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Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 Headset Print
Written by Scott Harness   
Sunday, 24 May 2009
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Cyber Snipa Sonar 5.1 Headset
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Software

software software

The software for the Sonar 5.1's is probably going to be recognized by many. Five tabs in the software allow you to control the various settings. The first tab deals with system input and headphone output. DSP activation for virtual 7.1 is also here. The second tab is the mixer tab so you can set the various levels for microphone and speaker output.

software software software

The third tab is for DSP Environment settings and EQ functions. The Fourth tab allows you to set the Sonar 5.1's for karaoke functions and the final and fifth tab is the information display.

In use

head 

Wearing the Sonar 5.1's, you do quite quickly get a sense that these are much heavier than regular headphones. That said, the head band is heavily padded so it's not like it digs into your head or anything, but if you don't set them on your head right, you will find that when you remove them after extended use, you do notice a little discomfort. However, if you adjust them so that some of the weight is supported by your ears, then this is not much of an issue. The ear cup area is large, so large infact that I have plenty of play in situating the headphones where I wish. I have a loop ear ring too and the cup is large enough for my ears and the ear ring to dangle freely. The cups ability to rotate mean they fit to the shape of your head almost perfectly.

I wear glasses, and as anyone else who wears glasses knows, you often find that headphones will push the arms of your glasses into the top of your head and/or crush the top of you earlobes into the arms. This is not the case with the Sonar 5.1's. I can easily declare these 'phones as glasses friendly. The fur lining is soft and plush, not too firm and quite softly padded and the result is very comfortable indeed.

back2

They are quite open backed, which no doubt helps provide the abundance of bass, but it does also mean that folks around you can often clearly hear what you are listening too as well, albeit at a much reduced volume. I guess a few folks won't like the red, but red is the new blue it seems.

The in-line control unit also houses the sound card and does get quite warm. You've seen the two LED's on it in the previous pages. When the MIC is activated, the MIC LED lights up bright blue. When plugged in, the Power LED comes on (again blue), but rather annoyingly the power LED also flashes on and off when sound is being played. I've honestly got no idea why it does this or who thought it would be a good idea. It's not. Nothing that some strategically placed electrical tape won't fix.

I really like the microphone boom. With a lot of headsets, you are quite limited in your microphone placement. You often get the ability to move it up and down, and occasionally you can also move the Mic closer or further away from your mouth. But generally speaking the actual boom itself is fixed and a fixed length. The Sonar 5.1's boom however, well, you could probably tie a knot in it. It's not loose, and you can pretty much twist the Mic into the correct position very easily. It will happily stay exactly where you set it, and then you can rotate the entire boom, in it's set position, to above your head when not in use. Good stuff.

The Mic comes through very clearly, which is great for me since I'm a Brit and most of my gaming friends are American; they have enough trouble with my accent without having to deal with a crappy microphone as well.

Music Test

Sonar Software settings, 6 CH, no DSP, No effects, Middle Sized Room Environment

The Prodigy, Voodoo People - Lots of highs and lows, alternating and building to crescendo's. A near constant sub bass tone in the background that you simply will not hear without a proper subwoofer. But I can hear (and feel) it with these headphones. The highs go high, and the mids are where they should be, but it's as though the high and mids have frequencies missing in between. It's not bad and frankly if you've not heard all of them before with higher end equipment then you likely won't miss them. When you consider the target audience and price of the Sonar's, it's hard to knock them.

Additional Prodigy song test; Funky Shit - When the beat kicks in on this ... well it damn near shakes the windows out in my car and it goes down quite low with a repeating bass line. The Sonar's are quite close to replicating that, enough that you can hear it, but the vibrating feeling just isn't quite there. It's damn close though.

Evanescence, Bring Me To Life - At first things sounded a little flat, but nothing that a little EQ tweaking couldn't correct. The mid range here was a little overpowering, the 2k range specifically. The highs were quite good, without the tinny 'lisp' like effect you get at the end or beginning of some words with some cheaper headphones/speakers.

Queen, It's A Kind Of Magic - Nice High hat, and the bass line is pretty good, but again it lacked the vibration. Not a bad thing, but I kinda liked it. Maybe I should dial up the bass. Still, there is a satisfying thump in the all the right places. There is a sweeping high tone that goes from left to right about half way. I'm listening at full volume which can be painfully loud at times. This is one of those times. And yes I love it. That said, I am going to dial down the volume a little. Not a hint of tinny sounding lisp though, but again the EQ needs a little tweak to reign the mid range in.

Queen, Living On My Own - This has a pretty good bass line, which alters frequencies in a definitive way. It's easy to tell that the lower we go, the harder the Sonar has to work. It may sound negative, and I guess it is, but you have to remember these are pretty cheap headphones and the sound is exteremely good despite the loss. Basically the bass is there, but the lower we go the less vibrating it becomes. The thumping bass however is most certainly there and rivals many a high end systems in sound and feel.

Prince, 7 - Again, plenty of bass and highs, but this is the first time I've heard the Sonar struggle on the highs, specifically the high treble of a tinkling bell that is heard now and then. It plays, but there is a slight ... stutter to it. It's only really noticeable at full volume which is uncomfortably loud anyway. Dialling it down to 'safer' levels and the stutter disappears. Not an issue but I'm including the information for the sake of a complete review. My comments make things sound pretty negative but honestly it's not. I'm nit picking for the most part, and when you think of the low price of these headphones all the negatives are very easily forgotten. The sound is plenty good enough, very high quality for this price point.

U2, Pride - Lots of mid range, which gives it a very artificial sound. Again, it's all EQ fixable.

Jeff Wayne, Eve of the War - Here, the voice at the start has an echo which fades into bass and is nicely reproduced here. The strings sound well and again the bass line is nice but with this music it never goes really low. Still a very satisfying thump mind you, which is as it should be. The Sonar maintains the 'spacial' feeling of the music very well, and you get a clear impression of certain instruments in different places. The pan pipes are very good even at highest trebles.

The Island Soundtrack, The Island Awaits You - Very orchestral and a nice heartbeat sounding bass, lots of build up. Works well here.

Star Wars III Soundtrack, Battle of the Heroes - the Tuba's sound fantastic here. And the choir voices are nicely done. I'm not really a classical music kind of person but I must admit this sounds pretty good.



 
 
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