Fit and Finish

The Sound BlasterX H5 headphones were provided by Sound Blaster for review purposes.

Intro

Ah, sound. Hearing is such a wonderful sense. Many underestimate it, but I love it, so when it comes to reviewing headsets, headphones, earphones etc. I’m a happy guy.

I’ve always liked decent earphones/headphones for music, but only really got what I’d consider to be a “gaming headset” for the first time about a year or so ago. I use it a reasonable amount for the things you’d expect, Teamspeak, Discord, some atmospheric gaming etc. The main difficulty I always find with it is comfort after an extended period, not so much that it was overbearingly uncomfortable, but at the same time it was noticeable that I was wearing it, so this will be one of the key things we’ll look at as I think it’s an important aspect of any headset, gaming or otherwise.

Today we’re looking in particular at the Sound BlasterX H5 headset. It’s the mid-tier around the ear offering from the long-time PC audio specialists (Creative Labs who make Sound Blaster equipment) having larger drivers than the entry level H3’s (50mm vs. 40mm) and lacking the 7.1 surround and USB connection of the H7’s.

Sound and Hearing Brief Intro

The H5’s are what I refer to as standard 20-20 headphones, being your normal 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response range. That’s generally fine, some (usually expensive, but not always) headphones have a wider range, but it’s questionable whether most people can hear the difference. The human range of hearing is generally acknowledged to be 20-20 although this varies from person to person. Additionally, the range tends to start wider and reduce as we age.

In ideal conditions, the range can increase, but being reasonable, very rarely will most of us use our headphones in what could be considered “ideal conditions” (think commercial recording studios, sound testing labs etc.).

Many of the “high definition audio” headphones which you’ll see advertised with ranges from single digit Hz to 40+ kHz (100 kHz for the $55,000 priced Sennheiser Orpheus headphones!) are good headphones, but generally you’ll find most companies tend to at a minimum split their focus from providing higher range headphones to increasing the quality of the range that most people can hear.

Couple all of this with the fact that I still know a lot of people who listen to mp3’s on their phone rather than any of the lossless audio formats and you may be wondering what the point of these high range headphones are.

On the off chance that you’re not aware of how much you lose in the conversion to MP3, I encourage you to go and check out this website where you can hear a recording of the sound lost from the original test control song in the development of the mp3 standard. Hint, you lose a surprising amount of sound.

Back to the headphones.

In The Box

Opening the box, we find:

• The H5 headset itself.
• Detachable microphone
• The detachable 1.2m braided cable with inline remote and analogue standard stereo/mic 3.5mm jack.
• An extending stereo/mic splitter cable (also braided) for anything that has a separate 3.5mm jack for audio vs. input microphone.
• Instructions etc.

The first thing I notice is that the headphones are pretty light. This bodes well. Light is a good ingredient if you want hours and hours of comfortable play.

Next thing I inspect is the inline remote. It’s not particularly small for the few controls it has but it is light. A quick play around with the various controls (mute switch, control button and volume dial) show that the controls seem to have a reasonable feel to them.

I quickly attach the cable, splitter and microphone and think about what I want to try out first.

The H5 In Action

Given that this is my first official written “review” of a sound product, I need to think about my control set. The default of just trying a bunch of different songs, videos, games and movies over weeks and months won’t work on the compressed timescale I have to write a review in. Also, just picking my favorite stuff isn’t going to do the review much justice either. In the end, I’ve settled on the following samples:

First up is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #6, Allegro Molto Vivace (opening few minutes of the third movement) as recreated by Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in 1964. This very quick, delicate and precise instrumental section I’ve found over the years has had the ability to show the muddiness and lack of precision of quite a few sets of expensive, high end headphones.

The slightly bass heavy headphones which I tend to prefer are often shown up when listening to this piece because they tend to lack the precision needed to give a decent rendition of the sound, but considering the gamer orientation of the H5 I’m pleasantly surprised that the sound comes through quite well, if not pin prick sharp, it is certainly listenable. More so than on a lot of pseudo or actual multi-channel headphones I’ve used.

Next on the sample list is Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption. This ode to the electric guitar is also quite a precise piece, but requires a very different poise from headphones than the first selection. The minimalist drum intro followed by Eddie letting rip on the Frankenstrat culminates in about one and three quarter minutes of pure rock guitar nirvana.

Here the H5 really starts to shine. The 50mm drivers deliver a decent oomph which is needed for the song and although and aren’t overly bass heavy on the drum/bass guitar intro letting Eddie and the Frankenstrat take center stage as they rightly should. The sound pummels into my brain in a good way and I’m left feeling happy if slightly breathless as Eruption always leaves me. It’s a solid turn from the H5.

Now an absolute personal favorite. Pink Floyd’s Echoes from their Meddle album is an amazing piece. At just over 23 and a half minutes, it’s also one of the longer songs I regularly listen to, plus it has the added bonus of being one of the few songs where the winamp visualizer really makes sense. I’ve added it to the list since it’s a great song for testing audio equipment through several different kinds of music. On top of this, it gives me an excuse to put on the headphones and tune out the wife and kids for a while (shhh, don’t tell!)

Again here, the H5 is a good, solid all round performer. This is the longest I’ve used the headphones so far and in addition to them sounding good, they’re also comfortable with none of the headset fatigue I’ve had from some others.

Time to try some games.

Alien Isolation is a great game. Perhaps even more important for the purposes of this review, it’s a great game which also has great sound, and that’s what I’m after here. The H5 is purposeful and atmospheric and in a dark room with the game running in UHD and the headphones on, it has me regularly jumping and nervous at the amazing soundscape in the game. Bass is balanced and not too heavy, the sound is relatively precise despite the fact that the H5’s only have one driver per ear.

Plugging the Gibson in and firing up Rocksmith 2014 (didn't play it since I broke my wrist skiing last year, this should be interesting!) I am quickly reminded of the chills the opening sound of the game gives me as it’s starting up. Why haven’t I played this in so long?!?! Back into the old favorite of The Rolling Stones – Paint it Black. The muscle memory is gone and I stumble through the song (badly) a few times. Really need to get back into this game again. Even so, the sound from the H5 is impressive (despite my poor playing!). I’m liking them a lot.

All that remains is a quick blast into Star Citizen with some mates for some TeamSpeak/Discord testing. Other than the usual complaints about my aim, flying, lack of target callouts and generally bad co-op play style, there are no complaints about the sound from the microphone and the in game sound itself comes across well.

Non-Sound Factors

So I’m getting pretty comfortable with the H5’s. Sound is good, microphone is good and they’re pretty comfortable. But what about non-sound quality factors? Well, there are a few points to note here.

First, I need to have the earcups extended to the maximum amount of space available and even then the headset is only just fitting on my head comfortably. I measure the distance from the center of my ears over the top of my head and come up with 15.5 inches (or a little over 39 cm). Most headphones I’ve tried which pass over the top of my head, I don’t need to extend to the maximum to make fit. They’re not uncomfortable, but if this distance on your head is larger than mine, they’re unlikely to fit you.

The microphone is on a flexible extended arm, which is easy to move and extends about 6 inches (15cm) from the base of the left ear.

If there’s one thing I’d say which slightly lets the side down when it comes to the H5’s it would be the inline remote. This isn’t to say it’s bad, it performs the functions it was designed for reasonably with a mute, volume and multi-function button for play/pause/call answer, but it just doesn’t feel as well put together as the rest of the headphones. The main headset itself feels really solid with metal, high quality plastics and nicely padded leatherette. The inline remote doesn’t feel cheap necessarily, but it doesn’t feel as solid as the rest of the package.

Wrapping Up

All in all, the Sound BlasterX H5 represents good mid-tier value in a gamer headset. So that you have some perspective on my normal equipment that the H5 is getting compared to, I’m using the following:

Razer Tiamat 7.1 gaming headset on the PC.

Sennheiser IE80’s for my normal daily listening.

Bose QuietComfort 25’s for flying.

It’s fair to say that these are all more expensive than the H5’s and I’d not consider replacing the IE80’s or QC25’s with the H5’s, but what about the Razer?

I’m actually at a bit of a loss when it comes to this match up. I got the Tiamat 7.1’s as I really liked the idea of the discrete multi-channel sound they give, however the H5’s also give great sound and (importantly) they’re more comfortable for me as there is more space inside the leatherette cups for the ears to fit into. The Tiamat isn’t uncomfortable as such, just that the H5 is more comfortable.

Multi-channel audio in headphones has always been a bit of a tricky thing anyway. I’ve still yet to find anything that really recreates the soundscape of a proper 5.1 or 7.1 channel system with speakers placed around you. Some are trying to do this differently with OSSIC for example sailing through its Kickstarter funding for a new HRTF headset and others attempting to do something similar with binaural audio. I’ve yet to try OSSIC and binaural audio is impressive but still leaves me feeling like it’s not there with regards to a proper surround sound experience.

With that being the case, I’m left contemplating a return to a set of great stereo headphones. The H5’s are an excellent choice for a not too expensive and good all round quality gaming headset which handle whatever you throw at them well.

Reviewed at $126.80 (Amazon US) and £97.58 (Amazon UK).

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