I’ve used a lot of headphones over the time playing games, from my X1 Fidelios to my Hyper X Cloud 2’s, and I’d like to think I have a pretty good grasp on what makes headphones good and what makes them bad, including how they sound and how a microphone sounds. HEBE M1 are a new brand out of china looking to take a stab at the gaming headset market.
These headphones are an interesting take on the headset, and have the standard features that we expect from headphones;
Large 50mm drivers? Check
RGB? Check
Microphone? Check
And even better actually being comfortable to wear? Check again!
These are a surprisingly well constructed pair of headphones, that feel premium, my only real gripe about build quality is the fact that the mic is very awkward to get back into its hole once its pulled out, that and the ear cups…vibration, we will get back to that. But apart from that the headphones are comfortable with some plush pleather material on the earcups and a headrest to make them feel pretty easy on the ears and head.
Noise cancelling whilst not a feature advertised is surprisingly well, once the headphones have been put on I cant hear general noises around me such as my fan, my typing or my cat meowing to be let into my room and that’s a set of features I like.
The microphone is hidden away in its own little hole, and extends not as far as you would expect with a goose neck design to bend whichever way you want, which feels a little redundant considering that it doesn’t actually come out that far.
However quality of the microphone is…again average, its good and compared to some headsets its downright amazing, but for the asking price, I’m not sure if the microphone is going to be the highlight of this headset.
The RGB look nice, and the software that come with the headphones allow you to customize them, from changing the mode of the LED’s like breathing, flashing or what colour they are, or just turning them off. In the software you can also turn on virtual surround sound, however do not turn it on, it makes everything feel like its in the middle of a large room, honestly destroying what little sound quality is available in the headset.
Sound quality wise these are on a more bassy end of the spectrum of headsets and really that is not a place I like, the enhanced bass really give me a headache and over long periods of game time I find a massive amount of fatigue using them that I do not find happens with other headsets I own. High’s sound…muffled in music, however mids are pretty clear. Lows are again a muffled mess, seemingly selecting enhanced bass over accurate representation of the source material.
Music is…acceptable when listening, depending on the song, anything with bass again turns into a mess with little escaping the overpowering volume. Acoustic songs however are pretty enjoyable, with some decent range in the headphones, but anytime the song gets anywhere near the low tones, the song gets dangerously close to dropping into a muddy mess of sound.
Games are a similar story, I never thought that these gave me a leg up in playing, and at the same time did not hinder me, they sound acceptable for playing games, people understood my callouts in CSGO with the microphone. However do not turn on the virtual surround sound, again It changes how the it all sounds and really messes with you when your playing a game with a lot of turning like in a FPS, in some cases actually making me feel quite sick.
Right I need to talk about this vibration feature they are boasting about, basically when you hear low frequency sounds such as gunshots or explosions your headset will vibrate from the sound to increase immersion into the headset and game.
I have never wanted a pair of headphones to vibrate period.
Yes it works, yes they do vibrate, no it does not feel good and it does not make them more immersive, it just makes them annoying to wear at the good side, and makes them sound worryingly like they are going to break at their worst, something I wish was software enabled and instead they are actually designed to vibrate by how the speakers are mounted inside.
This headset is a decent headset, but it isn’t the best out there, its overpriced and the sound quality is subpar if you do not like drowning in bass. But with solid build quality and some very nice design help make these headphones more of a statement for what you want to look like, with acceptable performance in sound, 6/10.
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