Home : Hardware : Reviews : Piranha
Testing
Honestly, the sound quality from the Piranha is amazing. The highs and lows are easily recognized and heard, the soft tones are picked up…it’s like a pair of good commercial speakers.
It fared quite well when tested listening to some modern-day music (Foo Fighters, Incubus, etc), but also did well listening to what some people would call “real” music. After listening to several classical tracks, all straight off a CD and not in MP3 format, it was obvious that the quality was excellent.
Having tested it against three other headsets, it was on par in many respects with the two USB headsets and far surpassed the standard 3.5mm one. The Logitech Premium was much less comfortable and the sound quality was slightly worse, losing bass quality from the weaker speakers. It simply could not hit those deep sounds that the Piranha could.
The unmarked Logitech headset we had, the only one that doesn’t completely cover the ears, used the 3.5mm jacks but obviously couldn’t even come close to what the Piranha offered. Only the outdated and canceled Plantronics DSP 500 was neck and neck with the Piranha during our music test. Both hit key notes and were very comfortable the entire time, though the DSP 500 was slightly lighter and a bit more comfortable.
The second and more important test was while playing games and having Skype conversations. Obviously, it’s one thing to have a gaming headset and another for just a good pair of speakers. First I played some Team Fortress 2 and Stalker. Both the DSP 500 and Piranha performed marvelously, catching every word spoken clearly or mumbled. It was slightly better from the DSP 500, who’s noise-canceling technology helped keep the dialog in and the clutter out, but the Piranha didn’t fall far behind. Other players also said that I was loud and clear and no one had any problem of hearing me, except when the mute switch went off on the Piranha.
On Skype, it was impossible to tell the difference in sound quality. The only difference was that the Piranha’s microphone is more sensitive and picks up on your voice from just talking into it normally. The DSP 500 required some repeating and being louder. The Piranha was said to carry better quality sound from me by our callers.
