X2 Saturn 5.1 Gaming Headset Review

Subjective Listening: Music, Movies, and Games

Not everyone hears the same as each other. People’s ears are different and preferences dictate our style. The subjective listening tests in our reviews not only compare the product with other gaming headsets, but also audiophile-grade headphones. Those who don’t regularly listen with higher-end equipment may not notice the sound quality deficiencies we are able to notice.

Music

The Saturn’s default sound characteristic focuses on a warm energetic treble with weak bass. The reasoning here is that bass weakens the more important noises heard in games. Unfortunately, that makes music less immersive, but the Saturn is very responsive to equalization. Therefore, it was easy to “correct” the deficient bass by increasing the frequencies below 250 Hz.

Music playback revealed a surprising amount of detail. Despite the gimmicks going on with this gaming headset, it is capable of standing on its own as far as playing music is concerned. While the nearly nonexistent bass can be seen as the Saturn’s greatest weakness in this regard, the ease of correction and adaptation allows the listener to modify the sound character to match his or her music preferences.

Movies

The weak bass returns as a hindrance to immersive audio. The strangest consequence of that can be heard in action movies where even the grandest explosions manage to sound like a low-pitched fart. Likewise as was previous observed with music playback, the bass deficiency is correctable through proper use of an equalizer.

Despite the Saturn being a true surround sound headset, its drivers are too close together and usually it was difficult to audibly distinguish the front and rear channels.

Games

The Saturn ability to pick up on subtle sounds without the distraction of bass makes it a capable gaming headset. On the other hand, surround sound isn’t too impressive because the drivers in the earcups are too close to each other to easily separate the front and read channels. Overall, the Saturn is still capable at gaming audio and doesn’t perform worse than the competing headsets.

Microphone

The popularity of voice chat as a means of communication in multiplayer games has pushed demand for quality microphones. We’re glad to report that the Saturn with its high-end pricing has a microphone that performs just as well as other high-end gaming headsets. Recording quality was without distortion and voice was recognizable to listeners.