I am having a bit of a consumer crisis.
Back at the start of 2020, I purchased Corsair's Void Pro Wireless. They did fine as my first real headset, but were even better after a friend showed me how to actually enable surround sound. I hadn't known the difference and was using stereo for months. I could finally hear where the footsteps were coming from in my games. 5 years later and they have finally worn out. I likely overcharged the battery too much and now they only last an hour or two before needing to be plugged in.
So months back I was purchasing some new peripherals, and that included the Corsair HS80 Max Wireless, which also happened to be discounted because of it being from their "Revival" refurbishment series. It came in, I set it up with Dolby Access and everything. The sound was like listening through tin cans no matter what I did. So I refunded it and ultimately procrastinated on finding a new pair and just played with my Void Pros plugged in. I finally started searching around and researching new headphones. I expanded my budget and went as far as making a spreadsheet for prices and specs to find the best model for the price. The issue I ran into however is that I was finding issues on all of them. Like the HyperX Max's having ridiculous latency once messing with the EQ settings. Then Steelseries models having bad build quality. Sennheiser not having a good wireless option. I gave up and went back to Corsair. I figured maybe the problem was that I got a pair of refurbished headphones. So I saw that the typically $330 pair of Virtuoso Max's was on sale for $200. I was told it would be a steal at that price. I got them, messed with Dolby Access again and the EQ and while they are certainly better than the HS80 Max, the audio is no where close to what the Void Pro is.
The Void Pro isn't being manufactured anymore, so I can't just buy a new pair. I'm unsure if the quality is just not where it used to be with this brand, or if Dolby Access is the problem, or some other setting I am missing. I quickly swapped back and forth listening to the same audio from my computer to see if it was just placebo but nope! With the Void Pro headset it sounds way more immersive, like I am actually there. Whereas with the Virtuoso headset it is very obviously speaker audio. Using Dolby Access definitely lets me improve the audio but it just isn't where I want it to be. There is no surround sound option in iCue with this headset like my Void Pro has. I have to use Dolby Access and I have a feeling that may not even be the problem. I have tried multiple different EQ configurations but nothing fixes the problem of how flat it feels in comparison. I have read that maybe they just need to play audio long enough to sort of be "broken in"? Should I just wait? It's hard to describe just how big of a difference there is between the two headsets but for what is usually $330 dollars at full price should not sound worse than a headset I paid roughly $100 for back in 2020. Any help would be appreciated. I am not the most knowledgeable with this stuff.
Using the wireless dongle. Plugged in sounds the same.
I've been using a Corsair Void Pro/Elite on both my work and gaming setups for years now, no issues. I really like them. Eventually the ear cups wear out, but you can buy new ones from Amazon for cheap enough.
OkTelephone7069
