DylanRhodes

Thanks for posting the review. A few comments: "Yes, I'm completely certain that the same photo used with the HS1 was used for the HS1A, albeit after some convincing editing." I'll take this as a compliment. The HS1 box photo was taken of the HS1, and the HS1A box photo was taken of the HS1A. They were shot months apart. You mentioned that the latter was positioned exactly like the first -- I'm glad you noticed. The photographer and I spent a lot of time getting it just right. "Corsair has chosen only to cater to speakers and readers of three languages: English, French, and Spanish. A curious choice, and a 'Piss off!' to the Germans, Italians, and the East Slavs." Not exactly. The European packaging for the HS1A has the same set of languages (abbreviated EFIGS+R) as did the HS1. Here in the United States, we need only English, French, and Spanish. The HS1A you got for review was the US version. Don't worry, they're identical except for the packaging. You may assure your Italian, German, and Russian-speaking friends that there was no actual slight. Regarding the unfortunate situation of many gaming headsets having overdriven bass, it's written: "This is a load of rubbish. Games use the same frequency range as other audio sources. Headphones that are muddy, or honky, or tin can-y will have those characteristics no matter where the audio is sourced from. In a way, Corsair is correct in saying that crappy headphones are crappy, and good headphones are good, though this hardly needs clarification." Alas, but I wish it were. Early in the development process for the HS1 and HS1A, as you'd expect, we listened to a LOT of gaming headsets. And, unfortunately, several popular models have bass that's waaaay overdriven. This results in a set that's fine for gaming (I suppose their logic is that overboosting the bass makes for a nice experience listening to all those explosions), but when you take those same gaming headphones and listen to some music you're familiar with, you'll immediately see that something isn't right. You're correct, of course, that bad headsets are bad and good headsets are good, but it's a peculiarity of the gaming headset category that some vendors have chosen to add a particular form of bad, which can have the narrow effect of pleasing game performance for what I call the "20 second test," at the expense of general-purpose suitability. That's the point. Apologies if it wasn't clear.