EPOS Sennheiser GSP602 Review – Quality Look, Limited Sound

The EPOS gaming brand is one that may be flying under the radar for some of us gamers. With Sennheiser’s help, who has 75 years of audio experience, we see more appeal in the quality products produced. EPOS has proven to create stylish products that show prominently in their headset lineup.
Today we are looking at the brand new headset from EPOS, the GSP 602, with the orange ear cup and blue exterior frame design. I must say we have a lot to discuss.

Before we go further, I do have to say a few things about this review. The headset is said to be universal for consoles and PC. However, I couldn’t seem to get enough power to it with my motherboards mic and headphone 3.5mm jacks. This left me no choice but to use a DAC/Amp to get the intended sound out of these bad boys. This introduced a new issue as the amp I was using didn’t support a mic, rendering the headset’s boom mic unusable.

So we decided just to go out and buy the Sennheiser GSX 300 External Sound Card, which retails for $79.99 and the intended product to use for this headset. With the amp and headset, the reviewed package is worth $300 before taxes, and I definitely recommend getting an amp for this, or else it just may not be the same; I’ll say more about this conundrum later as it will come up again, let’s move on.

Once you put on the headset, you will instantly feel like you are wearing a premium headset. With absolute comfort and padding that feels like a pillow, I forgot what it was like to have a nice pair of headphones. The weight is heavier than other headsets, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There is padding at the top for your head, but one major flaw is that there is a spot in the middle without padding, which was strange. So after about 1.5-2.5 hours of use, I started to get pain at the top center of my head because of this design choice.

The retractable head adjustment works well and fits any head size easily, with large ear cup holes for any ear size as well. The exterior is plastic, but it is nice plastic, premium plastic if you will. The volume knobs seemed well thought out into the design to maintain the headset’s aggressive geometrical mood.

I could have done without the blue color tone, but I find that isn’t always noticeable since your eyes will only care about those sexy orange ear pads. The boom mic has a great up and down mute toggle built-in instead of a button, which I like to see in new headsets, and must I say; it’s a stylish and well-built boom.

Let me start out by saying that the audio quality on this headset generally let me down. Going back to what was said before, this headset requires a 3.5mm jack, which is the worst connection type for high-quality audio. Now, that doesn’t mean you will have bad sound just because of that jack, but it’s definitely not a great start. Second, I prefer my cheaper amp that I had previously over the Sennheiser gsx300 recommended amp.

I thought the surround sound effect through the Sennheiser amp, and software just didn’t have the magic touch that my other amp provided. One the other hand, the stereo setting sounds better, but it still didn’t blow me away. Also, depending on how picky you are with audio quality, I can hear the compression in the audio jack’s sound. An average consumer or music listener may not pick up on this quality, but I can’t say I’m happy to spend $300 on these inconveniences.

I tested the audio on various platforms, such as gaming, streaming music (both lossless and lossy formats), and videos, and I felt my opinion about the sound didn’t change much. I noticed a simple lack of power, volume, and bass with the gsx300. On the other hand, I did think the mid to high range sounds were clean.

Sennheiser does make better amps for $250, but that takes this set up to $600, and there are much better setups for cheaper. I’m upset to say this because I think the headset is aesthetically beautiful and built really well. Unfortunately, I just can’t get around the sound. I do think the mic quality is decent, even with the compression, and the general consensus of people in chat said I sounded great.

The EPOS software is straightforward and clean. It doesn’t try and overwhelm you or flex over how many features it has. It was easy to navigate different menus, such as sound, voice, and settings. The sound quality menu holds an equalizer where you can adjust the volume of other parts of the soundwave. I’m pleased they didn’t leave this out because I tuned the sound a bit to my liking and saved a preset. You can change between a few preset sound modes, but I set my own up.

Other options include being able to change to the surround sound or you can click the button on the gsx300 amp. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the surround sound offerings, so I mainly left it on stereo. The mic settings menu also has a decent amount of options. I did a mic test for everyone here, so I’m just going to play that and let you hear the mic quality for yourself. (play audio-video and recording) So yea, overall, the mic is pretty good but is it good enough to forget about the sound.

My experience with this headset has been a bit of a challenge for me. I said it before, and I’ll repeat it; I was really excited to try this device out. Unfortunately, the quality of the style, exterior build, and feel doesn’t make up for the lackluster sound quality. Even $300 deep after an amp, I felt like I was missing something. It left me wishing this dope headset sounded as good as it looks.

I would have much preferred to look for a USB, wireless, or some other powered headset that only works for pc if that means the sound will be better. I understand the convenience of a universal headset, but dang, I just want a better sounding headset for the money.