1More Spearhead VR Gaming Headphones - Review 2022

1More is best known for earphones, merely it'southward made the jump to headphones, and from there you only need to pop on a microphone to make a gaming headset. The Spearhead VR is the company'due south offset gaming headset, a USB-powered, wired PC model with 7.1-channel simulated environment and colored lighting. It offers good sound and an attractive design, but at $149.99 it's expensive for a wired headset, and its lack of a conventional boom mic holds back its vocalization chat abilities.

Blueprint

The headset looks very hit, thanks to both its colored lighting and metallic frame. Each over-ear earcup is circular, with soft, fabric-covered pads and black plastic bodies mounted on blackness aluminum struts. The struts don't pivot, but the earpads can freely tilt a few degrees in any direction to rest comfortably confronting your ears. The earcups are connected past a black metallic headband, with some other slightly padded band suspended under information technology. The pads easily stretch to adjust to the meridian of your head, keeping the metal lifted in a higher place your scalp and ensuring a comfortable, low-cal fit.

A ring on the back of each earcup and a 1More logo higher up each strut low-cal up. By default the emphasis lights are crimson, only if you lot install the 1More software on your PC you can change the lights to some other color. The low-cal options are express, with no rainbow upshot or color cycling. You can only pick a single color and make up one's mind whether it volition stay constantly lit, slowly fade on and off, or pulse similar a heartbeat at different speeds.

1More Spearhead VR Gaming Headphones

The left earcup holds all of the Spearhead'due south controls, ports, and the mic. A micro USB port sits on the bottom edge of the earcup, with a 3.5mm aux input in front of it (both cables are included). A wheel behind the micro USB port adjusts book or, when clicked, bass levels. A mic mute switch rests above the wheel, on the back edge of the earcup.

Lighting and Microphone

A translucent white piping extends from the bottom of the left earcup's strut, appearing to exist some form of smash mic. It'southward merely an accent light, even so; the actual headset microphone is a pinhole on the underside of the right earcup. The pipe lights up the aforementioned color every bit the headset's accents when muted, and is night when unmuted. Information technology seems counterintuitive, but information technology's a clear indicator when you're not beingness heard when you're communicating with teammates.

Unfortunately, without a boom mic, y'all don't become the clarity of a boom mic. Exam recordings sounded a bit muffled and afar, defective the depth and presence nosotros've experienced in more conventional gaming headsets like the Beyerdynamic Custom Game and Kingston HyperX Deject Alpha. Information technology simply sounds inferior to every comparably priced gaming headset we've tested that uses an actual boom.

Connectivity

The Spearhead is primarily a USB headset, functioning as a 7.one-channel sound device when connected to a computer with the included USB cablevision. You can too utilise the 3.5mm aux input, though this will disable the boom mic and lighting (though an in-line mic on the included cablevision lets you talk through the headset when it'southward continued to your telephone).

1More refers to the Spearhead as "VR Gaming Headphones," simply there'due south no existent distinction between it and a regular wired gaming headset. The comfortable blueprint can help when you're wearing the headset over an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, simply there are no VR-specific features.

Music Performance

Music sounds skillful on the Spearhead, with reasonably stiff depression frequency response and solid presence in the higher frequencies to balance it out. It handled our bass test rail, The Knife'south "Silent Shout," at maximum volume without whatever distortion. It won't rattle your head or seriously threaten your ears like similarly priced bass-heavy headphones can at these volume levels, but the power nonetheless comes through conspicuously.

Yes' "Roundabout" sounds well-balanced, thanks to sculpting between the low-mids and high-mids. The acoustic guitar strings in the opening get enough loftier-end finesse for their texture to come through and the electrical bass sounds punchy merely not overbearing, though neither reach toward any frequency extremes. The effect is a stiff performance that doesn't overwhelm or neglect annihilation in the mix.

Gaming Performance

Game audio is stronger, since the sculpted lows and highs complement most action games. The Spearhead uses 50mm stereo drivers for each ear, combined with seven.ane-channel simulated environment sound produced with audio processing through the USB connectedness. The simulated environment doesn't create accurate imaging for figuring out where sound sources are effectually yous, just it does mix the sound that goes through the drivers to go far seem louder and fuller. We've yet to see whatsoever fake surroundings sound that genuinely offers a tactical reward, just the characteristic tends to raise the gaming experience past making it sound bigger, regardless.

1More Spearhead VR Gaming Heapdhones

Overwatch sounds nice and total on the Spearhead. Junkrat'due south bombs have a solid amount of punch, and gunfire from Soldier 76 and McCree is easy to discern against the game's bombastic musical score. Voice cues from characters can too be clearly fabricated out in the middle of combat, thanks to the sculpted mid-highs.

Doom sounds active and total on the headset, with plenty of bass in the explosions and the announcer'due south voice in team deathmatches. It's a satisfying audio that provides lots of low end to requite the combat a sense of force. The false surroundings sound doesn't do much to provide accurate directional imaging, but left-to-correct cues tin can be clearly heard, like any skilful headset in a game with a solid stereo mix.

Conclusions

The Spearhead is a laudable first endeavour at a gaming headset with one major mistake: 1More forgot the boom mic. The light pipe looks striking, merely without a microphone on the end of it, the headset relies on pinhole microphones, and that presents a pregnant drop in sound quality. Since a microphone for reliable voice conversation is what separates a gaming headsets from a standard pair of headphones, information technology'due south a pretty big omission. You tin can even so talk through the headset, but it won't sound about every bit adept to your teammates as gaming headsets that cost half the price, like the Astro Gaming A10. For the aforementioned toll every bit the Spearhead, we also like the Turtle Beach Elite Pro, which offers a more than luxurious design and better sound operation across the board.