introduction

The brand new Corsair HS80 Max Wi-fi represents a refinement to one in every of Corsair’s long-standing fashions, including options that look to show it from headset within the worth vary to top-of-the-line gaming headsets round.

All this is available in at a comparably cheap worth – £169.99/$179.99/€189.99 – which can effectively assist push the HS80 Max Wi-fi above and past the competitors. After testing the headset for per week, listed here are my ideas.

Design and options

• Trendy, minimalistic seems to be
• A heavy put on with plenty of padding
• Glorious battery life

The Corsair HS80 Max Wi-fi provides a contemporary and glossy look, particularly within the white colourway I’ve bought right here. It carries with it a minimalist look that stands up effectively in opposition to the competitors, and in opposition to equally priced headphones, too. The HS80 Max Wi-fi can also be accessible in black for these in search of one thing extra conventional, and maybe meaner seems to be, however the white can be my choice for these in search of a cleaner setup.

The construct high quality on provide is sweet right here, with easy and hard-wearing plastics, and the slight soft-touch across the headband is particularly welcome. It doesn’t appear to be a very cumbersome headset both, with the white and silver colouring serving to its minimalist and fashionable seems to be.

A weight of 352g makes this fairly a heavy put on, though the material and reminiscence foam padding on the deep earcups provide degree of assist and helps them to be fairly snug when worn for longer intervals. The addition of a suspension headband is sweet, however can depart them just a little unfastened becoming on bigger heads with none adjustment. Personally, I desire extra conventional strategies of adjustment, however the suspension headband not less than makes the HS80 Max Wi-fi fairly snug.

There’s a minimal number of on-board media controls, with a complete of two buttons and a wheel. On the left-hand earcup there’s a USB-C port, in addition to a quantity wheel, and an influence button. On the right-hand aspect there’s one button, which is for enabling the Bluetooth pairing, in addition to housing just a few extra features, together with with the ability to management media playback with a number of faucets of the button, and for answering telephone calls. It’s helpful to have, though it’s a studying curve to notice what number of presses do what. Possibly including an additional button or two would have labored higher.

Connectivity right here is strictly wi-fi, over both Bluetooth or through the bundled 2.4GHz wi-fi receiver. The HS80 Max Wi-fi labored a deal with with my PC and my MacBook Professional, too, and can also be appropriate with PlayStation 5. This isn’t a headset that’ll work with Xbox, although.

The Corsair HS80 Max Wi-fi additionally options wonderful battery life, albeit when the minimal RGB lighting is turned off. With it on (over the two.4GHz receiver) you’ll get 24 hours of endurance, though flip it off, and also you’ll virtually triple it to 65 hours. What’s extra, switching over to Bluetooth additionally will increase the headset’s effectivity as much as 130 hours, that means it’ll final for weeks on a single cost. For reference, the Roccat Syn Max Air lasts for 16 hours, whereas Sony Inzone H7 lasts for 40 hours, making the HS80 Max Wi-fi a frontrunner for battery life at its worth level, barring the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wi-fi and its exceptional 300 hours.

There may be extra software program, within the type of Corsair’s iCUE suite. It offers a handy technique of adjusting the headset’s lighting with a wide range of presets, in addition to a ten band EQ for getting probably the most out of audio. Right here, you too can modify the microphone quantity and sidetone. 

Connecting through the two.4GHz receiver offers the advantage of Corsair’s partnership with Sonarworks Sound ID characteristic to supply a personalised sound signature when paired with Corsair iCUE. Going via the check includes Corsair’s software program enjoying tones that you simply modify the quantity to the purpose the place you may’t hear them, so the software program can personalise the audio to your ears. It’s a intelligent characteristic, though one I didn’t essentially discover a lot distinction with. With this in thoughts, your mileage could range. It’s positively a pleasant factor to have.

Audio and microphone

• Nice audio, though fairly bassy
• Spatial audio provides much more immersion
• Flip to mute mic is particularly handy

In fact, a very powerful factor right here is how the HS80 Max Wi-fi sounds, and I’m happy to report they make for pay attention.

They do have fairly a distinguished low finish, as was revealed on listening to the likes of Rush’s YYZ, Wolf Alice’s Smile, and in Marillion’s Residing With The Huge Lie, however there’s some stable element to be extracted right here, giving the audio fairly an immersive high quality. That wonderful extension additionally proved useful in testing FPS titles for providing extra immersion in CS:GO with each gunshot and close by explosion feeling impactful.

There additionally proved to be some stable soundstage with none spatial audio results. The percussion on James Taylor’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight felt suitably vast, alongside offering a crisp mid-range, though the bongos on Earth Wind and Hearth’s September did really feel just a little hemmed in, however that’s maybe to be anticipated for a closed again headset.

You do get entry to Dolby Atmos when utilizing the HS80 Max Wi-fi with PC to supply spatial audio, which offers with it much more immersion, and for PS5 customers, the HS80 Max Wi-fi works with Sony’s Tempest 3D Audio to provide the similar immersion in your favorite titles. 

The omni-directional increase mic provides clear outcomes with good physique, though the default quantity is just a little quiet. Fortunately, it’s straightforward to show up when inside iCUE, making certain clear comms with your folks and teammates on whichever platform. In my testing over Discord, the HS80 Max Wi-fi labored particularly effectively. That is additionally a flip-to-mute microphone, so it’s straightforward to chuck it up if you don’t need to be heard by the skin world.

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