Page 3 – Subjective Audio Analysis
As with all the audio products we review here at APH Networks, it takes quite a bit of experience and training of the ears before we can begin making a fair judgment. Even for the best of audiophiles, it can be hard to produce an exact and accurate evaluation of a product, without a thoroughly familiar product to use as simultaneous reference. While I will not claim to be the reviewer of all reviewers for headphones, I can say quite a few other computer review sites have editors lacking in training for reviewing anything audio related. Give them anything and all you will get is some vague description of “awesome bass, amazing midrange, nice treble, no muffles, 10/10”. Do not get me wrong though; there are knowledgeable audio reviewers out there on respected online media outlets, but they are far and few.
As is stated in my past review for the Cooler Master Storm Ceres 500, there are no true objective measurements for headphone sound quality. As the reviewer, however, I will put the Func HS-260 through a series of subjective tests to try to come up with the most objective rating as possible. The tests were conducted primarily with the Func HS-260 plugged directly into the Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD sound card's 3.5mm front output, one of the best consumer/prosumer computer sound cards out there in the market today. (Creative CA20K2 DSP/APU, National Semiconductor LME49720NA OpAmp, JRC NJM4580 signal buffers, Cirrus Logic CS4382A DAC, Nichon MUSE ES capacitors.)
After over 48 hours of break-in time (Well above typically required period), we put the Func HS-260 to the tests. All tracks are uncompressed CDs, FLAC, or LAME encoded MP3s at 192kbps or higher. For gaming, I played Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Metro 2033, and Sid Meier’s Civilization V. Two of these games are first-person shooters, and I find them to provide an accurate representation of a day to day game environment. The other game is just one of my favorite games to play.
I guess I will start with the place where I have usually begun with the bass, midrange, and treble. Starting with the bass, the Func HS-260 produce some really deep and punchy bass. It is marshmallow-like in that it is rounded, and has a nice oomph I expect from bass. Of course, some people may not like the actual amount of bass present in the headphones, but it is definitely refined, and does not feel hollow or empty whatsoever. This makes listening for deep breathing and footsteps behind you very clear, in case your enemy ever sneaks up to perform some ninja-like stealth move. In music listening, the bass guitar as well as the bass drums are audible, and add the rhythm and depth, which is very pleasing to the ears.
Moving to the midrange, and we are met with, for the most part, clarity. Voices and instruments are very natural, and are not raspy at all. Rather, there is a warm resonance felt from the pianos and guitars, and singers that sound like they have drank a lot of water prior to singing. Low midranges are filled and warm like the bass frequencies. Near the high end, we have a slight muffle that is not as clear as the rest of the middle frequencies. In-game voices are still very audible and sound natural for the most-part. Overall, the low midrange is a bit more pronounced than the higher midrange.
Climbing to the top of the frequency spectrum, and we get a sharp reproduction, which sounds a bit drier, but still not raspy. The trebles are clear, with some muffling and attenuation at the highest end. Glass shatters in the games are audible and sound, for the most part, natural. The treble as a whole package is still clean enough, and has enough depth to be passable. The overall sound character is surprisingly flat for gaming headphones, with the bass being a tad heavier than the treble and the midrange. As I have explained in the Adesso Xtream H2, I think it is pleasant and desirable to have quantitatively a little more bass than midrange, and a little more midrange compared to treble, making for a pyramid of sound. I would say the Func HS-260 do fit this profile quite well, and the high ends are supported by the lower end.
When it comes to soundstaging, this is probably the HS-260s brightest spot among an overall great package of a headset. When I compared this with the SteelSeries H Wireless, a headset raved by Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan to have some amazing soundstaging capabilities, the Func came up a close second. These headphones are capable of producing a full-theater experience with depth and direction very comparable with the aforementioned SteelSeries. The environment also is realistic without any distortion. Of course, because of the attenuation and muffles in the high-end, it does take away from the realism of the sound, but the Func HS-260 still stands strong with the overall imaging.
As for putting everything together with layering, each frequency range is quite detailed and produces a high resolution sound, but each range is also separated and clearly defined. The whole audio experience is also cohesive and sounds like one headset rather than three with clean transitions between the different frequency ranges. The sound produced by the headset is also very clean, with the exceptions of the high trebles as mentioned before. It is almost as if Mr. Clean visited all of the frequency ranges, and forgot the final dusting at the very top.
Sound isolation on the Func HS-260 is surprisingly good. While wearing the Funcs, I found myself quite surprised when people entered my room ,because I did not hear them at all, even when the volume was quite low. Even though these are only passive noise cancelling headphones, they work quite well, and remove a lot of exterior noise. As for sound leaking, there is not much of an issue since these are closed-ear in design. In terms of microphone performance, the omnidirectional mic picked up all of my voices, and users reported that my voice was loud and clear. I tested the microphone in both gaming situations as well as some casual conversations with Skype.
In conclusion, I can say the Func HS-260 is a really great sounding headphone. It carries a desirable profile for frequency response, and this relatively neutral sounding headset makes for some natural sound reproduction. Bass, midrange, and treble are all rich and full, with only some slight improvements to be made on the higher-end. But seriously, wow, these are pretty good. During my testing, while swapping between these and the SteelSeries H Wireless, there were times they sounded very similar, and if you have read the review, it is definitely a positive for Func. Soundscaping and imaging are superb on these headphones, and I would agree with my Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan and say, “These are the real deal!”
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
