Corsair Vengeance 2000 Review

Overview

 

Corsair may have been manufacturing PC components for some time (18+ years) but headsets is a relatively new area for them; one of the first being the Corsair HS1, reviewed by pcGameware just over a year ago. At that time I awarded the HS1 a Bronze award as the sound was a little lacking and the price was relatively high. Fourteen months later Corsair has released their highest specification headset to date the Corsair Vengeance 2000. This Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset ticks all (well most!) of the right boxes, backed up by Corsair’s attention to design and quality this should prove to be their best headset to date…

 

 

The Vengeance 2000 comes in a smart predominantly red and black box, with the USB Wireless Adapter taking centre stage at the front of the box showcasing the headset’s wireless credentials. A small window on the right side of the box gives you a sneak peek of the headset that lies within.

The back of the box provides additional details covering the 2.4GHz Wireless connectivity, HRTF positional audio, the use of 50mm drivers, memory foam ear-pads, padded headband and not forgetting The Corsair Advantage.

The right side of the box provides further technical specifications covering the headset’s headphones, microphone as well as the System Requirements (Note: Internet connectivity required for software download).

 

 

The headset and its contents came well packaged in a black recycled cardboard tray, with the edges and shiny surfaces of the headset protected with additional strips of plastic to avoid possible scratching. In addition to the headset itself the box also contained the following:

• USB wireless adapter
• USB wireless adapter extension
• USB charging lead
• Quick Start Guide
• Safety Leaflet
• Warranty Guide
• STOP! support leaflet

 

 

At the time of writing the Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset is retailing for approximately £120 and comes with a 2 year limited warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Corsair

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

First impressions of the Vengeance 2000 headset are very good, the headset looks stylish (although a little retro maybe!?) and appears to be beautifully made and well engineered. The quality of the materials used are second to none and I particularly like the polished chrome highlights with the Corsair logos. The headset is relatively light (certainly lighter than my headset of choice Roccat Kave) at 365grams but then this is effectively a stereo headset (1 driver per ear-cup) with virtual 7.1 surround sound.

 

 

The left side of the Vengeance 2000 headset features the microphone boom, on/off switch with status indicator and a volume control. The volume control wheel is particularly smart as it’s made from knurled aluminium and matches the one on the Corsair Vengeance K60 keyboard, nice! It also features graduations in its operation allowing for a finer degree of volume control.

The right side of the headset has no special features or functionality.

 

 

Above the volume control wheel is the on-off switch and status indicator, the switch is made of plastic and feels a little cheap (especially for Corsair) although it works perfectly well, it may have been better if they had continued to use aluminium for this also. The switch needs to be held down for a few seconds to turn the headset on at which point a wireless connection is established (status indicator blinks (blue)), once connection is made the status indicator will change to solid blue. The status indicator then finally settles into a slowly blinking blue (4 second cycle).

 

 

Each side of the headset can be extended over 10 graduations each graduation being approximately 3mm in size thus allowing each side to extend by around 30mm.

 

 

The headband itself seems to be made from steel (Spring Steel), this should ensure that the band doesn’t snap when stretched; a common complaint with plastic headbands. The headband features padding across the entire width of the band (about 8-10mm deep) and is covered with what appears to be leather (can never really tell these days!). The leather on the top of the band is perforated, I assume that this allows heat built up in the band to escape…

 

 

The Noise-Cancelling microphone located on the left ear-cup cannot be removed and swivels from an upright position down just past 90 degrees and when in the upright position the microphone is automatically muted. The microphone is a good length at approximately 130mm and is of the bendable variety. Some of you may know that I’m not so keen on the bendy mic, but here the microphone is of sufficient length and bendiness (not sure that’s a real word!) that positioning it close to my mouth was easy enough. Also worth noting is that Corsair’s version of bendy utilises a material that doesn’t creak or sound like it’s going to snap when you bend it.

 

 

The left ear-cup also features a Micro-USB charging port to be used with the USB cable provided, note that this is a different cable to the one used for the USB Wireless Adapter. Charging via this cable can also be carried out while continuing to use the headset. The Charging port has an opaque surround that actually provides information to the user by way of its lighting.

• Flashing Red (fast blinking) – Low battery (less than 10% charge remaining)
• Flashing Amber (slow pulse) – Charging
• Green (solid) – Charge complete

 

 

As you can see from the images below the ear-cups can be rotated allowing the headset to sit flat on a desk, in addition to this the ear-cups also tilt; this adjustability ensures that the cups themselves fit well against the side of the head. Each ear-cup features a microfiber-covered memory foam ear-pad in an attempt to achieve a high degree of comfort enabling the headset to be used for long periods of time.

 

 

Hardware Installation

 

 

The Corsair Vengeance 2000 was connected to my rig by way of (hold on by way of what?) well thin air I guess! Let’s try that again. Through the magic of 2.4GHz Wireless connectivity the Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset was connected to My Rig once the single USB connector of the Wireless Adapter was plugged into a USB socket. With both the Headset and the Rig switched on Wireless connectivity was attempted between the two devices (indicated by blinking blue lights).

Wireless connectivity was established without issue as indicated by a solid blue LED on the Wireless Adapter and a blinking blue light on the headset.

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

The Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset was tested using my rig as a platform; running Windows 7 64bit (service pack 1) with all necessary Drivers installed. A fresh installation of Windows 7 was performed as Drivers are required for full operation of the headset.

As instructed by the Quick Start Guide the latest version of the Vengeance 2000 Driver/Software was downloaded and installed.

 

 

The following games were used during testing:

• Blacklight Retribution
• Left for Dead 2
• RAGE
• Battlefield 3
• Diablo III
• Metro 2033 (benchmark)
• Unigine Heaven (benchmark)

 

Hardware Performance

 

• Headset (Wireless Connectivity)

 

Over the week or so that I have been using the Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset, I’m pleased to say that it has performed extremely well.

Despite concern’s over the 2.4GHz Wireless interface (mainly as I game in what must now be Wireless hell!) the Vengeance 2000 has not put a foot wrong; I have had no issues whatsoever with its wireless connectivity. Of course being wireless is also a real boon, having now sampled such a high quality Wireless headset it’s going to be difficult to go back to wired! The drawback of course is that the headset needs to be charged every 10 hours or so, but I don’t see my gaming sessions going much past 10 hours a day any time soon! Let’s not forget that the headset can be used wired also (using the charging cable provided), so you really do have the best of both worlds. Although, as you may well end up using the headset wired, I would have liked to have seen the charging cable being longer and braided (not too sure why both cables weren’t braided TBH!?) as it’s a little short at 1.5m (perfect for charging but not quite so good for gaming).

I was also concerned when first using the headset about how I was going to know if the battery was getting low while it was being worn. So one of the first things that I tested was to see what would happen if I were to continue to use the headset without charging it. Maybe I should have read the manual a little more closely as when the battery reaches approximately 10% an audible beep is heard through the headset (nice one!). Also the charging socket also begins to flash red, of course this cannot be seen while using the headset though.

 

• Headset (Audio)

 

Evaluating the audio performance of a headset is a rather subjective affair, but all I can do hear (haha!) is give you my opinion of the Vengeance 2000 headset, with the knowledge that I have tested various other headsets (wired, wireless, True 5.1, 5.1 virtual & 7.1 virtual) in the past.

The sound reproduced by the Vengeance 2000’s 50mm drivers is excellent on pretty much all counts. The highs are all there without being over emphasized, I even noticed a new sound while typing in Blacklight Retribution that seemed to be lost by my current headset (ROCCAT Kave). The mid-range is particularly good with the headset producing far more than just lows and highs as some others do, there’s real clarity and definition here. The bass is also strong at default settings and there’s more in reserve should you wish to play with the Software’s equalizer settings. From a pure sound reproduction point of view the Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset is as good as any I have heard.

Now I have to confess that I’m not a fan of Virtual Surround Sound as I have not tested a headset that comes close to giving the ROCCAT Kave (my current headset) a run for its money when it comes to positional audio. Now the bad news is that the Vengeance 2000 doesn’t change that (although I’m not really that surprised), the good news is that it’s as good if not better than any other Virtual headset that I have tested. Positioning (and by positioning I mean front to back and left to right) IS apparent with the Vengeance 2000, although I found that the headset’s software needed to be set to either Cinema or Hall modes to achieve the best results, with the Hall mode performing the best. I did find that if I used any of the default Equalizer settings that again the positional audio was affected in a negative way. My default settings for gaming were: Equalizer = Default & Surround = Hall.

Overall the sound reproduced by the Vengeance 2000’s 50mm drivers is excellent, they have a good range with a particularly impressive mid-range and excellent clarity, with the virtualised Surround Sound being as good if not better than any other headset tested so far.

 

• Comfort

 

As far as comfort goes the Corsair Vengeance 2000 remained comfortable at all times and I had no issues with the fit of the headset to my head or the ear-cups around my ears. Thankfully the ear-cups swivel and tilt ensuring a really good fit and the microfiber-covered memory foam ear-pads were found to be comfortable at all times, even after long gaming sessions I didn’t notice any sweatiness. The headband padding was more than enough to be comfortable and the relative lightweight (365grams) of the headset ensured that no real pressure came to bear on the top of my head. Overall a very comfortable headset.

 

• Microphone

 

At last a bendable microphone that works! Well they all bend right? Yes but most others are too short, make a terrible noise (like it’s going to snap) when bent and then when they are bent into the perfect position slowly but surely move back (apologies, rant over!). No such problems here; thankfully the Corsair Vengeance 2000 microphone is the best bendy mic I’ve yet come across. It’s plenty long enough, bends easy without any nasty noises and stayed where it’s put (nice one Corsair!). Muting the microphone is simply done by rotating the mic into the vertical position.

The Noise-Cancelling microphone itself worked perfectly well although I did have to set its Control Level to 100%. I had no issues with the microphone and all who I spoke to while using VOIP (Ventrilo in my case) stated that my voice was loud and clear with no background hiss.

 

• Software

 

 

The software (via download only) is a relatively simple affair, but actually has more functionality than you first may think.

The default settings are as follows: Surround is enabled and set to Studio and the Default Equalizer profile has been set. There are 3 Surround settings to choose from Studio, Cinema and Hall. In addition to this there are 8 Equalizer presets to choose from these are outlined below.

Audiophile 1
This provides crisp, clean audio for discerning listeners who want to hear every detail even in the high-frequencies, and pick out each instrument.
Audiophile 1+
This accentuates extreme high-end frequencies for even more detail (for example, page turns, instrument keys clicking and so on).
Audiophile 2
This is more mellow and warm, for discerning listeners who want to enjoy the overall sound / big picture, and listen to all aspects as a whole. It’s also good for dance/house music with more bass and “oomf”.
Audiophile 2+
This accentuates the extreme low-end for an even more immersive, full-sounding experience.
FPS Gaming, MMO Gaming
These are self-explanatory, and designed to provide the best audio in FPS and MMO games.
Movies Mod-X [TM]
This re-equalizes audio that was originally mixed using the SMPTE “X” curve for cinema presentations.
Reference
This is an electrically flat EQ profile, for those who like their audio unadjusted.

 

Custom profiles can also be created via the + button and deleted via the – button; what might have been nice here is to allow the user to link a Game.exe to a specific custom profile, but it’s a minor point. On the whole the software is easy to use and relatively intuitive. My personal preference was a Default Equalizer setting with the Surround setting Hall. This seemed to give the best possible sound with some degree of sound positioning present. I found that if I used the FPS GAMING preset for example, although impressive sounding (all highs & lows) what directional audio there was seemed to get a little lost. Should you wish to bypass Surround settings the Bypass button can be used, giving you the ability to listen in pure unadulterated stereo.

 

Final Thoughts

 

The Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset has put up an impressive fight for the best headset tested to date crown, in fact it’s put up such a good fight I think I’m willing to award it that accolade (for now that is!). It’s beautifully built with quality materials, it’s well designed and feels like it will last and obviously comes with Corsair’s highly regarded backup and support network.

The wireless operation was nothing short of seamless, there’s really nothing to say here other than the fact that it worked flawlessly throughout the testing period. The headset is comfortable even during long gaming sessions I found no discomfort even after 4+ hours of non stop use. The microphone worked perfectly well and I’m particularly impressed with Corsair’s version of the bendy mic as this is something that I’m not normally a fan of. The software allows for a good deal of fine tuning, it’s not going to set the world alight with its features and options, but what’s there works perfectly well.

Then there’s the sound (a highly subjective matter this!), but I have yet to test a stereo headset (with Virtualised Surround Sound) that sounds any better than the Corsair Vengeance 2000. The quality of sound produced by the custom-designed 50mm drivers is excellent and with the Equalizer set at its default settings these drivers really shine. Everything seems so very clear from the footsteps in BF3 to the voices in Diablo III and the strange quirky sci-fi noises (some that I’d not even heard before!) in Blacklight Retribution. You really do get a feeling that you’re hearing everything with the Vengeance 2000 nothing seems to be left out…

The only slight chink in the armour is the 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound, now 5.1 is difficult enough but 7.1 Virtual!? The Vengeance 2000 does put in a good Virtual effort though as this is the only headset that I have tested that has actually got a real degree of positional audio (more often or not the sound is just different but not necessarily positional!). I would have liked to have seen braided cables, especially for the charging cable (which should probably be longer too) as it doubles up as a wired headset solution should the battery need charging. Also at around £120 this really is a premium headset and I would have liked to have seen a little more TLC applied to the packaging as it didn’t really feel like you were un-boxing such a premium product. A ‘nice to have’ would have been one of Corsair’s velvet bags (like the one that comes with the AX1200) especially as the headset is no longer tethered to your machine.

So apart from a few tiny niggles Corsair seem to have cracked it; a good looking, well built, great sounding, wireless gaming headset.

 

Verdict