Despite being someone who loves gaming and absolutely loves music, I’ve always been behind the curve when it’s come to headphones. To put it into perspective, just last year I purchased a pair of in-ear headphones that cost me way more than I expected; to this day I’ve yet to open them, instead relying on either a cheap pair of $15 headphone and on the odd-occasion, a (totally legitimate) pair of Beats that my parents bought from Thailand.
For that reason I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to give the latest product from LucidSound — the LS20s — a solid go to see what a good pair of gaming headsets could bring to my gaming experience.
On face value, the LS20s give the appearance of a good quality product from the moment you lift the lid of its packaging. The black earbuds and crown combine well with the silver finish of the cradles to provide a simplistic yet refined finish that I wouldn’t typically expect from a gaming headset. This is further complimented by the stitching along the underside of the crown itself. Overall, the LS20s don’t scream for attention; instead it remains quiet and humble. Very classy.
When it comes to functionality, the LS20s do not disappoint. With my other over-ear headphones I would find that after an hour of use I would start to feel discomfort on my ears, but with these that hasn’t been the case. The pleather on both the earbuds and the crown feel soft and rest comfortably on your head, and despite the metal casing the headphones don’t feel heavy either, although there is enough weight to feel like they won’t snap in your hand. This is the same when rested on your neck as well when not in use.
Most importantly, when it comes to sound quality the LS20s serve their purpose. Over the past week I’ve been using them both for gaming on the Xbox One and music off my phone and the quality is great. Playing through F1 2016 I heard those smaller surrounding sounds like the roar of the spectators that you just don’t get when playing off the TV speakers. In games like GTA V and BioShock both the music and the combat sounds are crisp and clear. I should mention that there was the very rare occasion when there would be slight crackling when listening to podcasts on my phone, but this was only briefly and occurred only twice over the past week that they’ve been in use.
In terms of sound leakage you won’t have any issues while playing games, although when listening to music those around me could make out the lyrics towards the very latter end of the volume spectrum. All-in-all it isn’t too bad although I certainly wouldn’t recommend gangster rap at full blast when on your commute to work.
The simple yet clean design of the LS20s somehow makes the unit inconvenient to store. Having the ability to snap the cradles to reduce their size so they don’t take up as much shelf space when not in use would have been a nice feature. They’re not necessarily large headphones, but nor are they small. The metal cradles have a tendency to slip off your head when you’re either laying down or leaning forward, which means the crown needs to rest on your forehead when lying flat or if you ever need to pick something up in front of you.
Further to this — and perhaps most annoyingly — there’s a (sometimes) loud crackling or static noise that plays through the headphones when you’re either connecting or disconnecting the auxiliary cable from either your controller or mobile. The louder the volume, the louder the static and it’s rather unpleasant to hear. Furthermore, it does seem like the voices of anyone within hearing distance is seemingly enhanced in the headphones themselves when they’re in use, but this is really only noticeable when people are speaking loudly and you’re not actually playing anything through them.
Overall, the LS20s are decent pair of headphones to wear and use, whether it be for gaming or listening to music. Battery-life has been a non-issue over the numerous hours I’ve used these and switching between platforms (Xbox One, PS4 and PC) takes but a press of a button. I do appreciate how the microphone can be detached which is particularly handy if multiplayer isn’t necessarily your thing, as there’s no reason why they can’t be used for non-gaming purposes as well. I had originally thought that the cable between the headset and the controller would be a nuisance but even that was a non-issue as I was playing.
At an asking price just shy of $180 AUD the LS20s certainly aren’t cheap, although at least the product you’re getting looks good, feels good and sounds good too.
The LucidSound LS20 headset was reviewed using a promotional product as provided by LucidSound.
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