We thank Logitech and Pamela McCracken for providing us these units for review.

I have to say that we were not too sure about the state of usb audio here from reviews

I have seen on other sites and from the fact that I’ve been told many time a certain pci sound card is the best over and over again by our other reviewer (K-man ).

I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged these units in and after some tweaking they work to my skeptic mind to out perform my onboard sound and dare I say it pretty darn good.

They worked and the fact that they have a microphone built in was a bonus.

Testing:

We tested both units with games, music (mp3’s) movies.

Under Linux and Windows XP (Mepis and Ubuntu5.04)

250&350:

Both units show higher CPU usage then a pci sound card.

But not by much in this reviewer’s eye the frame rate loss wasn’t even noticeable.

The USB 250 model head set was a lot more comfortable to wear then the 350 at least to me due to the way it rest on the ears and the lack of padding on the headband.

The microphones of both units where very good in windows even though to me the microphones aren’t in a best place I’d like to be able to swing them closer to my mouth.

Besides an issue of one day waking up to the fact that the 250 unit wasn’t working anymore we were very pleased with the 250 headphones (might have been our usage).

The 350 units seem to take the great features of the 250 and just add a tweak or two, Not all for the best the headphones tend to bother my ears in this unit where as the 250 units didn’t.

This might be because of our getting use to a Zalman 5.1 headphone set and it’s cushy headband and speakers but I tend to think not.

Our Webmaster/reviewer K-man had issues with the 250’s they bothered his ears because they tended to block out too much outside noise and kind of made his ears pop.

Which is a weird type of issue.

But the 350 units were ok to him and the sound was better The first test that I tried with the 250’s was a Skype call but failed to get it setup right due to our lack of use with this program (our thoughts).

We got the unit to work under team speak though an all was well and clear according to our other reviewer Big-Fitch.

Pros:

250:

• Easy to use great for bringing to a LAN
• Long enough cord so it could be put under your desk we feel.
• Great sound with out a soundcard
• Feels good to wear doesn’t hurt your head or ears

350:

• Easy to use great for bringing to a LAN
• Long enough cord so your computer could be put under your desk we feel.
• Great sound with out a soundcard
• Inline volume control is a bonus
• Better sound

Cons:

250:

• Not a 5.1 headset with microphone
• Can’t use it with your onboard or our Xmystique sound card or any other sound card
• After a week or so of use the unit stopped working either because of our usage or a defect in the units wire
• Microphone should be closer or able to be moved closer to the users mouth (Personnel choice)

350:

• Not a 5.1 headset with microphone

• Can’t use it with your onboard or our Xmystique sound card or any other sound card.
• Not as comfortable to wear as the 250 head set unit.

Why do you say this you ask?

The 350 models tend to clamp tighter then the 250 units on the ears(might be my big head ).

Also there is no padding on the headband like the 250.

Microphone should be closer or able to be moved closer to the users mouth (Personnel choice)

General Con:

While this may be our system only I feel I should put it in.

When these units are plugged in during start up you can here fan noise etc(but after windows and Linux are loaded all is ok).

Conclusion:

I feel these are a great use to LAN gamers or office workers as well as those who don’t have or want to buy a new card for their computer.

These units are both great at what they do music, gamming etc are great plus you don’t get yelled at for turning up the tunes unless you start singing along

(LOL; it’s funny to see and no it wasn’t me guys I know better).

Theses units provide the gamer or the office worker with tools they need for Team speak or Dragon Naturally Speaking or similar programs.

Even for the average user doing voice chat to the laptop user.

I would buy these units and even though the one clamps on my ears too tight they might not on yours.

The cord length, features and just ease of connection are just features that one should have.

Also on another note I’ve gotten use to the 350’s feel. But I feel I had to state this fact to our users in not to mislead anyone if you have a big head they might hurt you.

(Photo’s will be posted shortly)