The Corsair HS70 is a headset that is an absolute utility monster.
As a headset that can connect to virtually every gaming medium, you have the full power of versality in your hands.
Let’s pull back the curtains and take a closer look at the Corsair HS70 Bluetooth headset.
The Verdict
The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth headset offers a whole lot of utility, but falls a little flat across the board.
The headset is not very comfortable for long gaming sessions, the build quality feels fragile, and the sound quality is iffy in certain situations.
The headset offers a wide variety of usages, including compatibility with the following devices:
- Xbox One, Series X, and Series S
- PS4 and PS5
- Nintendo Switch
- PC, tablets, and mobile devices
If you’re looking for one headset that you can use with virtually any gaming system, the HS70 is an excellent option.
If you want a headset that is super comfortable, is tough as nails, and has amazing sound quality, you may need to look elsewhere.
The convenience of the Corsair H70 Bluetooth definitely comes at a cost.
You can find the headset on Amazon for a good price.
The Unboxing Experience
The headset arrives in the standard Corsair packaging, a box in fully branded colors: yellow and black. You’ll know for sure is a Corsair product.
Coming with the headset, you get a few add-ins to help with connectivity and access to some of the different functions.
The HS70 came with more in the box than usual, so let’s start sorting through it all.
In the box, you get:
The microphone: A flexible and detachable boom mic is included. You can bend it into the ideal position when chatting.
USB Cable: A cable is included for charging the HS70 or connecting via USB. The cable is black-colored, braided, and quite durable.
3.5 mm Aux Cable: The cable is braided and the quality feels really nice. Standard for connecting via auxiliary.
User Manual: Walks you through all of the different connectivity options and how to change the settings.
Warranty Guide: Pretty self-explanatory. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read one of these before. (Is that bad?)
All of the extras definitely make opening the box feel a bit more exciting.
Anyways, now that we’ve covered everything in the box, let’s dig into the details.
How Comfortable Is The Corsair HS70 BT?
The comfort on this headset has its ups and downs.
In order to fairly test the comfort, we tested the headset on a variety of head shapes, both small and large.
We also wore the headset for a long period of time to see where the discomfort starts to develop.
When it comes to headsets, comfort is king.
On Smaller Heads:
The HS70 Bluetooth is not the best fit for smaller heads.
Even on the smallest settings, the headset feels loose and slides around on the head. The headband tends to carry most of the weight of the headset and builds heat in that area.
The earcups don’t provide a tight seal around the ears along with some slight gapping. This makes the noise isolation bad and lets surrounding noise bleed into the headset.
Not exactly what you want in a closed-back headset.
If you have a smaller head, we recommend checking out a headset that fits better such as the HyperX Cloud II.
Don’t let this discourage you too much unless you have a small head. The fit is much better on medium sized folks.
On Larger Heads:
On larger or medium sized heads, the HS70 Bluetooth fits much better.
You can see the headset is intended mainly for medium/large-sized men, which fits the target audience in this case.
The headband and earcups all apply equal pressure around the head and there is no gapping around the ears, which feels comfortable.
The bulky nature of the gaming headset also looks more proportional to the larger head size. On my wife, the larger shape looks a bit comical on her smaller head size.
The only drawback (as far as comfort goes) is how the heat starts to build up quickly as soon as you put it on.
The Comfort During Long Play Sessions
The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth offers an “OK” experience over long play sessions.
The ideal gaming headset feels like a cloud on your head. It’s easy to forget you’re even wearing it.
I didn’t experience that with the HS70.
Right out of the gate, you can feel the warmth that develops around the ears. The design of the earcups, while comfortable to the touch, does not offer the best breathability.
After about an hour of playing, the ears start to feel itchy and warm. At this point, most headsets start to feel uncomfortable, so I’m not too concerned.
After three hours, your head starts to feel like it’s burning. I had to constantly take the headset on and off to let my ears breath between games. This is the point where the HS70 really starts to feel rough.
There are definitely headsets out there with a better comfort experience.
How Does The Corsair HS70 BT Feel With Glasses?
For many people out there, glasses are required to game properly.
I decided to throw on my blue-light blocking glasses to try it out. With glasses on, the headset is surprisingly very comfortable.
The pressure of the headset is even distributed around my head, so there is very little extra pressure being placed onto the glasses. After an hour or so, I would need a break between games.
But most of the time, glasses are quite uncomfortable to wear with most headsets, so I’m pleasantly surprised.
The Sound Quality
At first, I connected the headset via auxiliary through a DAC/Amp stack because I wanted to give the HS70 the best opportunity to sound great.
To my surprise, I found the sound quality to be lacking. Everything sounded a bit muddy and inaccurate. It turns out, when connected via Bluetooth or auxiliary, the signal sent is not as high-quality.
A little disappointed, I gave the headset another chance and connected via USB.
And BAM! The sound quality instantly improved, a TON.
Connecting through USB is like night and day when it comes to the sound quality. It really gives this headset an opportunity to shine.
A bit more intrigued at this point, I decided to pop open the software and tweak the equalizer settings.
When coming out the box, most gaming headsets are tuned heavily for gaming, so overly-bassy with the mid-ranges lacking. With access to the equalizer, I was able to get an excellent sound signature and a very fun music listening experience.
The only downside? You can only use the software when connected to PC and the software needs to be open the entire time.
This leads to two problems:
1) The headset sounds way better on PC than other platforms.
2) You need to keep the software open at all times (which is quite CPU intensive).
If you’re looking to primarily listen to music and game on your PC, this headset is definitely a good option. Otherwise, getting a platform-specific headset is probably a better idea.
The sound is good in the right situations, otherwise it’s a bit lacking.
Corsair HS70 BT Frequency Response
As you can see above, the headset follows the typical gaming “V-shaped curve”. The lows are high, the mids are low, and the highs are high.
This will make for an intense gaming experience, but be poor for listening to music.
If you like epic and loud sounds, this headset will deliver on that experience. But if you want more of a balanced profile, you’ll be better off with another option.
The headset is a great option for bass heads and those who love genres such as rap and hip-hop, but I actually would prefer something that feels a bit punchier.
The over-tuned bass makes for an intense experience, but maybe that’s just the old man in me talking.
When it comes to sound quality there are better options out there, even at lower price ranges.
Corsair HS70 BT Isolation
If you game in a noisy environment, such as lots of traffic noises or a loud family, isolation will make-or-break your experience.
Isolation is responsible for blocking out the outside noise so you can fully experience the gaming sounds.
Unfortunately, the Corsair HS70 Bluetooths just don’t have the best isolation.
At best, you’ll be able to block out some higher pitched noises, but you’ll still hear that one car that always passes by with the kickin’ bass.
The isolation could use a little work.
Build Quality
The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth has decent build quality.
Made from a combination of both plastic and metal materials, it’s about what you would expect from this price range.
The ear cups and headband are made from a leather-like material with stitching that looks well put together.
The material feels soft and spongy to the touch.
The earcups and spin a little each direction and the earcups tilt in and out based on the shape of your head. The biggest downside is how easily breakable it feels.
In the following tests you can get an idea of what we mean.
The Twist and Pull Test
To get an idea of how truly tough the headset is, we conducted a quick twist and pull test. We pull with enough force until it feels like the headset is about to break.
As you can see from the image above, the flexibility of the headband is limited. Usually, I would like see the headset be pulled to an almost straight line, but you are stuck after a small distance.
This is wide enough to fit it on your head, but if one side gets stuck as your picking it up, you might break the headband on accident.
A lack of flexibility is a sign that the headset could break easily if dropped or sat on. So based on this testing, I would say is the headset is not the most robust.
The twisting is also limited, but is not quite as bad as the pull test.
The Style
The headset offers a plain all-black design with a few yellow accents here and there.
Overall, it looks sleek and attractive, but also a bit dull.
I like that they didn’t feel the need to make it the same color as whatever console it’s made for. I’m a bit tired of seeing all green or all blue headsets.
The minimalistic design is a nice change of pace.
The metal grill outside of the earcups adds a nice look to the headset. It gives the HS70 a more premium feel and the texture is satisfying.
While I enjoy the look of the metal component, I can’t but wonder if the extra weight is part of the reason the headset starts to feel so warm around the ears.
A first glance, the headset looks as though it’s open-backed, but don’t be fooled, it’s closed-back. I’m a bit curious as to why they opted for the different design, it would have been more interesting if they want for an open-backed sound signature.
All-in-all, the headset doesn’t look too bad. It’s minimalist and plain looking.
Microphone
The microphone, similar to the sound quality, was quite inconsistent depending on how you connect.
Through USB, the microphone was relatively clear and effective. Through auxilliary or Bluetooth, you can see a big reduction in the sound quality of the microphone.
Everything sounds more compressed and produces a scratchy sound.
The microphone is flexible and lets you easily position it in the corner of your mouth. Overall, the quality of the microphone is pretty good.
If the microphone is positioned properly, the output sounds clean. The only downside is it sounds a bit compressed, but for a gaming headset it’s quite good.
I found if you don’t have the microphone positioned properly there can be some issues with the sound not outputting correctly.
In the software, you are able to tweak the sidetone, or how loud you can hear your own voice. I tend to keep this setting low, as it can be distracting, but it’s nice to know what sounds are getting picked up by the microphone.
The Mic Test
The Software
Using the Corsair iCUE software, you are able to tweak a few settings on the headset.
The entire download is sizeable and bloated, so it takes more space than necessary on your computer. Not to mention the headset has no onboard memory, so you’ll need to keep the software open to change the presets and EQ settings.
In the software you can switch between several common presets for gaming, watching movies, and listening to music.
I found that simply lowering the bass and tweaking the mid-range really resulted in a better listening experience.
The software is definitely useful, I just wish it was more lean.
How Does The Corsair HS70 BT Stack Up Against The Competition
The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth definitely offers an interesting value proposition.
Being able to connect to so many devices, the convenience is very powerful.
The tradeoffs of the convenience is lower sound quality on everything except USB, a design that produces a lot of heat, and an easily breakable frame.
The product is definitely for those who value convenience, but if you want better sound quality and/or build quality there are better options out there at a similar price range.
The design is definitely more bland than the other options out there, but the minimalistic look can be appealing.
I’m a bigger fan of the HyperX Cloud IIs as they offer superior comfort and sound quality at a similar price. However, they only connect via USB.
Conclusion
The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth was definitely a surprising headset. It took a whole lot of testing through different platforms and connectivity styles to form an opinion.
When connecting through USB, the headset performs at it’s best. The sound quality and microphone quality are almost on-par with similarly priced products.
When connecting through auxiliary or Bluetooth, the quality drops significantly.
While the extra connectivity options are nice, it would have been better if each type was better optimized. Not just USB.
The comfort fits well around larger heads, but a smaller head will have difficulty with the sizing. Not to mention the headset builds up heat quickly in large part due to the metal grill on the outside of the earcups.
Overall, the Corsair HS70 Bluetooth is recommended if you’re looking for a headset that’s versatile and works on many platforms. Otherwise, you can do better.