At first we would like to thank Thermaltake for offering a sample of their Shock 3D 7.1 PC Gaming Headset for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Tt eSPORTS:

 

““Challenge is the game” highlights the philosophy to bring out gamers’ addiction in gaming and the ambition of reaching to the extreme. Tt eSPORTS, a gaming obsessed division from Thermaltake, is uniting gamers from all over the world in a unique & fascinating eSPORTS culture, inherited the spirits of Thermaltake, is an energetic, powerful, bold and intelligent challenger who never says “no” to the extreme competition. we do not only provide gamers the ultimate gaming gears but also fulfills the passion to achieve the ultimate success.

 

Thermaltake has been a well-known brand in the gaming & DIY market for PC Chassis, Coolers and Power Supplies PSU for many years. The brand personality of unique, aggressive, vivid and stylish makes Thermaltake an expert in creating exciting things and fascinating environment for gamers and enthusiasts. Tt eSPORTS inherited the brand personality with unique and creative design by observing users’ behaviors and requirements. The fan cooling design on Tt eSPORTS Challerger keyboard demonstrate the brand spirit. It is the worldwide first keyboard with fan cooling function that could dry your hand sweats and blow tension away during cut-throat competition.”

 

Product Features:

 

3D 7.1 virtualized surround

 

3D 7.1 virtualized surround sounds offer a fully immersive experience in-game. Traditional virtualized surround sound technology focuses too much on the 5.1 and 7.1 aspect, which instead create an unrealistic sound field focused on where the speakers would normally be placed in a 5.1 (front sides, back sides, and center) channel or 7.1 (front sides, immediate left & right sides, back sides, and center) channel surround sound setup. Tt eSPORTS’ 3D 7.1 virtualized surround sound technology is the first on the market to offer a much more encompassing sound, providing a virtualized 7.1 approach that instead offers a 360° feel. A dedicated on ear cup 3D 7.1 button lets the user instantaneously turn the 3D 7.1 sound off or on.

 

4 EQ settings + Environmental sound effects 4

 

EQ settings offer users the chance to hear every single detail, no matter what type of game they’re playing. 4 preset EQ settings, one each for FPS, MMORPG, ARPG, and RTS genres. A dedicated EQ button on the ear cup lets the user cycle through the EQs at any time. Eight environmental sound effects accessible by software, allow users to further tune the sound. User can also choose manual button on the software for user configurable EQ setting.

 

Responsive Battle Dragon logo LED

 

Battle Dragon LEDs light up inside mesh ear cups add further to the gaming atmosphere of the headset. The LED lighting pattern reacts to the sound of your music or game, to enhance the overall experience.

 

FOLD FLAT DESIGN

 

The SHOCK 3D 7.1’s ear cups can swivel to fold flat for convenient transport, as well as helping to conform the ear cups to provide the right fit & seal for each user.

 

Bendable Microphone + Auto mic-mute design

 

A bendable microphone allows for easy access to necessary voice communications within games. When the microphone is pivoted upwards, the auto-mic mute design kicks in by switching the circuit off. This is the cleanest way to handle the microphone signal for muting.

 

Product Specifications:

 

This is basically the reworked version of the Shock 3D 7.1 headset we are looking at, which does sport a different, newer sound chip which sports many more features; the previous version comes with an older CODEC and supports only Windows 7/8.1 unfortunately, so make sure you are purchasing the right version for your needs! This gaming headset from Tt eSports comes packed inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure which carries the manufacturer signature all-around and on the frontal area we will get to see a small list of product highlights:

 

 

 

If we need to check the product technical specifications list, we are always invited to look on the side of the box:

 

 

 

Tt eSports does also show a photo of the product on the back of the enclosure, where we are explained the main product components:

 

 

 

After we have unsealed the box, we will get to see the headset sitting inside a custom black plastic mold and as a bundle we will also receive one handy carry pouch, which not many manufacturers offer these days:

 

 

 

The carry pouch is large enough for fitting the headset with ease:

 

 

 

The product documentation is located in a separate transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

To be more exact, we will receive one Quick Installation Guide, a Warranty Policy leaflet and two nice case stickers:

 

 

 

Inside the manual we will receive more information regarding the product along with the installation procedure:

 

 

 

As the manufacturer logo, the headset was built in black with red accents and while it does have a larger footprint, it is quite comfortable thanks to the thick padding on both headband and ear cups:

 

 

 

Both ear cups feature a black leatherette cushion with a large enough opening in order to fit over all ear shapes and sizes; inside we will find a 40nm driver, with a frequency response between 20Hz and 20KHz and an impedance of 32 Ohms. Over the drivers we do have a red thin layer available and as it can be seen, the cups can be folded flat in order to fit the product inside the provided bag:

 

 

 

The outside of the right cup does feature an interesting design, is made of plastic on the outside, but the inner layer does have a black metallic mesh:

 

 

 

While the left cup does retain some of the design elements, here we will also get to see the microphone, one 3D 7.1 button, the EQ switch button, but also the Volume controller:

 

 

 

The microphone can be bent, folded in order to stay in the right position and also comes with an auto-off feature; this one is omni-directional and comes with a sensitivity of -35DB and a frequency between 100Hz and 10KHz, the impedance being 2.2K Ohms:

 

 

 

On the outside it does come with the same design as the ear cups:

 

 

 

Here is also a view on the inside, which features the microphone port:

 

 

 

 

The headband area does feature thick padding which is covered by red cloth material:

 

 

 

On the top of the headband we will be able to spot the manufacturer logo:

 

 

 

As many other headsets, the Shock 3D 7.1 can be adjusted from both sides:

 

 

 

This particular headset does come with a two meter braided cable and can be folded thanks to the included branded accessory:

 

 

 

The USB port is also Tt eSports branded and the gold plating assures optimal contact:

 

 

 

After we do plug in the headset into a spare USB port, the Tt eSports logo will pulsate inside each cup:

 

 

 

The Shock 3D 7.1 gaming headset does feature a C-Media CODEC at its heart and because of this the software console comes with plenty of effects we can try out; the same console can be found with some sound cards on the market like Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 XS71HDU, Powercolor Devil HDX PCI-E and more. The main interface is not overly intuitive since we would have preferred to have separate buttons for each effect on the top side of the console; the user must figure out that he/she must right-click on the Speakers or Mic icons on the left side in order to get hold of the said effects. We would also like to mention that the applied effects and settings will appear on the top area of the console like sampling rate, playback mode and so on:

 

 

 

Here are the effects we can work with playback-wise:

 

 

 

In detail, here are the menus of each configurable effect:

 

Sample Rate

 

 

 

Equalizer

(Preset or Manual settings)

 

 

 

Xear Surround Headphone

 

 

 

Xear Audio Brilliant

 

 

 

Xear Dynamic Bass

 

 

 

Xear Smart Volume

 

 

 

Xear Voice Clarity

 

 

 

Xear Surround Max

 

 

 

Microphone-wise we can select the Sample Rate but also enable Xear Magic Voice to have fun while chatting with friends:

 

 

 

 

The application can also show the current software and firmware versions:

 

 

 

We can also configure some custom options:

 

 

 

As a mainstream-priced gaming headset, the Shock 3D 7.1 impressed us positively regarding the multitude of sound effects which can be obtained thanks to the C-Media Xear console and thanks to the thick cushion, large ear cups the headset does remain comfortable even during longer gaming sessions. Some of the effects and presets can be accessed right from the buttons placed on the left cup, while the volume wheel is quite large so we cannot miss it :). Please keep though in mind that since we are dealing with an USB-only headset, its usage environment is quite limited (only PCs), not being able to work on consoles and on OSX we are missing the software to back it up (so the nice custom effects cannot be accessed at all).

 

The software console looks like we are working with a fully-fledged audio card and if you try a simple Google Search you will find that some sound cards on the market (with C-Media CODEC) come equipped with something similar but do sport a slightly different color scheme.

 

The manufacturer does also include a carry pouch with the product and thanks to the Shock 3D 7.1 foldable design, it can be carried to LAN parties without any issues at all.

 

The only real negative point about this headset is the fact that it does not offer us the possibility to alter the microphone volume; with the default level though, we did not have had issues while chatting in Skype while gaming LoL, Ashes of the Singularity or Blade & Soul.

 

This new version of the Shock 3D 7.1 headset can be found in stores for about 74 Euros, which we think that it is decent considering the multitude of effects we do have available software-wise.

Tt eSports Shock 3D 7.1 PC Gaming Headset is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Thermaltake for making this review possible!