I continue to acquaint our readers with the professional gadgets on the Russian market. I already told you about gaming keyboard and mouse, so today I would like to change the subject a little and share with you my impressions of using an unusual Kuven Pro gaming headset manufactured by American company Tesoro. According to the manufacturer, these headphones can boast a real, rather than an emulated 5.1 sound. Let's find out whether this is true or the next marketing move?
The box with headphones has a trapezoidal shape and is designed according to the corporate style of the company Tesoro. Here the emphasis is on the violet color palette and the emphasis on the unique features of the product. Reminders about what makes the Kuven Pro headset unlike the products of competitors are printed on the packaging everywhere.
On the back of the package you can find a brief description of the headset already in thirteen languages of the world, including Russian. This indicates that the headset was created taking into account its distribution, including in Russia.
I have already told you that all of Tesoro's products are named after items from myths and legends. The headset Kuven Pro was named after the magic helmet "κυνέη" the god of the dead Aida, who has the ability to make his master invisible. According to myths, this helmet Hades was given to the Cyclops for freeing them.
The front side of the box is a hinged cover on two round Velcro. Right in the store you can look inside the box through a transparent plastic, without opening the package. And it looks pretty stylish.
On the inside of the hinged cover are listed the main characteristics of the headphones, amplifier and microphone, and just in case all the key advantages of the headset are duplicated again.
Inside the box, the headphones are securely fixed in a rigid substrate using wire fasteners. The control panel of the headphones was so tightly seated in its niche that I could not pull it out for a long time. The quality of packaging I have no complaints. Such a box will easily survive the delivery of Russia's Post and nothing to the headphones while it will not.
Of the accompanying notes in the package were found: a warranty card, an advertising brochure telling about the rest of Tesoro's products, as well as a user's manual in several languages.
The headphones themselves look very impressive: large cups with leather ear cups, a body made of high-quality plastic, a headband with a comfortable soft lining, metal plates fastened to the outside of the cups with bolts. Immediately you understand that the product is quality and built on conscience.
The plastic is named the headset, and a little higher flaunts the logo of the company Tesoro, which is a combination of demon and angel masks.
The non-removable microphone Kuven Pro is made of rubberized material and is able to bend, retaining its new shape after that. If you do not want to bend it, you can simply throw it upward so that it does not interfere. The 160-degree swivel mechanism is quite stiff, so you can eliminate any backlash and rattling with sudden head movements.
The cups of the headset can be turned inside the headband by 90 degrees, which makes it possible to put the headphones on the table neatly this way (see photo). Note that on the right cup is an angel, and on the right is a demon. Personally, I was somewhat embarrassed by the brown color of the metal plates, but let's leave it to the conscience of Tesoro designers.
Inside the headband is built a strong metal plate with notches, which allows you to precisely adjust the height of the headset. On my own, I would like to add that the headset sits on the head very tightly. Something like you feel when you use professional headphones-monitors.
A thick soft overlay at the top of the headband allows you to distribute the load on your head with prolonged use of Kuven Pro. On the outer surface of the headband with white thread embroidered the name of the company Tesoro. This gives the headphones a raid of elitism. Uncommon today you will meet such design decisions.
Soundproofing the headset at a very high level - during the game I was tightly cut off from the outside world with all its annoying noises. Leather ear cups hide from our eyes a foam with a memory effect, so that the headset fits snugly to your head, excluding the ingress of foreign noise. However, the skin entails the inevitable fogging of the auricles with the long use of the headset. It is a common disease of all closed headphones.
The ear pads are easily removed from the headset together with the plastic frames on which they are fastened. The frames are held on the cups using four latches.
As you can see, the manufacturer's statement about the support of "real 5.1 sound" is true. Each of the cups contains four speakers. The largest is a low-frequency subwoofer, and three smaller ones are the front, center and rear sound sources. It can be argued arbitrarily that such a close arrangement of the speakers will not give the human ear the effect of surround sound. But, practice proves the opposite.
Cable headset 1.35 meters long is hidden inside a strong nylon braid and ends with a gold-plated HDMI-plug. Developers of the headset can be understood, because the transmission of four-channel audio requires the use of multiple wires, so for such purposes, the HDMI interface is just perfect. Using such an interface would make the headphones very uncomfortable, but the thing is that the HDMI cable is stuck in an external headset control unit, equipped with an additional USB cable.
The desktop control panel is connected to the computer with a 2 m long mini-USB cable. From the elements of the interface the unit is equipped with a round volume control with a convenient recess for the finger. To unscrew the maximum volume you will have to turn the knob to 720 degrees, i.e. make two complete turns. The stroke of the regulator is soft, with clicks that are barely perceptible at the tactile level. At the top there are indicators of the volume level. There are three additional buttons at the bottom of the console. The first switches the control between five channels: Voice - the overall volume of all the speakers of the headset, Front - front speakers, Rear - rear, Cen - central, well, Sub, as you guessed it is a subwoofer. You can adjust the volume of each channel to your taste, thereby creating the perfect sound for your game. Afraid that the enemy will sneak up to you from behind - increase the sound of the rear speakers and you will hear every rustle from this side. The second button turns the microphone on and off, which is very useful if during a game you need to take your mind off the conversation with a family member or a phone call. The third button - blocks all sound coming to the headset. In general, with the most necessary functions, the control panel manages to cheer.
From the bottom the console is equipped with two rubberized legs that securely hold it on a flat surface and prevent sliding.
Both the remote and the headset start to glow when connected to the signal source. On both cups of the headset, two purple eyes flash from the outside, and the indicator on the tip of the microphone lights up indicating that it is currently on. It all looks very beautiful, especially in a dark room. The only thing that upset me is the constantly flashing left button on the remote. How to turn off this blinking, I did not understand, although I carefully studied the instruction manual and even climbed to the official forum of the company Tesoro in search of an answer.
Let's move on to how the headset behaves in the field, i.e. during the games. Here at Kuven Pro everything is very good. First I tested it on several PC-shooters, paying special attention to how the sound sources are positioned. The direction of the location of enemies is determined perfectly. Immediately you feel if someone is sneaking behind you, left or right. Then I tested the headset on a new game ABZU, a review on which you can read on our website. The volume sound in this game was less pronounced than in the shooters, however, the headphones perfectly coped with the magnificent symphonic music and amazing sounds of the underwater world.
After testing on the PC, I decided to try out the headset on the gaming consoles. To my surprise, the Sony PlayStation 4 prefix defined Kuven Pro immediately and redirected the sound to it. I ran one of the levels of the game Uncharted 4 and enjoyed the surround sound during the shootings with the enemies. Again, the headset surprised me by precisely positioning the sound sources. True, using Kuven Pro with gaming consoles will not be easy if the console is too far from your sofa. Do not forget that this is a wired solution, and the length of the cable with the extension cord is 3.35 meters. I was so long enough to sit on the edge of my favorite couch. Though, to someone this length of a cable quite will suffice.
After that, I decided to try to watch a couple of movies and listen to music using Kuven Pro. Launching the movie "Saving Private Ryan" with the sound of 5.1, I clearly felt the explosions surrounding me, could roughly determine the sources of the sounds of shooting and generally got a good start in the atmosphere of a fierce battle performed by Steven Spielberg. With the virtual 7.1 format I did not want to experiment. An unpleasant discovery awaited me when I ran a film with a normal stereo track on two channels - the headset used only one speaker in each cup, instead of mixing the sound and evenly outputting it to all eight speakers.
With music, the same problem repeated. Only two speakers worked out of eight. In principle, it is understandable, the headset is designed primarily for the needs of professional gamers. And such people can not watch movies and listen to music just once. I listened to several favorite tracks of such bands and artists as The Prodigy, Massive Attack, Ruelle and others in FLAC format. In principle, the music sounds nice, the speakers are quite able to cope with the task set before them. But it feels that the headset was not grounded at all for this. Before us, exclusively gaming professional gadget, and not a gift for audiophiles.
As for the software, this time Tesoro was a little too lazy to use the drivers and the application for sound adjustment Xear, developed by the Taiwanese company C-Media. In the application, you can activate various soft gadgets such as Flex Bass II, Xear Audio Brilliant or simply customize the sound with the traditional equalizer. A particularly useful chip for gamers, I think the function is Xear Voice Clarity. It clears the sound from the microphone from all sorts of interference and external noises, making your voice as pure and natural as possible. During online matches - this is an incredibly useful thing. However, even without this software gadget built-in headset microphone produces a very high-quality sound, however, you have to first adjust its sensitivity - it is very "powerful", as for me.
Complete set of headset:
- Headset Kuven Pro
- Desktop control panel
- USB cable for remote control
- User's manual
- Advertising brochure Tesoro
- Warranty card
Characteristics:
- Color: black
- Headphone type: closed
- Material: plastic / metal
- Support 5.1: yes
- Support 7.1: yes, virtual
- Subwoofer: 2 pcs. x 40 mm, 32 ohms, 100 mW
- Central speakers: 2 pcs. x 30 mm, 64 ohms, 50 mW
- Front / rear speakers: 4 pcs. x 30 mm, 32 ohms, 50 mW
- Frequency range of the subwoofer: 20 Hz - 400 Hz
- Frequency range of center speakers: 50 Hz - 20 kHz
- Front / rear speaker frequency range: 50 Hz - 20 kHz
- Microphone: built-in, non-directional
- Microphone dimensions: 6 x 2.7 mm
- Impedance of the microphone: 2.2 kΩ
- Frequency range of the microphone: 100 Hz - 10 kHz
- Microphone sensitivity: -44 dB ± 3 dB
- Cable: 3.35 meters (headphones 1.35 m. + Extension 2 m.), Braided
- External control panel: yes
- Connection: USB 2.0 and higher
- Backlight: yes, purple
Pros:
- Unique aggressive design and high build quality.
- Excellent soundproofing of the headset from external noises.
- High-quality surround sound 5.1 in video games.
- In the ear pads used foam with the effect of memory.
- Nice purple lighting for the headset and remote control.
- Omnidirectional microphone with noise suppression.
- Long braided cables with gold-plated plugs.
- Convenient control panel with control of individual channels.
- Support for modern gaming consoles.
Minuses:
- Hardly the headset is suitable for listening to music and watching movies.
- When listening to stereo sound only two speakers out of eight.
- Over time, the ears in the leather ear cups mist.
- The light bulb on the panel is very irritating.
Headset Tesoro Kuven Pro - a professional gaming gadget that is hardly suitable for fans to watch movies and listen to music. In online games, Kuven Pro produces almost perfect sound and, thanks to real, rather than emulated 5.1 sound, allows you to determine the location of its source as precisely as possible. Plus, you can include a quality microphone, which allows you to effectively exchange information with members of your team. Using the desktop control panel, you can quickly turn on and off the microphone, activate the Mute mode and adjust the sound channels independently. The assembly of the headset pleases with attention to detail and quality of materials, and surprisingly effective noise insulation is quite capable of competing with more expensive monitor headphones. The average cost of the headset Tesoro Kuven Pro to date is at around 7999 rubles.
The article is based on materials .
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