Corsair Virtuoso Max Gaming Headset Review
The premium, high-end look of the Corsair Virtuoso Max is enticing at first glance, and the low-key RGB lighting around each earcup adds some nice flair to complement its sleek design. It gives an impression that matches its hefty price tag, and with that comes several expectations in terms of performance and features. From overall sound quality to perks like active noise cancellation, the Virtuoso Max proves it’s able to compete with some of the best gaming headsets around. But if you’re looking for something that you’ll be able to easily wear for hours on end, you might want to consider other options that prioritize comfort.
Corsair Virtuoso Max – Design and Comfort
One of the standout design decisions for the Virtuoso Max was going with an aluminum frame for both the headband and earcups, which gives it a premium feel. The headset is somewhat on the heavier side, weighing in at about 418g, but it’s not bulky and has a certain density to give the impression that it’s well-built. The headband can twist and contort without ever feeling like it’s going to fall apart, and even with the swiveling earcups that let it rest flat around your neck, its hinges remain sturdy.
I’m not too big on RGB lighting with headsets, given you never really look at a headset (since you’re…wearing it), yet the Virtuoso has a tasteful implementation with a thin ring outlining each earcup. They have three lighting zones, which you can customize in the software, and it’s a nice little perk for when it’s laying on your desk or giving a bit of ambient light in dark settings.
It’s unfortunate that the Virtuoso Max comes up short in one of the most important areas for a headset: comfort. The earpads look thick, but most of that depth is accounted for by a plastic housing with a thin but dense foam wrapped in a smooth cloth upholstery. The major problem with this design is with the shape of the earpads – because the headset clamps a bit tighter than most, the thin profile of the earpads creates pressure points around my ears, and specifically at the top of my jaw. I thought it’d just be something I’d get used to over time, but in the week I’ve used the headset, the feeling never went away. It’s not outright uncomfortable to the point of being unbearable, but it is irksome and a noticeable difference between the slew of headsets I’ve reviewed in recent years. The headband is comfortable, however, and its dense padding made sure there wasn’t undue pressure on the top of my head.
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Since the Virtuoso Max is packed with extra features, the earcups are decked out with buttons to control them all. The layout is clean and each button feels distinct, so it’s easy to tell what’s what while wearing the headset. On the left earcup, there’s the power toggle that switches between 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth, and the USB-C port for connecting the detachable microphone. On the right earcup, you have the ANC-Transparency button that cycles through those modes, the USB-C charging port, and a unified media button that controls play/pause and track skipping conveniently. Lastly, the outer frame of the earcups themselves act as large volume dials with a textured aluminum finish, which is also convenient.
Corsair Virtuoso Max – Software and Battery Life
Corsair’s iCUE software is a robust suite that accounts for all your Corsair gear, much like other major manufacturers. In that regard, it can also feel a little bloated if you only have one product for it. If it’s any consolation, iCUE also monitors your PC’s vitals so you’re not just getting an app for your one peripheral.
Within iCUE are key customization options for the Virtuoso Max, including RGB lighting for each of the six total zones on the headset, manual control of ANC, and microphone settings. More granular options like sleep mode timing, headset voice prompts, and having the battery monitor on desktop are also available. There’s also control over the EQ settings so you can get the right sound profile, in addition to having access to Dolby Atmos. SoundID Personalization is an iCUE feature that gives you a roughly three minute test to create a custom sound profile that’s supposed to suit you. I tried it myself and it came back with a profile that was similar, if not indistinguishable from the original settings – I suppose that speaks to how good the headset sounds out of the box.
Corsair rates the Virtuoso Max to last up to 60 hours from a full charge, and since I mostly left the RGB lighting off and only used ANC sparsely, I was able to use the headset five days straight (roughly 10-12 hours a day) before completely dying out. The supposed battery life is quite accurate in my experience and that puts it up there alongside other high-end headsets.
Corsair Virtuoso Max – Performance
To put it simple, the Corsair Virtuoso Max sounds fantastic. The 50mm graphene drivers bring a full and balanced audio experience – this isn’t a particularly bass-heavy headset out of the box, but it handles every frequency with a noticeable clarity. With the bass boost preset in the EQ settings, I got a bit closer to what I was seeking without it sounding artificial or drowning out other frequencies.
For a closed-back headset, the Virtuoso Max has great spatial sound, and not just in the sense of directional or positional audio for detecting where sound effects are coming from in competitive games. The extra space within the earcup leaves more room for its sound to work within and it feels less cramped as if the audio is being directly fed into your ears. It’s a tough thing to explain, but hours upon hours in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer made me appreciate that despite the chaos of the game, it rarely felt too busy for my ears. It’s the kind of sound experience I typically get from open-back headphones, so it’s one way the Virtuoso Max distinguishes itself from the competition.
it has the technical performance to back up its price, I just wish it was easier to wear for long sessions.
In addition to the tomfoolery of Black Ops 6, I jumped into my routine ranked matches in Counter-Strike 2, and a lot of the same qualities shined. As mentioned above, the positional audio is as good as you could ask from a high-end headset, accurately producing sound effects like footsteps, gunfire, and reloading from enemies, which helped me make the right moves in those tense competitive situations. And of course, I enjoyed the balanced sound profile for taking on my dailies and weeklies in Final Fantasy XIV, making that game’s busy sound effects and music come through nicely.
While the microphone isn’t going to stand out from the rest of the built-in mics we hear even for high-end headsets, you can at least be sure it provides enough clarity to make communication over games and in Discord easy. (The likes of the Beyerdynamic MMX 300/330 Pro or even the mid-range HyperX Cloud III still take the top spots for headset mic quality.) While I expected a bit more from a headset of this caliber, the Virtuoso Max does the job just fine even if you’ll come through with some fuzziness and distortion.
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