Sound Quality

Considering the sheer size of the Patriot Viper V380 gaming headset, it comes as no surprise that its ear cups contain a pair of oversized 53-millimeter dynamic speaker drivers. The sound signature of the Viper V380 shouldn't be judged before you install the official driver and play with the equalizer. You might write it off as too boosted in the bass region, to where it could be described as annoyingly boomy and muddy if you do. When I first started testing this headset, before diving into the equalizer, I was so overwhelmed by its bass that I wasn't able to properly hear my teammates over the engine noise and ball bouncing sounds in something as basic as Rocket League.


Luckily, as soon as I trimmed some of that bass via the system-wide equalizer within the official driver software, things changed for the better. The screenshot above shows my preferred equalizer settings, but you're welcome to reduce the bass even more should you still find it too excessive with my settings. Just don't take it too far because you'll lose the warmth of the sound—I wouldn't go lower than -5 dB on those aforementioned frequencies. I also added some middle frequencies and slightly reduced higher ones to counter the default V-shaped frequency response and get a more natural sound.

After adjusting the equalizer as described above, the Patriot Viper V380 sounds better than you'd expect from a $75 USB gaming headset. The bass is still very present, deep and satisfyingly punchy, but it now has better definition. By clearing it from boominess, you're giving the middle part of the frequency range more room to breathe. Vocals become more pronounced, instruments sound cleaner and more coherent, and it's much easier to figure out the direction and distance of in-game targets. High frequencies lose their shrillness without losing detail, so you're getting a sound that's much less likely to cause ear fatigue over longer gaming or music listening sessions. One area where the headset starts losing detail and coherency is in very complex songs and games—think massive MMORPG raids, for example. However, the same can be said of pretty much any other similarly priced USB gaming headset, simply because their sound cards aren't equipped to handle an extreme number of sound sources.


The Patriot Viper V380 can be quite loud, so it's definitely not lacking in the volume department. With volume turned up as far as it will go, you'll hear a quiet buzz, which becomes completely inaudible as soon as you actually play something. Because of that, and since you normally won't push the headset as hard, I wouldn't lose sleep over this issue.

7.1 Virtual Surround Sound

7.1 virtual surround sound is achieved by Cmedia's Xear 3D technology. I didn't like its performance in the past, and the Patriot Viper V380 didn't do anything to change my opinion. Turning the Xear 3D makes everything sound completely unnatural and heavily distorted. It's almost like you suddenly start playing the same audio signal in very low resolution. I was unable to find a single benefit of using the 7.1 virtual surround sound on this headset, not even in terms of sound width. With that in mind, I strongly suggest you steer clear of it.