Sennheiser GSP 350 Review

The GSP 350 features Sennheisers high-end acoustic technology, along with USB connectivity and virtual 7.1 surround technology, it promises ultra-immersion for gamers.

Manufacturer: Sennheiser

Street Price: UK: £129.99, US: $139.99

Sennheiser are top of their game and are a well renowned brand in regards to audio products. Since our last look at the awesome GAME ZERO headset, they have recently released a trio of headsets for gamers. As the ‘mid-range’ offerings, the GSP 300/350 are more similar in design, and are priced comparably to the likes of the Creative Sound BlasterX H5/H7, along with a respective feature set. While the PC 373D appears to be a GAME ONE headset modified to used the same Dolby ‘Surround Dongle’, enabling USB connectivity and 7.1 virtual surround.

The GSP 350 which are are featuring today, has a robust construction and feaures intuitive controls such as an easily accessible volume dial, and an auto-mute microphone. Sennheiser would have undoubtedly injected their know-how into providing high quality drivers and microphone technology. Other than the blue/red colouring, the significant difference between the GSP 300/350 headsets appears to be down to the supplied cables. The 300 acts as the multi platform analogue headset, while the 350 ships with the same USB ‘Surround Dongle’ as featured with the PC 373D headset, thus serving as the PC virtual 7.1 surround headset.

Technical Specifications

Packaging & First Look

The rear of the packaging gives some basic information about the headset in various languages, including that it features (virtual) 7.1 surround, Memory foam padding and a broadcast quality microphone.

Included with the GSP 350 comes two cables, one is a standard USB to microUSB, as well as the UNP – Surround Dongle. None of the cables are braided but they are soft and flexible.

The headset itself is an interesting design, featuring large headband, large earcups and red trims in the headband and at the side of the earcup.

Closer Look

The earcups feature large, memory foam pads that are slightly D shaped, that are covered in a plush stitched leatherette.

The headset itself is designed with the earcups at a slight angle to the headband to naturally follow the contours and shape of peoples head/ears. On the right side, there is a large volume dial.

At the bottom on the left side earcup there is a port for the Sennheiser cable to connect to, it isn’t a standard 3.5mm port and so replacement cables will need to be of the same specific type available from Sennheiser.

The microphone boom is large, sturdy and of good quality, with a flexible centre piece.

The headset can be adjusted by pulling each of the earcups to the desired position.

Overall the GSP 350 looks rather large, chunky, and robust but without being garish or over the top.

Software

Performance Testing

To enable the 7.1 surround feature you will need to download the software driver, once done, plug the headset into a spare USB port and you will be ready to go. It is a slight shame that they didn’t include the console cable as standard with the GSP 350, opening up its versatility. Instead, you need to buy the cable separately for £15ish. Though this action itself would raise some questions as to the relevance of the GSP 300.

The construction of the GSP 350 uses high quality plastics and feels solid. On wearing the headset I needed to extend the side earcups a lot more than normal to get it to fit my head, and found that it a fairly moderate clamp force, but at no point was uncomfortable. Thanks to this however, combined with the memory foam/leatherette earpads, it has good sound isolation, creating a reasonable level of passive noise reduction/ reduced noise leakage. Though, if you need to wear glasses, those with thicker frames might find a little discomfort.

The microphone auto mutes when raised and is easy to move up and down, but the flexible central part is more springy rather than adjustable. The volume dial positioned on the right side is rather awkward to use due to the joint between the headband and the earcup ending just above the dial. Every time I reach for the volume dial I am greeted with a huge plastic block, requiring me to twist my hand to reach for the front and rear sides of the dial, this seems like a slightly embarrassing design flaw. Despite that, the volume dial rotates smoothly, and feels good quality.

Listening to various known music, including the soundtrack to Turbo Kid (retro synth pop), the GSP 350 greets us with the trademark Sennheiser audio signature, featuring an incredibly rich, precise audio that has amazing separation between each sound. It has an upper mid-range bias, making the bass slightly less pronounced that some may like, but it remains deep, warm and present regardless. This made for good listening for any music type.

In game, the level of clarity from footsteps, to someone reloading round the corner is easy to distinguish. The spatial awareness thanks to the openness plunges you deeper into the game too, though testing out the v7.1 surround seemed to make little, if any difference. I reinstalled the drivers to check in case my anti-virus picked up the software as a false negative, as it did with the SteelSeries driver, but this time nothing came up. On closer scruitney, the Surround mode did tighten up some edges of the sound, increasing the sharpness a touch. But the GSP 350 did such a fantastic job of replicating wide sounds either way, so you will get a great immersive surround experience either way. Running around in Gears of War 4 gave ample directional audio as to where and when can expect to run into an enemy.

Microphone

The microphone is deep, low latency, even with the additional noise cancelling, and fantastic quality. Even at maximum sensitivity, the voice just sounds louder and clear, though I found that a nice setting was around 85%. Without the additional noise cancelling, it did a good job of reducing background sounds naturally, though you may as well use it as it doesn’t have a detrimental effect on voice quality at all.

Conclusion

There are some things that could be improved, such as, Sennheiser could have included the console cable as standard. Versatility is key lately, and there is no point in playing the ‘let’s create as many different headsets as we can to suit different needs’ in a time where many people are looking for a ‘DO IT ALL’ solution. That means, Music on the go, it must look good, be light, be comfortable and transportable. It needs to be versatile, capable of moving between platforms and systems with little hassle, thus making a 4pole 3.5mm jack along with wireless technology seriously improve its desirability. Other things that could be addressed is the positioning of the volume dial, add a full equaliser to the software, and address effectiveness of the v7.1 surround mode.

Despite that mentioned above, the GSP 350 provides wide, and immersive audio that is impressively clear in a strong and comfortable frame that is competitive in its price range, and so would easily get a recommendation.

The GSP 350 has impressively rich audio that brings games to life, if you are serious about gaming, remember, Sennheiser are serious about sound.

Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.