MSI Immerse GH50 Review – Virtual 7.1 Vibrating Gaming Headset.

MSI Immerse GH50 Gaming Headset

If you are serious about gaming, you’re probably well aware of MSI and its range of high-performance laptops and graphics cards. Today we look at the newly released ‘Immerse GH50‘ a modestly priced headset designed to take you even deeper into your gaming experience.

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MSI Immerse GH50 – Full Review

The MSI GH50 comes in a good quality retail box with the headset well protected in a moulded cardboard inner. Alongside, there’s a drawstring carry pouch, a user guide, and a detachable microphone.

Having a detachable microphone, the ability to fold the headband and the soft carry case make the GH50 ideal for gamers on the move. At first glance, I was a little disappointed by the stiff and chunky-looking microphone, however, appearances can be deceiving. It’s actually fairly manoeuvrable and will bend and hold position well.

Design and Build Quality

The MSI GH50 gaming headset looks and feels like a premium set of headphones. They’re made mostly from a combination of grey and matte black plastic. Unlike many gaming headsets on the market, the GH50s have an understated minimal look. There are no silly sharp edges, vents or grills, just a well-built clean design.

The Comfort

Assuming that you don’t have a huge pair of ears, the MSI GH50’s will sit nicely over them. The padding on the top of the headband is good and there’s about 30mm of adjustment on the sides. The oval-shaped ear cups swivel and rotate to provide even pressure and there’s substantial cushioning on the ears.

I’m particularly fussy about headphone comfort. In my opinion, a gaming headset has to be over-the-ear, relatively light and remain comfortable when worn for an entire day. After a week of testing, I’m happy to say the GH50 headset ticks all these boxes.

For those wondering if they would be suitable for a smaller head, here’s the GH50 headset for my nine-year-old son.

The RGB lighting

Each earcup has an elongated hexagonal detail with the MSI dragon logo in the centre. The edge of this area and the logo will light up when connected and will slowly transition to different colours. This can be fully controlled or turned off by installing the optional software available from MSI’s Website.

I typically don’t like to install additional software if I can help it. That said, the MSI Dragon Center seems to have a lot to offer. Not only can you fine-tune the lighting, but there is also a massive amount of sound settings you can tweak.

The Onboard Sound Controls

The manual controls for sound adjustment are located about 60 cm (2 feet) down from the headset. There is a volume adjustment wheel on the side, a vibrating bass toggle and two additional buttons below. The bottom left button turns on and off the 7.1 virtual surround sound and the button on the right mutes and unmutes the microphone. The thick braided cable has a good length at over 2.2m and ends with a high-quality USB connector.

Full Specs

The Sound Quality

Out of the box, the MSI Immerse GH50 sounds impressive, far better in fact than I was expecting. Considering the price and that MSI are relatively new to gaming headsets, they have done a great job. They are definitely tuned for gaming, the sound is vibrant and clear with powerful bass and crisp highs.

For those that want a more neutral sound for listening to music, the MSI dragon centre software has a full equaliser option with dozens of presets and manual controls.

The Virtual 7.1 Surround

Toggling this on and off makes a huge difference to the sound. By default, the sound is set to a ‘medium size’ room, but there are options in the software to switch to a small or large room. Having this on adds a ton of space, which could be a good thing for some games or movies but in general, I prefer it off.  In terms of music, it’s the difference between listening to a studio track or having the song played through powerful speakers in a concert hall.

The Immersive mode

Just like the Virtual 7.1 Surround, there is a massive shift when you toggle this on and off. I can totally understand why this headset is called ‘Immerse’. I’ve never come across this on a set of headphones before. When it’s ‘on’ the bass is boosted, yes that’s nothing new, but it also adds a physical vibration. Your ears get vibrated. I imagine that some people will absolutely love this when playing games with huge explosions going off all over the place. My son thought it was amazing! I, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic. It’s like going to a 4D cinema, do I really want to get shaken about and sprayed with water when I’m trying to watch a film? – Nah, not for me.

The Microphone Quality

Here’s a sample of audio from the microphone. I’ve also included the ‘Magic Voice’ samples at the end, personally, I’d never use them, but I’m guessing it could be fun for the younger generation.

All in all the mic quality is fine, I’ve had a few Skype conversations with friends of the past week and gamed a few times online and had absolutely no complaints.

Verdict

Overall I really like this headset. The clean design appeals to me and the standard audio is certainly good enough for getting the most out of games and movies. If I were more music orientated, I’d need to just take some brightness off the sound using the software provided, but that’s easy enough to do.

When it comes to the enhanced sound options, I’m not fully sold on the idea of having my ears vibrated or the audio cranked up to 11. That said, I can imagine this would be exactly what a young excitable gamer would love. I think the GH50 headset would also appeal to anyone with an MSI Gaming Laptop or PC Tower as this would allow you to sync the backlighting using the ‘Mystic Light’ settings.

Where to Buy?