Cooler Master CM Storm Pulse-R Review

Performance

Setup was super simple for the Pulse-R, just simply hook up the 3.5mm cables to your PC, then hook up the USB cable to a spare USB port. It is worth pointing out that the USB cable is only for extra power, so the installation is completely driver free and it really was as simple as plug and play.

A quick setup is always welcome and this meant I could get straight on with the good stuff. I decided to fire up some games first and the first thing I noticed was how much of a thump the 42mm drivers can deliver. Bass is very heavy, thick and has a warmth and detail to it. This bass certainly benefits from a close fitting ear cup, as well as the big drivers which combined give a nice room filling quality to the sound. The bass does come at a small price of some of the mid ranges though, if only by a tiny bit in my opinion, but it still sounds nothing short of epic while gaming. Battlefield 3 becomes really intense and claustrophobic feeling at times with this headset, bringing you a little closer to the games atmosphere.

Next up we have music and I really wanted to see how the EQ range holds up given the heavy (but crystal clear) bass. Demanding tracks such as Make Them Suffer by Cannibal Corpse can come out muddy sounding if the drivers can’t keep up, fortunately it seems CM Storm know how to tune their headsets and the playback was faultless no matter what I pushed through them. Mozart, Steve Vai, Skrillex, all sounded great, but I have to admit that at least to my ears I found that a slight EQ bump at 3K and 16K (I use Winamp 5 music playback) helped bring out more detail.

Movies benefited well too, dialogue is really nice and clear and the bass will thrill action movie fans rather nicely. The soundscape has a warmth to it that sounds like a larger home cinema setup, albeit a 2.0 setup.

The microphone works well for in-game chat and Skype also, I personally don’t use voice chat while PC gaming very often, so I do like that the microphone can be completely removed when not in use.