chailee80
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2013
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There didnt seem to be any info on the new ATH-PG1 / PDG1 headsets from Audio Technica so i thought i'd post some pictures and give my thoughts on them for anyone interested. Saw the closed back PG1 model in a local gaming store today so i figured i'll check it out as i need a new gaming headset. The box says its a premium gaming headset but straight out of the box it didnt look premium to me but rather it looked a bit cheap. From what i can tell this headset looks like a modified version of the ATH-M20x which retails here in Australia for around $80 so you end up paying around $120 more for a mic and detachable cables. While the headband is metal everything else is plastic even the gold stripe around the earcups is just a metalic looking plastic. Headband padding and earcups are made of the standard pleather type material, the padding on the headband isnt that thick but hasnt caused any discomfort so far. The earpads are very soft and big enough to fit over my larger than average ears. Overall comfort is very good, i have a large head and the cups extend down far enough to cover them properly and the headset is very light so weight is never an issue. The comfort and fit reminds me a lot of the yamaha mt220, if you've ever tried them on then this is pretty much the same except a bit lighter in weight. Isolation is fairly poor for a closed back which was a bit of a disappointment, at normal listening levels a person sitting next to you will be able to hear what you are listening to. The earcup sliders do not click at all and the sliding mehcanism is a bit stiff out of the box. The overall build feels a bit cheap considering the price but from what i can see the only place it would possibly break is where the metal headband attaches to the plastic earcup, theres a little swivel mechanism built into the top of the earcup to allow the cups to swivel naybe 10 degrees or so.
The headset comes with a detachable goose neck mic cable which terminates with a 4 pole 3.5mm jack, a 3.5mm cable with a built in single button remote for mobile use which also has an analogue volume control on it and an extension cable which takes the 3.5mm 4 pole jack and splits it into a mic and audio jack.
When it comes to gaming i can't really fault this headset, everything sounds clear and fairly well balanced, explosions and gun fire hit hard but don't drown out the other sounds too much. The soundstage feels quite wide and spacious for a closed back and i didnt have any trouble pin pointing noises around me. The mic does an excellent job of picking up my voice clearly, i did some recordings with my air conditioner cranking in the background and it did a great job cancelling it out, i'm very impressed with it.
My only issue with the sound comes when listening to music. There seems to be a nasty peak or two in the upper mids which can make some female voices sound harsh, piercing and cause some sibilance. Now i've never heard the original ATH-M20x so i dont know if it also has this issue or if its a result of the headset having been tuned for gaming as it claims but overall i think it handles most genres of music fairly well considering it intended to be a multi purpose headset. I have to keep reminding myself this is really only an $80 pair of headphones so i shouldnt expect it to sound like its $200 asking price and for that i think it holds its own at that price point.
Anyway thats just a quick review of the ATH-PG1 headset, i'll let it burn in some more and see if the forementioned issues go away or not and then update the review accordingly.
Below are a few pictures i took of the headset.
The headset comes with a detachable goose neck mic cable which terminates with a 4 pole 3.5mm jack, a 3.5mm cable with a built in single button remote for mobile use which also has an analogue volume control on it and an extension cable which takes the 3.5mm 4 pole jack and splits it into a mic and audio jack.
When it comes to gaming i can't really fault this headset, everything sounds clear and fairly well balanced, explosions and gun fire hit hard but don't drown out the other sounds too much. The soundstage feels quite wide and spacious for a closed back and i didnt have any trouble pin pointing noises around me. The mic does an excellent job of picking up my voice clearly, i did some recordings with my air conditioner cranking in the background and it did a great job cancelling it out, i'm very impressed with it.
My only issue with the sound comes when listening to music. There seems to be a nasty peak or two in the upper mids which can make some female voices sound harsh, piercing and cause some sibilance. Now i've never heard the original ATH-M20x so i dont know if it also has this issue or if its a result of the headset having been tuned for gaming as it claims but overall i think it handles most genres of music fairly well considering it intended to be a multi purpose headset. I have to keep reminding myself this is really only an $80 pair of headphones so i shouldnt expect it to sound like its $200 asking price and for that i think it holds its own at that price point.
Anyway thats just a quick review of the ATH-PG1 headset, i'll let it burn in some more and see if the forementioned issues go away or not and then update the review accordingly.
Below are a few pictures i took of the headset.