Corsair's latest headset dances on your dome with haptic feedback
The HS60 Haptic is ready to rumble.
Corsair is throwing its hat into a very small ring of headsets with haptic feedback, which essentially brings a similar rumble sensation found in most controllers to your eardrums and head. The company's new HS60 Haptic achieves this through specialized bass processing from Taction Technology.
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The idea is predicated on the notion that "we feel deep bass as vibration more than we hear it." To help with this, the earcups in the HS60 Haptic are outfitted with tactile tranducers that Taction describes as "200 pounds of subwoofer in a 1-ounce module."
What this does is generate tactile feedback in response to low-end frequencies, like thumping bass in music or, say, a grenade going off in a game. According to Corsair, this facilitates being able to "perceive sounds while gaming that other headsets miss."
"Hearing the deep, low rumble of explosions or the reverberating hum of nearby machinery is a richer, more engaging experience with the HS60 Haptic," Corsair says.
Corsair is not the first to do this. Razer's Nari Ultimate will also shake your skull with a version of haptic feedback it calls HyperSense. I have never played with the Nari Ultimate, but I did once own a Rosewill headset with basic vibration effects, and was surprised I like it as much as I did.
I can only assume Corsair's implementation is more refined than Rosewill's—the company claims its Taction tranducer picks up lower frequencies with better accuracy than other haptic headsets—but can't speak from ears-on experience. However, like that headset, you can adjust the level of haptic feedback on the H60 Haptic.
Outside of the rumble effects, the HS60 Haptic employs a pair of 50mm neodymium drivers that are custom-tuned. It lacks features like virtual 7.1 surround sound or RGB lighting, and it is not a wireless solution. But it does feature a detachable, noise-cancelling unidirectional microphone, a braided cable, and adjustable earcups padded with memory foam.
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The H60 Haptic is available now for $130 (£$120).
Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).