| | | Gaming headset. Tied for highest mic rating on rtings: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/microphone/recording-quality , https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/jbl/quantum-100
The mic is indeed far superior to the two other, more expensive headsets I've tried--at $19.99 on both Amazon and JBL's site--says its a 50% off sale but it's been that way over a week so I dunno--the Q100 is half the price of the old HyperX Cloud Stinger (see entry 1664) and a quarter of the price of the snazzy Logitech G433 (see entry 1673), but the sound is a CLEAR cut above; sounds almost like a real mic and gives a rich tone without any need for adjustment, so I was able to remove the 3-band equalizer filter I'd needed in OBS to get the Stinger to sound as warm as my Sennheiser E 945 stage mic's proximity effect.
The headphones are probably not as good, sound-wise; definitely not as nice as the G433.
The boom mic plugs in with a gold mini-jack that clicks really firmly into place. It comes with a little black foam egg over the end, which isn't something the more expensive sets came with. The boom arm is SUPER flexible (the G433's was sorta flexible, but would kinda flex back into its default shape on its own)--almost too flexible as I would prefer it to have one shape and stay there for the sake of recording consistency, but you can definitely shape it to however you want it.
The set is lighter than the others, and all-plastic. I guess you could say this gives it a cheaper feel, but I dunno; yes it is light and flexible, and not as seamlessly put together as the cush G433, but it doesn't feel creaky or flimsy to me at all. It is true that the clamp of the 'phones feels a little pinchy; it isn't a strong clamp, being light plastic, so maybe it's that the padding on the ears isn't very effective, not sure. The pad on the top of the head feels pretty nice; the Stinger could feel a bit painful up there if it sat a certain way.
The jack is the standard analog 1/8th". The cord is thin and finely braided, soft and flexible without feeling rubbery or weak; I like it. The jack is angled at 60 degrees or so rather than straight, not sure why. It's a bit shorter than the cords on the other sets I used--rtings says 4.1', whereas the others were 6'. And it doesn't come with a splitter, so I'm using the Stinger's 6'(!) splitter cable with it. = D
The real killer feature of the Q100 for me though--and this is a factor I haven't seen review sites cover, even a site as otherwise insanely thorough as rtings--is that it has hardly any head shake mic noise. I guess I move around a lot while playing and recording, and with the Stinger, that could frequently produce brief clouds of bassy reverberation on the recordings--and the G433 was way worse, even! I could reproduce these irritating recorded sounds--can't actually hear them directly as they occur--with both of those more expensive sets simply by shaking my head.
With the Q100 though, I can shake my head dizzy, and produce hardly a whisper of shake noise on the resulting recording, even with the 100's more sensitive mic (I'm using +17.9 dB gain with it in OBS, vs +20 for the Stinger, which also got a bit of a boost from the added equalizer). Freaking fantastic! This SHOULD allow me to make very clean-sounding recordings even while performing my usual agonized contortions on the floor with my arcade stick and the various boxes on which I attempt to stack it.
We'll see. Initial tests are hugely positive, so much so that I've already added another Q100 to my Amazon cart to have as a back-up. $19.99! What are all those other much more expensive headsets even doing. This thing feels like a miracle for recording, and thank goodness (and rtings) that I found it, 'cause I was worried my recordings would be forever plagued by those darn shaking noises.
I wonder if the light and simple construction is what allows it to be so noise-free; like, how would the heavier, more complicated sets possibly NOT have inner reverberations of some kind, with all the stuff they have piled on your head? That's a sketchy theory only, though. But it doesn't seem like the (other, at least) headset manufacturers test for recorded shake noise at all. Absolutely crucial to a flaily freak like me!!
The more sensitive mic WILL pick up more ambient sound, which isn't great in my small, echoey, uncarpeted apartment with a thin ceiling and in some years college noisy students living above me; also my big slappy arcade buttons will probably be all over the recordings. I think that will be far preferable to those unpredictable, weird, distracting shaking sounds though. |
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