Microphone Performance

The detachable unidirectional microphone of the Corsair HS70 Bluetooth was tested by connecting it to a PC via the USB and 3.5-mm interface, as well as an Android smartphone via Bluetooth. To review and compare the microphone's sound to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones, both studio monitors, connected to Audiolab's M-DAC, a high-quality digital-to-analog converter that functions as an external sound card when connected to a PC. Testing was done in Discord, TeamSpeak, Skype, and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record sound from the microphone. The sound was recorded with microphone sensitivity set to 100% and not post-processed or edited in any way.

For reference, this voice recording has been made with the Rode NT-USB, a high-quality studio microphone:



This is the sound recorded by using the microphone the Corsair HS70 Bluetooth is supplied with:





As you can hear, the microphone sounds good—clear, sufficiently loud, and with decent depth, especially in USB and 3.5-mm mode. Corsair is obviously using the same microphone capsule we ran into on other members of the HS gaming headset lineup. It falls behind the microphone on their flagship headsets, the Virtuoso RGB/Virtuoso RGB SE, and is less natural than some of its competitors, like the Cooler Master MH650, but you'll have absolutely no issues using it for Discord/TeamViewer/Skype/Zoom communication.

I was a relieved to find out that Corsair kept microphone input loud and clear in USB mode. Not once did I run into a USB gaming headset whose microphone was seriously bogged down by its USB interface. While still completely usable for all forms of VoIP communication and phone calls, the microphone is audibly compressed and not nearly as clean in Bluetooth mode.