ASUS CineVibe Rumble Feedback USB Gaming Headset Review

👤by Alex Hull Comments 📅23-07-10
Performance

Installation of the headset could not be easier. Simply plug in the USB connector and the drivers automatically install for you. These include:

+ USB composite device
+ USB Headset Venus HS-P10
+ USB Input Device

The headset will then work straight away, once you've selected it as the default audio device:



There are no settings or sound cards to mess around with, this is just pure plug and play. The only change I made was to run through the windows speaker options and select the headset as having full range speakers. The volume control on the pod directly changes the windows system volume, which may or may not be suitable for everyone. I've also found that you need it on very low volumes for sensible listening if your application doesn't have it's own volume control, and as such, even small changes at this level result in a large change in sound amplitude on the actual headset. Therefore, I think the inclusion of an analogue dial or similar to change the volume (like the Creative Fatal1ty headset) would be more suitable and offer more flexibility.

Sound Quality

The small size of the earpieces also alludes to the relatively small size of the drivers contained within. The size of each driver unit is 30mm, which is smaller than both the 40mm driver units used in the other two headsets. The frequency response for the CineVibe and Fatal1ty sets is the same (20Hz-20kHz), but the Goldring set delivers lower frequencies (15Hz-20kHz) by a small amount. This, I think, is enough to make a clear difference on bass response between the three sets in terms of the power and clarity of the bass. Here, the Goldring wins out (mainly thanks to the clarity), with the Fatal1ty set a distant second, closely followed by the CineVibe. I believe this is a result of the driver size really limiting the bass response on the CineVibe.

However, with the 'Rumble Feedback' enabled, the characteristics of the bass change. There is a loss in clarity (which was good before), but this is met with a gain in bass amplitude, almost like someone has changed the equalizer. There's more about bass dynamics to come when I talk about the feedback in detail. Suffice to say, without the feedback, bass is only adequate. Perhaps this was a design decision rather than a sonic one, though at this point it leaves me wanting more.

Mids and highs on the CineVibe are amazingly clear, which certainly surprised me. They come across as very defined and sharp, which is great for games. The headset really makes up some ground here, though the sheer quality of the Goldrings is never quite matched (as to be expected). They outperform the Fatal1ty headset in this respect. Separation and the perceived 'soundstage' is average, roughly on par with the Fatal1ty headset, with both a long distance behind the Goldrings.

Now I'll go onto more specific performance in three categories, Rumble Feedback aside for a moment.

Games Tested

DiRT 2
Need For Speed: Shift
Bioshock 2
Left 4 Dead
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Gaming performance with the CineVibe is extremely pleasing. The sharp mids and highs are ideally suited to a large variety of games, and the microphone clarity is by far the best I've used on a headset to date. The noise cancelling features on the microphone must work wonders, as my voice is picked up effortlessly and VERY clearly. I'm sure the mic could rival a traditional desk stand version, or easily beat a clip-on type that are popular in conjunction with headphones (rather than a headset).



Another thing worth mentioning with regards to gaming is positional audio. As seen, the CineVibe doesn't use a dedicated sound card, which is a major disadvantage when it comes to gaming. I normally use a Creative X-Fi xtremegamer with my headphones, and so any opinions and comparisons to those put forward is based on that established foundation of gaming features and quality. Hence, the CineVibe has no CMSS-3D or Dolby Headphone features. However, don't let this deter you, as all things considered, the positional audio is brilliant. It doesn't quite rival a £60+ sound card, but it's still very good and easy to get used to. The performance in Left 4 Dead had me spinning around to catch zombies in the face as they approached, and coupled with the satisfying boom of the shotgun it made an intense and enjoyable experience. San Andreas also worked very well with this headset, with approaching cars and voices well-defined in space.

I'm also told that the CineVibe can be used with PS3 and XBOX 360, which is an area where I think it may shine. I don't own either console unfortunately, but I would expect similar performance to the PC for gaming. Online, the good microphone and positional audio quickly make a lot of sense.

Movies

The movie performance was also very good. The clear mids and highs work well with any dialogue, and the low end power (particularly with Rumble Feedback) seems to come alive here, where in other tests it was a slight let down. This may be a quality of the source material used: The movie I used to test this was 'Independence Day', which comes with more than its fair share of crashes, loud noises and explosions, which best highlighted the main selling point of this headset, the rumble feedback. I also used the Transformers 2 : Revenge Of The Fallen HD trailer via youtube, which complements the headset perfectly by containing lots of low frequency rumbles and booms.

Music

I would say that music is the weak point of this headset. As you may have guessed, the performance over a range of frequencies is far from even, meaning that certain parts of music may be more distant than others, depending on the track. Where the headset improves is for well defined, simple music with a deep bassline or drums, such as dance tracks. The clarity also lends itself to more electronic effects, which come through nicely. I would not use this headset for regular or comfortable (sonically) listening, but my music tastes may differ from yours of course. The Goldring set is totally unrivalled in this category, with both the CineVibe and Fatal1ty sets destroyed in terms of overall sound quality.

Rumble Feedback

The main feature of this headset that differentiates it from the competition is the Rumble Feedback feature. This takes the bass frequencies and converts them into a vibration, produced in the case of each earpiece.



I expected a fairly strong effect, perhaps even tickly at times! This was based on the connotations of the words 'Rumble' and 'Force' feedback which are all used on the packaging and appear in product descriptions. In reality, this effect is subtle. It took a while to get used to this, and indeed even notice it in a large amount of content I tried. Others who I showed the headset to also observed this and shared my feelings. However, as noted above, some types of music and movies do accentuate the effect, obviously where the amount of bass is high. I have spoken to an ASUS representative about this and they informed me that a lot of time has gone into getting the feedback balanced just right, between being too strong and distracting/uncomfortable and too weak and worthless. Personally, I would have liked to see a controllable amplitude on this effect, as then you could tune it to your own preference. I don't think it would have been a massive engineering challenge to incorporate that onto the control pad and headset, but I'm sure ASUS have their own reasons for this, most likely they want each user to experience the same optimised settings that they have spent time working on. I have tried playing various games and switching the vibration on and off in an attempt to find a large change in the experience, and although I discovered subtle differences in the perception of loud, bass frequency noises, I don't think the experience was enhanced enough to justify this as the leading feature of what is an otherwise fine headset. I do think that this sort of feeling is very subjective, so you may find that it's more or even less obvious to you. A good way to imagine the effect would be to think of a 2.0 speaker system, followed by adding a subwoofer at a really low volume.

Overall, I have to decide if this adds anything to the gaming, movie watching and music listening experience. I think it does, but it also leaves me wanting a bit more kick than I'm getting.

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