So did you know Edifier has a SUPER-BUDGET gaming headset with included USB DAC and DSP, for really super cheap?
No?
So did I! This headset doesn’t even appear in the official Edifier Websites, like, from nowhere! And yet they’re on sale, in some Edifier Official Stores around the world. Like the Brazil, Official Edifier Store: https://www.lojaedifier.com.br/headset-gamer-usb-edifier-g1-preto.html. Anyway, moving on:
I was in the market looking for the cheapest headset I could find BUT I needed to trust it would sound at least decent (meant to be a gift, for a friend that isn’t into audio); had recently watched Zeos’s review on the G4 and as such the first thing I did was type in the adress for the Edifier Store in my web browser! To my surprise, Edifier had just launched the G1, in it’s 2 virieties:
The G1 USB that includes a USB DAC with DSP processing.
The G1SE that’s advertised as a hadset for “smartphones”, and I think Edifier didn’t get the memo, smartphones don’t have 3,5mm jacks anymore, it doesn’t have any form of built-in DSP neither a DAC.
They were considerably cheaper than the G4, although, they’re now very close in price and I do regret buying the G1 now, but more on that further into the review:
So I didn’t plan on opening the box and actually using them, but the box arived in such a bad state I needed to see if they still worked, and work they did! Immediatelly recognised by windows 10 and immediatelly working! They were also intact and dind’t have a single scratch, now I really have a lot to say about them, there are good and there are bad things about them, let’s start with
–THE GOOD–
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The Mic! it is by FAR the BEST Microphone I’ve ever experienced in a headset before (I don’t own any modern headset, I just gave up on headsets about 7 years ago) But the Mic on these, sound loud, clear and very NATURAL I really want to emphasize the Natural sounding part of it! It really sounds very good! And Altough they advertise it as having noise cancelling, I wouldn’t say they cancel the noise as much as I would say they lower the background noise, so the voice is much more pronounced, and still sounds natural, instead of sounding compressed and robotic like most headsets do; but yeah, there is still background noise but it’s quiet and won’t distract from your voice. Also there is no electronic noisefloor to talk about, it just sounds clean and clear. Finally, it is worth mentioning, the microphone just stays, wherever you want it to stay, with cheaper headsets you can’t count on that, but it actually does on this one, so that’s good.
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It’s very light! It really needs to be light as there’s no padding on the headband, but it wasn’t a point of discomfort for me, given they are so light. They also don’t clamp very hard on your head.
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Virtual surround sound. YES, I know, “Virtual surround sound is not a positive”, Well, bear with me, please; I do agree, virtual surround sound is not a positive for music listening, but this is first and foremost a gaming headset, and for that, the processing in this headset is great! It makes the headset have actual soundstage, like an open-back headphone would have, it sounds spacious and the imaging is accurate, so, yeah, if you are into virtual surround, this is one of the best around, especially, for the price.
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It get’s LOUD, but still keeps a clean sound signature with no distortion.
–THE NOT SO GOOD
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Analogue inline controls! This headset includes a dongle in the cable with a volume knob and Mic on/off switch! Please don’t use the volume knob, it will degrade over time and cause problems So make sure you have a keyboard with volume keys and use that instead. Also be very careful not to have it stick bellow your desk or your chair when you leave.
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Lack of padding on the headband! It was not uncomfortable for me, but it might be for some.
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Not the biggest earpads! My ears are quite big but not the biggest, and I could tell they almost didn’t fit inside the earcups, so if you have really big ears, you really shouldn’t buy these as they’re meant to be over ear, and as such the padding is not memory foam.
–THE BAD–
- The actual sound of it! My sound test started with me firing up Foobar2000 and Playing “Insomnia” From “Lost in Kiev”, For the very first few seconds I was actually impressed, the sound was precise and Incredbly clear, but once anything actually happened in the song (About 20 seconds in) I knew something was off, it sounded incredibly open and spacious, but it is anything but an open headset, so although they don’t advertise it, clearly there was 7.1 simulated surround sound happening. Once the guitar started, about 44 seconds into the song I just wanted to take them off my head! There was a LOT and I really mean a LOT of reverb and the entire mid-range to lower-highs sounded muffled like there was something in front of the drivers closing them, everything just sounded far away and muffled even at full volume, this trend just kept going with everything I listened to.
–CONCLUSION–
By now it should be clear you SHOULD NOT buy these headsets for music listening, but hey, they are a budget gaming headset, not a budget music listening headphone, so, I really think there’s a market for them, for anyone who exclusivelly games on their PC, especially FPS games, or someone who want’s a headset with a good mic for online conferencing and won’t be using a webcam, so don’t mind the LED light on it, for those people, they should be great! For everyone else, I would advise looking elswhere, maybe the G4’s if they’re in your price range.