Now, the first thing you’re going to notice about the HS1 USB gaming headset is that it isn’t the best looking set out there. It’s bulky, the color choice is uninspired, and the odd decision to pad the bottom and top of the headband gives the whole thing a sort of bloated aesthetic. There—now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the reasons that Corsair’s first headset kicks ass.

For one, it sounds great. That supersize chassis means more room for big, beefy 50mm drivers. These give the HS1 clear highs and bass that’s great for a pair of headphones. The dynamic range is also stellar, letting everything from gunshots to quiet, ambient background noises come through with excellent clarity.

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The Psyko 5.1 takes the idea of 5.1 surround sound in a gaming headset to its logical extreme. Not content with using two drivers to simulate 5.1 surround sound, the Psyko 5.1 actually packs seven drivers into the headset; five for directional sound, and two for bass. The Psyko isn’t the first headset with that many drivers, but the way it uses them to achieve its surround-sound effect is truly unique.

It’s a bit complicated to explain, but we’ll try: When gaming on a traditional surround-sound system, when a sound is played on the front-right speaker, the sound from that speaker hits your right ear a millisecond before your left ear, from the front. With the Psyko 5.1 headset, the same bullet sound would also be played primarily on the front-right speaker, except that now it’s located on the right half of the headband. The sound then travels through an acoustic channel, and is piped into the front of both ear chambers. Because the sound originates on the right side of the band, it hits your right ear first, producing the same effect as a physical speaker. Sound from the rear speakers works the same way, but is piped into the back of the ear chambers.

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If you shop based on feature charts and price points and pick up V-Moda’s Remix Remote as a result, you’ll stick ‘em in your ears and think “hey, not too shabby!” They delivered bright performances with acoustic tracks and classical music played at mid volume, and middling performances with more demanding recordings at low to medium volume.

As we quickly discovered, however, they just can’t handle any genre featuring bass and drums at high volume. Take Deadmau5 & Kaskade’s dance anthem “I Remember.” This clean and not-so-demanding synth-pop song was the only non-acoustic track the Remix Remote could handle well at any sort of higher volume—and that was only on the front side of the cut. Once the song opened up into its first big breakdown/rebuild, the track disintegrated into a wall of pounding distortion.

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SkullCandy’s Holua earbuds couple bodacious fashion sense with ridiculous portions of bass. “The wood is good,” says the packaging, calling attention to the fact that these buds’ shells are crafted from once-live trees. We don’t know if the wood is responsible for the Holua’s double-deep bass response, but the tiny fashion plates delivered glowingly warm bottom end with everything from the Fab Four’s forlorn “She’s Leaving Home” to the White Rabbits’ masterful rattler “Percussion Gun.” In the words of Pat Travers, “Boom-boom, out go the lights.”

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