Frequently Asked Questions

Top Questions

• How should I clean my Corsair Gaming headset?

  The foam pads are made with open cell foam, so they should not be immersed in water. You can use the sticky side of tape or a lint removal tool to clean the ear pads, or a gentle wipe with a damp cloth on the fabric would also be fine

• What is the exact benefit of 50mm drivers, vs. the 40mm drivers found in most other gaming headsets?

  Big drivers sound better than small drivers. This is immediately understood who’s listened to the same music on large home audio speakers and a portable iPod dock. But explaining why and how they sound better requires a little more detail.
  
  A 50mm driver has 56% more surface area than a 40mm driver (thanks to the “A = πr2” formula we learned in elementary school). It also has a proportional increase in what audio scientists call “volume velocity,” or “acoustic impedance.” This translates into a measurement that the same scientists refer to as “acoustic power” or “sound power.” A 50mm driver has an increased sound power of 143%. You can look up these terms on Wikipedia for more details on how they’re calculated.
  
  The additional sound power allows the driver to reproduce audio that’s much more detailed. If your audio source has a lot of things going on at once – a 24-track musical “wall of sound,” for instance, or a boss level in a game where you have way too many enemies firing way too many types of weapons your way – a driver with more sound power can recreate each of these more accurately, while a smaller driver is more liable to lose details in the noise.
  
  This means that listening is more enjoyable, with less distortion – whether it’s distortion that you can immediately notice, or if it’s the continuous, low-grade distortion that irritates you on a subconscious level, contributes to ear fatigue and makes you want to stop listening.
  
  Beyond enjoyment, there’s a practical advantage when playing games – you need to hear the voices of your teammates during the massively insane firefights. While this won’t be an issue 90% of the time (a good game audio designer will test on various types of speakers and headphones), it’s that 10% that counts.

• What has Corsair done to make the audio sound so great, besides using 50mm drivers?

  The choice to use 50mm drivers, rather than the industry-standard 40mm drivers, was just the first step of the journey. There’s much more to creating a great headset beyond investing in the right high-quality components. Our audio engineering team looked at every parameter that affects accurate audio reproduction, including driver design and alignment, baffle geometry and angle, and the acoustic tuning of the materials chosen for the ear-pads and liner material.

• What is the benefit of a circumaural, closed-back design? What do those terms mean?

  “Circumaural” means “around the ear.” The other type of commonly used earcup design is “supra-aural,” resting on the ears.
  
  Circumaural earcups provide superior noise isolation. Noise isolation is important for LAN parties and other noisy, high-distraction environments – you want to get your head into your game (or your movie, or your music) without noise filtering in, and others around you may not want to hear what you’re listening to.
  
  When designing a Circumaural headset, the key to comfort is relatively light weight, without creating pinch points or touching the ears. We’ve accomplished this by using extra-large earcups that we tested on people who sport some of the largest ears we could find. Our use of memory foam allows a firm, uniform seal, without exerting too much pressure on the head. The fabric covering allows for less slip than imitation leather, and reduces the excess moisture that leather-like materials can cause.
  
  Closed-back earcups are sealed against sound leaving or entering the earcup. Compare this to open-back earcups, which have perforations, slots or another type of opening in the earcups that allow some environmental sound in, and allow some of the audio from the earcups to escape. Open-back designs do not allow for adequate noise isolation.