CONCLUSION

   Even though Teufel is not a brand you can find on store shelves (at least not currently) they have a good background in the audio industry and so when they announced the CAGE we all thought it was going to be a rather expensive gaming headset. Luckily, we were wrong and so the CAGE is not only quite an affordable gaming headset (for what you’re getting always) but it's also very good at almost every single thing that matters. Now audio quality may not the best we've ever encountered with a gaming headset and so right out of the box you're getting good mids and highs with a sufficient amount of bass (still nothing to get worked over – as expected from 40mm drivers) but once you start toying with the various USB settings (audio brilliant and voice clarity impact audio quality so I suggest playing around with them until you find the settings that work for you) everything changes. Of course, that means that with 3.5mm compatible devices you can't get the same level of audio quality and accuracy but we've seen similar cases in the past. For games and certain movies the 7.1 virtual surround mode does help a bit but again you should spend some time experimenting with all available settings to get to the best possible result. Another thing we liked was the volume levels of the CAGE since it's quite powerful, still at the same time the volume control roller is not as smooth as I’d like it to be and so using it to increase/reduce volume takes getting used to. As for the microphone it's not only one of the best I’ve used to date but the environmental noise cancellation feature works quite well (although to be honest the office/lab is not a very noisy environment when we're not testing other devices).

   You can currently grab yourself a CAGE Gaming Headset directly from Teufel for 129.99Euros (Teufelaudio.com – limited offer) a price tag which pretty much reflects what you’re getting. Certainly the CAGE could had been a lot more had Teufel used larger drivers (and not mylar based ones) and perhaps RGB illumination for the exterior earcups (configurable via their software) so we do hope they release something like that sooner rather than later. That being said although not perfect the CAGE does deliver where it matters (you just may have to spend a bit of time tweaking the various settings to get the optimal outcome) and for that it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Comfortable (Large Earpads / Memory Foam Padding)
- Very Good Mids & Highs (When Tweaked)
- Volume Levels
- Detachable Microphone (Easier To Replace)
- Left / Right Microphone Ports
- Dual Microphones (ENC)
- Teufel Audio Center (Available Settings)
- USB & 3.5mm Compatible

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Requires Tweaking To Get The Most Out Of
- Available Settings Only Via USB