Microphone Performance

The microphone of the Corsair Virtuoso Pro was tested by connecting the headset to the Creative Sound Blaster X5 external USB sound card (reviewed here). To review the microphone's sound and compare it to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones, both of which fall into the studio monitor category. I connected them to the Topping A90 Discrete, a high-quality headphone amplifier and speaker preamplifier. The Creative Sound Blaster X5 sound card handled the digital-to-analog conversion, connected to Topping's excellent unit with the AudioQuest Evergreen RCA cable. Testing was done in Discord and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record the 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 was made with the Rode NT-USB, a high-quality studio microphone:



This is the sound recorded by using the unidirectional microphone supplied with the Corsair Virtuoso Pro. I'm also adding a sample of the microphone that's attached to the Drop+Sennheiser PC38X, my longtime favorite open-back gaming headset.




As you can hear, the unidirectional microphone of the Corsair Virtuoso Pro sounds decent. Some compression and artifacts can be heard, almost like the capsule is trying to suppress background noise a bit too eagerly, but the sample was recorded in a quiet, acoustically treated room. For Discord, online meetings, and similar, the supplied microphone will do just fine. However, if you're a serious streamer, you'll definitely want a nicer microphone. It's also worth noting that the PC38X's microphone sounds airier and more natural, but it has the drawback of not being detachable from the headset, which could be a dealbreaker for some.