HC GAMERLIFE Gaming Headset with Mic

Warning: most of this review will be me comparing the HCG1s to my Astro A40s, (favorite headset). I have only had this headset for about a week now, so I can't speak to the durability or dependability aspect of them, but I can go over a few things. I have owned a few different Tritton headsets, $60 HyperX Clouds, $120 Turtle Beaches (spend your money else ware), some sharkoons that nobody has probably ever heard of , but were pretty good, some Sennheiser PC Pros, and I have borrowed and tried tons of others. My big bro swears by Logitech, and so I've tried a few of his headsets as well. and what has been my personal hands down favorite for a long time, Astro a40s with the TRX MixAmp. Got the HC Gamerlifes because of the glowing reviews, and because I have had them in my saved for later for like a year. I have been keeping my eye on them just to make sure it wasn't a scam. Oh yeah, I also got dooped into buying the Bengoo V4 headset, which was selling for $40 when it said it was originally likie $130 or something, which wasn't true. It was definitely a $40 headset selling for $40. Thought I was getting a good deal, but no. That's why I kept an eye on these ones. I was skeptical because it's an easy thing to disguise in the gaming industry. Astro A40s have always been my favorite by far, with the exception of the mic. It bleeds a lot of sound and even your own sound bleeds through the mic. So if you like to bump some music while you play, or like to have your volume up high, everyone in your party is going to hear it too. It's really a big downside for the headset, as just about everything else is perfect. Made the upgrade from console to PC, and with it, wanted a new headset. I also use a Red DS4 controller for Rocket League (Just hit champ for the first time baby), and I am in a black&red racer style gaming chair, so this headset goes absolutely perfect with my black and red setup. I still need to break it in, but so far this bad boy is straight up on par with the Astros, with a few differences in sound that I have to decide if I like. So far, it seems like the Astros are a bit Bassier, which I love. That's an easy fix though, because I still run the HCG1s through my Astro MixAmp and can change all of the EQ settings from there. I've really only played Rocket league, but I'll need to run a couple of FPS games to really find out the directional quality. They are supposed to have accurate 3d sound, so I'll have to give it a run. Again, I run it through the MixAmp, which changes any Stereo headset to Virtual Surround, and it's extremely accurate. Seriously, if you don't have an Astro MixAmp, get one. (just remember that there's a specific one for each console, but either will work on PC) I have a second one on the way now, so that I can still use both of my headsets independently. You won't regret it. I'm not talking about one of the small ones that go in the controller, I'm talking about the straight up, stand alone MixAmp. If you want more bass, or different pitches in your highs and lows, you can configure 4 settings to switch through, and the default ones are more than dope AF. But you can go in each one and change up all of the EQ settings for each one, making the 4 configs each sounding exactly how you want them to. Including bass and treble for footsteps and all that trash. You could probably make it to where you hear footsteps only lol. I wish I could talk more on the sound of the HCG1s, but I guess the easiest way to put it right now is that I have owned Astro A40s for the past 4 years, and have tested and tried and bought and borrowed muiltiple others, without finding anything that quite hits that all around feel like the Astros. Build quality, durability, sound quality. All up there as the best for me. But I have 0 complaints about these. That's the simplest way I can put it. And that's a really good thing. I love the design. They just have a certain Alpha look to them. Kinda like the Razer Naris, but they don't feel or sound as plastic-y? I want to say they're slightly more comfortable than the Astros. A little lighter, and I actually no crap have forgotten that I was wearing them once. The Astros have that really great heavy studio feel on your head, but in my experience, they start to get uncomfortable around the ears. I also probably need to replace the earcups by now too (I use the plush ones and love them). So it's really hard to say. But I overall feel like the HCG1s will turn out better for longer sessions, even though I personally love the heavy studio feel of the Astros. As soon as I made the switch to this headset, I have had nothing but compliments on the sound of my Mic. My two Rocket League buddies noticed the instant I hopped in the chat, and even the other day, all of my brothers and I hopped on Discord to chat with my mom and wish her a happy Mother's Day. I have 5 brothers, but only 4 of them could make it to the chat. so with me, my 4 brothers, and my parents in the chat, apparantly I stood out as sounding like I have a, "pro" microphone. IDK what that really means, but we're all gamers, and my voice quality stood out above all of their mics. So that's pretty dope. Basically, the mic is awesome, ok? Better than the Astros. I know that for Astro, you can buy one of the kits to upgrade the Mic. I bought the kit for the plush earcups and headrest, but I didn't know that the Mic was supposed to be better too. I ended up losing that mic while moving before I could test it out. Maybe the upgraded Astro mic is really good too, IDK. Ending with customer support. I had this really weird thing happen with my headset that, when it was plugged in to the MixAmp, started to mute itself after a few minutes. I couldn't get it to unmute no matter how many times I switched the button, turned off and on the MixAmp, unplugged and replugged the cords... Didn't matter. So I reached out to the customer support to see if they have ever heard of this issue. I got an email back from a Dennis Simonson. This dude had to have spent a decent chunk of time researching the MixAmp and its compatibility with other headsets, because he sent me 3 different links on how to troubleshoot the MixAmp when it wasn't working, how to go into specific sound settings. He clearly put a lot of effort. And at the end of the message he reminded me that they have a satisfaction guarantee and that if none of the options worked, they could always accept a return and full refund. What a champ, Dennis. I still don't know what the actual issue was, but after I updated my Astro firmware and pushed some PC updates, I restarted and ever since then, everything works fine. No more auto muting. Amazon asks for a rating on noise cancelling, which I put at 3, but that doesn't really seem fair. This is not a noise cancelling headset, nor does it claim to be. So just ignore that part of it if you're not worried about noise cancelling. It does a good job of keeping normal sounds out, but don't expect anything above the ordinary. Overall, up there with the greatest sound quality I have heard, with plenty of breaking in to do. Best MIC I've had yet Outstanding Customer Support. Thanks Dennis, you da bomb.