My Ceres 400 broke...now what?

Hi all

My Ceres 400 headset snapped the right hand side earcup off when I took it off the other night during our LAN. Reading some Amazon reviews this seems to be quite a common issue with them, so I probably will not be going with Cooler Master headsets ever again. It is a shame as they sounded fantastic and had a nice clear microphone too and were super comfy. I am going to replace them but maybe towards next month or so. I was looking around and decided to set my budget at around R900 max, but I can stretch it a bit if need be. I bought my previous pair for R400 but this was a few years ago and things have really shot up in price since then.

Criteria:

- must be USB. My 3.5mm jack on the front of my PC is a bit wonky and I only use it with my PC so there is no chance for me wanting to use it on other devices with 3.5mm jacks. The rear jacks are occupied by my 5.1 desktop speakers.

- must be comfortable enough for 4+ hours at a time (subjective as everyone has different discomfort thresholds and head sizes/shapes) whilst wearing reading glasses. I would also need over-the-ear pods as opposed to on-the-ear ones.

- Volume controls are a must, either inline or on the earcups themselves.

- they have to have a built-in microphone.

-

I have considered the following ones but I would obviously appreciate any hands-on advice and experience from you folks. All items were sourced from Rebeltech for simplicity's sake:

• Tritton Kunai | R673 | (40mm drivers, low impedance @16ohm, not sure why they have 3.5mm AND USB connectivity specified but it is geared towards console usage)
• Speedlink Xanthos | R686 (the brand is an unknown quantity)
• Speedlink Medusa XE 5.1 | R767 (True 5.1, but unknown brand as above, apparently uncomfortable)
• Genius GX Cavimanus 7.1 | R784 ('only' virtual 7.1, gimmicky vibration function)
• Thermaltake Cronos | R828 (I like the fold-to-flat idea, looks a bit flimsy though)
• Corsair Raptor HS40 | R837 (Apparently quite flimsy and poor sound reproduction, thin headband padding)
• Plantronics .Audio 655 | R699 from Takealot (Decent reviews but apparently quite flimsy, as are most in this price range by the looks of things)

I had the Roccat Kulo, Razer Kraken and Cooler Master Ceres 500 on the list but they didn't meet the criteria so they were removed.

I am leaning towards the Corsair HS40 or the Speedlink Medusa, but my decision is not set in stone and would appreciate any feedback or comments

Is Stereo fine?

Yup, real 5.1/7.1 would be tops, virtual might be a bit gimmicky depending on the implementation but I cannot judge without experiencing it first.

But the bottom line is that stereo would work just fine for my needs. I guess I'm looking for comfort and longevity more than anything else

I have the Corsair vengeance 1300 coupled with a decent sound card and it sounds great and it still works, 4-5 years old. Not sure why they dropped they vengeance series.


My suggestion is to youtube review all of those headsets then pick the best one.

I remember those. I had a boner for the Vengeance 2000 series, and at the time they were around R2k which was considered 'expensive'. Nowadays the Logitech G930 is over 3 grand...

I don't have a dedicated sound card hence why I also would like to opt for USB versus 3.5mm. My onboard audio is a bit 'hissy' at higher volumes. Takealot stocks Plantronics as well and their .Audio 655 seems like a good deal @ R699. The ear cups seem a bit small though and my ears aren't tiny. Also lots of reviews stating they break easily. Youtube hasn't got much on the lesser known brands so I am a bit hesitant to go for one that is a relative unknown such as the Speedlink ones...

Rickster said:

I have the Corsair vengeance 1300 coupled with a decent sound card and it sounds great and it still works, 4-5 years old. Not sure why they dropped they vengeance series.


My suggestion is to youtube review all of those headsets then pick the best one.

Click to expand...

I broke two pairs, Vengeance 1500 and 2000 both in the same place, I'm not heavy handed with my gear, I had my last mouse for 8 years and my current headphones(Philips SHP9500, I'll never go for gamer headphones again) for 2 years. Both Vengeances broke within 4-6 months.

http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide

wabbit16 said:

Nowadays the Logitech G930 is over 3 grand...

Click to expand...

They are currently quite cheap, you can get them from Amazon directly for R1.4k and that includes shipping and taxes. (Listed as $69)

My cleaning lady busted my G35s by dropping them and they ended up snapping so I have also been having a look. I'm leaning toward wireless because of my setup. I have narrowed my options down to the G930 and the Corsair Void Wireless (~R1700). Have not been able to decide though...

Noah said:

I broke two pairs, Vengeance 1500 and 2000 both in the same place, I'm not heavy handed with my gear, I had my last mouse for 8 years and my current headphones(Philips SHP9500, I'll never go for gamer headphones again) for 2 years. Both Vengeances broke within 4-6 months.

http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide

Click to expand...

Ta. I see the SHP9500 are open headphones? I'd have to go for something with a built-in mic (well, I don't HAVE to but I'd prefer an all-in-one solution for the odd CS:GO or COD game) but they seem well priced on eBay.

Werfetter said:

They are currently quite cheap, you can get them from Amazon directly for R1.4k and that includes shipping and taxes. (Listed as $69)

My cleaning lady busted my G35s by dropping them and they ended up snapping so I have also been having a look. I'm leaning toward wireless because of my setup. I have narrowed my options down to the G930 and the Corsair Void Wireless (~R1700). Have not been able to decide though...

Click to expand...

Eish, maybe a bit above my budget which is a bit strained as it is. I also had a look at wireless by finding headsets that match my criteria and putting them into an Excel spreadsheet comparing prices and features...I was a bit bored but it was interesting to see the wide spread of what is available towards the R1000 mark.

The Corsair H1500 wired and the H2100 which is the wireless version is a minor R203 apart @ R1286 and R1489 respectively, but I would hate to have the battery pack go bad and ruin the headset. Also, weight might be an issue if you have a soft noggin.

A mate of mine has G35's and he was super happy with them. Great for gaming but since they had many tiny speakers rather than two larger ones, I found the audio quality not quite there for listening to music. But these are gaming headsets, so I digress

In any case, I am currently looking at 2nd hand ones to see what is out there and will report back once I have found something. I've attached the spreadsheet I mocked up below for interests' sake

wabbit16 said:

I've attached the spreadsheet I mocked up below for interests' sake.
View attachment 389952

Click to expand...

Well then it looks like you have done quite a bit of research. Nice comparison and thanks for sharing. If only I knew of someone heading to the states sometime soon that could save me the courier costs it would fit into my budget very nicely. For now I will have to save up my funds a bit...

Yeah, these things aren't cheap anymore

I settled on a pair of Corsair H1500's, bought second hand. The courier picked it up yesterday so I am hoping to have it with me by Monday or so

Update:

I actually received the headset on Friday morning despite the courier saying it would not be delivered before I have EFT'ed them the courier fees. I sent the monies across to them later that afternoon though.

First impressions are that they seemed a bit flat at first, but after installing the Corsair Gaming Headset Software 2.0.37 (?) and selecting the input mode as Stereo it sounded a bit better.

I had a small hiccup in that muting the mic using the inline controls didn't actually mute it, but this has something to do with the way Windows handles USB audio devices. I had to go into the Control Panel and mute the 'Mic' and 'Line In' from the one menu and enable the mic on my onboard sound card to get it to work. Weird.

Enabling the Dolby 7.1 surround option makes the audio sound a lot deeper but treble quality is lost so this mode does not work well for music or movies (although this is not what the headset was designed for).

The virtual 5.1 works very well in CS:GO when set to 5.1 -> 7.1 in the Corsair control panel and with the EQ set to 'FPS' mode you can hear the footsteps from afar which gives me that advantage needed over the wallhackers

I used them about 4 hours and they were comfy and my ears didn't get hot at all, but they did press pretty hard into my jawline beneath my ears and the headband gets hard after a while. I am hoping they will soften up with use (the unit was 2nd hand but wasn't used a lot judging by the minimal wear and tear on it). I also dislike that the inline controls flash red and blue when the mic is muted. I find it a bit distracting and I would have preferred red for mute and blue for unmute, but anyways.

Mic quality is very good and with some tweaking of the dB I got it so that it sounds pretty good overall. I used Equalizer APO to also put some negative gain on the speakers as at 4% volume they are uncomfortably loud. At 50% my roommate next door could hear them :wtf: