Corsair Blog

For those of you considering a new headset, keep in mind that the new Gaming Audio Series HS1A gaming headset sounds great with MP3 players and mobile phones too.

Due to a recent iPod tragedy, I am currently using my Droid X for all my mobile music. As I was loading the MP3s into my phone, I had a brief flashback to the recent PAX East gaming event. We had one of our new HS1A analog headsets set up at our booth for people to sample. We had some good lossless MP3s playing and quite a few people listened and were very impressed with them. What stuck with me was how many people said “Wow, is this a noise cancelling headset too?”

In fact, the cans are not noise cancelling. However, we specifically designed the ear pieces for the HS1 USB and HS1A to fully enclose the entire ear. This feature, coupled with the excellent padding in the ear pads, does result in great external sound isolation. So, in fact, there is a noise cancelling effect of sorts.

This led me to try the HS1As out with my Droid X. I was not overly impressed with the default music player that came with my phone. It was adequate but I wanted more bells and whistles. After a bit of reading I decided to try the PowerAMP player.

I was very surprised and impressed by how clean and clear the playback was using this combination. The volume was not quite as loud as what I normally get with smaller ear bud type headphones. But, it’s plenty loud for my old ears and the noise reduction of the cans on the HS1As more than makes up for the lack of sheer volume. So, for those of you considering a new headset, keep in mind that HS1As sound great with MP3 players and mobile phones. I’m definitely going to use them with my iPod Touch when it comes back from having the screen replaced!