wotevajjjj
New member
Today my F.R.E.Q. 5 arrived, thought I'd share my thoughts.
Unboxing + review
The headset comes in the same box style as the other Cyborg products.
There is, like always, a lot of information about the product and it's features.
Instead of listing them all, I suggest you check out their product page.
Inside the oddly shaped box, there's the headset and the accessories. The microphone is on the other side of the box, together with the instruction booklet. Both sides light up when the microphone is turned on and connected by usb.
Here's the inner side of the microphone:
And here's the outer side:
This is what you'll connect it with. There is a 1m long 3.5mm jack for connecting to mobile devices and a 2m long usb cable. Both have an amazing braid on them.
Both those cables end in a mini usb port, you plug that into the cable coming out of the headset. The headset itself is asymmetrical because of the buttons on the left side.
As you can see there is a little plastic cap where the microphone goes, this is so no dust or dirt can get in when you use it without the mic. While this is a great idea, something tells me, a lot of people, including me, will lose this in less than a week.
Being a €150 headset, the least they could do is make it foldable.
On the right are the mic on/off button and the equalizer button. Over to the left there is a scroll wheel to change the volume. While the mic switch works, both volume and EQ don't work when using the audio jack ( tested with Nokia Lumia 800 WP7.5 ).
Since this is obviously an over-ear design, the cups are pretty big. The inside is just a cloth with some hard plastic behind it. The cups themselves are of a leathery texture and are very comfortable because of the soft foam inside.
The headrest is made of another, more rubbery material, while this creates a lot of grip, it does hurt a little bit because it pulls your hair when moving around fast. I don't see this as a problem for people with short hair and for baldies, this is a great feature.
One of the things I love most about this headset is the metalwork. It reminds me of a landing gear. The only let down is the braiding there, whilst quality is great, its black and red, not black and orange like on my mouse (Cyborg M.M.O.7) or just plain black like the other cables.
And one more of the full assembly to finish with.
This headset, albeit usb, should you want, does not come with any software or drivers at all. You just plug it in and set it as the default audio device in your configuration panel.
Sound and build quality
This is probably the hardest part about writing a review. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions when it comes to how something should sound. Mad Catz tries to fix this by letting you choose between 3 equalizer settings. One of them is full-on bass and treble, the other one just treble and the third one makes your audio sound flat. I prefer to use the first option because you know, bass...
The only other decent headset I use is a Steelseries Siberia V2, compared to that, this one is a lot sturdier and better build. My first Siberia broke about a week after using it. This one (sadly) has already fallen down the stairs but hasn't got as much as a scratch. The full metal construction does make it a bit heavier but not in an uncomfortable way.
Sound quality is incredible. The amount of sound you get is huge, even when you don't turn it all the way up. However it's not twice as good as the Siberia, but it's like that with all things, twice the price isn't twice the awesome sadly. With this headset you hear so much more in games, at first I thought the headset faked all those sounds, but I have no idea how such a thing can be done without software. You can hear your mags fall on the ground while a couple of meters further people are frag spamming all over the metro (bf3) and you can hear very subtle sounds like the click in a gearbox while doing 250kph on pCars with 63 other cars around you.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a headset, you like the way this one looks and you have the money, you should buy it. It's really that simple. There is the little problem with the non-matching braids and the plastic cap that'll get lost, but it's just a very good headset.
Pro's:
Sounds quality
Build Quality
usb + 3.5mm jack
Looks
Con's:
Price (€150)
Unboxing + review
The headset comes in the same box style as the other Cyborg products.
There is, like always, a lot of information about the product and it's features.
Instead of listing them all, I suggest you check out their product page.
Inside the oddly shaped box, there's the headset and the accessories. The microphone is on the other side of the box, together with the instruction booklet. Both sides light up when the microphone is turned on and connected by usb.
Here's the inner side of the microphone:
And here's the outer side:
This is what you'll connect it with. There is a 1m long 3.5mm jack for connecting to mobile devices and a 2m long usb cable. Both have an amazing braid on them.
Both those cables end in a mini usb port, you plug that into the cable coming out of the headset. The headset itself is asymmetrical because of the buttons on the left side.
As you can see there is a little plastic cap where the microphone goes, this is so no dust or dirt can get in when you use it without the mic. While this is a great idea, something tells me, a lot of people, including me, will lose this in less than a week.
Being a €150 headset, the least they could do is make it foldable.
On the right are the mic on/off button and the equalizer button. Over to the left there is a scroll wheel to change the volume. While the mic switch works, both volume and EQ don't work when using the audio jack ( tested with Nokia Lumia 800 WP7.5 ).
Since this is obviously an over-ear design, the cups are pretty big. The inside is just a cloth with some hard plastic behind it. The cups themselves are of a leathery texture and are very comfortable because of the soft foam inside.
The headrest is made of another, more rubbery material, while this creates a lot of grip, it does hurt a little bit because it pulls your hair when moving around fast. I don't see this as a problem for people with short hair and for baldies, this is a great feature.
One of the things I love most about this headset is the metalwork. It reminds me of a landing gear. The only let down is the braiding there, whilst quality is great, its black and red, not black and orange like on my mouse (Cyborg M.M.O.7) or just plain black like the other cables.
And one more of the full assembly to finish with.
This headset, albeit usb, should you want, does not come with any software or drivers at all. You just plug it in and set it as the default audio device in your configuration panel.
Sound and build quality
This is probably the hardest part about writing a review. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions when it comes to how something should sound. Mad Catz tries to fix this by letting you choose between 3 equalizer settings. One of them is full-on bass and treble, the other one just treble and the third one makes your audio sound flat. I prefer to use the first option because you know, bass...
The only other decent headset I use is a Steelseries Siberia V2, compared to that, this one is a lot sturdier and better build. My first Siberia broke about a week after using it. This one (sadly) has already fallen down the stairs but hasn't got as much as a scratch. The full metal construction does make it a bit heavier but not in an uncomfortable way.
Sound quality is incredible. The amount of sound you get is huge, even when you don't turn it all the way up. However it's not twice as good as the Siberia, but it's like that with all things, twice the price isn't twice the awesome sadly. With this headset you hear so much more in games, at first I thought the headset faked all those sounds, but I have no idea how such a thing can be done without software. You can hear your mags fall on the ground while a couple of meters further people are frag spamming all over the metro (bf3) and you can hear very subtle sounds like the click in a gearbox while doing 250kph on pCars with 63 other cars around you.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a headset, you like the way this one looks and you have the money, you should buy it. It's really that simple. There is the little problem with the non-matching braids and the plastic cap that'll get lost, but it's just a very good headset.
Pro's:
Sounds quality
Build Quality
usb + 3.5mm jack
Looks
Con's:
Price (€150)
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