Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless High-Fidelity Gaming Headset (7.1 Surround Sound, Memory Foam Earpads, Omni-Directional Microphone with PC, PS4, Switch and Mobile Compatibility) -Black
Uncompromising Sound Quality
From the lightest footstep to the deepest bass tone, you’ll hear more of everything. A matched pair of precisely tuned 50mm high-density neodymium drivers boast a frequency range of 20Hz-40,000Hz.
Comfort is King
Premium memory foam earpads that conform to the shape of your head, along with a lightweight headband, deliver pillow-soft, long-lasting comfort, enabling you to play for hours on end.
Premium Lightweight Construction
Machined aluminum construction means VIRTUOSO RGB Wireless offers the perfect blend of lightweight design, strong durability and maximum comfort.
RGB LightingDynamic RGB lighting on each ear cup allows for virtually unlimited color options and customisation to match any style.
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />7.1 Surround SoundEnable immersive 7.1 surround sound to put you right in the middle of the action.
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />Three Ways to Connect
Slipstream Wireless
Hyper-fast wireless connection with up to 60ft of range, using IFS to ensure the strongest signal.
Three Ways to Connect
USB Wired
High-fidelity, 24bit/96kHz audio for the ultimate listening experience with compatible recordings.
Three Ways to Connect
3.5mm Wired
Universal connection for listening to a wide variety of devices.
| Weight: | 848 g |
| Size: | One size |
| Dimensions: | 17 x 10 x 19.5 cm; 848 Grams |
| Model: | CA-9011185-EU |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 17 x 10 x 19.5 cm; 848 Grams |
| Size: | One size |
Brilliant headset without the flaws of the Arctis Pro Wireless.
Highly recommend. Only downside is the volume wheel isn’t notched and is easy to accidently change the volume if you catch it while moving the headset.
After two Weeks of searching and comparing, resulted in decision of this model for clarity of the microphone.
Amazing 7.1 surround sound, very light and comfy to wear on your head & the battery lasts for hours. The USB C cable is a god send when trying to quickly charge your headset before it dies as well. Battery charges pretty quick 1-2 hours I’d say before it’s completely charged but that’s honnestly fine.
If this headset ever dies (I hope it won’t) then I’ll 100% be buying it again. I love it that much!
I had recently tried the corsair voids and although I liked them, I couldn’t help feeling I’d missed out by not getting the more expensive but higher quality Virtuoso’s, so I sent the voids back and got these. One thing the voids did not lack was comfort and had heard bad things from some reviewers about the comfort levels of the virtuoso’s. Happy to report that in the main the headset is very comfortable, even wearing them for hours on end they didn’t leave me in any kind of pain whatsoever. My only compliant is that sometimes the headset digs into the top of my head a but but with a simple adjustment it stops that happening, some extra padding in this area would not go a miss. Also I noticed that Corsair are now offering a range of replacement ear pads, so if you do suffer wearing these, there are now affordable options to replace the originals (16.99). The build quality is great and includes metal and high grade plastic, so should prevent an early death through wear and tear.
Charging the headset doesn’t take that long but make sure you charge to full capacity before first use and don’t get tempted to use half way through the charge, it could affect your battery life moving forward. On the voids it would only charge to around 93%, so I like the fact that they have a high medium and low gauge instead of a %. The dongle is a lot smaller than the voids dongle and fits nicely in the ST100 headphone stand. Setting up the headset is plug and play if you have icue installed. I know a lot of people have issues with icue but compared to other software out there, it’s really quite good. It allows you to control certain aspects of the headset. For example you will want to turn the brightness down to zero, to save battery life and you will most definitely need to start playing around with the equalizers because out of the box the sound is as flat as a pancake (intentionally). Once you start rising the levels up and find a sweet spot for your tastes the sounds is actually quite impressive. If you want the highest mic quality then you can play wired and the mic has one of the best reputations in the market for quality. I’ve been impressed playing games, films and even music. Plugging in a half decent source like an apple Ipod via the jack supplied produces a great sound that is far better than the voids. There is a tiny bit of sound leakage which does affect the richness and definitely the bass. For me there is a slight gap around where my jawline meets my neck, when I push the cups to close the gap, the richness bass and over all vibrancy is much, much better.
Overall, I think they are worth the money and I have only taken 1 star off for the gap around the neck area and the slight discomfort on the top of the head occasionally (That’s fixable). Very glad I upgraded from the voids, although the voids appear to be on sale for 66 at the moment, so if you’re on a tight budget they may be your best option if you’re insisting on wireless. If you are an audiophile you may want to look at wired options for around the same price, no doubt you will get better sound quality but as far as wireless goes I think there great for all round usage!
I’ve been after these headphones for a while and now I have them, I really like using them.
The audio quality one hears is excellent, and the microphone quality is also excellent. I get no complaints about extraneous sound while chatting in game or on discord, and can hear everything that goes on around me in games, thanks to the Dolby Atmos support (Windows Dolby Atmos licence is free from Corsair).
I only have 1 gripe about this headset, and that’s because they keep sliding forwards off my head because they have no grip on my hair, thanks to the soft materials used. I feel some kind of friction is needed to prevent this, but although annoying, it’s not enough to not want to use these.
They’re not as bassy as my HyperX Cloud II headset, but the mic quality for this Corsair Virtuoso is like 10/10 compared to 3/10 for the HyperX.
If you’re after a great sounding headset, with a near broadcast quality mic, that won’t break the bank, get this headset.
I bought this headset for my daughter for Christmas and she said it was the best headset she’s ever had. Extremely comfortable over the ears, even with glasses on and very comfortable across the top of her head. The last headset she had hurt the top of her head after any length of time but these ones don’t, they’re just so very comfortable. Outside noise is not a problem, the clarity of the sound is amazing. My daughter is extremely pleased with this headset.
The headset is comfortable to wear, no pinching of ears or sweating even when used for long periods. Good quality item that is as good as the many online reviews have stated. Good software with an easy to use interface. I use them for my music as well and they perform well, although I would prefer a little more boost to the bass but that my personal preference. Pricey item but well worth the money. Very happy with my purchase.
Comes with wireless dongle,USB-C to USB-B cable for charging as well as USB connection use, also comes with a 3.5mm cable if you want analogue connection.
Microphone is detachable and is of good quality.
Just remember it does not feature Bluetooth.
Would be nice is the mic could be moved out of view when not in use but it is detachable so I do that when not in use instead. Only downside other than the quite steep price is the battery life, doesn’t last as long as I’d like however it does have a voice alert when low – strange at first but I’ve found helpful.
Battery life/sound/ease of use/microphone is the best and RGB is nice….however, to get the most from them, you really need to mess with the EQ (see pic for my setting) and perhaps invest in some deeper earpads. Once you sort those two things, they are the best you can buy up to the 200 mark, and even then, you might be hard pushed to beat them.
Charge lasts a while, easy to charge with decent length on cable. The ease of the mic on mic off button is a game changer. Very aesphetically pleasing with lights and design. Lights are changeable, can adjust DPI and button selection. Also gives alert flashes which is very convenient. Has enhanced my gaming and computing experience.
The sound quality is good, not as good as the sony pair, but thats to be expected given those are twice the price. Mic is outstanding though, better than the dedicated mic I had on a arm which surprised me so I’ve actually stopped using that completely.
Battery life is solid.
Only downside i’d say is the iCue software you can get to control some of the features is dreadful and caused me quite a few issues with my pc so I uninstalled it. You don’t need this for them to work well though so I’ve not deducted a point.
Sound quality is really good as well especially when playing games they can be a little bit uncomfortable but not all the time easy to connect to icue But they like to cut out time to time
+ Amazing microphone quality – probably the best in the market
+ Wireless mode is well-designed and reliable
– Average sound quality
– Comfort can be a problem over long periods of use
– Massive bug renders bundled app (Corsair iCUE) unusable
Aside from this headset I have tested the Astro A50, Corsair HS70 Pro, and the SE version of the same headset. The Corsair Virtuoso (not SE) was the best of all four by a significant margin.
Unless noted otherwise, everything I write in this review applies to the wireless mode.
The best part of this headset is the microphone quality. Simply put, I don’t think you will find a better microphone in any wireless headset currently on the market, period, even in much more expensive models. I confirmed this by rigorously comparing level-matched recordings, and you can also confirm it yourself if you look for sample recordings on YouTube. As far as wireless headsets go it is miles ahead of the competition in this regard. Even the best *wired* headsets have trouble keeping up. As with most headsets, the microphone sounds best if it’s placed far away from your mouth, otherwise it clips.
Note that the only difference between the Virtuoso and the Virtuoso SE appears to be the microphone – I tested both variants and they seemed identical in all other aspects. You might think that the Virtuoso SE, being more expensive, would have a better mic – and you’d be wrong! Counter-intuitively, the SE microphone is worse, though not by much.
The sound quality of the headphones themselves is… average. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, either. The headset is definitely not designed for critical listening, but it is adequate for gaming. The biggest problem with the sound is lack of bass, which might be related to my glasses breaking the headphone seal. The lack of bass can be worked around with EQ, but if third-party frequency response measurements (e.g. Rtings) are to be believed, that will only do so much.
Probably the biggest problem of this headset has to do with comfort. The headset is somewhat heavy, which makes sense for a wireless headset with a battery, but the weight is not well distributed by the headband, which means after ~one hour of use my head starts to hurt where the headband is. I modified the headband, adding a contraption based on acoustic foam (see picture) to work around the problem. It does work and the headset doesn’t hurt anymore, but it seems silly that I had to do something like this.
The Virtuoso uses a proprietary wireless protocol and does NOT support Bluetooth – you will need to use the bundled wireless transmitter, which acts as a USB sound device. This is typical for gaming headsets. The upside is low latency and good audio quality in both directions.
Wireless range seemed great in my testing. I had to go a couple of rooms away before I started hearing dropouts. In normal usage ~1 meter away from the transmitter, I never noticed any kind of interference or dropouts, ever, in many hours of use. The wireless transmission seems really rock solid. I can’t say the same about other wireless headsets, even much more expensive ones.
When the headset is turned off, the computer sees the audio device as removed. This is great, because that means that if you have other audio devices (e.g. speakers, webcam mic) your computer will automatically switch back and forth as you turn the headset on/off. This might seem like a very basic feature, but you’d be surprised how few wireless headsets can do this. All other wireless headsets I tried act as audio devices that “stick around” even if the headset is turned off, which is just silly.
Volume control on the headset operates on the software (OS) level. Again this stands in contrast to many other wireless headsets, where the volume control is purely analog on the headset itself. The digital volume control on the Virtuoso works better because it avoids having to deal with two separate gain stages which can get messed up in confusing ways.
Aside from wireless, the Virtuoso comes with two wired connection options: 3.5mm Jack (TRRS) and, surprisingly, USB Audio – a rare find for this kind of product.
The headset is charged through the USB-C port. Sadly, while charging the headset using a USB charger, all LEDs stay on at full brightness and there is no way to turn them off. That’s just silly. It is possible to charge the headset while using it in wireless mode at the same time.
The headset can be tweaked using an app, Corsair iCUE, which makes it possible to adjust the RGB lighting and EQ, among a few other things. Unfortunately, in my testing the app suffered from a severe bug where it would constantly mess with per-application Windows app mixer levels, turning them way too low and rendering the headset basically unusable for this reason. Because of this I had to uninstall the app. The headset can be used just fine without the app, but unfortunately the app settings do not persist if the app is closed.
I have also used the headset on Linux (PulseAudio), where it works perfectly out-of-the-box.
In conclusion, I can recommend this headset for gaming and voice chat – it is very well suited for this use case and your friends/family/coworkers will appreciate the pristine microphone quality. Just make sure to double check for comfort/fit issues. I wouldn’t recommend it for music/movies due to its somewhat unremarkable sound quality – though to be fair it is easy to find much worse in this regard.
The sound quality is very good and the 7.1 surround is perfect for games like Hunt: Showdown.
The different sound settings through iCUE allow you to switch depending on what you’re doing. I like pretty chunky bass when listening to music, these headphones didn’t disappoint. Plus being able to customise the colours on LEDs was fun.
The mic quality is much better in comparison to the HS70. My friends over discord jokingly asked if it was actually me they were speaking to.
This has a LED at the end of the mic to let you know if the mic is on/mute. Prevents you speaking into the void when you’ve forgotten to turn off mute.
When you take them off they go into standby mode to save battery. Also when you come to pick them up again the motion sensor turns them back on. It’s such a small thing but it takes the minor hassle away from having to switch them back on manually, like the HS70s.
The only downside to this headset I’d say is the metal they use to make it sturdier, also makes it heavier. If you’re planning on having these on for a long time the headband will become very uncomfortable where it rests.
Overall a great headset, I wouldn’t get it unless you can also get insurance too. My HS70s lasted about 2 years before they broke through daily wear and tear. A bit expensive, but at least they’re good and I know that they’ll last.
I bought these last year in March. I talk with friends on Discord in my free time, and I work from home. So I effectively use this headset ALL day every day, and it’s almost purely because it’s the only headset I’ve found that I can actually wear for an entire day without any discomfort.
Pros:
– All-day usage with no discomfort (Please bear in mind that I do not wear glasses, your experience may vary if you do wear glasses).
– I can happily say that after a year of using this headset pretty much 18hrs a day, 7 days a week. I’ve experienced almost no battery degradation or even wear/tear on the headband or ear cushions.
– The sound quality is impressive, the mic quality is also pretty good.
– The battery will last you all day (If you disable the RGB).
– The range is ridiculous. I can be literally ANYWHERE in my flat with my headset on and it still sounds crystal clear. I cannot express how insane the range is.
– They can get pretty loud if you wanna drown out background noise.
– Super versatile, can be used wired (USB or Aux) or wireless.
With any new Corsair product (Which this was when I purchased it), there’s going to be some teething problems with the software. And lord knows I have had many with this headset. In its current state, running iCUE v4.11.274 software with Dongle firmware v0.16.80 and Headset firmware v0.17.149 appears to be somewhat stable, with only the odd issue that can usually be solved by either power cycling the headset or restarting my PC (More on the issues in the cons section).
Cons (A lot of these are software issues that can be fixed):
– Little on the hefty side, but you get used to it.
– The mic is mounted on a bendy cord instead of being on a pivot and operating like a lever (Like the Corsair VOID). Although this allows me to have greater positioning accuracy than the VOID style mic, It’s frustrating that I can’t just quickly flip it up to get it out of the way. That being said, the mic is detachable, so you can get it out of the way by detaching it. But I found that it is difficult to plug the mic back in whilst wearing the headset, so you’ll almost always be taking off the headset to plug the mic in.
– Sometimes the mic mute button doesn’t work and requires restarting iCUE service (sometimes my whole PC) to fix.
– I like to have sidetone enable so that I can ensure I’m not blowing on the mic. But there have been many instances where I boot up my PC, only to find that iCUE disabled sidetone for no reason. I wish this setting would stick. It’s annoying having to re-enable this now and then.
– If you use the headset with sidetone enabled, disable voice prompts too. With voice prompts enabled, every time you press the mic mute button, you’re greeted with “Mic off, Mic feedback off”. Hearing that every time you toggle the mic is EXTREMELY annoying. Thankfully you can disable this in iCUE so that it just gives you beeps.
– Sometimes I have to re-pair my headset to the dongle for no apparent reason.
– When your PC is off, and your headset is just idle and charging. The LEDs glows white. If your PC is in the same room you sleep in, that headset is gonna be a lighthouse in your room that keeps you up all night. The only way I have found to disable this is by turning the brightness to lowest (effectively disabling the side LEDs).
– Battery life is only good IF you disable the side LEDs. Otherwise, it’s awful. I don’t understand how these LEDs are so power-hungry. the battery life difference is night and day.
Quite honestly, the software is the biggest downfall of this headset. I don’t always get software issues, but when I do, they prevent me from using the headset which can be frustrating. I’ve had MUCH worse issues than the ones I listed in the cons that Corsair slowly fixed with software updates. If they keep up this steady pace, then the Virtuoso will be a solid 5/5. But until that time, I cannot give this any more than 4/5 because of the software.
Loving these headphones. Comfortable and really surprisingly good sound and microphone quality for the price point. Controls are intuitive. They don’t get too clammy throughout the day and ICue app is really easy to use to customize the equilizer and RGB lights.
Only issue is the mute button isn’t MS teams compatible. But got around this by leaving myself unmuted on the PC then just toggling mute on the headset.
So why have I bought the Virtuoso? Well having watched endless reviews, listened to microphone tests, looked at price points, waited on offers and discounts and sat for hours considering the pro’s and cons from each manufacturer in the market – In the end I found I was spending more time researching than actually enjoying the benefit of being wireless.
I narrowed down my selection to a handful of products: The Razer Nari Ultimate, The Razer Blackshark V2 Pro, The Virtuoso and Virtuoso SE and the Arctis Steel Series. These all sit in similar price points, functionality, features and use-cases. For a while I toyed with the idea of a top tier dedicated headset (Such as a pair of Bose or MX4’s from Sony) with a dedicated aftermarket fix-on microphone but Bluetooth has an ever so tiny bit of lag involved which compromised using these headsets as a gaming tool as I play competitive shooters and racers.
To narrow my search; I ruled out the Nari and Blackshark. Although I don’t mind Razer products, the gimmick of the vibrating Ultimate added too much to it’s costs, whilst the Blacksharks light-weight design was super appealing, it’s exposed cable design was concerning as I could just see it getting sliced at some point by accident. The software is hit and miss with Razer, but I do know they hit more often. The Steel Series wireless pro sadly priced itself just beyond what I was willing to spend, and from what I found the microphone is tragically bad. I have a group of friends I game with, and for their benefit I think it best that I don’t sound nasally and on helium. Steelseries also tries to sell it’s “Signature Sound Profile” which is, in all honestly, absolute rubbish as it’s just a generic slightly mid-tone boosted profile you’d find on nearly all headsets. However for some people I would recommend giving it a look as its cross platform compatibility, Bluetooth switch option, built in chat-game mixing and hot-swap batteries are very appealing features for some.
So, for me, it came down to the Virtuoso and it’s Special Edition. Now the only real differences between the two are:
1. The SE’s come with fully machined aluminium head cups. The non-SE are gloss plastic.
2. The SE’s come with a variety of colours and aesthetics like Espresso. The non-SE are black or white.
3. The SE’s come with a larger microphone, from around 30 different mic test videos, is lower quality than the standard edition.
4. The SE’s cost more.
Otherwise they are identical headsets – same drivers, battery etc. Seeing as 1,2&4 don’t really make a difference to HOW the headset performs, but 3 does, I felt that it wasn’t justified to pay a premium just to make the side of my head look pretty as I work alone.
Now then:
I will say that, at the end of the day, I feel that this headset can and does shine in the current market. It’s priced acceptably, it sounds decent when tweaked, the build quality is good and it comes from a respectable and trustworthy brand. It comes with alot of features that, although you probably won’t use them all, gives you options. The downsides with the thing is that you need to really put in a bit of legwork to get the best out of it; so for many who just want an out-the-box experience, I recommend you look elsewhere.
I primarily use a PC; and to be honest if there’s a real limitation of the Vituoso its that, to fully get the best out the headset, you need to be using it on PC’s. As you can’t access many of it’s features on consoles or mobiles as it’s not got Bluetooth. Avoid it for Console use as it’s not built for it.
Furthermore, untweaked, this headset is shocking for it’s price. It’s default sound profile is on par with budget headphones from a supermarket. It genuinely sounds like you have your head underwater. I would really like to know why Corsair have gone with this approach; it’s as if they forgot to actually do any configuration of the product in the factory. It’s not even a “set everything to neutral” approach, it’s a “make everything sound like tinny crap” by default. Next; the device only has software based 7.1 surround, no built in physical toggle. Seeing as this is one of their selling point’s its not exactly a great feature if you can’t even turn it on. Further, you’d be easily forgiven if you found the round ear cups as being about 1/2 a cm too thin and the RGB a nice, if pointless feature seeing as you will never see it unless your turning the headset off.
To address these issues:
1. Get the iCue software. This allows you to enable faux 7.1 surround sound and control the lighting aspects of the headset. If I’m honest I don’t like fake 7.1, as headphones are never going to be able to replicate what actual 7.1 speakers can do, as headphones are, by design, stereo. But at least it’s there and thats how you turn it on.
2. Turn off the RGB in iCue by going into device settings and dragging the brightness bar all the way to the left. This will give you a good couple of hours extra battery life; so unless you are some sort of fish-person who can see in 270′ vision and find colourful light more entertaining than what you are playing, do so as you won’t ever see the sides flashing.
3. Once you are in the iCue software immediately create a custom Equaliser profile. This lets you adjust the way the headset sounds dramatically. I use a set of older Sony MX RBT’s for the gym and at work which have a fantastic sound profile even in wireless mode for the music I listen too. Sound is a highly subjective topic but I like emotive bass and sharp top-ends as I listen to alot of Synth which my Sony’s do incredibly well. After tweaking the 32-250 range on the virtuosos and subsequently the 8k-16k does I got it pretty much exactly like my Sony’s. I feel though the Virtuoso’s do become either muddy or incredibly flat if you stray too aggressively with the sliders, so it is a case of playing a selection of tracks and doing some trial and error as you hone into the sound you like. Having done this the headset went from a 1/5 for sound to 4/5 for me. It does lack deep tone to the Bass though so I wouldn’t recommend these as your go-to music headset for pure listening pleasure, but for general listening it’s great.
4. For comfort upgrades: the ear cups are a bit too thin for me. Although the weight distribution and clamp are fine for my watermelon sized head, I do find that, compared to my after-market cups on my Sennheiser PC350 headset I currently use; I find my ears getting a bit fatigued and resting against the driver. Had the base cups about 4-5mm more padding it would be fine but they don’t. Thankfully the Virtuoso earcups are removable with a bit of careful twisting, so getting slightly thicker after-market pads with more breathable material and cooling gel isn’t so much of a hassle. The only issue you may have is that the fixing ring is glued to the original pads, so either 3D print one, get one from a 3rd part or carefully tear it free and re-glue it. Once in I can’t think of anything that would cause discomfort. Again this another example where the Virtuoso is terrible out the box, but a few tweaks here and there and you’ve got yourself a stellar headset.
Overall out the box this headset is a 1/5 product. It relies heavily on you using for PC. It’s features are rich but almost gated behind a technical experience requirement. You need to modify the product to get it at it’s best – which although good cannot rival dedicated wire-based equipment. Other quality of life upgrades are also recommended so at this price point you are more than justified in saying “why the heck should I have to do this?” and go elsewhere. However if you do tweak it you are rewarded immensely. It is quite easily a 4/5 piece of kit when done correctly. Already I am seeing the benefits of being wireless and the options from the headset itself are numerous. It comes with all the cables for every slot and the build quality is clearly a step above things like HyperX, Turtle Beach and MPow. I naturally find myself reaching for it compared to my older headset (which is still plugged in for EQ tuning purposes) as my go to daily headset; and it was highly enjoyable and surreal to keep talking to my friends as I popped downstairs to grab a drink rather than having to take the headset off and run down. If you can stomach the after-purchase tweaking and modifications I recommend the Virtuoso, but I’d say avoid the Special Edition unless you desperately want one of it’s unique colours.
You can use wireless mode in combination with the aux lead for things like listening to music through your phone if you’re running something intensive/bandwidth hungry on your PC (or phone calls).
Only downsides are that surround sound is a bit tinny, can be adjusted with the equalizer but has to be activated from within the iCue software rather than with a button and the microphone doesn’t flip up (to save space on your desk when not in use)
Battery life lasts for around 12 hours (realistically) without charge, I switch between wired and wireless without issue since wireless is just something that’s nice to have.
The wireless features work as seamlessly as you can get with windows 10 and the ability to switch between wired and wireless is nice too.
The sound quality out of the box is solid however with the iCUE software you can edit EQ profiles to get something which sounds really good after you experiment a little bit (attached is an image of my EQ profile). and you can also switch between stero and surround sound within iCUE which can be great if you are switching between gaming and listening to music.
The mic quality is decent and about what you’d expect from a headphone mic and the button + led for turning it off/on is very nice.
In the box you get a usb type c cable which is a great length so you don’t have to worry when using the headphones wired (wired works through usb, you don’t need a 3.5mm)
My only problem with the headset so far is that after very long uses (~3hrs+) it can get a bit uncomfortable, but still overall nice.
Excellent sound quality
Handy software features (surround sound, lighting sync with the temperature of my pc etc)
Clear mic than isn’t overly sensitive, also a physical mute button and detaches, as well as a red/green light on the tip showing if mic is on/off
Looks great and feels tough/durable
Cons
Lacks padding in both the top band and ear cups, as such causes some discomfort after a while on top of head and lacks full cupping of ears resulting in less than ideal noise cancellation.
I’m still using this headset for my PS5 over a year since my purchase. I found somewhere that the RGB on the headset ruins the battery life (and they were correct!). I had to use the iCUE software on my PC to disable to RGB and the battery difference is crazy! I can use them for about 3 or 4 days at a time before they start compalining about charge. For reference, I play about 6 hours per day with this headset. I’d certainly recommend to remove the RGB lighting as soon as possible to prolong battery life.
They have held up really well, you can tell how durable they are and they are so comfortable even after a year on. If these were to ever break completely, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy the exact same pair again. I have changed my review from 4 to 5 stars after reviewing after a year.
ORIGINAL:
I have had this headset since July 2020 and it has been enough time for me to give my own verdict on this headset. I had to find a new headset after my Turtle Beaches began to snap on one earcup and they have been very faithful to me.
COMFORT
So this headset had circular earcups rather than your typical oval ones, so these may be uncomfortable for some people. At first, I did find them uncomfortable to use, but with more usage I have now got used to them. The actual material feels nice and doesn’t put too much clamping force on your head. The headband is quite comfortable and is made of a memory foam type of material. The design of the headset does not make it heavy and gets straight to the point that it is a professional headset.
MICROPHONE
The microphone on this headset is brilliant. My friends on PS4 say that this is a crystal clear sounding microphone from their side and the sound coming in feels just as nice. There isn’t a wind shield / foam cover for the microphone which I think it definitely needs, so you’ll need to buy them separate. The microphone is detachable and the mute button is just underneath the back of the microphone. It’s a very nice feature and subtle. The microphone cancels a lot of noise out from around you too.
CONNECTIONS
You can plug a 3.5mm to 3.5mm Jack into this to have a wired connection, although my friends did say this gave them some strange echo effect on my voice, so I went against using it. It connects to your device through a wireless dongle (USB) and needs to be turned on by a power switch on the right earcup. These can be charged with a type-c cable. There’s a volume wheel on the right earcup too.
BATTERY
The one feature that ruins this headset for me. I just doesn’t last long enough at all. It’ll be on charge for ages and then will struggle to get through 8 hours ish. I’m sure I read it’s got like a 20 hour battery in it, but it definitely doesn’t feel like that.
RGB
The Corsair logo is on each earcup and can be lot up in various colours if you use their computer software to configure it. Very straight forward. It will also light up when it is on charge.
SOUND
The sound feels pretty good. I can enjoy listening to my friends or watching cutscenes / being in game with these on and feel immersed with the setting. I don’t listen to music through them, so I wouldn’t be able to get that opinion.
VERDICT
Overall, this headset takes time to get used to, especially with the circular earcups, and it can be off-putting for people. The microphone is one of the best I have used on the PlayStation and I’ll be using it on the PS5 too. If the battery life was longer and consistent, I’d have given this 5 stars without thinking about it. I wouldn’t let that out you off it though, as it could just be my pair. I do think the purchase for me was worth it and enjoy most of Corsairs products.
Comfort wise the ear cups feel too shallow and allow the headset to sit to close to your ears.
I looked at a couple headphones before this that were great but looked cheap and not built to last. At first I thought of going for one of those but then I saw this headphone. I could tell before buying it id love them do I decided not to be stingy with money and spend extra on these premium headphones.
After a couple months I can say these are amazing.
So this time I thought that I would get something a little more sturdy. Something made from metal. I dutifully ‘plumbed in’ my criteria & came up with the Corvus Virtuoso. I still believe that it was good money well spent.
These are the best headphones I have owned for gaming. They are a joy to wear, remaining comfortable when used for extended periods of time. This is largely attributable to their memory foam cushioning on the head band and at the earphones themselves.
The full STEREO sound I get is ‘state of the art”, but it’s not the full 7.1 as I believed. These cans are really designed for PC but are compatible with PS4 but as I said before, only to a stereo mode. I don’t remember seeing that in the advert (it is, by the way, way down in the bottom of the spec! Kind of misleading!) but it is mentioned in the instructions.
As far as noice cancelling is concerned that they are not! I can still hear the whinging of my dear wife, the whirring of our tired washing machine on full spine and the yapping of a certain small dog with a boot up its’ Jack’s eye! But all of these are easily eradicated by using the special ‘selective deafness’ switch (aka volume control) which also, has quite an effect on one’s own hearing or should I say, eventual deafness!!
So to sum up, I bought these for construction not sound and despite no 7.1 for my PS4, I am generally satisfied!
Uses the ICUE software which is easy to use and adjust settings. love the looks aswell as the changable RGBs
only issue i have is if you was playing a game or something then halfway decide to put your headset on the headset itself doesnt sync, so having to close and open the application again to get it to play sound or use the mic.
The headset sounds great and is very easy to change the EQ settings in the iCUE driver.
I have had for around a month and they can get hot whilst gaming but are a lot more comfortable than most cheaper headsets I have used for gaming. It can also be annoying if charging in a dark bedroom at night as when they aren’t connected to a device but are charging, the LEDs come on white full brightness which is very distracting at night so I have to charge during the day which means I have to use them with a wire.
This isn’t a big issue as they only need charging every couple days with quite a lot of use.
Overall, the virtuoso is the best headset I have ever used with great sound a good quality microphone.
Mic is fantastic and was one of the main reasons for me to buy this headset.
Build quality and design is 10/10. Although I though the volume wheel behaved oddly sometimes lowering the volume slightly before raising it. Minor thing.
I’d give 5 stars to sound quality and build quality.
Now my main gripe: comfort.
Although I believe these have potential to be very comfortable they might not suit everyone’s ears. The ear cups are not deep enough and I ended up feeling a lot of discomfort and pain after only 2 hours of use. The ear cups should be deeper or alternatively the drivers wall should be at an angle to avoid ear contact.
I’m terribly disappointed for this reason because I really like how they sound and their stunning looks and impressive build quality. Unfortunately I had to return them because after two days I realised I just couldn’t power through the discomfort.
Now with those issues fixed the headset it pretty much perfect. Awesome sound, mic quality, comfort (i keep them on pretty much all day) & battery life (roughly 20 hours from full charge).
So overall it is a really good headset i just wish corsair did a better job addressing the issues people have with the sound problems.
Comfort is great, was worried at first because my ears started to rub on the inside but after using for a couple hours the headset felt perfect, feel like it just needs to bed in when its new.
Overall highly recommend this if your are looking for a quality wireless headset, the battery also lasts a very long time even with the RGB Corsair logo’s turned on.
For gaming, they’ve exceeded my expectations completely. With having a tight pair of headphones and the audio being very crisp, especially for shooters such as Battlefield, OW, CS:GO and etc, they were amazing to figure out where the enemies were.
However, there’s the downside…
Today, I came to the headphones completely drained. Once plugged in, they were just blinking red. After checking the forums and corsair’s help page, seems a few people have had this issue before however was simply fixed with the new firmware update, which I didn’t check.
Help page suggested to plug them in for 15 minutes on wired connection, disconnect from PC entirely, plug the wireless dongle back in and switch back to wireless mode – However did not resolve the problem. I left them charging for over 12 hours which to no available, fixed the issue. I’ve had to swap these out.
Other than the headphones bricking themselves for some reason, they’re really are a decent pair for the amount. It’s just a shame an older firmware version installed on this headset caused it to be bricked like this. I’ve already got a replacement on order coming for next week, so hopefully with the new firmware installed we won’t have a repeat. If not, I’ll change to 5 stars.
Will update in the upcoming weeks.
Comfort
This is my biggest issue with this headset. Any headset for gaming should be able to be worn on those marathons, be they 8hrs, 24hrs or 48hrs. The clamping force is good but slightly weak for my liking but a good compromise for people with glasses. The headband however is where all the problems lie. Its got either too little foam or the stitching and foam is too stiff, whatever it is, it digs in and is unpleasant after minuets not hours, and I am by no means sensitive, I am well accustomed to the Vive and the head strap there. The ear cups are of detriment to its comfort rating too. They are just too shallow and too poorly fitting to provide a good seal on the head. Overall its a tolerable level but not what I would expect at this price and especially the target demographic of the headset.
Sound
The sound from any wireless headset will never be exceptional regardless. This pair however, did blow my old Cloud 2’s out of the water, but not without huge EQ tweaking. The provided EQ in the software is good but all pre-sets distinctly lack mids and as someone who listens to rock, unacceptable. This could translate to bass saturation over voices and footsteps in game if there were explosions or gunshots but we never got that far to see. Heavy EQ tweaking from another software got them sounding as I would expect but there was a good level of clipping and this left the sound a little flat, they ended up sounding loud and empty, a point echoed by someone else I had test the sound because I couldn’t believe my ears after seeing all the other reviews. Not what I would expect and falls short because of the EQ tweaks needed, if it sounded how it does tweaked out of the box it would be fine, but it doesn’t. Wired mode does fair better but not by much and if I wanted a wired headset, I wouldn’t be buying this one.
Build
This is arguably the strongest point for the Virtuoso. They feel heavy and sturdy, even the non SE version with solid, stiff, metal hinges and a strong but flexible headband. The microphone doesn’t have any clicking when you attach it to the headset which concerns me for the durability of that piece, especially since its proprietary with the hole shape. The 3.5mm jack and USB all do have satisfying interfaces and feel like their connections will last so perhaps my microphone concern has no validity.
Microphone
This is where this headset shines. This made it so hard to make the decision because the microphone sounds so damn close to my actual speaking voice. The mic on the standard edition is flawless with clear reproduction and good directionality so as not to pick up my keystrokes or even much of my breathing. This is defiantly the strong point for this headset.
Overall
The Corsair Virtuoso isn’t a bad buy, but it is far from the best. The main saving grace is the aesthetics and the microphone, but to me, I don’t game in front of a mirror and I don’t hear myself or broadcast and if I did I would probably not be using a headset microphone. I game and listen to music and my teammates for long periods of time and in comparison to other headsets out there, the Virtuoso does a good job, but not the job I would expect for the price and it certainly doesn’t to the best job.
I spent hours reviewing headsets before purchasing these. A lot of the top sellers have 4.5 stars but then the reviews say the sound quality is terrible or they are flawed in some way. I think this set is only 4 star because of the clamping pressure. For that reason if you have a larger than average head I might avoid these, otherwise, I highly recommend them for their amazing sound quality, mik, and design (PC user).
First of all; iCUE. What should be the bread and butter of Corsair products has been a bit of a pain. Granted I’ve only had the one issue with it that has since fixed itself with a hard reset of my computer, but it was still a pain. For context – in the software the headset duplicated itself – so every time I muted it, it would register 2 button presses and not just the 1, so it would immediately unmute itself.
Secondly – the mic quality on the SE is worse than the non SE? What’s up with that Corsair?
And lastly – the glossy sides of the non SE edition. Obviously as the non SE has better mic quality and is cheaper i went with that one – but the glossy sides aren’t so great – it’s like spitting on the amazing clean industrial design with these reflective ear cups – why not just go with matte?
Some good stuff about it though – the mic quality (of the non SE atleast) is amazing. You get to adjust your sound profiles in iCUE. The sound quality is amazing. They’re comfortable to me – some people complain about their ears touching the drivers however that doesn’t bother me all that much. And the battery life is pretty damn good too – I use them for a few hours a day and usually only have to charge it once a week. I also wear them outdoors with the included double ended audio jack cable – they’re minimalistic so you won’t look like an idiot outdoors.
Overall solid product. For 150 it’s an investment sure – but as someone who will be using them near every day for hours on end I’d say it’s worth it personally.
+ Good build quality.
+ Decent sound after some EQ changes.
+ Good battery life, about 20 hours as stated by the manufacturer.
+ Mic quality is “very good” according to people I’ve talked to.
+ Good range. Can easily walk downstairs without cutting out.
– Not enough headband padding for me. Starts hurting after a few hours.
– No battery voice-indicator at certain levels, just a “battery low” voice at around 15%.
– Expensive for what it is, my old headset had MUCH better sound without an EQ and was about 50 cheaper.
Out of the box, I thought this headset sounded absolutely horrible.
They sounded dull, almost hollow, both on my PC, smartphone and Nintendo Switch. The saving grace is the PC software that comes with it, which makes the sound SO much better. Once you play around with the EQ, they have decent, punchy bass and clear high notes, at least in “stereo mode” which is what I always use. Of course, this is highly individual, so you might not agree. My previous headset didn’t have an EQ, so for me, this was a big plus.
Seeing as the EQ is what makes the sound acceptable, I would NOT recommend getting this headset if you’re planning on using it for anything but PC gaming. It still sounds horrible on my phone and on my Switch and I’ve found no way to make it better.
Oh, and the microphone quality is apparently “very good” according to the people I have talked to, so no complaints on the quality of the mic.
The overall build quality is really nice and I really appreciate the “clean” look, compared to some other gaming-headsets that look ridiculous. As someone with a large head, I got these to replace my old plastic headset (which I had to glue several times, poor thing) and it’s such a big difference! The metal frame feels super sturdy and it doesn’t “creak” when moving it. The earpieces both look and feel high quality, and the RGB lights are clear and bright. The only downside here is the padding and the controls. The headband padding isn’t thick enough for me, so it starts to hurt after a couple of hours. I solved this by adding another strip of padding myself.
And then the controls/inputs, they’re a little strange compared to what I’m used to. The volume wheel controls the PC volume, which is linked to the headset volume, but it doesn’t feel very responsive. You have to scroll quite a lot for it to change, yet sometimes it seems to “jump” suddenly when you scroll. Could be a fault on mine, but worth mentioning. The charging input is placed in a way that if you wear it while charging, the cable will basically be right on your shoulder. Not only will you feel the cable-head on your shoulder, but the cable itself will rub on your back/front depending on how you place it and it WILL pick up noise. Luckily this shouldn’t be a major issue since the battery lasts for around 20 hours and if you time things correctly, you’ll not have to charge during use very often.
As for the microphone, it feels sturdy while also being bendable, which is great since you can put it closer to or further away from your mouth. However, it lacks a “pop-filter”, which for the price that this was, I feel that I shouldn’t have to purchase that on the side. Also, the mute button is on the base of the microphone, which to me felt a little strange since I’m used to all the buttons being on the headset itself.
The included software has had several updates since a lot of previous reviews I’ve seen.
I’ve seen people complain about the lack of a “battery indicator” and that you couldn’t turn off the microphone light, which I’m happy to say has now been implemented. You can now turn off the microphone light, so you don’t have that green light in your face all the time. And you can also view the remaining battery both in the actual application and now also add a battery icon to your Windows taskbar. If you have more than one monitor, you’ll be able to see the remaining battery at all times.
Other than that, it’s a pretty straightforward application. You can change the lighting of all of your Corsair paraphernalia, but I’ve only got the headset so I have no idea how well this works with other Corsair products. You can change the EQ settings and a few other minor settings, such as the battery indicator, when your headset shuts off after being idle etc.
While I may have been a little nitpicky in this review, I felt that I had to be, seeing as they were 149 at the time and that I still consider my old headset to be superior. The only thing that these are better at, is the build quality and its battery life.
Now I’m not saying that they’re bad, but for the price, I just expected a little more.
As I’ve managed to make them sound “OK” and that the build quality is as good as it is, I have decided to settle for these and end my search for a new headset.
If you’re not as picky as myself and don’t mind its price tag, I am sure you will enjoy this headset!
Been using the product for about 2 weeks now and felt it was worthy of me taking my time to review. I love that it’s wireless and work around the house while listening to music (a big upgrade for me). Really easy setup, just plug in and go, remember to flip the switch on the headset for wireless mode. Very comfortable and block external sound out maybe too well, sorry wife.
Overall so happy with my purchase and glad my friend recommended them to me.
When you first get this headset, make sure you update the firmware as soon as possible, using Corsair ICUE.
Ok so here’s the good:
First off the headset sounds really good. I’ve been a HyperX and Sennheiser user for years, so I’ve been accustomed to good sound. It even sounds great when using it in wireless mode. (the main reason why I bought it)
The mic is also one of the best mics I’ve heard on a wireless gaming headset in 2019. (Check out the review on YouTube by HardwareCanucks, and hear for yourself)
The headset itself is really comfortable. I have a big head and can happily game with these on for over 6 hours without any issue.
The bad:
Before the latest firmware update the headset was being recognised twice in ICUE, which I thought was strange, also the dongle firmware revision wasn’t being recognised, not really major deal breakers but a minor annoyance. I also had intermittent connectivity issues as the dongle and headset regularly switched to a cleaner 2.4Ghz wireless channel.
After updating the firmware on the dongle and headset, I initially had a few teething problems with the headset. The next day after I turned off the headset it took about 10 secs to power back on, also the Corsair ICUE app froze upon rebooting my PC after I had installed the latest firmware on both devices, this resulted in me having to kill the ICUE task in windows and restart it’s service in order to make the software functional again.
Conclusion:
After having the headset a few days now most of the minor issues have dissipated, the headset boots fine and now stays connected without issue. Corsair ICUE has been behaving itself too.
The Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless headset has cracking sound along with a cracking mic, but obviously not as good as some wired alternatives.
If you’re in the market for a decent wireless headset with a half decent mic, then you can’t go wrong with the Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless.
Overall 4/5, mainly after the issues I encountered.