Testing:
We will be testing the 2000 headset with several genres of music: rap, country and classical. We will also be watching a movie, Rambo, as well as playing Bad Company 2 to round out the testing. The microphone will also be tested in this section with in-game chat and Ventrilo chat.
With the music testing, we tested several genres to get the best overall feel of how well the 2000 headset really performs. We started with the rap genre by listening to a few songs to figure out how accurate the bass is with the 2000. Now, the 2000 headset started showing its true beauty with the audio reproduction. The 2000 headset provided a deep bass that was one of the better reproductions we have heard in a gaming headset. Happy with our bass testing, we moved on with our testing and went to the best genre, country! The guitars and string instruments came through clear and had the impact on our ears that we were expecting. Even the raspy voices came through more “raspier” than ever and gave us the full enjoyment of their hard-partying life style, without actually being at the concert. Moving on to the classical music, we popped in one of the greats of all time, and no, not Beethoven. I am more a Tchaikovsky person myself. In the “1812 Overture,” the strings and wind instruments battle each other in the beginning, going back and forth. Everything is crisp with the highs and mids from the orchestra. There is no sound distortion when the volume is fully cranked up, and it sounds just as clear and crisp as it would at any other volume level.
For the movie portion of the review, we used “Rambo” circa 2009. We feel it gives you everything that you need to test the full capability of the headset with its huge explosions, surround sound fight scenes, quiet conversations and who can forget the .50 cal ending! Starting with the dialog, it’s clear and crisp in the quieter parts of the movie. The 2000 projected the dialog crisply, even during the fight scenes, such as when the village is getting attacked by the army. During the attack, while the village and the lady doctor is trying to get away, you can hear mortars exploding all around her and know exactly where they are. You can also hear all of the gunfire from the advancing army and can pick out exactly what direction they are coming from in relation to the lady doctor. However, the best scene in an action movie, probably ever, is when good ol’ Sly jumps on the back of the truck and mans the .50 cal machine gun. When he is mowing down the army, the deep bass of the .50 cal is portrayed nicely though the 2000. The sounds of the bullets striking objects was crisp with zero distortion, even when we turned the volume all the way up to soak in all of the goodness that the scene provides.
Let’s move on to the game testing now with “Bad Company 2.” We played this game for a few hours to get a good overall feel of how this headset would do in a game. We charged into the plant sites, like we normally do, because who doesn’t love to run-n-gun just to annoy the other team! With the 2000’s we could hear a lot of people firing while we ran for the plants and could decipher exactly where the shots were coming from. This was very useful while we were running for cover after the plant was down. When we were held up inside a building, we could clearly hear people running around us and knew when to stay hidden and when to pop out and eliminate a few enemies. It almost seemed a little like cheating with as crisp and accurate as the sound was portrayed.
For the last test, we worked with the microphone to see how well it would pick up our voice, in addition to how well it sounds to other people. The in-game chat worked fine, with the other people on our team letting us know we came in loud and clear. We could speak in our normal voice and not have to yell in order to get the microphone to pick up what we were saying. When we used Ventrilo, we were told that there was no distortion and that they could hear us crystal clear once again. You can also mute the Mic automatically by moving it up and out of the way.
Software:
The Bypass button enables or disables your 7.1 surround sound processing. Below that button is your Volume and your Mic controls to set them as loud or soft as you would like. You will also have several default profiles in your EQ settings, you can also manually set your own EQ settings if you think you have the skills. The Surround area will give you three options to let you configure your own environment size, which you can play with and decide which one best suits you and your needs.
Conclusion:
With all said and done, the Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset blew us away. The soft microfiber ear cups will allow you to game for hours and hours, even if you wear glasses. At an MSRP of $149.99 it comes in at one of the pricier gaming headsets out there. However, with the wireless integration and great surround sound technology this headset does set itself apart from most other gaming headsets. The software provided by Corsair is easy to find and easy to install and use. Everything about the Vengeance 2000 headset is first class, from the technology used down to the build quality.
The Corsair Vengeance 2000 Gaming Headset earns the Techreaction.net Gold Silicon Award!
If you would like any more information on the Vengeance 2000 headset or other products from Corsair, please visit their website.
