Audio Performance

I'll split the audio performance analysis into two parts—gaming and music. Even though the headset produces the same sound regardless of what it's being used for, you won't necessarily look for the same things while annihilating your virtual opponents as you will when listening to your favorite tunes.

Gaming

The 1MORE Spearhead VRX gaming headset uses a pair of 50-mm maglev graphene speaker drivers. Unlike any of 1MORE's headphones I had a chance to try out thus far, the Spearhead VRX sounds somewhat veiled, which has a negative impact on its ability to help you locate and accurately position your virtual targets. Luckily, most of the veil can be lifted by visiting its software settings and activating one of the EQ profiles offered within. Every available profile, of which there are eight, boosts the 800 Hz – 12 kHz frequency range, thus opening up the middle and high frequencies. That increases the clarity of the sound and massively helps with stereo imaging, although not so much that spatial positioning would become something the Spearhead VRX excels at. If you're mostly into shooters, this isn't a good headset for you as it won't allow you to pick up your targets solely on auditory cues.


To my ears, the factory EQ profiles go a bit too far with boosting the higher frequencies—they can easily get out of control and become very harsh. I wasn't able to make them smooth and silky regardless of what I did within the 8-band EQ, but in the screenshot above, you can see the setting I found to be the most versatile, both sound-quality and game-genre-wise. It's basically a modification of the factory "Gaming Default" preset with a lowered bass (try to stick below +3 dB or 60%, depending on whether you are looking at the EQ or main menu of the driver), as well as a tamed 4 kHz range.

It is my general impression that 1MORE wanted to make the sound signature of the Spearhead VRX as exciting and dramatic as possible, which would also explain the way some of the factory EQ profiles are tuned ("Extreme", "More Bass", "Into the Forest", "More Bright"). That can work well for action movies and short gaming sessions, which will sound explosive and completely over the top, but over time, it inevitably leads to ear fatigue. This is why playing with the EQ is essential, and why you should avoid using the Spearhead VRX in analogue mode altogether as in that scenario, it becomes impossible to use any of the features of 1MORE's driver (EQ, microphone noise canceling, head tracking, 3D sound, RGB lighting).

The design of the ear cups is closed-back, but they do let some of the sound leak in both directions. For example, if you're sitting next to a window overlooking a noisy street, you'll still be able to hear the traffic while wearing the Spearhead VRX, although heavily muffled.

Music

The music performance of the Spearhead VRX is arguably the best when the "Less Exciteme" (say what?) EQ profile is used. While some of the veil is present, and the higher frequencies don't completely lose their sharp edge, other profiles boost the 4 kHz range too much, which translates into an audible hiss in songs that aren't recorded with a silent background—and there's a lot of those. You're welcome to play around with other presets as well to open the sound up even more, but be careful what you do with the 4 kHz EQ slider.

Same goes for the 50 Hz slider that boosts the bass to where the ear cups start vibrating and shaking around your ears. This is actually a feature of the 1MORE Spearhead VRX. If you close the EQ menu and go to the main menu of the software driver, the third slider from the left will let you control the 50 Hz slider on a scale from -12 to +12 dB, and you'll be informed about how strong these vibration will turn out to be. Don't go above 60% as that results in excessive bass. The built-in maglev graphene speaker drivers are quite bassy without any additional equalization. Keep in mind that the neutral position of the slider is 50% (0 dB).

When adjusted properly, the bass itself digs fairly deep. It isn't exceptionally fast, but I wouldn't call it sluggish either—it works well for electronic music, hip-hop, pop, and similar genres. Genres where any kind of subtlety is sought after aren't a forte of the Spearhead VRX; for critical listening, you'll have to resort to a different line of 1MORE's audio products.

3D Surround Sound (Waves Nx)

What really sets the 1MORE Spearhead VRX apart from any other gaming headset on the market is its 3D audio feature. Instead of using one of the popular virtual surround sound DSPs, such as Dolby Headphone 7.1 Surround Sound or DTS Headphone: X, 1MORE cooperated with a company called Waves, a winner of the Technical Grammy Award in 2011 for their music production software and plugins.


Waves implemented something they call "The Nx". Waves Nx consists of a head tracker unit built into the 1MORE Spearhead VRX, hidden away within the chassis of the headset, and a software plugin that can be activated to emulate seven different sources of sound all around your head. The system is activated by going into the "Head-Tracking" submenu within the software driver and flipping the switch to the "On" position. After that, you have to look directly at the screen and click "Reset" at the bottom of the screen. That way, the head tracking unit will know where your monitor is and what it needs to do with the sound when you turn your head in any direction.

If you're a regular reader of my gaming headset reviews, you know that I'm not too fond of surround sound solutions as they usually destroy the sound quality without offering a proper surround sound experience. I only liked two of them—the Sennheiser Binaural Rendering Engine offered by their GSX 1000 sound card (reviewed here) and the Dolby Headphone 7.1 Surround Sound that comes with some gaming headsets (a couple of Logitech's and HyperX's models, for example). Well, make that three because I thoroughly enjoyed using the Waves Nx on the 1MORE Spearhead VRX.

You're immediately greeted with a sensation that the sound moved out of your head once activated, almost as if it's suddenly coming from the room you're sitting in instead of a pair of speaker drivers located a couple of inches from your ears. The sound doesn't lose its definition in the process—the bass is still there, as thick as ever, and the mid-range and high-range stay coherent and very present, but are not overblown. You can still freely switch between various EQ profiles, although I suggest you turn the EQ off when using the 3D audio feature—to my ears, that resulted in the smoothest sound presentation. Even though earlier I said that not using the EQ will result in a veiled, highly contracted acoustic experience, activating the 3D audio feature instantly fixes that issue as the sound opens up and the soundstage becomes vastly wider and deeper.

Getting a fun and believable sense of three-dimensional sound is only a part of the overall experience of Waves Nx, though. The other part of it is the aforementioned ability to track head movements and respond to them appropriately. If, for example, you turn your head to the left by 90°, the sound will travel from the left ear to the right, and you'll only hear it in the right ear until you start turning your head back towards your monitor. In essence, if you think of your monitor as a gargantuan speaker, Waves Nx does its best to emulate what you would hear from that speaker if you were physically moving around the room you're in. The head tracking happens with no perceivable lag, and the head tracking unit is also quite sensitive, so it will change the perception of the sound even if you move your head only slightly, i.e. when gaming on a very large screen or an ultrawide monitor.

The entire implementation of the Waves Nx 3D audio system seems flawless, and I'm excited to see what else 1MORE can do with it in the future if they stick with this technology. It's not only fun to use in games, but also for watching movies, where action-heavy titles can oftentimes get a whole new dimension of immersiveness. Let's not forget about VR gaming either. I tried the 1MORE Spearhead VRX with a couple of Oculus Rift titles, and this is where this entire system really comes together. Since it tracks head movement in all directions, including up and down, the overall experience goes from excellent to quite astonishing. Unfortunately, with VR gaming being where it is—in the gutter, to put it bluntly—not many people will get to experience how Waves NX (and the 1MORE Spearhead VRX) pairs up with virtual worlds.