Review: Well, colour us surprised - Cyber Snipa's new headphones deliver surprisingly good 5.1 audio.
While it would be great to think that we can always have the best of all possible worlds in terms of our technology, it’s more common that we have to cut some corners. This truism certainly counts for Cyber Snipa’s latest 5.1 effort, the Sonar 5.1 Championship headphones.
We’ve... not liked Cybersnipa cans in the past, and out of the box we were getting ready for good round of judging a book by its cover, and rather negatively, too. The fact is, these are one fugly set of headphones. Designed in black and metallic plastic, with a strip of faux leather across the headband for that premium feel, it’s easy to start out on the wrong foot. The Championships are a little flimsy, too, and even though the enclosures are designed to twist flat for transport, twisting them too much causes an awful snapping noise, and can even unseat them from the headband.
On the head, we expected them to be a little heavy, but they sit rather light – possibly too much so. What’s more, the large, circular protuberances on the enclosures almost interrupt your peripheral vision, and certainly don’t make the Championships any sexier. Finally, in our list of woe, while the mic is nice and flexible, it also feels a little too much so.
Okay, so the higher end of the audio isn’t great, but the positional sound is actually rather good. There are individual drivers for front, center and rear, plus sub, and they’re placed far enough apart to actually make a difference – that’s why the cans look so awkward. In fact – and given the different aural sensitivity across any large group of people, you may want to take this with a grain of salt – this is possibly the best 5.1 sound we’ve ever heard in headphones. In Battlefield 3 you get a crisp sense of directionality and range, enough to boost immersion to almost spooky levels. As we said, high-end sounds are a little too sharp – the crack of a rifle sounds more like the crack of a twig, but that’s the pay-off you’re getting here.
Even with all the issues of design and build, we were still pleasantly surprised by the Sonar 5.1 Championship headphones. Though held back from Hot Award status, these are good option for people who want outstanding immersion above epic sound recreation.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012