Creative Labs is at again with their Sound Blaster X line of audio products. I am super excited to start featuring these bad boys, starting with the H5 Headset that is the cream of the crop (and rises to the top) of the new lineup. Right from the get go, the compact but sturdy packaging is an indication of the quality you are about to dive into. Continuing Creative Labs' history of solid gear, I couldn't wait to dig into testing it out.
Design and Performance
The Sound Blaster H5 Headset is quite amazing. The complete over-the-ear design is extremely comfortable, I was able to wear them for 5 hours of gaming with zero complaints. The sound was so good I was opting to play with them on even when noise wasn’t an issue. They seemed to offer superior sound quality to my Yamaha 5.1 surround sound. And in the evenings when I was trying to keep the noise level down to save my marriage, I was completely immersed in the games while my wife slept soundly only a couple feet away.
The sound worked so well while playing Alien Isolation that I was scared so bad I dropped the controller. The sound coming from these beasts is clear, concise, and heart-poundingly deep and solid. Every noise from the smallest, most subtle cues to the bombastic gunfire and music, was perfectly reproduced.
Party chat was also flawless, allowing for quick and easy manipulation of game-to-chat volume ratios with great isolation of both. My friends on the other side could hear me loud and clear as I could with them.
The only thing that was kind of iffy to me was the modular design. I like how you can disconnect the mic and the cords when you are not using them, but since there isn’t really a case for them. I feel like they are small enough I could lose them quite easily. Also, mostly my fault, but I did plug the wrong side of the headphones in and couldn’t get sound going for a few minutes.
Final Verdict
All in all I would give these headphones a solid recommendation and mostly because of preference of sound and design. Since I don’t plan on using the headphones for anything other than gaming I would rather have the mic stay connected with the ability to move it out of the way so I wasn’t scared of losing it.
