the pulsar headset from CM storm by
Coolermaster feels heavier than it
actually is and I was actually surprised
to find out that it only weighs about
eight percent more than Corsairs
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maybe it's the higher density of the
materials used but the Pulsar feels
solidly built which makes sense because
compared to other gaming headsets in
this price range they're a bit
physically smaller and cooler master is
using a lot of metal in their
construction notably here in the
headband and here as well as here on the
side of the ear cups overall build
quality I'd say is a strong point and
size adjustment is among the smoothest
I've encountered with granular control
and a nice satisfying click for each
notch the ear cups clamped a little bit
too tight for me out of the box but a
redeeming quality is that the smallish
ear cups that house the pulsars 42
millimeter drivers have very supple
pleather covering on them and the foam
on them is nice and thick as long as you
don't have big ears this should be a
very comfortable headset once you break
it in unfortunately though there are
some negative things that I need to
bring up about them physically first up
I'm not a fan of large beefy boom mics
in general because they look kind of
goofy and they tend to be difficult to
position anywhere but directly in front
of your mouth where plosives are more
prominent and I'm also not a fan of
detachable mics because they tend to get
lost when you put both of these things
together you end up with an
implementation that is particularly
unappealing to me because the microphone
position is difficult to make fine
adjustments to while you're wearing it
which you'd think would be a non-issue
because you can just you know set it
once and kind of forget it right well
then what about this this is something
gamers do I can't
fold it up and now the boom mic is
hanging right in my face when I'm
wearing my headset around my neck so
I'll either have to move it meaning to
readjust it I'll need to take the
headset off or I'll need to detach it
another option that just kind of sucks
the inline volume control on the braided
nine-foot cable is well-built and a good
idea in theory but the problem here is a
fundamental design flaw that I see time
and time again particularly on phones
two opposing controls that require the
same type of force making accidental
activations inevitable watch what
happens when I try to mute my mic with
one hand the volume slider moves this
can be avoided by you know handling it
very carefully or using two hands but
it's not natural or convenient and with
its competition moving towards on-air
controls the pulsars remote design feels
distinctly last-gen if you don't use
mute mic bill that slider is hard enough
that you won't accidentally move it
while you're trying to adjust volume so
it's just the other way around that
caused problems for me
the proprietary connector for the cable
into the headphones themselves has a
very satisfying snap as you insert it
but I'm still not a big fan of custom
connectors on audio gear I mean okay it
allows you to have white illumination on
the ear cups and the microphone tip that
turns off when it's muted which is cool
but I personally don't really care about
that and neither do a lot of people I
think the removable aluminum plates that
can be customized and then put back on
are actually really cool but that's
because those work without plugging an
additional USB cable into my PC honestly
it seems like the only time that lights
on a headset which you'll never see will
matter is in this product shot where
ironically the illumination isn't even
that visible on to the listening tests I
used my usual strategy of watching some
streams on Twitch and listening to top
40 music to come to the following
conclusions to my delight this headset
space is not overpowering so if you're
looking for the equivalent of a juiced
up car stereo listening experience
you'll be disappointed but for me that
was great and on top of that it's
surprisingly tight and punchy this
combined with the Pulsar strong noise
isolation makes for a very immersive
gaming experience with gunfire and
explosions and other sound effects being
very easy to pinpoint voice
communication and games comes through
loud and clear but lacks the sheer
impact of those deeper sounds
and that was the first hint for me of a
performance deficiency in this headset
that was much more noticeable than
listening to music it didn't bother me
at all while gaming but firing up almost
any song with a vocalist made me acutely
aware of the lack of clarity these
headphones deliver in the mid and high
ranges so I guess we'll round out our
performance analysis with a microphone
listening test
just so you guys know I'm recording this
on an Asus Thunder FX external sound
card I hope you like it
I guess we'll round out our performance
analysis with a microphone listening
test I'm recording this on an asus
thunder FX external sound card i hope
you like it
conclusion wise this was a fairly simple
review for me
the pulsars are solid and well built but
with their small air cups and relatively
narrow range of headband adjustments
they're not made for folks with giant
heads or ears the microphone ergonomics
are really a turn-off for me but it's
not something that everyone will care
about and on a more positive note they
deliver some of the most satisfying ly
punchy bass i've ever heard in this
price range and so if you're willing to
compromise clarity in the mids and highs
for it then that turns into a
recommendation guys like this video if
you liked it dislike it if you disliked
it leave a comment and let me know what
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