Customer Reviews

Creative Labs EF0210 Fatal1ty USB Gaming Headset with Sound Blaster X-Fi Technology (Black)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Let me start by saying I am a hardcore mmo player. Anyone else who plays mmo's know that large guilds communicate through voice chat programs like Ventrillo (and similar). I myself use mostly ventrillo these days anymore. The testing that I did with this device was largely with guild mates of mine telling me how it sounds and how it performed from their end hearing me.

Right after I installed the software I tested these out on ventrillo. With literally zero tweaking time.. they sounded perfect. My voice was very loud and extremely clear. The music sounded great in the headphones. What more could I ask for.. they were trouble free! The best part was the microphone didn't need to be shoved against my lips for people to hear me speak. I have bought wired usb headsets in the past that required the mic to be so close it was annoying to use. This you can keep the mic 2-3 inches away from your mouth and it still sounds loud and clear (great little mic on this headset)

My only annoyance with these headphones is the tight headband. I have been told before I have a big head, but I thought they were being sarcastic! I am joking of course but they do fit snug and almost hurt a bit after a little while of use (*laughing* and I am pretty sure I have a normal size head!). Perhaps over time these headphones will loosen up and get more comfortable. I did of course try to outwardly flex the headband to loosen it but its all plastic so it didn't really work like it would have if it was metal. I still gave this product a 5 star rating, but I would knock off a 1/2 star for this tightness if I could.

The little microphone plugs in and out of the headphones in case you want to use these as pure headphones. I also assume if the mic boom ever fails over time you could more easily replace it being that its designed like this (I have had wires fail inside of headphone mic booms from years of over bending, so this is handy to be able to replace it so easily).

Lastly, these are "on ear" headphones .. not "around ear" headphones. So you will feel them sitting on top of your ear not go wide around the outside of your ears. The internet is hard to judge the sizes of products for things like this so I just wanted to let people know what to expect. The felt pad on headphones ear muffs are very soft and well cushioned so this shouldn't be a problem of comfort with most users.

Overall I am very pleased with this product. When I want to use a great working/great sounding plug and play headset I am now grabbing this for some long gaming sessions.

A nice budget gaming headset. The word gaming should be stressed heavily.

Gaming requirements are different from regular music or voice chat,
- Audio is mainly "Explosions", "Vehicular movement" and "Weapons". Which are mid bass heavy.
- Voice chat is mainly "scream", "yelling commands" and "Emotional outburst". Mostly short statements.
- Most of the gaming environment is noisy. Probably a shared room.
- Positional sound. Being able to judge the direction of sound.

This headset is designed exactly these above requirements in mind. And it does it very well. Only when you go out of gaming arena.. you will run across a few shortfalls.

If you want a skype or other VOIP headset this may not satisfy your requirements very well. For giving commands and screaming, noise cancellation works well. It is not good enough for Starbucks VOIP phone call...where it is overly noisy and you talk very low.

On the similar note, if you use a regular Sykpe VOIP headset for gaming, it never will render directionality of sound. Every things will come out flat. With games like Battlefield sound transition is very important. It is a life or death decision there.

The headphone says 20-20Hz. While listening to "1/3 Octave Pink noise test CD"; it seems to be a over stretch. May be 80-16K is what I was able to hear. I also tried a few music that has low bass instruments... it didnt work that well. The mid bass is slow and cant keep up music. Iam talking about classical and bass heavy Jazz. It does handle double bass recordings like 00's R&B and 90's pop well. It is no way Senshiser/Grado/Etyomptec... but those are 5 times as expensive. Human voice is crystal clear. Sound transition from front to back etc. etc. are handled very well.

For this price, you can't find a better headset. It does a lot of things well. This is one of the few, were the sum of its parts are better the individual ones.

The review tone may sound negative, but this headset is a very nice headset. I just wanted to highlight some of the few limitations. At this price vendors have to make tradeoffs... and the tradeoffs are wisely made here. If your budget is around 75$, this is a very good one to consider.

If you have Vista, it is detected without any driver requirements. The default driver supplied with Vista works like a charm. Make sure to set the DAC to 24 bit/48 Khz. The default is 16 bit. If you use the default driver setup, you wont have to change the output device every time you plug-in and plug-out. Vista will switch between front speakers and headset.

The supplied software has additional feature for simulating virtual sound etc. etc. The entire software is bulky with search bar etc. etc. Of the entire package the software is the most annoying and poorly designed component. I would suggest skipping the software installation and use your in-game settings for all audio adjustment.

One nice side note. PS3 is also able to detect the headset.

I've been buying gaming headsets for over 12 years and these are by far my favorite. The light weight build makes it easy to wear them for long periods of time. The sound quality is on par with much more expensive headsets. They are durable and comfortable. Great product!

The headphones are great... the only problem I had was that somehow in the installation process I ran into a conflict that took my wireless mouse out of commission. Other than that it works well.

this product has surpased my expectations. i am. to be blunt a klutz. these headphones have stood up to every thing i have put them through including acidentally spilling my drink on them!! and in itunes they sound simply awesome. i have never heard my music sound so good. the software takes a little geting used to but after turning on surround sound effect's and the crystalization. the sound is honestly just amazing. well worth twice the price to me. the only downside i have to admit is that the cord for them is on the left hand side. and to me. i never watch my left arm im a righty. so the cord gets in my way a lot. i have found that passing the courd around behind my neck fix's this problem

Product works well. Great sound and amazing sensitivity in the microphone with crystal clear sound. Rating: 9/10

The sound quality of the headset is crystal clear, and provides a great stereo sound experience whether you are playing a video game, listening to music, or watching video. I could not ask for more at the price point as far as sound quality, which exceeded my expectations. I would add that the mic works perfectly. I have not tried it with an online game yet, but I have used it to record my voice with the Fluenz French 1+2 language learning software and also with Windows Vista voice recognition. The mic was immediately recognized by both, and the recording of my voice with Fluenz was crystal clear. Installation of the headset is also extremely simple.

The only drawback is the fact that the headset feels tight on my head. It can be uncomfortable, and I can't imagine wearing it all day. However, all in all, I would say the positives far outweigh this drawback. This is the best headset, and best mic for my pc, that I've ever owned, and I definitely recommend it.

Okay first off this is a wonderful headset. Set up properly (there are some settings you need to change, sample rate and bit depth), in Vista Ultimate 64 the sound quality is great. In gaming I can finally tell where sounds are coming from which is a big deal. I cant speak to the quality of the mic but nobody has said they cant understand me while gaming so if it works well for gaming thats all I cared about.

There are some issues with the software. After I set up the mic in Vista I encountered a problem playing L4D. The computer would just freeze up for no reason! I finally saw that this was due to a service problem. Since the only new thing I had done was to install this headset and the software I went into services and disabled all the Creative services. Wouldnt you know it but after that everything worked and no more service conflict errors. So I removed all the Creative software, Vista has all the drivers, and it works great in games. Im sure I lost some of the effects they had in their software but I didnt buy this thing for anything but gaming so I dont care.

The other con is that if I used it where it felt like it fit well it would start to hurt my ear after a while. I went and adjusted the size to where it almost felt loose on my head and it feels a lot better but I feel like if I jerk my head around it will fall off (it hasnt but it feels like it might).

For whatever reason, it's easy to find bad gaming headsets. Poor construction leading to a broken connection, usually right above one speaker or the other on the headpiece. Poor audio output quality. Poor input quality on the microphone. Poor controls along the cable. Discomfort while wearing the piece over longer periods. Clunky proprietary software necessary to operate. The list can (and often does, in other product reviews) go on, leaving consumers like myself wondering why it's so hard to make a solid solution. It seems as if they (the engineers) just needed to collaborate with someone who actually uses their product, and uses it often, in order to overcome the common complaints, because with the Creative Fatal1ty, none of the above (after a month of use) are present concerns.

This headset is solidly constructed given the price, there's no obvious weak point along the adjustable headset that you just know will eventually give as you pull them off your head. The audio, both in and out, is crisp and clean. The controls along the cable are conveniently placed, and include an on/off toggle for the mic, and volume for the speakers (I do wish it included a mute button for the speakers as well, just as an instant off option). These headphones are very generously padded, particularly under the top inside curve of the headband itself (at least 3/4" of plush padding), and around the ear cups as well -- each leading to a very comfortable experience that doesn't press too hard anywhere, even over extended periods of use. Running 32-bit Vista SP1, I was able to plug this in and use them immediate, without installing any extra software.

I can think of no better praise for a product such as this than to say they're comfortable enough and the audio quality in and out is clear enough that you can basically forget that you're wearing a headset, allowing you to focus on whatever game or software you have before you at the time. I've owned several headsets that were distractions, either due to discomfort, poor audio quality, over (or under) sensitive microphones -- and that's just not the case here. For the price, you can rest assured that it does what it claims well, and is more comfortable than most.

When it comes to gaming headsets, the sound quality is usually really disappointing when using it for other than... well, gaming (since it is optimized for it). However, the Creative Gaming headset is quite impressive even for listening to music and movies!

The Creative Fatal1ty USB Gaming Headset (aka HS-1000), also has a wireless version called the HS-1200. However, besides the obvious looks and wireless factor, they both actually sound completely different too. Even though they have the same audio specs (20Hz ~ 20kHz, 40mm Neodymium drivers, Impedance: 32ohm), there's a more secluded dynamic feel with this HS-1000; like being in a theater room, whereas the HS-1200 is more of a direct, sharper, like being out in the open, sound to the ear. Both are good in their own ways, but this HS-1000 headphone is definitely much nicer when it comes to comfort -- without a doubt -- and overall, better for other than gaming (music/movies).

Compared to the small, practically fixated cups on the wireless HS-1200, this one is a lot nicer to wear, simply because the headphones can also adjust/twist slightly inward or outward; this is not possible with the HS-1200 (when most headphones should be able to). I can actually wear this headphone for hours, but not with the HS-1200. However, I wouldn't say it's extremely comfortable to the point where I won't be able to tell that I'm wearing it; I have the headphones extended all the way out (it doesn't really go out that much compared to other headphones that extend at ridiculous lengths), but it's still slightly on the tighter side that it won't fall off even if I shake my head. If you know you have a large head, then these may be too tight for you.

The headphone is Plug-and-Play (I'm using Windows XP), but you'll want to install the Creative Software to take advantage of the extra features like the X-Fi Crystalizer and CMSS-3D -- it actually does make a major difference in sound.

When I opened the package for the very first time, my first impression on the build quality, to be honest, wasn't something I was blown away by. It kind of haunted me of the cheap build quality on the Creative Fatal1ty 1010 Gaming Mouse. However, after using it and staring at it for quite some time now, it's actually not too bad (my expectations might have been high); it's not awfully cheap looking, but it's definitely not high quality material. Although they always make it look super shiny in the stock photos, it is just plain plastic. However, I figured it's a good thing, since it does make the headphone lightweight. The red Fatal1ty logo area does add some spunk to it, at least.

I also own the SteelSeries 4H headphones (priced quite close to this one), but Creative's gaming headset -- no question -- has a much more impressive sound.

Pros:
- Clear, secluded surround sound.
- Not just for games. Music and movies sound just as great!
- Connects via USB (no need to plug into audio/microphone)
- Wire is only on the left side of the headphone, which I can live with (a lot less annoying than two wires dangling on each side!)
- Microphone can be detached completely (this could be a problem, though, if you forget where you left it)
- Clear microphone output. Comes with foam cover to reduce unwanted noise (the HS-1200 didn't come with one).
- Headphone cushions (keeps my ears and head warm)
- Comes with a travel bag.

Cons:
- Could have used a mute button on the in-line volume controls.
- Slightly inconvenient having to restart certain applications (or games) if the headphones aren't connected before (no sound). [But I'm sure this is a common problem with any USB audio devices]

Even if you don't play games, I would actually still recommend this gaming headset for just listening to music/movies, as well as voice chatting. I didn't think I would give this product a 5-star, but I have to admit, it impressed me.