The XPG Precog is an interesting gaming headset in more ways than one. According to the manufacturer, it's the first gaming headset ever to use two speaker drivers in each ear cup: a standard dynamic driver backed with an electrostatic driver. That combined with a feature-heavy spec sheet resulted in a hefty price tag—the Precog was launched at $250. If that were its current price, my conclusion would be a simple one: buy something else, it's simply not worth it. However, not long afterward, XPG drastically cut the price of the Precog, and as I am writing this, you can get it for $110. At that price point, it becomes an intriguing option despite some flaws.

The single biggest drawback of this headset is the USB sound card that also functions as an in-line remote controller. It gets warm during use, two of its three sound profiles are poorly executed, and, most importantly, it has an audible issue with the microphone input that results in annoyingly high-pitched background noise—it becomes harder to hear if you lower the microphone gain (listen to the samples in the microphone performance section of this review) and completely disappears after switching to analogue and combining the XPG Precog with a different sound card. Switching to a different sound card isn't something you'll necessarily want to do, as the one supplied with the XPG Precog actually does a good job of powering the built-in speaker drivers. The Precog can get extremely loud, and its "neutral" sound profile, "Music," sounds quite good. The bass is deep, thick and powerful, and the mids and highs are clean and detailed. The whole thing has been tuned with the obvious intention of offering excitement rather than subtlety—loud gunfire, massive explosions, and good spatial awareness. When used in Music mode, the XPG Precog sounds like a proper $110 gaming headset should sound.

I'm not a huge fan of the in-your-face design, but it's very likely that younger gamers will be drawn to it. What I definitely do like are the build quality and comfort—no objections there as both of those aspects are properly taken care of.

XPG has a good platform to develop a terrific high-end gaming headset from. They only have to continue working on the sound card, and perhaps dial down on the gamer aesthetic. Should they do so, I'm certain they'll come up with a headset they'll be able to sell for $250, which was the original plan for the Precog. As for the Precog itself, it will likely find its way to customers with its severely slashed $110 price tag as despite the microphone issues, it still offers a ton of features and good sound quality.