Corsair Launches New Budget Gaming Headset: The HS50 For Consoles & PC

Corsair already has a wide range of gaming headsets with its VOID and VOID Pro ranges, but this time it’s going for something a little bit more cost-effective with the new HS50. It’s a trio of headsets built for consoles and PCs that’s meant to tick all the right boxes for sound and comfort, without too much bling.

The three headsets are just color variations of carbon gray, blue, and green, but are otherwise identical in other regards. The usual assortment of 50mm neodymium drivers, unidirectional mic, and lots of padding with memory foam, all make for a fairly standard affair for a gaming headset. Though it does pass a striking resemblance to a number of other headsets…

Although there are differences, this looks to be of similar construction to a number of other headsets on the market, such as the HyperX Cloud, Creative BlasterX H5, Qpad QH-90, Takstar Pro 80, etc. The headband is the same flat-padded flexible steel with aluminum yokes, detachable mic, and the oval shape of the earcups. Where it strays from the others is with a fixed cable (not detachable), and on-ear mic mute and volume control dial.

If this is made by the same OEM as the others, then for once, this is actually a good thing. The design is well-respected as a good headset, despite the ‘gamer’ connotation, largely made famous after Kingston released the HyperX Cloud (although the design existed before this). It’s certainly not an audiophile headset by any means, but it raised the bar for what was acceptable in a gaming headset.

Of course, the HS50 isn’t a straight up clone, Corsair will have done its own tuning and tweaks to personalize it – give it a different sound profile, added the mute and volume controls, picked a different mic, that sort of thing. We won’t be able to confirm any of this until we get our hands on one, which is currently en-route. It is a cheaper headset than many of the others, so perhaps the looks are similar, but may ultimately sound quite different.

Corsair’s HS50 will retail with an MSRP of $50 from the usual places, which puts it at less than it’s predecessor, the HS40, and far less than the $80 VOID headsets. Oh, and if you didn’t know already, Corsair has an RGB headset stand as well, if you fancy some bling in your life.