Page 4 - Conclusion
What can I say? The GAMDIAS Hephaestus Almighty gaming headset does its job in the gaming department. Sound effects came through in a way that made it easy to identify the direction it was coming from. The Blast Source Identifier and the 7.1 virtual surround sound definitely helped in this department. The emphasis on the bass helped to hear footstep noises, while the midrange was present in games. The microphone was clean and clear, and the flexibility it offers is good. On the other hand, the voice changing options are not that great, but they are fun to play around with. Unfortunately, the listening experience did not go as well as I would like. While it does it job in pointing out where your opponents are, the sounds effects were not very accurate or realistic. This phenomenon can be explained in our listening tests. Emphasis on the bass, although it helps while in game, does not help in the music department. The bass muffled the midrange and the treble, and instead of achieving a punchy quality, it felt hollow. Vocals were slightly muffled as well. An improvement would be just to reduce the emphasis on the bass, while refining the characteristics to make it deeper and rounder, and overall a smoother low end output. This would, in turn, reduce the blanketed sound from the rest of the frequencies. Even though it features a cooling system with its aluminum heatsinks, I did not notice any difference in practical application. The cooler system just adds extra weight to the headset, which after long periods of time really becomes a pain to wear. GAMDIAS's Hera software used for all of their products was not the most user-friendly experience, and could be improved to make the entire process simpler. Finding the software online was not a smooth process, and I struggled to actually reach the download page while finding the right version. At press time, the MSRP is $80 USD, which is not expensive -- but there are many great choices out there for the same price, such as the Kingston HyperX Cloud.
GAMDIAS provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Review Focus Summary:
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
5/10 means An average product with no real advantages; drawbacks and advantages just seem to cancel each other out.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 5.4/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
The GAMDIAS Hephaestus Almighty is effective for gaming, but its overall sound characteristics and heavy weight let the headset down.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
