Pulsar SX PC Gaming Headphones Review

For the serious PC gamer, especially fans of the first-person shooter genre, headphones can be a vital accessory. Hearing footsteps around a corner, a grenade that landed at your feet, or a bullet whizzing by your head can give you a step up in the popular online gaming arenas where having a high score will earn you respect and give you a great feeling of victory and satisfaction. Having better equipment can mean the difference between succeeding or failing and players with better computer equipment almost always have an advantage. The Pulsar SX PC Gaming Headphones, by TekNmotion, appear to have many features and I was excited to get the chance to review them when the offer was sent to me.

 

This is actually my first, and the site’s first, hardware review (we’ve previously only reviewed games and a few miscellaneous items) but we may be writing more gaming related hardware reviews in the future. I can tell you now that you’re not going to find the standard multi-page, unboxing, irrelevant nonsense here that most hardware review sites are plagued with.

 

The Pulsar SX PC Gaming Headphones tout virtual 7.1 surround sound and stereo output, which can be changed with the dynamic master control on the cord, a detachable microphone, “Sonic Force Feedback” vibration, and optional external lights in the cups that change with the intensity of the audio, among other things. The current headphones that I use while at my computer, are Sennheiser HD 497s, which I purchased a few years back, and have been satisfied with them. They were relatively inexpensive, received good reviews, and have served their purpose well.

 

The Pulsar SX PC Gaming Heaphones package includes the headphones themselves, the detachable microphone, a detachable battery pack that uses four AAA batteries, a USB 2.0 cord, and standard 3.5mm microphone and stereo cords. The headphone cord has the dynamic master control attached, which hangs a bit below my waist when standing up (I’m about 6ft tall). The control unit contains switches for the volume, vibration, mode (standard, vibration on, lights and vibration on), USB or standard stereo, and a microphone mute button and is about the length of a pack of gum. While gaming, I found it necessary to use the control’s belt clip in order to feel comfortable. The control unit isn’t heavy at all but you definitely notice it when it’s not attached to something. Further down at the bottom of the headphone cord, which is a total of 6ft 6in long, is the three way jack for the USB connection and 3.5mm cords. The USB, stereo, and microphone cords are all detachable.

 

When I first tried on them on they definitely felt like higher quality headphones, compared to my mid to low range Sennheisers, and other headphones that I’ve used in the past. The cups are over-the-ear and it was immediately obvious that the noise cancellation feature of the headphones worked well. Sound isn’t completely blocked out, without any audio playing, but there is definitely a difference. Once you start gaming, playing music, watching a movie, etc. you’ll be totally oblivious of everything else going on in the background. Noise canceling is something that my old Sennheiser’s didn’t really offer and is definitely a great feature.

 

Lights on headphones?! Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange at first too but this feature is completely optional. I would assume that this was most likely designed for gamers who regularly attend LAN parties, because you can’t really see the lights unless the room you are in is completely dark. This light feature requires that you have the vibration feedback turned on and the lights change based on the intensity of the audio. I tried it out for reviewing purposes but I can’t imagine that I’ll ever use the lights again.

 

 

 

The “Sonic Force Feedback,” or vibration feedback, is basically just a big extra bass boost. The main games I played while testing this unit were Source games – mainly Day of Defeat Source. However, I also tried them with Company of Heroes. While the lights in the ear cups make it clear that these headphones were designed for LAN party gaming, you’re really not going to enjoy the vibrate feature if you’re playing a multiplayer game where players are able to talk. Having the headphones vibrate when a grenade goes off near you, for example, seems like a great feature but the problem is every time a player talks, you get that same vibration; annoying people come off ten times more annoying. I also was only able to tolerate the vibration at lower levels but the effect seemed interesting. Cranking up the vibration was irritating to my ears and I would imagine that most people would feel the same way.

 

As I just mentioned above, I tested the headphones while playing different games but I also listened to a range of music and watched videos and movies with them. Most of the time I used the USB connection in order to make use of the virtual 7.1 surround sound, which seems to work well for the most part. I didn’t encounter any audio issues while playing lower quality MP3s to high quality FLAC files (my music collection ranges from classical orchestra music to modern rock). Some gamers will probably want to continue to use their sound cards versus the USB connection, which again can easily be changed with the flick of the switch on the dynamic master control on the cord. iTunes needs to be restarted when you switch from USB to the standard stereo cord and vice versa. Winamp kind of freaks out when you switch and might work without restarting the program but skips through the current track that’s being played and brought up an error message – so both popular music programs should be restarted if you switch between standard and USB when playing music. As far as music detail is concerned, I definitely noticed several new things in music I regularly listen to, which is definitely a sign of higher quality over my older headphones.

 

I also watched several video clips and portions of movies for testing purposes. One of the movies that I tried out is a documentary titled Heima, which is a 2007 documentary that follows the band Sigur Rós around on a tour of their home country Iceland. The band’s music plays throughout most of the film and it was really amazing to watch part of it with good headphones. Tarantino and Wes Anders movies also always have fantastic soundtracks, which sounded great with these headphones when I sampled a couple of their movies. In addition, I also tried several different video clips in different formats but didn’t encounter any problems.

Software Setting Images:

 

  
 

 

As far as portability is concerned, I really wouldn’t consider taking the SXs with me anywhere. I tried out the battery pack, which is completely unneeded unless you want the lights and vibration (the pack is for lights and vibe away from the computer). Although the battery pack is as small as it possibly could be, combined with the control unit I found the entire process of moving around with the headphones to be cumbersome. The ear cups are also quite large so I wouldn’t imagine that many people would want to carry these headphones around with them.

 

In wrapping up I’d have to say that I’ll definitely be using the Pulsar SX PC Gaming Headphones over my old Sennheisers in the future while at my computer. I may use the vibration feedback once and a while on a low setting, but I can’t imagine that I’ll ever use the lights again. With the large size of the entire unit, I also highly doubt I’ll ever take it anywhere besides my computer desk. The best thing about these headphones is that all the features are optional – USB or 3.5mm stereo, vibration can be turned off, lights can be turned off, the mic can be muted and detached. It’s nice to have the dynamic master control close to change all of the settings and at a current price of only about $60, I definitely think that you’re getting your money’s worth. The headphones feel and sound like high quality headphones and all the extra features are an interesting bonus.