Review of professional gaming headphones Creative Sound BlasterX Tournament Edition

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lifehacker compares two top gaming headsets from Creative and chooses the best one.

Headphones are one of the fundamental ingredients for comfortable gaming. If we talk about competitive games, especially shooters, then high-quality sound and microphone become even more important. The ability to hear the enemy, to understand the direction from which the threat is coming, to speak so that the teammates understand the first time and clearly, is the basis of success and gives a huge advantage in battle. A fighter without ears and no voice is a very bad fighter.

Creative is known to all hardcore gamers primarily as a manufacturer of professional sound cards Sound Blaster, but it also has a whole line of Sound BlasterX Pro-Gaming gaming accessories, including mice, keyboards and, of course, headsets.

Three models came to Lifehacker's editorial office at once:

• Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition (7,190 rubles) - full-size closed-type headphones with a headband and connected via a 3.5 mm jack.
• Sound BlasterX H7 Tournament Edition (7,990 rubles) - two-mode full-size closed-type headphones with a headband and connected via a 3.5 mm jack, as well as via USB with 7, 1-channel sound emulation.
• Sound BlasterX P5 (4,990 rubles) - in-ear headphones-headset connected via a 3.5 mm jack.

I will tell you how the compact in-ear headset performed in games in a separate review, and now I bring to your attention a comparison of the more traditional full-size models for gaming.

The Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition and Sound BlasterX H7 Tournament Edition are essentially enhanced versions of the original H5 and H7. The manufacturer took into account the comments of users and appropriately finished the headsets in order to improve their sound, ergonomics, and more. Typically, the Tournament Edition signifies a smaller size and better transportability, but in this case it's just an updated version.

Outwardly, the easiest way to distinguish between headsets is by wires.

The H5 TE has black cables, while the H7 TE has red cables.

The H7 TE is nothing more than a more sophisticated USB version of the H5 TE. The main characteristics of the headsets are identical.

Convenience and reliability

The full-length, closed-cup headband design is a classic gaming headset.

It looks a little cumbersome, but gaming accessories have never chased minimalism and sophistication. Only the full-size form factor is able to provide the maximum level of comfort and accommodate sufficient speakers.

When putting on the headsets, the cups completely cover the ears and practically do not touch the auricles. There is a feeling that the hearing organs are in some kind of their own isolated environment and are no longer in contact with the outside world.

The ear cushions and the inner part of the headband are made of very soft memory material, covered with an equally soft leather substitute. The pressure on the head is perfectly evenly distributed.

Inside the H5 TE and H7 TE headbands there is a thin steel plate. On the one hand, it is very flexible, so there is no excess pressure on the head. On the other hand, this material is very durable. The headsets can be stretched on purpose, but they retain their original shape.

The body of the bowls is predominantly plastic, the plugs opposite the drivers and the headband connections are made of aluminum.

The units, which have the main mechanical impact during operation, are fastened with screws.

The cables of both headsets are quite thick and look oversized, but made of different materials.

The H5 TE wires are black and covered with a synthetic fiber braid. The cable withstood stress tests with dignity, including several lengthy transfers at the bottom of a densely packed backpack and attempts to intentionally break. Wire connections with plugs and remote control are reinforced with thick elastic rubber tubes. The cable, by the way, is removable, and therefore especially thrifty users can disconnect it while carrying it in a bag or backpack.

A completely different story with the H7 TE wire. It is non-removable and does not have a braid, but it is covered with a rubber-like material with a characteristic texture in the form of longitudinal grooves like a penne paste.

This cable is very familiar to me and other owners of the popular Steelseries Siberia v2, because here it is exactly the same, but noticeably thicker.

My Siberia has served me well for over two years and has withstood countless unintentional jerks. Many times I got up from behind the computer, forgetting to remove the headset from my neck, and literally pulled the plug out of the system unit, but everything is still in order with the wire. It can be assumed that a cable of a similar design, but even thicker, will cope with such troubles just as well.

In addition to durability, the fact that part of the 3.5 mm H7 TE double-sided wire is removable is encouraging.

When you try to jerk the headset, the structure simply disconnects at the point where the cable is connected to the control panel and no breakdowns or breaks occur. The same thing happens with a USB connection.

Sound

Specifications

The characteristics of the H5 TE and H7 TE speakers are absolutely identical: diameter - 50 mm, neodymium magnets, range - from 20 Hz to 20,000 kHz, sensitivity - 118 dB / mW. The emitters are located at a slight downward angle so that the sound vibrations hit the surface of the auricle as evenly as possible.

I have an old proven test to determine the capabilities of a new gaming headset. If in Battlefield, a large caliber flying overhead forces your head to rest against your shoulders without any further desire to stick your head out and see what it is, then everything is fine. Both headsets gave the desired effect.

In addition to the power and richness of sound, gaming acoustics have another extremely important parameter - accuracy.

Accuracy in this case does not mean the absence of distortion, but the ability of the headset to convey the direction of shots, steps and other events as correctly and understandable to the human ear as possible, while highlighting the necessary sounds and muffling unnecessary background noises.

Optimizing sound

To optimize the sound, Creative offers users the Sound BlasterX Acoustic Engine in two versions: Lite for the H5 TE headset and H7 TE in 3.5mm connection mode, and Pro for the H7 TE headset in USB mode.

The Lite version is a set of audio profiles for various game genres, as well as special settings for popular favorites like Dota 2. Their purpose is to create an additional emphasis on those sounds that are important in a particular genre or game. For example, in shooters, the Acoustic Engine amplifies the sounds of shots, explosions, and makes the Doppler effect juicier. In addition to games, the utility includes preset profiles for listening to music, watching movies, and an equalizer for manual adjustment.

The Pro version of the utility has all the features of Lite, as well as several special functions that can be realized thanks to a USB connection. We are talking about emulation of multichannel sound and a special Scout Mode for shooters.

With emulation, everything is pretty obvious. If, when connected via a 3.5 mm jack, you understand the direction of the sound with an accuracy of about a quarter of a sphere, then when the headset is operated via USB with activated surround sound, the direction is determined with an accuracy of an hour.

Scout Mode is a keystroke mode in which the Acoustic Engine tries to remove all background and music as much as possible while increasing the volume of sounds generated by moving objects.

It should be noted that the emulation of multichannel sound and Scout Mode are not considered cheats and can be used in any multiplayer games without the risk of getting banned.

Built-in DAC

The last but very important advantage of the H7 TE is the built-in 24-bit / 96 kHz DAC, which is only used with a USB connection. For a couple of years, prices for computer accessories have changed a lot, and therefore not everyone can spend money on a good sound card. Connecting a headset via USB actually transfers all the work of converting a digital to an analogue to the headset's DAC, and therefore the mediocre performance of the built-in sound card is no longer a hindrance.

If we talk about the sound of headsets outside of games, namely when listening to music, then it must be remembered that gaming and ordinary headsets are created and configured for different purposes.

Listeners not accustomed to gaming accessories, as a rule, notice an excessive saturation of the lower range, against the background of which there is a slight lack of the middle. This feature is inherent in absolutely all full-format gaming headsets and is solved using the very Acoustic Engine set to music mode. But lovers of juicy bass, on the contrary, will be glad, because there is no need to specially twist the equalizer.

Microphone

The H5 TE and H7 TE have exactly the same detachable directional microphones with noise cancellation and ambient noise canceling.

The teammates in Battlefield 1 and CS: GO heard me clearly and did not complain about the quality.

Control

The H5 TE and H7 TE remotes have an identical design and set of buttons, but differ in size. In the presence of a volume control wheel, a button to control calls and music if the headset is connected to a smartphone, as well as a large switch for the microphone.

The H7 TE console has a slightly larger dimensions, because it additionally houses a DAC and a microUSB port for connecting a headset via a USB interface.

The inner unconscious is the best way to test the convenience of the remote control. If, instead of the usual way of changing the volume on the keyboard, the hands begin to reach for the wheel of the headset themselves, then the control is convenient. In the Siberia v2 I used earlier, the remote was tiny, and the volume wheel was thin and rather tight. To be honest, it is inconvenient to use it. Now I only control the sound from the headset. It took one evening to get used to it.

Which headset is better

Such a question could be relevant if the difference in the price of the headsets was several thousand rubles, but in the official store H7 TE costs 7,990 rubles, that is, only 800 rubles more expensive than the H5 TE.

Paying less than a thousand rubles for a USB, a built-in DAC, a more sophisticated sound enhancement utility and a wire made of a material that serves for years without kinks and breaks is a very advantageous offer.

In this situation, the H5 TE looks completely uncompetitive and will find fans only among gamers who fundamentally reject USB headsets.