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ASUS Strix DSP Gaming Headset reviewed – Wise investment or flight of fancy?

Recently, we covered two Strix products from ASUS, the Tactic Pro Keyboard and the Claw Gaming Mouse, and now we’re moving to the last piece of orangey, owly peripherals: the ASUS Strix DSP Gaming Headset.

Hardware

So far, it’s been abundantly clear that the Strix keyboard and mouse will live and die on their aesthetics more than their actual performance, and the DSP headset appears to rely even more heavily on looks.

The cans of the headset are made to look like angry owl eyes, the owl being part of Strix’s brand (“Strix” itself meaning owl in ancient Greek). We can definitely see ASUS making sales based on the headset’s looks alone, but as that’s not the main reason people buy headphones looks get it only so far.

The cans, which fold flat, are joined together with an elasticated headband and an overarching plastic brace. The headband came out of the box a bit too tight, even though it had been used by previous reviewers. This is good news for the headset’s longevity, but you may need to stretch it out to fit comfortably on your head.

After using them for the past two weeks or so, we found the headset extremely bulky and uncomfortable. At 320g you definitely notice the weight, no matter how well it is distributed. We were only able to use the headset for around an hour before we had to take it off due to discomfort. You may have a different experience if you prefer heavier headphones, but this was just too much for us.

Around the bottom of the left can you will find a 3.5 mm audio jack that accepts the included, detachable microphone. The mic is made of an extremely pliable material and you can guarantee you’ll be able to bend it into a comfortable position somewhere close to your mouth. And because it feels quite sturdy, we also foresee a long life for the little mic despite its accommodating bendy-ness.

The single cable leading out of the left can is braided and durable enough. It is only 1.5 m long though, which, while great for moving around and using on phones and tablets, is simply too short for a set of desktop headphones.

You can extend it using the included audio station (which we will get to shortly), but we feel that an extra 0.5 m worth of cable would have easily offset the problem.

There are also two different types of adapters (each around 5 cm long) that will help the DSP connect to mobile devices, as well as a female USB to male micro USB for the audio station.

Audio Station

Included in the box of the DSP is a strangely triangular box called the “audio station”, which accepts the 3.5 mm jack of the headphones, and can be plugged into a PC or any other device that accepts USB (or micro USB with the included cable).

The audio station adds a lot of benefits over using the DSP directly. Firstly it provides a a large dial which can be used to control volume, which is useful if you have no other ways of doing so via hardware. The little box also holds the noise cancellation hardware, which ASUS claims blocks out more than 90% of background noise, a “spectrum mode” that will adjust audio levels according to various game types, and finally a headphone amplifier.

Flipping the unit around will reveal some very hard-to-adjust switches that affect the headset’s noise cancellation and surround sound capabilities. We suggest you leave these in their default positions (noise cancellation on and 8-channel surround enabled).

The rest of the buttons on the audio station are self-explanatory: one to toggle the amp, one to toggle the surround, one to toggle the mic, and one to switch to speakers. We especially like the speaker option, as you can plug your chosen speakers into the audio station and freely switch between them and the DSPs. This is probably the audio station’s strongest feature.

Software

While the other Strix products share a software suite, the DSP has none to speak of. It will be detected as a regular audio device by a PC and the rest is done onboard the actual headphones.

While we do appreciate the simplicity of this, it’s a massive pitfall for the enthusiast crowd and it means the DSP has almost no first-party customisation options.

The included audio presets, while easy to switch between, give no indication as to which audio levels they actually change, meaning you have to experiment to get the best results. A great example is that, to our ears, the first-person shooter setting worked best when we played The Witcher 3, a third-person action RPG.

Dedicated software could have had presets that would automatically change depending on what programs and games were launched, but as of now there is no such feature.

Audio

Obviously the most important part of this review is how the headset actually sounds.

Before we go any further please remember that these are strictly for gaming, music and other general uses. These would never cut it in serious audio engineering or music production.

That out of the way, the 60mm drivers deliver a lot of volume and a lot of bass, and as with a lot of gaming headphones they tend to over-deliver on the bass front, presumably to make all those Battlefield “booms” even louder and more impressive (which they are).

In-game performance is respectable; they’re loud enough and filter enough exterior noise to get you properly immersed, but the weight is an issue here as you never forget they’re strapped to your noggin.

We played a broad range of games with these on, but we spent most of our time in The Witcher 3 where they helped make the sound of far off monsters even more ominous.

We again listened to a lot of music to give the DSP a go, but the majority of the time we were listening to lossless versions of the System of a Down discography. The DSP really worked well with the surround sound and we thoroughly enjoyed them, but definitely felt the shortcomings of the headset when listening to slower tempo and/or quieter music in general.

We used this comprehensive headphone benchmarking tool to give the DSP a more empirical test. Remember that these tests can vary wildly depending on your hearing and your age, but provide a good reference point from which to judge any set of headphones.

  • Treble extension is audible at 18 KHz downwards.
  • Voices under 36 DB below full scale are audible, but it’s very difficult to make out individual words.
  • Excellent base.
  • Great driver matching, with no variance at all.
  • Slightly right-centred.
  • Solid Binaural sounds.

With the listening part over, we can’t forget that the DSP includes a microphone.

We recorded some audio for you to listen to below. It was recorded in Audacity and has not been altered in any way.

In the recording you’ll hear that the mic picks up voices extremely well but it also picks up quite a bit of the typing sounds coming from the mechanical keyboard. Past that point it will pick up very little outside noise; it barely registers someone talking from across the room and you need to have cat-like hearing to notice our editor-in-chief Adam entering the office and trying to initiate a conversation.

Value

As the most expensive Strix product at R2 199, we’re hard-pressed to recommend the DSP. Its audio reproduction is good if a bit too heavy on the bass, and it comes with a lot of tricks and features the keyboard and mouse were sorely lacking.

Unfortunately comfort and sound quality is what is most important here, and the DSP just doesn’t do enough in either category to make the price justifiable.

That being said, if you like the design of the DSP this may be an easy sell for you. But you buy headphones to listen with, not look good in, so then again maybe not.

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