Microphone Performance

The Patriot Viper V380 comes with a detachable omnidirectional microphone.

To review the microphone's sound and compare it to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones (both fall into the studio monitor category). I connected them to the 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, Skype, and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record the sound from the microphone. The sound was not postprocessed or edited in any way and recorded with microphone sensitivity set to 100%.

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 omnidirectional microphone the Patriot Viper V380 is supplied with.


As you can hear, microphone quality is decent. My voice doesn't sound particularly airy and natural, but it isn't extremely compressed or tinny either. My teammates had no issues hearing or understanding me, so for your usual Discord and TeamSpeak chats the microphone will serve its purpose.

Omnidirectional microphones are generally more prone to picking up background noise, which is why I also tested the built-in Xear ENC feature. I recorded the following samples while typing on my mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches, with Xear ENC off and on.




With the Xear ENC feature active, microphone quality sinks from decent to horrible. While my mechanical keyboard is quieter, it comes at a heavy price: my voice sounds extremely telephonic. I'd find it very annoying if someone in my Discord channel were to sound like this. In short, forget about using the Xear ENC technology, it's simply not worth it. What about the Xear Voice Clarity feature, which comes with two sliders, Voice Clarity Level, and Noise Suppression Level? I can't say it makes any difference compared to not using it at all, which you can hear by listening to the sample below.



If you're concerned about microphone quality but don't want to spend more than $100 on a USB gaming headset, it should be noted that you can get a better microphone on the $80 Cooler Master MH650 (reviewed here). At the same time, the Patriot Viper V380 has a better microphone than some more expensive competitors, such as the $100 HyperX Cloud II Gaming or $130 HyperX Cloud Alpha S. Listen to the samples below for those and some other comparisons.