Others by stefan @ 2017-06-21
As the high-end Sound BlasterX H7 headset, the H5 Tournament Edition does offer a comfortable and light chassis, which does incorporate large 50mm drivers. The TE version drivers do feature extra tuning in order to obtain clear and loud audio output, a fact that does not only benefit gamers, but also people who watch lots of multimedia content.
At first we would like to thank Creative for offering us a sample of their Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition Gaming Headset for testing and reviewing.
“Creative is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Founded in Singapore in 1981, Creative started with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs.
Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, high performance earphone products and portable media devices. The company's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services enable consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment - anytime, anywhere.
Since launching the phenomenally successful Sound Blaster sound cards and setting the de-facto standard for PC audio in 1989, Creative has been able to leverage on its leading-edge audio technology, a huge user base of 400 million, and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.
Creative is now well recognized as a global leader for product innovation in the audio and PDE segments, offering consumers a complete, high quality digital entertainment experience through Creative's hardware, software applications and services. Finding the perfect balance between form and function, Creative strives for every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and ears.
Today, Creative is spearheading new product categories with its groundbreaking Sound BlasterAxx audio enhancement devices and solutions, highly-acclaimed Creative D5xm Signature Series of modular Bluetooth wireless speakers, Aurvana premium headsets, Sound Blaster wireless gaming headsets, and cross-platform Sound Blaster Recon3D for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC or Mac.
These products and solutions are marketed to consumers and system integrators through a worldwide distribution network that includes traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Internet.
Moving forward, Creative's mission is to expand its leadership role in the lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment market, using groundbreaking technology and leading-edge designs for not just the technically-savvy consumers, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment. With strong focus on user-friendly interface, multiple features and cool industrial designs, the Creative brand is synonymous with lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment.
Creative's global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. It has regional business units in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).
Creative is a public listed company on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since June 1994.”
Gaming Audio Remastered
The BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition is an upgrade from the BlasterX H5 with improved drivers for better sensitivity and more accurate sound reproduction. This gaming headset also features an upgraded microphone to help you ace your games with better voice pick up and noise cancellation in loud gaming environments.
Looking sleeker than ever, the BlasterX H5 comes with new brushed metal earcup plates and gun metal finishing.
Designed to Perfection
An improved version of the Sound BlasterX H5 gaming headset that sports an industrial look. The new variant is adorned with new brushed metal earcup plates, complete with gun metal finishing. To go along with its new look, the lightweight architecture is joined by memory foam and plush leatherette that let you wear the H5 Tournament Edition headset all day long.
Engineered to be Lightweight yet Durable
Crafted with durable reinforced aluminium architecture, the H5 Tournament Edition is light to wear and bring around. It's also tough enough to maintain its structural integrity from everyday wear and tear.
Improved Drivers for Greater Sensitivity and Better Gameplay
The Blaster X H5 Tournament Edition is equipped with the same large, responsive 50mm FullSpectrum™ drivers as the BlasterX H5 that deliver astounding sound. For this edition, the drivers are further tuned for clearer, louder and more accurate sound reproduction to give you an edge over your enemies, so you can be sure to experience a full-bodied impact of every bone-shattering explosion and rattle of gunfire in your gameplay.
Communicate Effortlessly
Redesigned and improved, the detachable noise-reduction mic picks up voices and cancels noise better in a loud gaming environment.
Enhance Your Hearing with Sound BlasterX Acoustic Engine Lite Software
Although the headset sounds great on its own, we have tapped into our rich history of creating class-leading audio algorithms to take the sound of the Sound BlasterX H5 beyond the realm of its physical limitations through audio enhancements optimized for your gameplay.
Available for Windows®, Sound BlasterX Acoustic Engine Lite1 offers preset audio profiles specially programmed according to the audio settings of popular games today. When activated, these profiles bring out the essence of the game you are playing. From the whizz of bullets flying past your ear in your favourite FPS game to the terrifying roar of a troll in an adventure game, these sounds come alive with our professionally tweaked enhancements!
In this article, we will concentrate our attention upon one of the latest gaming headset models from Creative: the Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition. This specific model is practically an upgraded version of the previously launched H5, with upgraded drivers, a new microphone, while keeping the other goodies available to the user. The product is shipped inside a Sound BlasterX themed cardboard enclosure, which does feature the main product highlights on the top cover, along with the compatible platforms; we are talking about an analog Stereo headset, so the list of compatible devices is quite large:
On one of the box sides, we will get to see the highlights explained, in different languages:
The opposite packaging area does advertise the software BlasterX Lite solution that does work with any sound card/CODEC available on the system and is meant to add extra filters. A more recommended upgrade of this solution is the Sound BlasterX G1 mini USB sound card, which can deliver true 7.1 HD surround sound:
The main headset components are also explained on the bottom area of the packaging; here we will also learn of the product manufacturing date along with the serial numbers:
After removing the two plastic seals, we are able to check out the inside contents:
On the top layer, the H5 Tournament Edition headset is held secure inside a black custom plastic mold:
The bottom layer is holding the accessory box:
The Sound BlasterX H5 TE presents itself with an all-black color scheme and features a durable reinforced aluminum chassis with a low overall weight, for ensuring a comfortable fit during longer gaming sessions:
The exterior portions of the ear cups are covered by a brushed aluminum cover, an aspect which gives the product a professional look:
The rest of the cup chassis is made of light black plastic, while on the top we can observe a grill, part of the audio optimization process:
On each side of the headrest, we can spot an inscription of the respective audio channel, so we would place the product correctly on our heads before use:
Like this was not enough, these inscriptions can be also found on the inside of the ear cups; memory foam and leatherette materials are used for the cushions and under these we will find the same, large 50mm FullSpectrum drivers as on the previous model, but further tuned in-house for a clearer, louder and more accurate sound reproduction. This added modification does not only help in gameplay, but helps with the sound delivery in general multimedia content too:
On the left cup, we do also have the separate jack ports for the microphone, along with the headset one:
Brushed aluminum material can be also found with the extendable frame; this flexibility detail makes sure that the product will fit any head size:
Thick foam covered with plush leatherette material can be also found on the headrest:
On the top area of the headrest, we won’t find any additional branding or inscriptions:
Next up we’ve got the accessories, which are carefully packed in individual re-sealable plastic bags:
The manufacturer supplies us with an extension audio/microphone splitter cable, which can be used on PC setups and has a length of 1.2m, a detachable 3.5mm 4-pole to 4-pole jack braided cable with controls (also with a length of 1.2m) but also the microphone:
The console on the 3.5mm 4-pole to 4-pole jack cable does feature a microphone on/off switch, a button for taking calls, but also a volume controller:
The jack plugs are customized on each side of the cable and gold plated for optimal contact:
The detachable microphone does come with a custom jack plug connector too, which is designed perfectly fit into the headset chassis:
Noise reduction capabilities ensure that we do get to have a clear conversation even in environments that are more crowded; its frequency response is between 100Hz and 15kHz, while sporting a sensitivity of -40dB:
By acting as an extension, the supplied splitter cable gives us a much higher liberty of movement when gaming on our desktop PC:
The cable/microphone installation is pretty straight forward:
As documentation, we will receive a wallet regarding Worldwide Warranty, but also a Quick Start Guide:
Inside the guide, we will get instructions on how to connect the headset to different devices, but also on how to operate the optional software:
The BlasterX Acoustic Engine Lite software application is offered for free (by simply registering our email to Creative) and can be also used by people which are not using Creative hardware. After we have entered up the serial number we have received on our address, we can start using the application without any actual limitations. Basically, the utility is offering the user multiple presets of the available filters to work with, but we cannot define ours manually (this is a feature of the full-version). After selecting the suitable headset from the drop-down list, we are ready to go!
Here is a list of supported devices (regular, stereo headphones are also available, for using the utility with other headset brands):
For each game type, we do have some presets preloaded:
By clicking on the arrow sign in the top right corner of the GUI, we can also learn of the software version:
As the high-end Sound BlasterX H7 headset, the H5 Tournament Edition does offer a comfortable and light chassis, which does incorporate large 50mm drivers. The TE version drivers do feature extra tuning in order to obtain clear and loud audio output, a fact that does not only benefit gamers, but also people who watch lots of multimedia content.
In the first testing stage, we have fired up Dead Rising 4 and we were impressed by the optimal sound positioning, along with the clear screams of the zombies and different weapon sounds. Counter-Strike Global Offensive was next, where the Sound BlasterX H5 TE had no difficulties with rendering surround sound from our ZxR sound card; the weapon sounds were loud and clear, while the VOIP “push to talk” feature worked as advertised. In order to try out the sound quality of the microphone, we have used Skype conferencing for several hours, and we could be clearly heard by our colleagues on the other end of the line.
If you do not own a good quality dedicated sound card, you can still experience BlasterX sound effects via the supplied presets of the Lite application, but with the obvious limitations. Creative does also offer a workaround, by suggesting the Sound BlasterX G1 mini sound card (purchased separately), which does offer a much better flexibility, by allowing fine-tune of the Surround, Crystalizer, Bass, Smart Volume and Dialog Plus features with our own custom values.
Regarding the included remote on the cable, it is very handy when working with the volume controls on-the-fly, but also for moments when we do need to mute the microphone, even if for just a short while.
The Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition can be found online for as low as 84 Euros, a fact that makes it more accessible for the mainstream segment.
We would like to thank again to Creative for making this review possible!