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Sunday 19 September 2004

Medusa 5.1 Headphones [Beej]

There are lots of blogs about headphones and it's time for another, because I've just bought a Speed Link Medusa 5.1 Surround Headset from Play.
Now I predict that the paedo^Waudiophiles will hate them because (1) they're not Sennheiser (2) they have a mic built in (3) they're well affordable (4) something about separation frequency saturation response and planetary alignment... probably.
So here's why I like the Medusas:

No shortage of leads, including 3.5-to-phono converters and an extension for the mic if the amp box is miles away from your PC. Pass through on the "amp" for your speakers - fab! No more plug-unplug silliness. If you want to plug a second pair into the box, you can. And the headies themselves have velvety eary goodness and the whole shebang looks well-constructed and was certainly well packaged.
Bad stuff? Amplified gear seems to be really pick up on your mobile buzzing the GSM cell. The mic isn't removable either by the looks of it.
The 5.1 surround: well in DOOM³ it's definitely an improvement on your basic headies, but the bass is potentially lacking. More testing required in this department.
Overall though they fulfill my criteria - no unplugging, speaker pass-thru, a mic for games, and the price is a steal if you ask me. Bonza!

5 comments:

  1. Those things are selling like hotcakes, according to their UK distributor. Your right, I hate them and er, not because they're not Sennheiser either. But anyway, I wont go into why. You're happy and that's the main thing eh? :-)

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  2. Nice, one for the crimbo list.

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  3. Beej - what's their null-gibson db peak overhead like? I'm never happy unless I can be sure that I'm getting total fidelity above 30khz like.

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  4. To complete the 5.1 setup, I also bought some Logitech Z-640 5.1 Speakers. Can't go wrong at this price... and they're fed from the pass-through on the Medusa amp above... geddit?The sub is a bit loud loik... have to keep it turned all the way down. Annoying missing feature is a balancer/fader, but I can no doubt do this in the mixer somewhere if I looked.Blue LED matches my mouse - teh winz!

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  5. Heh, you buy cheapy headphones - accusing the Sennheiser fans of being elitist yuppies in the process - and then go out and buy a rather expensive set of (very nice actually) computer speakers. You dirty little slut!

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