Performance

Before testing the headphones, they were burned in for well over 100 hours to ensure they sound their best. We test them in two scenarios to do them justice, as these can be used as normal headphones and as a headset. The QH-90s are closed-back circum aural headphones, which means that they rely on the seal against your skull for controlled volume. Thankfully, the pad material is generous in volume and quality, and the seal is close to perfect—only rivaled by headphones with memory foam pads. Noise attenuation is quite good on the QH-90s, which makes them a great choice for noisy LAN parties. Compared to the ASUS ROG Vulcan Pros with active noise cancellation, the QH-90s are very close in terms of attenuation levels.

Music

The QH-90s are at home when fed with contemporary music. The grunty low-end couples up with a natural-sounding midrange to make them a real pleasure to listen to even over extended periods of time. The high-end is not shabby either, but it is definitely not geared towards an analytical type of sound.

QPAD's QH-90s are extremely easy to drive, which makes them work well with pretty much any type of device and sound card. They are very efficient, which may have the Creative SBZ cards struggle with dialing back the volume. Our JDSLabs O2+ODAC combo set to 1x gain was perfect. The midrange is very detailed compared to sub €100 headphones other than the KRK KNS-6400s; it still pulls ahead here. The general sound quality is far beyond what you can get with the CM Storm Sonuz or ASUS ROG Vulcan Pro ANC, which is good considering the QH-90s cost €99.

The sound stage performance is very good for a set of closed-back headphones. The presentation is a bit more of the left/right type than what you get from more expensive open-back designs, and some higher end-closed backs, but these are well beyond what you can expect for the €100.

Gaming

QPAD is a hardcore gaming brand, and their new line of QH-series headsets naturally focus on gaming performance. The QH-90s are no let down here: They are definitely among the top performers in the sub €100 price tier. Despite their low-end emphasis, they do manage to convey small details very well, and the sound stage is very good. The precision of the midrange could be a bit better and their, immense bass response sometimes clouds up the lower midrange.

For FPS games, the headset works straight out of the box, and with a little EQ tweaking, you can get it to a level that is really good for a €100 headset. There are no inherent flaws in the sound quality, which makes it incredibly easy to dial in and set up just the way you like it.

The microphone sounds nice and natural; definitely not a bottleneck for VOIP at home or at LAN parties. Its design is rugged enough to withstand countless adjustments and some LAN-party bashing.

The adaptation from the Takstar base to a fully fledged gaming headset is executed brilliantly, and the difference in price between them is just €20, which is not a lot considering the addition of a quality microphone, a huge bundle, and the microphone- and volume controller. The upgrades here definitely warrant the price increase.