Cheryl Tan
Dec 9, 20203 min
Updated: Aug 20, 2021
Gaming headsets are, of course, primarily used for gaming. But these days, because of the rise of virtual meetings, gaming headsets double up as a virtual meeting accessory. In that regards, I have put the MonsterXGears Wyvern gaming headset to the test for both gaming as well as in virtual meetings.
Today I will be singling out the 3 big factors in using a gaming headset, the build quality, the audio quality and mic quality. First, let’s look at the design.
At first glance, there’s nothing out of the ordinary, except you might notice the large sets of earcups. The earcups are impressively comfortable for a gaming headset. My large ears don’t go well with gaming headsets earcups usually, but these play very well with my ears.
I also have to be honest about my first impressions. I was quite sceptical about the clamping force when first looking at the hinges of the earcups. The clamping force is the pressure that the headsets exert on your head. This will normally influence how long they can stay on your head without you feeling fatigued.
With the Wyvern, it can stay on my head for hours without me complaining of being nauseated or getting a headache. This could be because of how the earcups can swivel up and down. Together with the retractable hinges, they have a lot of flexibility in conforming to your head. I thought this was brilliant and a really good job done by the people in MonsterXGear.
The top part of the headband over here is made of PU Leather. It is both plushy and comfy. On the left side of the earcups is where you find the attached mic. This mic is fixed so you can’t really remove it. It swivels almost 180 degrees and the mic has a gooseneck material so it’s flexible. I love that it is long enough to reach in front of your mouth.
Overall this headset is tough, made from high-grade plastic. I don’t think you will need to worry about dropping this or spoiling it. I also love that it is light, which adds to the overall comfortability when it sits on your head.
I tried using this headset for gaming, movies as well as music. Considering the price is at S$149.00, the overall sound quality is good. But if you are used to listening to quality headphones like the Sennheiser HD650, the HD600, the Grado lines, Beyerdynamic headphones and the likes, you need to manage your expectations because these are not like those headphones.
When playing games, you can hear nice gunshot sound effects, full sword swing sounds, and there’s nice depth and separation overall. The only thing I feel is lacking is that the bass response is not punchy enough. But then again, this is a S$149 gaming headset, which I have to keep reminding myself about.
What I also like is that it produces big sounds. It does not shy away from amplifying volume. This is probably because of its 50mm drivers and low impedance level. There is, however, an audio control panel that you can toggle the equalisers and crank up the mids and highs on the Xear Audio Brilliant.
For those shooter gamers, I am sure you’ll agree that directional audio is a big factor. You can turn this on, in the controls too, under Xear Surround Headphone. I don’t normally play FPS games or battle royale games so I don’t turn this mode on.
Also, similarly to other virtual surround modes in gaming sets, I just don’t like the sound it reproduces as they sound rather synthetic. It is just not my cup of tea. Check out the video above to see what I usually turn on for my audio settings.
As for mic quality. This, of course, works for gaming as well as in virtual meetings. In my test, I sound crisp and clear which is good for any virtual meetings. Check out the video for an audio sample.
You might also be interested that there is an ENC mode that you can turn on to suppress background noise. ENC means environmental noise cancellation. You need to use the remote module to turn the ENC on or off. Check out the video for an audio sample on how the ENC performs.
Overall this is a good gaming headset which has some features that make it versatile. For a S$149 headset, it does well in reproducing good sounds in gaming, especially enhancing the sound effects.
For more information about the MonsterXGear Wyvern gaming headset (S$149), check out MonsterXGear’s website.
Written by Khairun Kamaruzaini (Tech360.tv Community Creator)