The Sennheiser GSP 550 completes the company's current gaming headset lineup by adding USB connectivity, which the open-back GSP 500 or closed-back GSP 600 don't have and makes why it was released easy to understand. Many gamers struggle with poor integrated or external sound cards, which fail utterly at bringing the best out of an analogue headset, let alone a high-end one, such as the GSP 500 or GSP 600.

I only wish Sennheiser had paired the GSP 550 with a slightly better USB sound card. For all intents and purposes, it's a very good gaming headset still, just not a class-leading one like the GSP 500 or GSP 600. Its biggest drawback is the sound card's inability to push the volume of the headset higher, which would allow us to get more of that nice, deep, warm, and detailed sound it produces. It's like you have a great pizza in front of you, but can only reach half of it. Sure, you can still enjoy it, but you'd be much happier if there were more of it at your disposal. I'm not trying to say that the GSP 550 is so quiet as not to be fully functional, which is not the case at all. It gets plenty loud enough for you to be able to hear everything going on in the games you play or movies you watch. Had I not spent a lot of time with the GSP 500 and GSP 600 beforehand, I perhaps wouldn't even see any of this as an issue. However, I have, and I combined them with higher-quality integrated and external sound cards and DAC/amps, so I'm well aware of what these speaker drivers can do when driven by proper electronics. With that in mind, I'm not disappointed by the GSP 550, but I can't shake the feeling of it having wasted potential.

There's plenty of other stuff to like about it as well. It's built like a tank. It weighs as much as one too, but manages to stay comfortable over even longer gaming sessions. I have heard some users say it presses up against the top of their jaw too much, which wasn't the case for me. It offers a nice, large volume knob on the right ear cup, while the microphone mutes itself as soon as pivoted upward. As far as volume and microphone controls go, this approach is as intuitive as it gets. Much like the GSP 500 or GSP 600, it comes with an excellent microphone, one of the best I ever had the chance of testing on a gaming headset. It's good enough for even the most demanding tasks, such as Twitch and YouTube streaming. Your teammates will love you for having a headset with a microphone of this quality. Microphone input on the sound card is clean and loud—no issues there.

7.1 Dolby Surround Sound is also supported by the built-in USB sound card, but while decent, it is by no means groundbreaking. It's definitely not what is going to make you dish out Sennheiser's hefty asking price for the GSP 550. We're talking about $250. That's quite pricey, although they can charge pretty much whatever they want since they're undoubtedly well aware of the fact that nobody else offers an open-back gaming headset with USB connectivity. Your choices are extremely limited if you are after an open-back gaming headset anyway. However, if you have a decent sound card, integrated or otherwise, I strongly urge you to consider the Sennheiser GSP 500 instead as it offers all of the best aspects of the GSP 550 with none of its drawbacks.