Mionix Nash 20 Professional Gaming Headset Review

Mionix are a company that focuses on premium design in an “affordable luxury” price bracket, and the competition in this area of the market is fierce. A little more money will see you reaching high end Razer products that come with significantly more bells and whistles (or worthless bullsh*t depending on your point of view) and there are so many options when it comes to peripherals these days that it’s hard to pick one make over another. The phrase “premium design” can be tacked onto anything from a plastic £2 MP3 player eBay listing to a top of the line Mercedes-Benz, so we can be forgiven for our hesitation. So why Mionix? Why the NASH 20, over anything else on the neodymium buffet table that is the PC headset market? Let’s break it down.

THE BOX

Call me an idiot but the packaging is always a dead giveaway as to the quality of the product inside. It’s like a handshake – the first impression you get. If the Nash 20’s box were a handshake, it’d be a firm, reassuringly dry one – a solid, built to last black square with subtle embossed graphics. Cradled inside velvety inner packaging, the matte black headset rests. It’s all very slick and subtle – no screaming splash graphics, no boasting flavour text. Just a quiet, purring confidence. “Here’s your new headset. It’s awesome. We know you’ll love it”. There’s no unnecessary padding, no promotional trinkets in the box, just straightforward quality, which is something to be admired in this new age.

THE BUILD

The NASH 20’s box actually predicates much of the headset’s design. Matte black, subtle moving parts, sturdy but lightweight. It looks great. The mic – which comes down from its resting place flush against the left ear cup with a satisfying click when it locks in place – isn’t removable which is slightly disappointing but it is flexible and secure. It all looks like one solid component, pretty much like the Batmobile. The memory foam pads sit nicely on your head, it’s light and comfortable after hours of use. Because the pads are so generous in size and the headset frame is sort of chunky it can get very warm very quickly, not offering much in the way of ventilation. As far as criticisms go it’s a relatively minor one, but it’s worth bearing in mind.

THE SOUND

So here’s what really counts. How does the Nash stand up against its competitors in terms of sound quality? In comparison to the Razer BlackShark – easily one of the best gaming headsets I’ve ever owned – it delivered mids and trebles with a similar sort of clarity. It didn’t hold up when it came to bass response but the BlackShark does pack an ear rattling, muddy bass driver more optimised for heavy duty 420 no scope gamers. In an interesting comparison to my console headset – the Turtle Beach XO7s, also a “premium” peripheral selling for more than the Nash, the Mionix option came out on top with something of an easy victory. It wins out in bass and delivers high and mid tones with a greater degree of clarity than the XO7s with ease. If the Nash 20 was compatible with the Xbox One I’d abandon them entirely.

Chat rings out crystal clear both ways. It’s nicely balanced although a lack of mic monitoring and the complete sealing of the ear cups over your head makes it hard to determine the volume of your voice. It’s consistently good enough to not be too much of a concern but if you naturally shout like I do it’s probably best to position the mic a little further away than normal – the pick up range is pretty generous.

Should you go for the Nash 20? Emphatically, yes. Mionix don’t screw around with their products – taking their time perfecting and releasing new products slowly but surely. What they’ve created here is both an excellent headset and a truly unique piece of design work. Mionix might not be the most well known company, and their name isn’t synonymous with gaming peripherals like Razer and Turtle Beach – but they damn well should be.

Borning tech Specs now *Taken from site

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.