Genius HS-04U

The Genius HS-04U plugs into your PC’s USB port, instead of your soundcard’s analog speaker output and mic input, so it bypasses any EAX or OpenAL audio effects that game developers might have painstakingly programmed into the software. What you get instead—after installing a driver—is what Genius calls “Virtual Dolby.”

We’re assuming Genius meant to say “Dolby Headphone” because the packaging bears Dolby’s trademark Double-D-and-headphone symbol (accompanied by the phrase “Dolby headphone certificate,” no less). To our knowledge, there is no such thing as Virtual Dolby, but it doesn’t matter because this headset sounds like crap. As for Genius’s claim that its noise-canceling mic is “military grade,” well, our voice did sound as though we were serving a tour of duty onboard a submarine