Gaming audio remains a crucial, but often under-appreciated aspect of the experience. That’s downright criminal when composers like Gareth Coker, Bear McCreary and Masayoshi Soken are bearing their souls, but there is a way to make things right. Buy yourself a gaming headset and make sure that audio sounds as good as humanly possible. If we’re getting serious about things, then Corsair’s latest, the Virtuoso Max, should be on your radar, but if you want a serious headset, you’re going to have to pay a serious price for it.
The Virtuoso Max is big. I’d even go so far as to say it’s massive. Over the years I’ve tested a multitude of headsets, and alongside Razer’s Nari headset line, this is one of the largest I’ve used. That’s balanced out somewhat by the amount of tech that Corsair have shoved inside the Virtuoso Max, and the extremely premium feel that the entire headset boasts.
That size begins with the included leatherette case. It’s a wonderful thing for keeping your headset free of dust and damage, but it’s going to take up a large chunk of anyone’s rucksack in return. Inside, the Virtuoso Max is snuggly nestled into specially-designed cavities, while there’s also space for the charging cable, and the removable microphone boom arm.
The leather of the case ties into the external surface of the headband, embossed with some Corsair branding, and immediately setting the tone for the rest of the headset’s build. The joints, sizing spacers and the earpieces are all fabricated from brushed metal, cool to the touch, weighty, and practically indestructible. Each earpiece boasts a moveable dial, one used for controlling the volume and the other chat balance, though you can customise these as you choose. These are so smooth and seamless that interacting with them feels… well, powerful. You have absolute control, and there’s no hint of the cheaper materials that you might find in other headsets.
Three sectors of an RGB circle on each earpiece, and you can alter these to a colour or effect of your choice, or, if you’re a major Corsair proponent on PC, you can sync the lighting up with your PC case and its innards. I loved this feature, not least because I’ve got several Corsair components, and it took mere moments to have rainbow effects dancing across my head, and being reflected onto the walls. My partner will tell you that this is both unnecessary, and visually annoying, but I will tell you it’s cool, and I’m pretty sure I’m right on this one.
Those earpieces are adorned with mesh-covered memory foam pads, and here’s where I’m most torn about the Virtuoso Max. We’ll get to how they sound – excellent, if you want a taster – but, the comfort levels aren’t quite where I’d hoped they would be.
The earpieces are firmer than you’d expect, and given that that’s the primary and most obvious point you interact with the headset, I wanted something softer and more forgiving, like the recent Nacon 600’s Wicked Cushions upgrade, or the still-great Astro A50’s incredibly plush ear cushions. It’s not that the Virtuoso Max are uncomfortable, they’re not, but I expected something more luxurious when they’re sitting at the top end of the premium gaming headset bracket.
The headband padding is a lot gentler though, and thanks to this you can wear the Virtuoso Max through many hours of gaming, without pain or weariness setting in. The premium build does mean that they’re weightier than a number of other headsets, so that’s worth considering if you’re particularly intolerant of a heavier pair of headphones, but I didn’t find it an issue.
The Virtuoso Max comes in an Xbox and PlayStation flavour, but you’ll really want the former if you want to use it cross-platform – this will work with basically everything thanks to a simple double tap of the Custom button switching between PC/PlayStation/Switch or Xbox. Connection is via the 2.4 GHz USB-A wireless dongle or over Bluetooth, and as we’re seeing more and more often, you can be connected to both your mobile by Bluetooth and your gaming device via the dongle at the same time. That means it’s much easier to stay in touch with your real-world life, which may or may not be a benefit for you, or to listen to your own music if you’re set on destroying a game developer’s carefully constructed medieval RPG atmosphere with some K-pop.
Via the wireless connection the audio is simply stunning. It is rich, detailed and enveloping, dragging you to the centre of the action with the sheer clarity the Virtuoso Max offers. I’ve been playing Metaphor ReFantazio every day for weeks, and the gorgeous vocal-led soundtrack sounded vibrant and immediately affecting, its unusual tones made all the more striking by the audio delivery. Similarly, I’ve also returned to Final Fantasy XIV, experiencing Soken’s dramatic compositions with new-found details thanks to the Virtuoso Max. If you’re looking for top-tier gaming audio, the Virtuoso Max handily delivers it.
That’s made all the better with the inclusion of Active Noise Cancellation. The Virtusoso Max eliminates an impressive amount of external noise – helped in part by its firmer ear cushions and already-good passive isolation – and blocks out a good degree of extraneous noise like dishwashers and background traffic. It struggles a little more with percussive noises, like typing on my mechanical keyboard, but overall it helps you to focus in on your game, or to really appreciate the audio design of the game you’re playing.
It deals well with everything, including music, and I’ve spent a great deal of time with both the soundtrack to Arcane’s Season 2, and the new Linkin Park album, both of which were nailed by the Virtuoso Max. The Arcane-specific reworked version of Heavy Is The Crown simply sounds stunning, Emily Armstrong and Mike Shinoda’s vocals carrying power and precision over the atmospheric instrumentation.
That clarity doesn’t quite carry over to the Bluetooth connection, and there’s a distinct step down in terms of audio quality compared to the bespoke wireless option. That’s not surprising in the scheme of things – listening to high bitrate audio over the two different mediums is always going to leave the Bluetooth side of things suffering, particularly when the Corsair Max can only handle basic SDC and AAC codecs – but there isn’t the buoyancy or life that you find via the wireless dongle.
There’s two microphone options, with an in-built mic perfect for picking up a phone call, while the detachable mic arm offers a huge upgrade in terms of performance. Firstly, the mic arm is strong and flexible, attaching via a bespoke USB-C socket, and once attached there’s no chance of it being knocked out. You can then angle the mic into exactly the position you want, where it will then stay throughout your play session until you push it back out of the way or remove it. Its performance is excellent, with teammates commenting on how clear the audio was in comparison to the ageing Razer Nari Ultimate that I often grab.
Corsair have given you a huge amount of control over the Virtuoso Max via their iCUE software, letting you customise your audio via the EQ, tinker with the control setup, and alter the RGB lighting. Pushing the microphone performance even further is the inclusion of NVIDIA Broadcast technologies, and once you’ve downloaded the additional software it adds the option of background noise removal from your input, giving you incremental control over the strength of the effect, and letting you pre-record your voice to see exactly how it sounds.
At £279.99, the Virtusoso Max is well priced amongst the top-end of the premium headset market, and if you’re after one of the best-sounding headsets out there, it’s well worth considering. Alternatively, the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro (£329.99) and the renewed Logitech G Astro A50 X (£319.99) offer similar multi-platform tech while both being arguably more comfortable. There’s also the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro, which, alongside the Nova Pro, share the very cool dual battery option, but when the Virtuoso Max boasts a 60hr battery life (without RGB), it’s not really something that’s a definitive win for either headset.