As a headset entering 2017, the MasterPulse PRO feels a little behind the curve. Sure, it features everything most PC gamers will want from a gaming headset, but its implementation doesn't quite allow it to shine considering its £80 asking price, the honest truth is, there are a lot of very good gaming headsets available and the MasterPulse PRO struggles to find a position between them, making it seem like poor value.



The headset itself feels very high quality, but towards the realm where it seems over-engineered, thus reflected by its weight. Not to mention that its comfort is drastically reduced by its clamping strength, causing fatigue rather quickly. Also, it takes a backward step in regards to versatility, as its fixed ribbon cable and USB end mean that you won't be able to take this headset across various platforms with you. The cheap feeling, poorly designed in-line remote/soundcard can only be described as disappointing, there is no substance to it making it confusing to use. The ideal solution for a USB headset would simply be to make it wireless with a dongle and have optional detachable USB and analogue connectivity as standard.

The removable panels are not quite a new innovation, as the original Pulse-R also featured this option, however now that Cooler Master have enabled additional customisation options as well as using this feature to adjust the acoustic properties of the earcups is a rather interesting proposition. Though, it seems to me that the headset simply sounds that little bit better without the side panels, so why bother having them in the first place? Once you remove the side panels, where are you going to store them? Maybe some will like removing them for some situations, and adding them for other situations? This amounts to faffing around with something that is entirely unneeded. If you want to make a line of gaming headphones, create one open backed, one closed backed and make them both wireless and versatile.

The overall audio quality isn't bad, and does provide a loud, and rather enjoyable experience if you can get the settings right, however, the virtual surround sounds like a widening of the audio via a large amount of added reverb than actual directional rendering, while the sound itself sounds rather compressed with lost detail. In the realms of gaming this isn't too important as it clearly picks up footsteps and creates dramatic gunfights and explosions, while in-game audio cues are clearly presented. Much of the audio problems could potentially be fixed with a software driver, and it would be nice to see some microphone noise filtering added with that too. Though at the end of all this, we end up back at our opening statement.

The Cooler Master MasterPulse PRO presents many desirable features, though may fail to capture attention due to strong competition.



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