Software

Like other Corsair's peripherals, the Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE is controlled through the iCUE driver software. The iCUE interface has lately been somewhat simplified and decorated with larger, prettier pictures of the devices you're trying to control.


Once you select the Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE from iCUE's list of devices (I also have a Corsair keyboard and headset stand connected to my PC, which is why you see their icons in these screenshots), you'll be presented with pictures of the headset's front and back. Two sliders on the right control the microphone and sidetone volume, and the button at the bottom of the sliders switches the headset from stereo to 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound mode.


The Lighting Effects section brings up a menu with a ton of customization options for the RGB effects. You can select a couple of predefined effects, select a static color, or customize your own gradient or solid color scheme. If you own other Corsair's RGB peripherals, you'll be able to utilize the Lighting Link feature to sync the lighting effects between them. Strange is that there isn't a button to turn the RGB effects off completely, at least not in a straightforward way. If you don't want to use them, you have to select the Solid option under Custom without adding any colors to the "graph" below, or you can visit the Settings menu and lower the brightness to zero. Why there isn't a "RGB Off" preset in the Lighting Effects menu is beyond me.


The EQ Presets section offers a 10-band system-wide equalizer that operates in a wide ±12 dB range, at least on paper. I'm not convinced that the changes to the sound output are as drastic as they would be if this were a true ±12 dB scale, but you can still sculpt some aspects of the sound to your liking, or use one of five factory presets: Movie Theater, FPS Competition, Clear Chat, Bass Boost, and Pure Direct. I suggest you stick with Pure Direct (a flat EQ) or make your own preset and use that. The EQ sliders can be linked together. By doing so, adjusting one of will make surrounding ones move with it as well, in order to smooth out the potentially rough frequency jumps you might introduce by setting everything up manually. If you know what a sound equalizer represents, stick with the sliders unlinked.


Some additional setup of the headset can be done in the Settings menu at the top of the iCUE interface. Here, you can enable and adjust the timing of Sleep Mode, turn off the microphone's LED when it's active (definitely do that), adjust the RGB brightness, enable the voice prompts, update the firmware, and pair the headset with the wireless dongle, should they for any reason lose their connection. You can also enable the battery gauge in the system taskbar, although it won't show you an exact percentage of the remaining battery; you'll only be informed about its general status (high, medium, low, or critical).