Corsair invited us, the goodfellas at G Style Magazine to check out their newest gaming headphones here in NYC. As with all invitations we never know what to expect but what we got was a look at the newest entry into the premium gaming headphones space.
These headphones are the CORSAIR VIRTUOSO MAX and they are a set of headphones made with the XBOX Series consoles in mind. Not only do these headphones add to their current headphone lineup but addresses a need in terms of gaming headphones for the XBOX series consoles which in my opinion doesn’t have enough option in that area. Corsair gave Team Green a set of headphones that they absolutely may want to consider if they’re in the market for premium gaming headphones.
DESIGN, BUILD, LOOK AND FEEL
Corsair designed the Virtuoso Max to be gaudy. They are BIG but in the best way possible. The idea with these headphones was to give you as much as an immersive experience with your games as possible. They are designed to fit comfortably over your ear because they have to accommodate that big 50mm graphene driver that’s going to be pumping out your sound and because you’re probably going to have these headphones on for quite a while the earcups are wrapped in a breathable memory foam with the purpose of alleviating pressure on your ears and temple so those headaches that can come for some from long gaming sessions don’t interrupt you not to mention when you take them off your face won’t be too sweaty. I didn’t find them to be very uncomfortable even after hours and hours but everyone is different and that experience may vary.
These headphones are deceptively light. When I first opened the carry case. I looked at these headphones and I immediately thought that they may be a little on heavy side but, nope. Light. The headband is also stitched with that comfy memory foam
The design on these headphones isn’t about looking different from any other gaming headphones of this type because they really don’t but what the design and layout of these headphones do is give you a total ease of use. Buttons are few. Only the ones you need. The best part? The volume controls are hidden neatly and discreetly on each earcup as a volume wheel and the ease of use they offer especially when you’re gaming is chef’s kiss.
SOUND QUALITY AND MIC
The sound quality on the Virtuoso Max in my personal experience is layered. I say layered because I used it in so many different and practical ways. Some good and some bad. I’m not going to give you decibel numbers and science. I will simply tell you how they sounded in the cases I’ve used them.
Let me mention once again, that the Virtuoso Max has 50mm drivers which (whether you know anything about headphones or not) are big drivers so you can expect your sound to be big and bass heavy sometimes of course depending on what you’re listening to. That doesn’t necessarily mean loud. More often than not we “casuals” equate loud to good headphones and that couldn’t be further from the truth but it’s good to have the option. The Virtuoso Max headphones are balanced. They don’t get very loud which I don’t totally like but the sound profile is clean. You can hear things clearly considering the audio you’re listening to is quality. For the sake of gaming on my XBOX and PC with Dolby Atmos in use these headphones take advantage of that Dolby Atmos license. Which is a big plus. I played racing, FPS and fighting games and two horror games with these headphones with noise cancel on and off. Playing games this way allowed me to take advantage of what I think is every facet of audio in gaming. The Virtuoso Max did a decent job but you would expect a little better.
You can also connect these headphones to your phone and rock out to your music and answer your phone calls even while gaming. You get that multifunctionality and you can switch in between wireless and bluetooth connection.
The mic on the Virtuoso Max is actually quite good in my opinion. I’ve gamed with my friends and even did a couple of podcasts with my gaming colleagues and the mic on the Virtuoso Max has been clear without sounding tinny and cheap, my voice was as close to my actual voice as possible and I never experienced any pops or highs and lows with my audio on the mic.
ICUE SOFTWARE
The Virtuoso Max uses the Corsair iCUE software for all of your needs in terms of customizing your sound, EQ, RGB and creating sound profiles for your headphones. The iCUE hub is also where you’ll perform your software updates for the headphones . There isn’t too much intracacy with iCUE. It’s just for curation and it does that job well.
The beauty of the iCUE software is in this sense. If you are using multiple Corsair products the iCUE software becomes that much more inviting and necessary. I personally have a mostly Corsair setup so for me, the iCUE software is my one stop shop. You can use memory mode and sync all of your lighting and everything together and keep your setup unified. The iCUE software is a helpful tool so don’t forget to download it.
BATTERY LIFE
The battery life on the Virtuoso Max is probably its best feature. Corsair says that these headphones can give you close to 60 hours of battery life on a full charge and in 2.4Ghz mode (wireless) and in my entire experience thus far I can’t say that this isn’t true or at least it feels like it’s true. I have fallen asleep with my PC playing movies for hours and these headphones were still on with plenty of juice and I was able to turn them right back on and get into a gaming session and not worry about battery life. Going all bluetooth does reduce your battery life a bit but even still battery life was really good and Corsair got it right with the battery.
SHOULD YOU BUY THESE HEADPHONES?
The Corsair Virtuoso Max headphones are a very good set of gaming headphones. I have no problem in recommending them but it should be noted that I would be recommending these to someone that is willing to pay a premium price for a set of gaming headphones. These headphones are NOT for some gamers. With a price of $329, these gaming headphones are not cheap. They are competitively priced with other gaming headphones with the same or similar offerings so its fair. You get what you pay for with these in the $250 – $300 range but my critique would be why buy these if you could find a similar or close enough audio option for cheaper? To be fair, that’s always the question, so premium headphones have to stand out, especially for $300 bucks. Unfortunately, these headphones don’t really do anything that sets them apart from every other set of gaming headphones at this price point. Despite that, there are things to like about these headphones.
The fact that these headphones take advantage of the XBOX Series consoles and Dolby Atmos is a huge selling point for these headphones because the offerings for the XBOX in terms of gaming headphones is slim. This set of gaming headphones fills that void in my opinion for XBOX. Dolby Atmos on these headphones is really good so make sure that if you shell the money out for these headphones make sure you download the Dolby Atmos app on your XBOX. These headphones are not completely exclusive to XBOX in a sense. You can use them with Playstation and PC and this version of these headphones are the only ones that can. There is a Playstation version of the Virtuoso Max but that’s limited to PS5 and PC so the XBOX version of these headphones also have the advantage in support for 3 different platforms.
With the holidays coming you may catch a sale on these headphones but if you can’t bother to wait. You can head over to Corsair and grab a set HERE
