Gadgetory

hey guys this is Dimitri what Hurok Knutson welcome back to another view within the sphere of gaming the audio we are usually bombarded with intense bass so your head can Rumble when you enter a firefight but I think what comes to gaming headsets there are usually three things to look out for and that's Comfort soundstage and frequency response so two for shout out this review I'm happy to report that these are all things funk has taken into account when developing their first gaming headset this is the HS 260 and they are entering the market with a very interesting and quite attractive price point of $80 start with the build quality they are made of plastic but aren't in any way flimsy they actually very flexible and obviously size adjustable the ear cups are rubber coated the same type of coating as found on their MK 460 keyboard it feels nice but as you see it does leave visible finger marks the perforation on the ear cups is also just a design feature these are not open style headsets although funk does include two sets of ear cushions that are really easy to swap so we have the valor cups that offer a more open audio environment with wider soundstage but in turn less isolation it actually helps to cool your ears slightly better while the leather cushions provide a more isolated sound and a slightly more pronounced bass response the HS 260 is an over ear headset actually they are comfortable and lightweight only at 370 grams and while the headband has this leather padding I wish it would be slightly softer and deeper as after a few hours of gaming it's the only pressure point that I certainly felt the left ear cup has the volume adjustments a super convenient to adjust without needing to reach for inline controls and the very unique feature of the HS 260 is this interchangeable and swappable headphone / microphone port the microphone is detachable and social flexible and also has the mute function at the bottom there as you get here it's actually quite clean and clear audio now it doesn't fully cancel out the background noise but it would be totally acceptable for gaming now depending on the orientation of your setup you can connect the detachable cord to either left to right in my case I was using the audio engine DAC for testing which is on my left so I used the left ear cup for the cable and the right ear cup for the microphone the cable is long and is braided but one thing I wanted to point out was the lack of indication whether you're using the mic or headphone jack eyesight from the small color tips at the end there it would have been nice to include the standard sort of graphic for easier separation for which cable is what the HS 260 features 50 millimeter drivers and a pretty standard impedance of 32 ohms and from what I've been told specifically been designed or tuned for the most optimal sound resolution and detail for gaming so here is the frequency response graph that isn't as flat so don't be expecting the best audio fidelity but for a gaming oriented headset the bass response is dipped in the low end making gunfire and rockets that much more evident with tight and deep bass especially when using the leather pads the bass doesn't drown out the mid-range detail and was actually very impressive for an $80.00 headset moving on to the main range response where they show here is a slight boost in the upper portion so basically speech enhancements to be able to hear your teammates clearly but the mid-range is likely recessed resulting in less detail and somewhat muted response listening to September from Earth Wind and Fire and those background instruments are almost non evident and instrument differentiation was lacking however nothing is lost a little magic from the EQ to wake up the mid-range and you're back in business I was very surprised at how well the drivers could handle a little extra push on the low range so I pushed the bass more forward without any noticeable distortion the high range on the HS 260 is pretty excellent with nice sharp treble but not overly bright so hearing that sniper fire just missing a head is extremely satisfying as the drivers are capable of handling trouble without too much brightness and but I actually do prefer slightly brighter sound and as I said earlier playing with a EQ to really fine-tune the drivers for your own personal preference can't be done without destroying the balance of the overall frequency and I have to give it to funk for an overly nicely tuned drivers that make a gaming experience fun with ex on stereo imaging so being able to pinpoint direction of audio elements but when it comes to soundstage and positional audio I think in the entire gaming audio realm we could use more open style or semi open style headphones or headsets for a large and open soundstage now due to the limitations of this closed type design found on the HS 260 your audio environment isn't very large but funk tries to mitigate this with the extra velour ear questions then don't concentrate sound within the ear cup but instead a lot for more distortion resulting in while soundstage and further improving positional awareness but I did actually prefer the leather cups more for gaming to get that really tight and deep bass that I love every time an explosion went off by me but most importantly it doesn't sacrifice on the detail throughout the frequency range so that's very important and I'm actually quite happy with the outcome of funks entrance into gaming audio the interchangeable ear cushions and swappable cable and microphone are all excellent features for user preference and flexibility on headset volume wheel is always convenient and the HS 260 are very comfortable drivers have been tuned for gaming and that's exactly what they deliver with tight bass an excellent treble response mid-range has been tuned for in-game voice but is slightly muted causing some loss in detail separation but nothing a little equalizer can't solve but I do find that the lack of any indication on the mic headphone jacks aside from the color on the tips there's just a slight oversight that perhaps could easily be fixed and I will conclude by stating that I do like this simple approach with the HS 260 without overly flashy designs and really standing behind the slogan of functionality perfected as this certainly is a damn good headset that has a lot of potential with a pretty decent value so thanks guys for watching don't forget to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next one