Testing Methodology

For testing we will be testing only on the PC platform since I feel that it gives better overall sound quality. We will be examining the headsets performance in Music, Movies,and PC games.

Before running these tests, the headphones were properly burned-in, in order to bring out the full characteristics of the sound. This is done in order to allow the speakers in the headphones to burn-in since they often sound different out of the box, than when you burn them in for 20-50hrs. After the burn-in period, all tests were conducted.

Music

Music testing is done with the Flux Guild Wars 2  headset being driven by an Asus Xonar DX sound card, all music is formatted in FLAC at 256kbs bitrate. Different music albums were used in order to get a feel for how the set would perform on different music genres. All music was tested at a neutral preset on the sound card in order to show what out of the box performance is like, without catering to a individual music type since very few people only listen to a single type of music.

The first album I used was Aly & Fila - Rising sun which is a Trance/ Techno album. One thing comes to mind. Bass. Holy cow the bass on these things is extremely prounced. It is most likely due to the "closed" nature of the headphones. At times this bass can be overwhelming and lingers over higher notes. Highs and lows come in fine, but at times the mids have a bit of trouble coming through due to the intense nature of the bass in these cans.

Next up is the Folk album Bring Me your Love by City & Colour. This album is used in order to give a good sense of the mids and highs, as well as some input on the finer details in guitar chords and other sounds. Due to the closed nature of these headphones, the soundstage is really lacking. It feels like all of the sound is directed to your ear and is not able to fully develop. Bass once again comes in crisp, but mids and highs are not very good. You get the feeling that you are listeing to music, and not having a music expererience.

Next up we pick up the pace of the music and feature the A.F.I. Album, Art of Drowning. I have to say I am pretty impressed with these cans with this album. Where others have failed, these produce a solid sound. Lows, mids and highs all come through very well. At really high volumes things become muddy, but if you keep things below 70% there is nothing to worry about.

Finally we took a look at the Rap album K.O.D. by Tech N9ne.Bass was very pronounced throughout this whole album. It is not excessive, but it does provide a solid punch. Mids do a decent job and highs make proper appearances that do not mix. Nothing really stands out as amazing throughout the whole experience, but there are not any large mistakes either which is always good.

Movies/ Video

Lots of people use their headphones when they watch movies or their favorite TV shows. Testing is done by watching Blue-Ray rips of the following series at 720p or 1080p on the VLC media player.

Life-

This BBC/ Discovery channel is simply stunning visually and audio-wise. If this headset needed work on something it would be small details. They come through and listening/watching is indeed enjoyable but some of the smaller things don't come through quite as good as I had hoped.

Band of Brothers -

This HBO mini-series gives a breattaking look at a group from the 101st airbourne during world war II. Gunfire and explosions came through crisp and clear with these headphones. One thing that was lacking was directional audio. I could hear which side something was coming from but the exact locataion was very hard to tell. This is likely due to the reduced soundstage which comes from these headphones being of the "closed" variety.

But lets move onto what these cans are marketed for, gaming.

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