I owned a pair of these for almost a year (unfortunately) – and I would not recommend them to most people.
There are several reasons for this, but first I'll list the positives just for completeness, before delving into the murky depths of their underlying disappointment.
To point out the obvious: The Genius Lychas HS-G550 does indeed function as a headset, ie; it produces sound from the drivers and also manages to capture it via the microphone.
It has a nice long cable, complete with in-line volume control and microphone mute switch, individual left and right channel volume controls on the cans, a nice beefy metal-reinforced headband and large ear-pads which sit around your ears instead of squashing them. The whole thing seems relatively rugged and well built. You can drop these and they survive, so there's that.
But ultimately these features and build quality are all practically for nothing, because at the end of the day these things let themselves down in at least two (possibly three) major ways:
The first major problem can be found in the comfort, or rather, the complete lack of it. While it's true the ear-cups and ear-pads are large enough and soft enough, the headband is another matter.
For some reason, Genius decided not to pad the headband with any kind of cushioning, instead relying on some kind of silicone-rubber styled plastic with approximately 0.0003% squishiness factor. It also doesn't help that these things are rather heavy.
What I'm trying to get across is that the headband might as well be a roughly-broken piece of brick, because after wearing these for anything more than about 5 minutes, the top of your head will start to hurt, badly. When I used my pair, I had to put a folded handkerchief or other soft cloth under the headband so I didn't immediately succumb to excruciating pain, although the overall weight and bad design meant I still ended up with a headache – it just took longer.
The second major issue is the audio quality. Sure, these are not high-end at all, but for the price, they could easily be better than they are.
The sound is... mediocre at best, and like most gaming headsets they are heavy on the bass response. Of course, that in of itself is not necessarily a problem, if it's done properly. IF.
If you happen to like bass, you may well like these things. But problems arise if you actually like any other frequencies – because these things can't do both at once. When the drivers in these sh!tcans pump out the low end, the midrange and high end gets swamped into oblivion.
Again, I realise this is ultimately subjective, so if you love bass and don't care about anything else, you might actually enjoy the effect, but for most people, I'm not holding my breath.
Which brings me to the third and last fault – one which may indeed be a fault in manufacturing rather than inherent to the headset itself. I must stress that perhaps I simply had bad luck and received a faulty headset. On the other hand, however, considering the other idiotic design choices such as the headband, I am tempted to say the problem with the microphone is also one of bad design, but in light of the other issues, it should not be the deciding factor in your choice not to purchase these.
Don't get me wrong, the microphone is not awful quality; it does not hiss substantially or muffle the voice greatly. It's above average and definitely sounds better than a standard webcam microphone.
But once again, all that falls flat when you consider the fact that the microphone (or at least mine) has some kind of electrical crosstalk problem with the headphones themselves.
Yes. Even when the ear-cups have their individual volume controls turned completely down, the microphone still picks up all the audio you are listening to. I found this hard to believe at first, but it's true. After extensive testing I came to the conclusion that there is some kind of electrical issue with the wiring. It was not a software issue, not an acoustic coupling issue, nor a problem with the sound card.
Well so what? you might ask – what's a little bit of background audio pick-up when everyone's blasting out gunshots in GTA:Online or Overwatch? Well, forget voice chat. And the microphone on these things is there for voice chat, so that would defeat the purpose.
You see the thing is, when you use these for voice chat, with the result that everyone else's speech as well as your own game audio is transmitted back to them, your friends will not be amused. They will shout at you. They will hate you, and they may decide you are not someone they wish to associate with.
For a product which is arguably supposed to facilitate fun, communication and friendship, the Genius Lychas HS-G550 fails spectacularly.
So in conclusion – or the TL;DR version:
This headset is great if you have a titanium skull implant or otherwise no nerve endings in the top of your head, or if you are some kind of masochist, because then you'd probably love these.
It would also help greatly if you happen to be a basshead who just wants more with no concern whatsoever for audio quality, or if you have cloth ears. Or if you’re deaf.
Finally, if you wish to use the microphone for voice chat, I hope you hate your friends and have no concern about potentially losing them, or otherwise pissing off everyone who listens to you.
Unless all of these things apply to you simultaneously, I strongly suggest you do not purchase the Genius Lychas HS-G550. There's a reason these things have a scorpion logo on the side. You will get stung.
There are several reasons for this, but first I'll list the positives just for completeness, before delving into the murky depths of their underlying disappointment.
To point out the obvious: The Genius Lychas HS-G550 does indeed function as a headset, ie; it produces sound from the drivers and also manages to capture it via the microphone.
It has a nice long cable, complete with in-line volume control and microphone mute switch, individual left and right channel volume controls on the cans, a nice beefy metal-reinforced headband and large ear-pads which sit around your ears instead of squashing them. The whole thing seems relatively rugged and well built. You can drop these and they survive, so there's that.
But ultimately these features and build quality are all practically for nothing, because at the end of the day these things let themselves down in at least two (possibly three) major ways:
The first major problem can be found in the comfort, or rather, the complete lack of it. While it's true the ear-cups and ear-pads are large enough and soft enough, the headband is another matter.
For some reason, Genius decided not to pad the headband with any kind of cushioning, instead relying on some kind of silicone-rubber styled plastic with approximately 0.0003% squishiness factor. It also doesn't help that these things are rather heavy.
What I'm trying to get across is that the headband might as well be a roughly-broken piece of brick, because after wearing these for anything more than about 5 minutes, the top of your head will start to hurt, badly. When I used my pair, I had to put a folded handkerchief or other soft cloth under the headband so I didn't immediately succumb to excruciating pain, although the overall weight and bad design meant I still ended up with a headache – it just took longer.
The second major issue is the audio quality. Sure, these are not high-end at all, but for the price, they could easily be better than they are.
The sound is... mediocre at best, and like most gaming headsets they are heavy on the bass response. Of course, that in of itself is not necessarily a problem, if it's done properly. IF.
If you happen to like bass, you may well like these things. But problems arise if you actually like any other frequencies – because these things can't do both at once. When the drivers in these sh!tcans pump out the low end, the midrange and high end gets swamped into oblivion.
Again, I realise this is ultimately subjective, so if you love bass and don't care about anything else, you might actually enjoy the effect, but for most people, I'm not holding my breath.
Which brings me to the third and last fault – one which may indeed be a fault in manufacturing rather than inherent to the headset itself. I must stress that perhaps I simply had bad luck and received a faulty headset. On the other hand, however, considering the other idiotic design choices such as the headband, I am tempted to say the problem with the microphone is also one of bad design, but in light of the other issues, it should not be the deciding factor in your choice not to purchase these.
Don't get me wrong, the microphone is not awful quality; it does not hiss substantially or muffle the voice greatly. It's above average and definitely sounds better than a standard webcam microphone.
But once again, all that falls flat when you consider the fact that the microphone (or at least mine) has some kind of electrical crosstalk problem with the headphones themselves.
Yes. Even when the ear-cups have their individual volume controls turned completely down, the microphone still picks up all the audio you are listening to. I found this hard to believe at first, but it's true. After extensive testing I came to the conclusion that there is some kind of electrical issue with the wiring. It was not a software issue, not an acoustic coupling issue, nor a problem with the sound card.
Well so what? you might ask – what's a little bit of background audio pick-up when everyone's blasting out gunshots in GTA:Online or Overwatch? Well, forget voice chat. And the microphone on these things is there for voice chat, so that would defeat the purpose.
You see the thing is, when you use these for voice chat, with the result that everyone else's speech as well as your own game audio is transmitted back to them, your friends will not be amused. They will shout at you. They will hate you, and they may decide you are not someone they wish to associate with.
For a product which is arguably supposed to facilitate fun, communication and friendship, the Genius Lychas HS-G550 fails spectacularly.
So in conclusion – or the TL;DR version:
This headset is great if you have a titanium skull implant or otherwise no nerve endings in the top of your head, or if you are some kind of masochist, because then you'd probably love these.
It would also help greatly if you happen to be a basshead who just wants more with no concern whatsoever for audio quality, or if you have cloth ears. Or if you’re deaf.
Finally, if you wish to use the microphone for voice chat, I hope you hate your friends and have no concern about potentially losing them, or otherwise pissing off everyone who listens to you.
Unless all of these things apply to you simultaneously, I strongly suggest you do not purchase the Genius Lychas HS-G550. There's a reason these things have a scorpion logo on the side. You will get stung.
