A great set of drivers and a good mic, imprisoned in awful materials.
Sometimes you feel a bit spoilt in this job. While it’s no easy task sorting through the mountains of marketing fluff and specs sheets on the daily, you do end up getting your hands on some lovely equipment, some of it priced well beyond your own means. This isn’t to boast, merely to say that when a more modest bit of gear shows up, it can actually feel a bit refreshing.
Which is why I was keen to open the box when the XPG Precog Studio gaming headset turned up. I’ve reviewed some expensive headsets recently, and this more reasonably-priced option has some specs that suggest it might be a bit of a budget wonder.
Available for around $60/£58, it boasts 50 mm drivers with a 20-20,000 Hz frequency response, and a DAC adapter that takes its 4.4 mm balanced Pentaconn audio connector (alongside its more traditional 3.5 mm mic jack) and amplifies the signal, resulting in a USB Type-C input that XPG hopes will sound more “studio-like” than its competition.
Balanced signals? In-wire DAC adaptor? $60? I had to give it a look. Those are the sort of features that you’d expect to see on a boutique set of headphones, not a relatively budget gaming headset. However, all it took was pulling the Precog Studio from its packaging to dispel any illusions that this might be an under-priced premium headset in disguise.
The outer earcup plastic is tinny. I mean, really tinny. Tapping a fingernail against it creates a shiver of ick down my spine. On the left earcup is a volume dial, along with a dedicated mute switch, and both manage to feel somehow overly stiff yet worryingly flimsy at the same time like tolerances really weren’t a consideration at the factory.
Most worrying of all, though, is the inner headband. The fabric material has a paper-like texture to it that suggests I could rip it if I pulled hard enough, and it’s attached at either end with two impossibly skinny plastic tethers. There’s some kind of spring-loading inside the headband material itself that allows adjustment, but the effect is that it appears to be adjusted by some incredibly thin rubber bands.
It’s not confidence-inspiring, to say the least. However, wearing the XPG Precog Studio puts aside some of those initial worries. It’s very light atop your head, with a decent clamping force and earcup design that means it refuses to fall from your dome with fast movements.
The fit won’t be for everyone, it must be said. My partner immediately noticed that her ears touched the hard inner surface of the earcup, where the drivers live. Once this was pointed out, I noticed mine did too—although I didn’t find the effect perceptible, whereas to her, it couldn’t be ignored. And the earpads are made of the same scratchy fabric as the inner headband, which means they’re slightly itchy against my skin.
Not a promising start, then. The XPG Precog looks nice enough, but all it takes is a quick feel of the plastics and the controls to realise that it’s cheap with a capital C.
It’s also red. A lurid shade, in fact, verging away from deep and voluptuous all the way into “cheap lipstick” territory. A personal thing, this, but I don’t mind a splash of red on a bit of gaming gear. This shade though? A touch too much, if you ask me.
In my time as a reviewer, I don’t think I’ve come across a product that has baffled me as much as this one
I like a review with a turnaround, and if you’ve read the For and Against columns at the top you’ve probably guessed what’s coming next. Despite the nasty chassis materials and the debatable looks, it appears that XPG has focussed on the things that count when it comes to audio, like connections, amplification, and drivers—and this is where the Precog Studio begins to shine.
I’m not going to start falling into raptures, mind. But upon connecting the cables to the DAC, plugging it into an appropriate USB port (the USB Type-C DAC comes with a Type-A adapter, which is a thoughtful touch) and cranking up the volume, I felt my eyes bulge a little in surprise. The XPG Precog Studio actually sounds pretty good, or at the very least, much better than its price and the cheapness of its materials would have you believe.
There’s a restrained-yet-weighty punch to the bass, without being overblown. The mids are detailed. The treble, crisp to the point of almost becoming fatiguing. The problem with many budget gaming headsets is the lack of definition and detail in the sound, but definition and detail the XPG most certainly has.
A little too much, in fact. I appreciate clarity as much as the next person, but the XPG can become edgy with its sound profile, although it never quite wanders off into painful, reference-like territory. I’d say it could do with a touch of sweetening up in the tuning (an easy thing to perform by dropping a gentle curve into a separate EQ), but overall it’s really not bad straight out of the box.
This is a gaming headset, of course, and you can tell the drivers and DAC have been tuned to accentuate footsteps and distant gunshots while keeping enough bass to let explosions rumble. I’m really not too keen on that sort of gaming-specific tuning in general, as a quality pair of drivers tuned well for all purposes should easily be capable of the same effect without losing musical sweetness.
Here, the sweetness suffers. It’s more than acceptable by default, though, and I would classify the XPG Precog as one of the better budget headsets I’ve heard— for sheer accuracy and attempts at audio greatness, at least.
It’s an attempt though, not audio greatness itself. The Precog can become plenty loud, and it’s here where the drivers reveal themselves to be lower quality than some. There’s a little confusion in the mids and a touch of distortion in the upper treble that tells you these dynamic units are capable of very good things but have unfortunately found their limits. A shame, but it’s a fairly pleasant ride as you get towards the top of their capacity.
And then there’s the mic. Once again, this feels cheaply made under the fingers, with a bendy rubberised wire that feels slightly too short for comfort, while being susceptible to the odd kink. But the microphone quality itself? Surprisingly good.
Listen to the microphone test below:
Nobody’s going to be falling over themselves thinking that this is a studio microphone, but in terms of sound capture, it’s a lot better than some expensive headsets I’ve reviewed recently. It’s clear and distinct while keeping a fair dose of warmth, although there’s no noise-cancelling (or actually, any software at all) to keep things in check.
It’s much better than I was expecting though, given how poor the XPG feels in your hands. It’s a resounding theme with this headset overall—feels sub-par, looks flimsy, but in terms of performance? Actually pretty decent, especially for the price.
Which leads to a real headscratcher of a conclusion. In my time as a reviewer, I don’t think I’ve come across a product that has baffled me as much as this one. The internals at work here are obviously much better than the price suggests, and for that, I should be lauding the Precog Studio—and perhaps even suggesting it as an addition to our best gaming headset guide in the budget category.
But I absolutely point-blank refuse to ignore the materials around it. It looks and feels cheap, in a way that is almost certain to disappoint when you pull it from the packaging. And while I haven’t gone as far as to torture test the poor thing (beyond some gentle twisting, which resulted in some worrying creaks), the resilience of these materials suggests to me that it’s not long for his world.
And as for the fabric material, on both the headband and the earpads? Put it this way—I have yet to find a version of that fabric that doesn’t begin to pill, bind, and eventually disintegrate over time. This stuff rustles as you touch it.
✅ You only care about the sound: Audio-wise, the XPG Precog Studio is remarkably competent for a $60 headset.
❌ You want quality: While the internals are certainly good, most of what’s around them feels cheap, tinny, and breakable.
❌ You like subtle: The lurid red accents are sure to stand out, put it that way. Here’s another way of putting it—it’s not just the drivers that are overly loud.
I don’t want to break out the sandpaper here to simulate months of wear, but a quick feel would suggest to you if you were sitting here with me, the same likely conclusion. It doesn’t inspire any confidence that it will last.
Which is really the ultimate point here. While I absolutely appreciate the ethos that has led to XPG sacrificing outer materials in favour of great internals, the balance has been skewed way too far towards the latter. As an $80 headset with better plastics, fabrics, controls and design, those drivers combined with the mic and DAC extension would make for a compelling recommendation.
As a $60 headset, though, in its current condition? I actually think it’s overpriced. The Corsair HS55 is the same money, and while I wouldn’t exactly call it premium-feeling, it’s stood the test of time in our office quite nicely. It’s got a certain degree of plushness that proves you don’t have to spend $100+ to get decent materials wrapped around a good set of drivers, even if they’re slightly lesser than the ones on offer here.
As for the XPG Precog Studio? It’s being placed carefully back in its box, after an apology has been given to the internals. I’m sorry, my friends. You really do deserve better.
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