Sound Quality

The CORSAIR HS60 HAPTIC is equipped with a pair of 50-millimeter dynamic speaker drivers. CORSAIR tuned them with gaming in mind, and that's what they do best. Their sound signature is very bass-heavy with a slightly recessed mid-range and fairly smooth highs. This is exactly what most users like and strive for, and CORSAIR is undoubtedly aware of it. If you're after a neutral-sounding pair of headphones with as little coloration as possible, the HS60 HAPTIC definitely isn't for you.

The bass, while thick, deep, and satisfyingly punchy, isn't sluggish or sloppy, so it doesn't interfere with vocals, enemy footsteps or anything else in the lower mid-range. It also never becomes annoyingly boomy, which is a common pitfall of bass-heavy gaming headsets—it's great to hear CORSAIR successfully avoided it. While somewhat recessed, the mid-range has satisfactory detail retrieval and enough presence to stay distinguishable in the mix. Higher frequencies sound inoffensive and aren't likely to cause ear fatigue. They're clean and pleasantly detailed.

The soundstage is surprisingly wide for a closed-back gaming headset—more than once was I under the impression I was hearing some minor detail outside of the game or song. A couple of times, I even took the headset off, thinking something was happening in my apartment only to realize it belonged to the song or game I was playing. Having said that, spatial positioning in stereo mode and when only using the flat sound profile, dubbed "Pure Direct," is mediocre. I was able to roughly estimate where my enemies were in games like Apex Legends and Battlefield V, but not with pinpointing accuracy. Luckily, this can be improved by switching to a more suitable sound profile, such as "FPS Competition," or playing with the equalizer; you want to boost the 250–4,000 Hz range, but don't overdo it. Another option for achieving better spatial awareness is to use surround sound, but we'll get to that in a moment.


While good for music and movies, games are where the HS60 HAPTIC really feels at home. Its meaty bass results in massive explosions and an exciting atmosphere in action-packed games, and the warmish overall sound signature won't leave you hanging in games relying more on atmosphere and dialogue. All in all, this is a fun-sounding headset, cleverly tuned to cater to most gamers. Audiophiles will scoff at its colored sound reproduction, but let's put it this way—would an audiophile even consider a gaming headset with a white camo design? Trained and sensitive ears will also be able to pick up a slight background hiss, which can be heard in very quiet song passages, on certain system sounds and in other cases with very little sound coming out of the speaker drivers.

Taction Haptic Bass Technology

The idea behind a haptic bass system sounds banal, even silly—whenever bass is reproduced, the ear cups vibrate. Who on earth would want that? This is the stance I had after testing a couple of "vibrating" headsets in the past, and what was on my mind going into this review.

After spending some 20 hours with the HS60 HAPTIC, I started turning into a believer. The Taction haptic bass technology isn't as simplistic as other such solutions. While I can't comment on its exact implementation as CORSAIR hasn't released any specific information, what I can tell you is that it truly manages to achieve what it set out to: deeper immersion while gaming. The haptic system feels incredibly responsive and on point. CORSAIR lists some impressive numbers on the spec sheet, with a tactile frequency response of 15 Hz to 85 kHz, tactile rise time of 0.008 seconds, and tactile fall time of 0.085 seconds. Vibration was in sync with what was happening in front of my eyes. It was subtler when my character's heart was pounding loudly and went all out with a tank rolling right past me, or a bomber dropping its deadly load on the base I was defending.


You know that effect when you're listening to a great pair of speakers and can not only hear the bass they're producing, but feel it with your entire body? This is essentially what the Taction haptic bass technology is aiming to achieve, only in a much smaller form factor. I really liked playing games with this feature turned on, particularly single-player ones. In multiplayer games, especially first-person shooters, I preferred it off as I'm not looking for deeper immersion but as little distraction and as much information as possible—information that could go unnoticed with added sensory input from the haptic system. CORSAIR quotes 20% increased reaction time because "Taction Transporters use a different and faster neural pathway to your brain," but I can't say I felt any faster than usual.

To make most out of the Taction haptic bass technology, make sure you don't go overboard with it. I found it most enjoyable when "turned up" to around 40%–50%. When pushed higher, vibrations went from immersive to annoying. I also found this system useless and undesirable when listening to music. It is my impression that it works best when the bass notes aren't constant and repetitive, like they are with most music tracks.

Windows Sonic for Headphones

Instead of implementing some low-quality virtual surround system, CORSAIR decided to lean on the Windows Sonic for Headphones feature, which is an integral part of Windows 10. To activate it on the HS60 HAPTIC, you need to go to Windows settings > System > Sound, select the HS60 HAPTIC headset, click on Device properties and then select "Windows Sonic for Headphones" in the Spatial sound menu. Or just right-click on the speaker icon in the system tray with the headset selected as your sound source and go to Spatial Sound > Windows Sonic for Headphones.

Activating Windows Sonic disables the equalizer within the iCUE software driver, which is fine as you'll be greeted by a pleasant, warmish, highly immersive sound. In games like Apex Legends and Battlefield V, Windows Sonic helped me with spatial positioning, but also made the whole experience that much more exciting. The sound becomes noticeably wider, both horizontally and vertically, without excessive reverb or significant loss of bass definition. Windows Sonic also pairs great with the Taction haptic bass technology, so definitely do give both a try—you'll undoubtedly enjoy it.