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

When it comes to audio performance, the Corsair HS70 Wireless has one slight underlying issue that needs to be addressed: whenever the headphones are receiving any kind of input, they produce a quiet background hiss. It sounds like faint but constant white noise—quiet enough not to be audible when the game you're playing or a song you're listening to becomes remotely louder, but not so quiet as to be inaudible during certain parts of calmer games. As long as the game is on the quieter side, the hissing can pose a problem to more sensitive users. Good news is that the brain eventually gets used to it and starts "filtering" it out to a certain extent. After a couple of hours of using the HS70 Wireless, I stopped noticing it for the most part. There's also a good chance some users won't ever notice it at all, which only goes to show that it's generally not too big of a deal.

The overall sound performance of the HS70 Wireless is quite solid. Corsair put an emphasis on bass without completely overdoing it. The low frequencies aren't amazingly detailed, but they do create a nice rumble and add a fair amount of depth to the sound presentation. The same could be said for the mid-range—the amount of details presented by the HS70 Wireless isn't jaw-dropping, although you'll still get a decent idea about your enemies' positions. Higher frequencies are a bit on the harsh side; I at times found myself wanting to lower the volume when firing an assault rifle.

Even though this is a closed-back headset, the passive noise isolation is only average. Sound doesn't leak out, but I did have to close the window in my game room to silence the sounds of the street, which usually isn't the case when I'm testing closed-back gaming headsets.

Music

My general impression of the music performance of the Corsair HS70 Wireless mirrors what I already wrote in the previous section—the sound quality is generally very solid. The thick, powerful bass serves as an instant crowd-pleaser, and the rest of the frequency spectrum is handled well enough so that you won't hesitate to use the HS70 Wireless as a daily driver for your music-listening sessions. As for the aforementioned quiet hissing, I found it to be an issue only in certain parts of some songs, partially because I knew what to look for. I'm pretty sure most users won't even realize it's there.

Combining the HS70 Wireless with an external DAC, or even an integrated sound card, isn't an option as the headset can't be used in wired mode at all. I'm fairly confident that running it in wired mode would completely remove the aforementioned hiss as the $50 wired HS50 didn't suffer from similar issues.

7.1 Surround Sound

Corsair doesn't specify which exact virtual surround sound technology (DSP) is being used in the HS70 Wireless. That's usually not a good sign as good virtual surround systems, such as the Dolby Headphone and DTS Headphone:X 2.0, are usually proudly presented all over the box and in the driver. Here, we only have a single button in the Corsair Utility Engine that toggles the headset from stereo mode to "7.1 Surround Sound" mode.

The effect does a solid job of widening the soundstage and keeping the bass very present, but not without a hit to the mid-range clarity, which wasn't spectacular to begin with. What I'm trying to say is that even though the virtual surround sound improved the overall atmosphere in certain games, it didn't help me pick up my in-game targets with greater ease. Definitely give it a try and see if it does anything for you.