INTRODUCTION

   There seems to be no end to our continuous quest for the world’s best gaming peripherals and in a way we welcome it since it keeps us up to date with all the latest game titles for the PC. For example in order to test all the gaming peripherals we have here currently for the past month we've been playing Star Citizen, Dreadnought, World Of Warships, Planetside II, Total War WARHAMMER II, Middle Earth Shadow Of War and the beta of Star Wars Battlefront II. This of course means we have to spend quite a bit of time when testing gaming peripherals (certainly more compared to when testing storage devices and/or other system components) but we think the end result is well worth it (plus we do get to "rest" for a while in the process). Among those peripherals is the latest Void Pro RGB Wireless SE Premium Gaming Headset with Dolby Headphone 7.1 by our friends over at CORSAIR.

   Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

   The Void Pro RGB Wireless SE gaming headset follows the same design as the entire Void Pro line (BMW's Designworks is behind it) but in order to stand out from the rest CORSAIR has given it a rather unique yellow and black color theme and has included a base station USB extender in the bundle. Beneath the yellow and black painted plastic parts the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE gaming headset features an durable aluminum frame, custom tuned 50mm large neodymium magnet drivers (frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz with 32k Ohms impedance), 2.4GHz wireless receiver (40ft/12m range), rechargeable battery pack (16 hours of life), unidirectional noise-cancelling microphone (frequency response of 100Hz-10KHz with 2k Ohm impedance and -38dB sensitivity) and RGB LED lights. Just like with pretty much every other 7.1 virtual surround headset in the market the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE comes ready with a built-in sound card that features Dolby's headphone certification which according to them "uses powerful digital signal processing (DSP) technology to create the sensation of multiple loudspeakers in a room". Once again on paper everything seems great so let's check and see just how good the CORSAIR Void Pro RGB Wireless SE really is.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A large product picture along with the main product features is placed at the front of the box.

Corsair's CUE software is mentioned on the left side of the box in 6 languages.

Two product pictures placed at the rear of the box are used to showcase the product features.

The main box is also painted yellow and provides great protection for the headset.

Beneath the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE Gaming Headset Corsair has placed the base station USB extender, USB wireless transmitter, USB to micro USB charging cable, microphone foam windscreen, safety leaflet, warranty guide and a quick start manual.

THE VOID PRO RGB WIRELESS SE

Weight roughly 390g the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE gaming headset is quite light (especially for a mid-sized model).

CORSAIR has placed their logo on the exterior of both earcups as seen above.

Both the power on/off and mute buttons are placed on the exterior of the left earcup while the jog dial (controls the volume and EQ/Dolby features) and the micro USB charging port with its status LED are placed on its base.

Left and right markings are placed on the interior of the headset right next to the cantilevered arms.

The boom microphone is quite flexible and has a mute LED at the front.

Both earcups can fold to allow for easier storage of the headset.

For the interior of the earcups CORSAIR decided to go with a very soft microfiber cover which is the perfect combination to the plenty foam padding available.

The same applies for the interior of the headband which can extend roughly 4cm on both sides.

Aside its color the SE version also stands out thanks to the bundled base station USB extender for the wireless transmitter (quite useful if you want to use a rear USB port).

All available USB connectors are plain and not gold plated (although it's more of a "visual" thing).

CUE SOFTWARE

To download the latest version of Corsair's CUE software you will need to visit the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE product page as seen above.

Once again the moment you start the CUE software you will see that it's a unified solution so if you have the Scimitar Pro RGB gaming mouse, K95 RGB Gaming Keyboard and/or the MM800 RGB Polaris mouse pad you can control them all from here.

The first thing the CUE software does is search for firmware updates for both the headset and the USB transmitter and install them (after you connect the headset with your computer via the bundled USB cable).

From the first screen of the CUE software you can adjust the volume level for the microphone, enable/disable the sidetone feature (allows you to listen to your own voice) and switch between stereo and Dolby Headphone.

Moving onto the second screen you can choose one of the 7 available lighting effects and of course pick the color you want more.

There are also 5 available EQ presets for you to choose from but you can always create your very own according to your liking.

You can also save your choices onto different profiles which can be automatically chosen when a program or game is launched.

Finally you can enable voice prompts, set the lighting density and check the exact battery level from the settings tab located right next to the advanced switch.

Here we placed just three out of the countless available color choices you have (not very fancy but some people will like it).

CONCLUSION

   Serious gamers may not consider virtual surround headsets to be just as good as the limited real surround ones currently in the market but thanks to technologies like Dolby Headphone and the fact that multiple speakers are placed way too close to each other the gap not nearly what some would expect it to be. With that out of the way the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE produces accurate mids and highs with a good amount of bass and good enough positioning audio to make most gamers happy (it shines especially in FPS titles). Quality is very good although due to the amount of plastic used I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a premium headset (at least not when it comes to quality). It's also very comfortable up to the point that it can go up against the Arctis 7 by SteelSeries. Unfortunately however the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE doesn't "hug" your head as well as the Arctis 7 which is to be expected since the second features an elastic headband. When it comes to battery life we were unable to hit 16 hours on a single charge but we did surpass 15 hours and honestly that’s not a bad thing especially when the volume is turned almost all the way up.

   The Void Pro RGB Wireless SE may not be the most affordable 7.1 surround sound headset in the market today but with a current price tag set at USD129.99 inside the USA (Directly from CORSAIR) and for 128Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) it still costs less compared to its immediate competition the Arctis 7 by SteelSeries. At the end of the day we all liked using the Void Pro RGB Wireless SE and that’s why we’re happy to give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Design
- Very Comfortable
- Mids / Highs / Bass Levels
- Positioning Audio Via Dolby Headphone
- RGB illumination
- Battery Life (16 Hours)
- Unified CUE Software
- Exclusive Base Station

CONS

- Only Available In Yellow and Black Color
- No 3.5mm Input
- Limited RGB Illumination