CM Storm rejuvenate their peripheral line up and from the audio stable we get to take a look at the Pulse-R. Aluminium and LEDs abound, one thing is for sure, it’s eye catching!
Product on review: CM Storm Pulse-R Gaming Headset
Manufacturer: CM Storm
Street Price: £65
The design team has been churning away at Cooler Master’s gaming hardware stable and eventually they came out with the new Aluminium Series, the audio part of which is the Pulse-R gaming headset. Presenting consumers with bold, attractive features such as aluminium side plates that can be removed and modded, an aluminium reinforced headband and glowing LED lights, the Pulse-R is not short on features. As eSports reach new heights in popularity, it becomes apparent why makers of gaming peripherals need to stand out and be noticed with unique yet distinguishable designs to help push their brand awareness and increase desirability. Instantly we can see that the CM Storm Pulse-R looks good, so let’s take a closer look and put it to the test.
Overview by CM Storm
The Pulse-R headset uses 42mm drivers for mind melting sounds. The microphone glows white in the dark and is removable. Even the aluminum plating on the ear bud exterior can be taken off and customized with your unique styling. Reinforced padded cushions and headband provide you with maximum comfort and great noise cancellation during game session. A convenient in-line remote let you quickly adjust volume or mute your mic via a sliding switch
Specifications & Features
Driver: 42mm driver
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz
Impedance: 50 ohm
Connector: 3.5mm headphone jack
Cable Length: 3m Removable Cable
Microphone
Pick-up Pattern: Omni-Directional
Frequency Response: 100 Hz – 10000 Hz
Sensitivity: -42 ± 3dB (0dB = 1V/pa.1KHz)
Signal to Noise Ratio: 60dB or more
Removable Mic: Volume control and Mic mute
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz
Impedance: 50 ohm
Connector: 3.5mm headphone jack
Cable Length: 3m Removable Cable
Microphone
Pick-up Pattern: Omni-Directional
Frequency Response: 100 Hz – 10000 Hz
Sensitivity: -42 ± 3dB (0dB = 1V/pa.1KHz)
Signal to Noise Ratio: 60dB or more
Removable Mic: Volume control and Mic mute
The Pulse-R headset uses 42mm drivers for mind melting sounds. The microphone glows white in the dark and is removable. Even the aluminum plating on the ear bud exterior can be taken off and customized with your unique styling. Reinforced padded cushions and headband provide you with maximum comfort and great noise cancellation during game session. A convenient in-line remote let you quickly adjust volume or mute your mic via a sliding switch.
Optimized for Gaming
42mm drivers deliver clear highs as well as powerful bass in all range of tones, creating an unprecedented audio experience for gamers. Cushioned ear cups and headband provide a luxurious feel and remain comfortable even after the most epic gaming sessions.
Light ‘Em Up
Stylish white illuminated grooves within earcups and mic (USB powered) intimidate your foes and keep your gaming gear looking stylish.
Durable Aluminum Plating
Ready to Mod – CM Storm’s Pulse-R is the first gaming headset that empowers users to take their creativity to new levels and create a product that represents their individual style. Remove the aluminum plates and customize it as you see fit. The ultimate E-Sports headset.
A Versatile Weapon
Reinforced cushioned ear cups and headband give noise cancellation and maximum comfort during long gaming sessions. Unique lightweight, adjustable aluminum headband keeps you concentrated on what matters – winning.
Convenient In-Line Remote With Volume Slider and Mic Mute Switch
Easily control volume and mic levels within arm’s reach with the sliders. The cable is detachable for easy storage and transportation.
Command With Clarity[b/]
Detachable microphone arm with noise-canceling mic system ensures clear in-game team chats. When you see the white LED on, you’re ready to command.
Packaging & First Look
The packaging front
Nicely sealed, the packaging shows off the product and information without being too overstated.
Reverse side of packaging
A list of features, and Multi-lingual specifications can be found on the rear of the box.
Sweet treasure inside
On removing the outer sleeve, the box inside opens like a treasure chest to reveal what is inside. The packaging and presentation is great quality. On the inside we find the headset, microphone and underneath there is the modular cable and a small installation guide.
3m long modular cable
The long braided cable is good quality, though it seems slightly confusing as to why they chose not to make the headset use USB only. Of couse the USB is to power the LED lights while allowing you analouge connections to use your dedicated sound card, though, LEDs may look cool, some may not want to waste a USB port just on some decoration. The connection to the headpiece is micro USB, it would be good to see more headsets have modular cabling!
Removable boom microphone
Another great inclusion is the modular microphone. It lights up too!
Closer Look
The CM Storm Pulse-R
The Black and silver aesthetic is attractive and many will find appealing. most notable features (other than when the LEDs are on) is the aluminium used on the headband and side plates as well as the thick padding on the earcups.
Removable aluminium sideplates
I understand that Cooler Master have a penchant for modding, so it makes sense for them to give that ability even in the smallest form, for most it will be a feature that remains unused, so at least on one side we find a cool CM Storm logo engraved.
The headband
The headband is lined with thick soft padding on the inside. Like with the earcups, it feels like PU leather.
The ear cup
Surrounded by thick soft padding, with the CM Storm name written on the protective lining on the inside. The soft padding should do a great job at noise isolation, though the earcup size seems fairly small. By measurement, the widest part is only 1″ 1/2, tapering to 1″ inch, while being just 2″ high.
Mic Jack and Micro USB ports
This is a definite positive, we have a modular microphone as well as a modular cable. Take note other manufacturers! Take note!
In line remote
The inline remote design is attractive and features aluminium sliders for volume and mic on/off control as well as a white LED strip that compliments the design of the headset. Something that is a little puzzling is that it is mounted ‘upside down’. The reason that this is something worth picking up on is because when gaming or using your pc, many tend to slide their hand down to the remote by feel and then they have a certain expectation of how the controls are laid out. When holding a remote in your hand, is it not normal to expect that when sliding the volume dial up, the volume increases? And when the mic switch is in the up position, it is on? In this situation, it isn’t the case and many may find themselves taking a look at the inline to find their way around until they get used to it.
All lit up
The LEDs on the side can make you feel like a space marine, or cyborg giving you headlights, not too bright and very attractive. Seems like a shame that it requires a USB port just to power. The mic top also lights up, as does the in line remote.
Performance Testing
Setup, Design & Observations
Something that is really impressive about the CM Storm Pulse-R is that it has a modular cable and microphone. This is becoming an increasingly important aspect of items such as headsets because, you spend a lot of money on the headpiece, only for a cable to get damaged and stop the item functioning, or the microphone stops working requiring it to be replaced. With a modular system, simple replace the cable and/or microphone and the headset alone still functions great! Thumbs up for this design implementation and it is something I would like to see more of. The build quality is great and the headset isn’t too heavy either. The removable metal plates seem slightly ‘gimmicky’ as they serve no real purpose other than for aesthetic, same as the LEDs though the end result, is arguably, awesome. Some may not want to waste a precious USB port simply lighting the headset, though there are not many headsets on the market that can take advantage of someones discrete sound card as well as having awesome looking LED lit ear cups. The cable provided is long and braided, adding strength and easier managability. As previously mentioned the in-line remote is fixed ‘upside down’, though itis good quality and a nice design with the aluminium sliders and white LED lighting.
Comfort wise, I was hoping for something much better, considering the nice soft squishy PU leather padding on the ear cups and on the headband, it would be easy to think that you would be donning a very comfortable headpiece, however this was far from the case. The forementioned small earcups, as suspected, were too small for my strictly average ears and did not fully surround my ears. Reaching somewhere inbetween a circumaural/on-ear design. This could have been fine with the soft padding if it wasn’t for the vice-grip like head tightness. This tightness may wear in with time and become more comfortable, but doesn’t really make up for the small ear cups. The tight grip and thick padding did make for good noise isolation, as well as head wampth (re warmth). Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this headset if you need to wear glasses.
Multi-Media
When listening through my music playlist, it was instantly noticable how bass heavy the Pulse-R is. The high tones are almost completely lost, the mids muffled and muddied and the lows rumbling. Even in bass heavy music, the balance was lost and could not be completely regained by altering the equaliser. From classical to rock, vocals sounded drowned out, high tones lost, overall a very poor start.
In movies, like with music, dialouge was sometimes drowned out by boomy background noises. I even rage quit watching through The Avengers because the sound was like a burden or a chore.
In gaming, I jumped on an arcade mission on War Thunder, there were distinct rumbles and tonal differences between guns, cannons and engine sounds, though, the muffled ‘donk’ when a stray round hits your plane was noticably muddied. In DOTA 2, the announcers voice was sometimes over-powered by random rumble as the over accentuated bass spilled into territory outside its welcome arena.
Microphone
To set up the microphone, make sure it is clicked into the port in the correct position defined by grooves around the jack. Once clicked in the microphone had a fairly good quality pick up and was decent enough to not pick up too much background noise. The boom wasn’t as flexible as hoped and if you try to twist the boom out of position, you may end up causing random mic issues/ reverb to those on the other end of your conversation. Overall it works well and as long as you make sure you have plugged it in correctly there shouldn’t be any cause for concern.
Conclusion
Audio can be a very subjective area, some prefer heavy bass, others enjoy clear vocals and high tones. Conveying ‘best audio quality’ can sometimes be difficult for writers, especially for those lacking in a varied audio experience. On top of this subjectiveness, regardless of xAudio Science proof showing how clear audio signals are, there are some people who may not actually be able to understand, define, or hear that much difference from one headset to another, or low quality audio source to high quality audio source or even the difference in quality between traditional integrated motherboard sound processing to a discrete sound card. The point is, the CM Storm Pulse-R is heavily geared towards gaming audio and some may love it others may hate it. For my judgement, it seems to have gone well over the top. The bass provided by the 42mm drivers is actually pretty good quality and can provide a very pleasurable rumble of bass centric audio. However, this alone does not provide a good audio experience and in many ways, ruins it by muddying the mids and highs. If in doubt, balance is always key and the Pulse-R missed that balance, even in regards to ‘gaming orientated’ audio.
Considering the design and quality of the construction, the Pulse-R has a lot of potential and could have easily out classed many others in its price range. The modular cable and microphone are huge positives while the aesthetics are distinctive, modern and aggressive yet understated enough to retain class, on top of this the LEDs amplify the badassness! Everything about this product screams quality, except for the two most important factors when considering a headset, comfort and audio quality. This could be that I have an extraordinarily large head and ears with poor taste in sound quality. Contemplating that, if you want a pure gaming headset and have a small head, small ears and love booming bass, this is likely to be the best headset you can buy. In all other situations, unless you love how it looks, there are better options out there.
The CM Storm Pulse-R is a great looking headset with a host of unique features that displays the potential to be a definitive gaming headset.
Pros.
+ Modular cable and microphone
+ Good quality construction
+ Attractive design, even better with LEDs
+ Thumping bass
Cons.
– Uncomfortable
– Poorly balanced audio
+ Modular cable and microphone
+ Good quality construction
+ Attractive design, even better with LEDs
+ Thumping bass
Cons.
– Uncomfortable
– Poorly balanced audio
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to Cooler Master for providing today’s review sample.
