The Cooler Master MH650 is a clear upgrade to last year's MH752 and a welcome addition to the USB gaming headset market. It shares many external characteristics with the two other members of Cooler Master's new gaming headset lineup, the analogue MH630 and the wireless MH670, but the USB functionality doesn't feel slapped on. The built-in USB sound card performs well, giving the MH650 a massive supply of power—more than you'll ever need—as well as a good microphone input. Thanks to that, its microphone doesn't sound any different than it does with the headset connected to a good quality external USB sound card.

Microphone quality is actually one of the stronger aspects of the MH650. On the previous page of this review, you can hear it compared to several other brand-name USB gaming headset microphones. It quickly becomes apparent that it sounds pretty great for a $80/€80 headset, and it's also better than the microphones of some more expensive competitors.

It's not all about the microphone, though. The Cooler Master MH650 also offers nice build quality, excellent wearing comfort, and good sound performance. While it sounds brighter, less warm than the wireless MH670, it's also more revealing and better-suited for multiplayer shooters because of its ability to accurately locate in-game targets by their gunshots, footsteps, and other audio cues. It has big bass, which can be further thickened in the software driver, and a solid albeit slightly recessed mid-range. It offers enough to keep you entertained, whether you're playing games, watching movies, or listening to music.

I'd love to see a couple of extra features in the software driver, such as microphone sidetone, and I'd be careful about picking the MH650 up if I was planning to use it in a room where I'm surrounded by others, as its mesh fabric ear cushions do leak sound in both directions (the wireless MH670 doesn't have this "issue" as it uses pleather ear cushions). Other than that, this is a very good and reasonably priced USB gaming headset.