Meters Stage Up Gaming Headset Assessment

Some gaming headsets have eye-catching designs that characteristic coloured lighting and stark, angular components that create a “high-tech” look. The Meters Stage Up gaming headset is definitely placing; it doesn’t simply have RGB lighting on the perimeters, however functioning VU meters, too. It’s a novel look, however that isn’t sufficient to justify a $129 worth for a wired gaming headset, particularly when its audio efficiency isn’t significantly sturdy.

Headset Design

The Meters Stage Up has precisely what’s in its title: meters. The again of every earcup, which is black along with your alternative of purple, carbon fiber, or silver highlights, holds a VU meter(Opens in a brand new window) with a shifting needle that has a -20 to +6 dB vary. The meter is lit with RGB LEDs that you would be able to set to varied colours or flip off totally.

The meters are unique-looking additions, particularly when their lights are activated. They point out the sign energy, or quantity, coming by way of the headset. The meters are purely for aesthetics quite than performance, although, since you possibly can’t really see them whenever you’re carrying the headset. Even when they have been seen, a VU meter for a USB-powered gaming headset is not significantly helpful in contrast with a VU meter in an amp or A/V receiver, the place they’re usually discovered.

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Moreover the meters, the Stage Up appears to be like and looks like a reasonably commonplace gaming headset. It’s comparatively mild, largely black plastic with fake leather-covered foam earpads and the same band of padding on the scarf’s underside. The earpads are giant, simply overlaying most ears, and the headset is mild sufficient to stay snug with out weighing down your head.

The versatile increase microphone plugs into the left earcup’s backside edge, with the headset cable completely connected under it. The cable is fabric-wrapped and about 5 ft lengthy, terminating in a USB-A plug. A distant sits almost two ft down the cable from the headset, and contains a quantity wheel, a mic mute swap, a meter mild colour biking button, and a 3.5mm headset jack to be used with PlayStation and Xbox recreation controllers (a 3.5mm cable is included, together with a fabric drawstring pouch for carrying the headset).

Connectivity and Software program

As a USB headset, the Stage Up is primarily designed to work with a PC, and the Stage Up Home windows software program allows 7.1-channel, simulated encompass sound. You should utilize the Stage Up with any system with a headset jack, although it nonetheless must be plugged right into a USB port for energy.

The Meters Stage Up software program contains a wide range of changes you may make to the headset, although the consumer interface feels dated and barely clunky subsequent to Razer and Logitech’s headset apps. It offers a customizable equalizer, a number of surroundings results, digital speaker placement for the simulated 7.1-channel encompass sound, and even microphone voice results. There are various settings to play tinker with, however they’re buried underneath inventory menus that really feel misplaced subsequent to the Stage Up’s fashion.

Microphone Efficiency

The Stage Up’s microphone sounds moderately clear. Check recordings have been largely clear and simple to know, although had a little bit of sibilance. It’s a superbly purposeful mic for voice chat, but it surely doesn’t supply fairly the extent of recording high quality because the headsets mics on the Razer BlackShark V2 or Logitech G Professional X, our Editors’ Selection picks. As all the time, for critical recording or streaming, we advocate getting a separate USB microphone for even higher voice seize.

Audio Efficiency

The Stage Up places out some highly effective bass, maybe a bit too highly effective for the headset to deal with. At most quantity, our bass check monitor, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” produced a touch of crackle within the headset, indicating distortion. Turning the amount right down to about 90% alleviated that crackle, but it surely’s barely shocking. The sound is loud and thumpy, although the kick drum hits and bass synth notes don’t attain low sufficient into the sub-bass vary to essentially palpably rattle your head.

The low-mid resonance of the acoustic guitar notes within the opening of Sure’ “Roundabout” stands out on the Stage Up, although the monitor will get sufficient high-mid presence to provide the strings some texture. When the tune correctly begins, it’s a really low-mids-heavy combine, with the bass riffs standing out distinctly in entrance of the guitar strums, drums, and vocals. It’s not a very balanced sound, however you possibly can tweak it with headset’s equalizer.

The bassline and backbeat in The Crystal Methodology’s “Busy Little one” additionally stands out within the entrance of that monitor, with loads of highly effective thump that will get extra consideration than the synth riffs and samples. As soon as once more, this can be a very bass-heavy steadiness.

The Stage Up’s bass heaviness hurts it a bit with shooters. Whereas the headset has 7.1-channel encompass sound, I discovered that it didn’t give an excellent sense of directionality in Fortnite. Gunshots and footsteps have been deep and full, however with out sculpted greater frequencies to compensate they didn’t clearly point out their instructions by way of the headset’s stereo panning.

Eye-Catching, However Not Nice-Sounding

The Meters Stage Up headset is definitely placing, and it gives sturdy bass. Nevertheless, its steadiness and efficiency can’t evaluate with our equally priced, wired, Editors’ Selection picks, the Razer Blackshark V2 and Logitech G Professional X; the bass is just too overpowering whenever you crank the amount, and throws off the headset’s simulated encompass sound imaging. In case you’re actually in love with the look, this isn’t a horrible headset, however in any other case it is best to take into account these two wired options, or check out the wonderful Razer Nari Important or HyperX Cloud II Wi-fi for equally priced wi-fi options. The Meters Stage Up could be interesting at half its worth, however for a wired headset that prices greater than $100, its audio high quality simply doesn’t maintain up.