Gamdias Hephaestus Gaming Headset Review

Overview

 
Despite being relative newcomers to the Gaming peripheral scene, Gamdias seem to be making strides with no fewer than 31 products currently available. Which is pretty impressive for a company forged in 2012. Their product range covers all the important bases from mice (like the impressive Gamdias Hades reviewed recently), mouse mats, keyboards and accessories. All of which have share their names with characters from Greek Mythology, share interesting innovations and perhaps more importantly are aimed at PC Gamers!

The product I’ve been using for the last few weeks, is the companies flagship Gaming headset, the Gamdias Hephaestus (GHS2000). Named after the Greek god of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forges and the art of sculpture, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods, who also made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus (I guess he was kinda important then), but enough of all that dusty old stuff… How about the shiny new Gaming Headset?

 

 

All sounds pretty good, I especially like the sound of the ‘Blast Source Identifier’ and the ‘Cooler System’. Perhaps we should take a closer look?

 

 

The front of the Gamdias Hephaestus box is predominately white with black and red accents, while totally covered in small embossed Gamdias logos, following a similar styling to that of many Gamdias products. Which on paper sounds a little garish, but in practice looks rather nice. The box features the Gamdias logo in the top left corner, a large image of the Hephaestus inside and describes the it as a ‘Multi-Sensorial Gaming Headset’. The right side of the box is also a large clear plastic window (handy for showing off the headset), which has the Gamdias slogan ‘Gaming Art in Motion’ at the bottom, at the top it tells us the headset features ‘EOS 7.2CH With 2 Woofer vibration units’, then the following key features:

• Blast Source Identifier
  Shock waves vary by ear to help pinpoint blast source
• Cooler system
  Built-in aluminium heat sink for optimum temperature

 

Over on the back we are given the Gamdias Hephaestus specifications, package contents and system requirements (see Specifications/Features below), then the following brief in ten different languages:

‘Gamdias multi-sensorial gamning headset delivers immersive sound for movie/game/music. When detecting a blast, the ear cup vibrates to help pinpointing the source. Ergonomic headband and soft leather ear pads, comfortable and breathable, suit for a prolonged game play.’

 

 

On the white, black and red left side of the box, we once again have an image of the Hephaestus, name, key features (see Specifications/Features below) and pictograms for each.

Whilst over on the right, we not only have a side view of the rather unusual looking Gamdias Hephaestus via the clear plastic windowed side, but a few more pictograms for the following features:

• Microphone sound change
• Blast Source Identifier
• Virtual 7.1ch effect
• Ergonomic comfort
• Environment sound effect simulation
• Noise cancelling mic
• Flexible Mic arm
• Cooler system

 

 

Unboxing the Gamdias Hephaestus is a little unusual. The white left side is actually a sleeve, which you simply slide off, pop open the top of the clear plastic container within, then slide out the black cardboard and clear plastic headset retainers. Although it looks great and lends a slightly more premium feel to the experience, it also means it’ll not be the most enjoyable job in the world to re-box should the need arise.

Box Contents

• Gamdias Hephaestus Almighty Gaming Headset
• Quick Instalation Guide
• Gamdias Case Stickers

A fairly basic and uncomplicated list of contents, but being a USB based Gaming Headset, what more do you really need?!?

 

The Gamdias Hephaestus headset is currently available from Amazon for £69.94 or ebuyer at £74.99 and comes with a limited 1 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Gamdias

 

 

 

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

 

Now it’s out of the box, my initial impressions of the Gamdias Hephaestus are fairly positive. It is rather unusual aesthetically, courtesy of the use of brilliant white plastics, putty grey leather padding, as well as the unique aluminium cooling system in either ear-cup. Perhaps Gamdias should change their slogan from ‘Gaming Art in Motion’ to ‘Dare to be Different’? Measuring 232mm(L) x 100mm(W) x 216mm(H) and weighing 490g, the Hephaestus is easily one of the biggest and heaviest Gaming Headsets I’ve tested here at pcG (or anywhere for that matter!). Although one thing that could be an issue is that despite offering an entirely plastic construct that feels very solid and of a high quality, it does feel a little creaky.

 

 

From the right, we can clearly see the two tone design that Gamdias have opted for, with the putty grey cushioning works surprisingly well with the satin white upper and the adjoining glossy white lower arm. The outer ear-cups of the Hephaestus are rather unusual and at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking your about to put the Starship Enterprise on either ear. Both cups are gloss white with a small rectangular black air vent towards the front (more on these later). Both outer cups feature a curved LED strip encircling three quarters of the central surface (when powered on these will illuminate red), towards the lower rear we have the Gamdias (another LED, but this time yellow), then to round it off we have the headset name in gloss black on the arm with the ‘T’ highlighted as a rather large hammer.

The left is nigh on identical, the only differences being the USB cable running from the lower arm and of course the microphone boom.

 

 

The Gamdias Hephaestus headband is heavily cushioned either side. Given the putty grey colour of the headband cushion covering, which at first glance could be easily confused with a plastic or vinyl material, but it is in fact leather. The outer band is embossed with the Gamdias name, the inner has four lines embossed in which to help keep the band curvature. Despite its chunky appearance, when squeezing the sides of the headband together, the Hephaestus seems to use a single steel spring of approximately 20mm to keep its shape, with what I’d assume to be a thin flexible plastic to keep the cushion shaped.

 

 

Both ear-cups on the Gamdias Hephaestus rotate outwards by a small degree, but you can also rotate them inwards leaving them flat for easy storage or flat packing on your way to your next LAN party. I know of a few Gamers who like to fold their headsets flat around their necks when not in use, this I can see being a problem as the straight edged ear-cups with their sharp angles could be very uncomfortable.

The inner ear-cup cushioning is the same putty grey leather as the headband and have a black elasticated inner lining, with an approximate depth of 30mm. The cups are ovular and circumaural in design, with plenty of space to fit over all but the largest of ears. The cushions are easily removed as they are attached to a plastic frame that clips to the cup using plastic pins. Why they are removable isn’t so clear as Gamdias don’t offer alternative replacements on their website?!?

 

 

As mentioned before, the Gamdias Hephaestus features two small black air vents on the outer ear-cups, these work in conjunction with a bare aluminium in the front of either ear-cup for optimal cooling (although I’ve a sneaky suspicion these are purely aesthetic). The Hephaestus features a rotatable microphone boom which is 157mm in length and has a flexible rubber mid-section. This is very easy to position wherever you’d most likely want it to be (usually near your mouth 😉 ), but is fixed.

 

 

Taking a look at the adjustable sliders on the Gamdias Hephaestus shows a maximum extension of 38mm either side, which combined with the heavy headband cushioning should be plenty enough for almost anyone.

 

 

The Hephaestus utilizes a fairly large white and grey in-line remote. The front of which has the Gamdias logo, behind this is a deep buttoned microphone mute (when the mic is open this illuminates blue, when closed red), the button depth is handy as your very unlikely to accidentally mute yourself when in the middle of a firefight. Then we have a simple audio volume bar and on the side what looks like an audio mute switch. This switch is actually for the ‘Blast Source Identifier’ and allows for a full rumble feature, half, or off altogether. On the opposite side of the remote we have a clip.

 

Hardware Installation

 

The Gamdias Hephaestus is a plug and play headset powered via USB. So it’s a very easy install for the Test Rig. Of course to gain full control over the headset, you will also need to download and install the Gamdias EOS software suite (available here).

 

Gamdias Hephaestus

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

The Gamdias Hephaestus was tested using our Test Rig, running Windows 7 64bit (service pack 1) with all necessary Drivers installed as well as Gamdias EOS to allow us to test the additional features.

The following Games were used during testing:

• Survarium (beta)
• Titanfall
• Far Cry 4
• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
• Metro Last Light (benchmark)
• Unigine Heaven (benchmark)

 

Hardware Performance

 

 

• Headset

The most important attribute of any headset is of course its audio performance and this will be subjective to the end user. Straight out of the box and with Gamdias EOS installed, the Hephaestus go straight on my head (obviously!) and I boot up into Titanfall and head straight into getting my ass kicked in a round of Hardpoint. The first thing I noticed was the distinct lack of volume, thinking I’d turned the Game volume down to avoid being deafened whilst loading up, I threw the volume slider in Windows up to full, then the same for in-game. The result? Well the bad news is for those who like their Games loud, the Gamdias Hephaestus lacks that little bit of punch and isn’t quite loud enough to cause partial deafness after use. The next little bit of bad news is the 7.1 virtual surround (8 channel in Gamdias EOS) and 5.1 (6 channel in EOS) whilst not doing a bad job, aren’t exactly brilliant either… You see what happens is, for games where the heavy action isn’t so area specific like Survarium, you’ll be hoping the virtual surround will help your spacial awareness and help you to pin-point where your being attacked from. Sadly the mid-tones end up too muddied and so it doesn’t have the desired effect. This also doesn’t bode well for the ‘Blast Source Identifier’ (BSI), as the evened out sound has the knock on effect of toning down the bass and treble making the BSI far less effective or exciting…

The good news is by switching the EOS software to a standard 2 channel stereo playback and the sound becomes cleaner and clearer, the in-Game audio takes on a more cinematic feel (now if only I could get the Games to run at a more cinematic 24FPS… 😉 ) with a rather nice punchy bass, which also means the BSI was exactly the effect your expecting and more importantly wanting!

There is a little more bad news though… I don’t know if it’s a side effect of the huge ear-cups, cooler system, or perhaps just the materials used, but if you tap either ear-cup whilst wearing them, you get an odd reverb echo through the body of the cup, which at times can also be caused and heard from the heavier bass sounds in-Game.

 

• Comfort

Considering it’s immense 490g weight and 232mm(L) x 100mm(W) x 216mm(H) making the Gamdias Hephaestus both the heaviest and largest Gaming headset I’ve used, it is surprisingly very comfortable without causing fatigue or neck ache even after a six hour frag fest! The large circumaural ear-cups sit over the ears well and the leather padding is very soft and comfortable, while Hephaestus seems well weighted and balanced. Personally I’d prefer the clamping effect of the headband to apply a little more pressure to make them feel a little more secure though.

I’ll admit I’m certainly not convinced by the aluminium heatsinks for the ‘Cooler System’ at all. Even during long Gaming sessions I found the Hephaestus no better at keeping my ears cooler than our regular HyperX Cloud test headset, or any other leather/leatherette padded headset I’ve recently used. To the point where I honestly believe them to be purely aesthetic, which I’ve not really got a problem with as I think they look rather cool.

 

• Microphone

The Gamdias Hephaestus features a 157mm rotatable microphone boom with a flexible rubber central section. This is particularly important on the Hephaestus because the ear-cups are so chunky which means there is a lot of distance for it to cover before the microphone even gets near your mouth. The other bit of good news is that it’s very good. According to other Gamers the sound reproduction was clearer than my recent test headsets throughout voice chat on Steam and Razer Comms (probably not so good for them…).

 

• Software

 

The Gamdias Hephaestus is a plug-and-play USB based Gaming Headset, but to really make the most of its features you really need the additional software by way of the Gamdias EOS suite (available here). Which despite covering all the necessary bases, does feel a little flat in my opinion… Why? Well having reviewed the Gamdias Hades and its HERA suite recently, I was surprised by its Gamer aimed aesthetics, plethora of options and ease of use (it was really good), which I was more or less expecting of EOS (but obviously aimed at audio). Instead I’m greeted by something in a blue/grey colour that to be frank, is dull…

Of course more importantly, what can EOS do? Well the software is divided into five sub-headers. The first being ‘Main Setting’ in which we can change the System Input from 2CH (Stereo) 4CH(2.1), 6CH(5.1) or 8CH(7.1), select your DSP (Digital Signal Processing) settings (Xear Surround Max on/off. You can even adjust virtual speaker location and volumes via 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter), change the Analog output from headphone to 2 speakers, select digital audio from 44.1KHz or 48KHz, or choose your S/PDIF Output from PCM (Pulse-code modulation) or… Well just PCM actually. Then finally through output device we can change the left and right speaker balance of the headset.

Moving onto the ‘Mixer’ simply allows us to change the audio and microphone volume, mic monitor, mic boost or mix with wave. Pretty much all you’d need, just aesthetically it’s dull.

 

 

Yep, very dull. In fact if you pick up any generic Gaming headset featuring any of the CMedia Xear technologies, you’ll most likely find their software to look nigh on the same. The very least that Gamdias could have done is re-skinned it and given it their own look.

Then we have ‘Effect’ which gives us a generic equalizer, environmental sound effects and environmental size. All of which are nice additions, but does anyone actually use these?

Up next ‘Karaoke/Magic Voice’, which allows for microphone effects including echo, key shifting and vocal cancellation, then ‘Magic Voice’ which alters the sound of your voice to your choice of monster, cartoon, male or female. Again nice additions, but certainly nothing you’ll be using on a daily basis.

Lastly we have the ‘Information’ header, which gives us all the hardware and software information as well as details on the technologies by CMedia, including Xear Living, Xear Sing FX and Xear Surround Max, which all faired well on the I reviewed earlier in the year, except the 7.1 virtual surround seemed a little better implemented.

Wearing the Gamdias Hephaestus kinda makes me feel like I’m Lobot throughout the Bespin Cloud City siege in Empire Strikes Back. The LED lighting is bright, looks good and effective and unlike some of the competition even turns off when you turn your rig off.
 

Final Thoughts

 

After previously having reviewed the Gamdias Hades, I came away rather surprised at what it had to offer and how good it actually was (yep, I really liked it). So when the Gamdias Hephaestus arrived at pcG, I jumped at the chance to have a closer look. Could it really offer similar innovation, performance and value for money?

The Gamdias Hephaestus arrived in a rather stylish and partially sleeved box. The sleeved area predominately white with a black and red chevron and entirely embossed with Gamdias logo (it may sound a little garish, but in practice it is actually really nice). Half of the box is made of a clear plastic, which nicely shows of the rather unusual looking headset inside. Whilst the packaging adequately protects the product inside, looks good and does well in displaying the Hephaestus off, what it doesn’t do is make life easy when repacking the headset (of course are you ever likely to pack up your new Gaming headset?).

Once out of the box, the Gamdias Hephaestus not only looks unique with its putty grey cushion covers and brilliant white ear-cups with unusual aluminium cooling system, but huge! At 232mm(L) x 100mm(W) x 216mm(H) and weighing in at a hefty 490g, it is both the largest and heaviest headset I’ve used in recent memory (in fact, quite possibly ever!). Although despite this, the headset feels solid and very well made in hand, then when on your head very comfortable and surprisingly well balanced. Which means even after a lengthy 6 hour Gaming session (I may have had a little time to kill over Xmas) not once did I end up with neck fatigue or nodding dog syndrome after taking them off! Although I have to admit during this lengthy session, the ‘Cooler System’ didn’t really seem to have the expected impact (cool ears of course), but still look pretty cool anyway.

So far so good, but what about the all important area of aural performance? (don’t snigger at the back there!). Well it’s a bit of a mixed bag I’m afraid. The 7.1 and 5.1 virtual while not doing a bad job, the mid-tones are too muddied and the Hephaestus loses that little bit of punchy bass and volume to really make you feel aware of what’s going on around you and sometimes even involved. This of course has a negative knock on effect to the ‘Blast Source Identifier’ and gives the rumble effect less impact… However switching to bog standard 2CH stereo and the Gamdias Hephaestus gain a new life, yes they could do with a higher maximum volume, but the audio cleans up, the bass is more pronounced and the rumbling ‘Blast Source Identifier’ suddenly give you that desired cinematic effect of not only hearing every shot and explosion in-Game, but feeling it too. Yet just as everything seems to be going in a very positive direction, we hit another snag. I don’t know if it’s the huge ear-cups, aluminium heatsinks in the cooler system, or perhaps just the materials used, but if you tap either ear-cup whilst wearing them, you get an odd reverb echo through the body of the cup, which at times can also be caused and heard from the heavier bass sounds in-Game…

How about the microphone? Yep, it’s good! Very good in fact. According to friends on Steam chat and Razer Comms, the sound reproduction was clear with good volume (good for mic, bad for them…), without picking 101 other different things in the background. That’s even without using the microphone software within the Gamdias EOS software suite. Which despite covering all your audio needs and being functional, is incredibly dull aesthetically and at total odds to the strikingly unique Gamdias Hephaestus altogether.

So is the Gamdias Hephaestus good value for money? Well at £69.94 it really isn’t a bad price. It offers a unique and unusual look that you’ll not get with any other headset on the market, which if I’m honest I rather like. The virtual surround doesn’t quite match up to some of the competition and I personally believe the ‘Cooler System’ to be purely aesthetic (although it does look cool), but drop the system input down to plain old 2CH stereo in EOS and suddenly the Gamdias Hephaestus come to life and the ‘Blast Source Identifier’ drags you into game and immerses you in a way few other Gaming headsets out there can.

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Gamdias for providing this sample for review