PAX Prime 2012: Plantronics GameCom Commander

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Pennanen

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May 29, 2012
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"Commander, military, super,duper,secret,xtreme,gaymer,limited,special."

We've seen this before 1000 times. Overpriced "gaymen" headsets with bad sound quality and high price tag.
 

razor512

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care to release any specs such as frequency response along with the curves so we can have an idea of how balanced the audio is along with how well it reproduces the audio?
 

sixdegree

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Instead of military styling, how about military grade durability? Game peripheral companies should take notice that there's a big market for some gaming mouse/headset/keyboard that won't break after a year of usage.
 
Why do they keep pushing these products, are there really that many uniformed gamers buying these headsets?

I constantly see people praising things like the the Razer Tiamat and the Astro headsets when they sound like total garbage sound quality wise and the multiple drivers in headphones is a gimmick.

Buy a real set of headphones from a reputable headphone company such as Sennheiser, Grado, audio-technica, etc, and use it with a sound card and a clip on mic.

 

James296

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[citation][nom]sixdegree[/nom]Instead of military styling, how about military grade durability? Game peripheral companies should take notice that there's a big market for some gaming mouse/headset/keyboard that won't break after a year of usage.[/citation]

are we talking sailor-proof, army-proof, or marine-proof?
 

Pennanen

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[citation][nom]James296[/nom]are we talking sailor-proof, army-proof, or marine-proof?[/citation]
With the price these come, all of those.
 

freggo

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$299 is actually cheap for "aviation" or "military" grade.

A decent David Clark headset easily costs more and does not have 5.1 sound etc.
Of course when you try to land a plane in the rain at night surround sound is not high on the list of things you want in your head set. Just clean static free communication with the tower will do.

Bottom line, this all sounds like PR buzz to charge some kid a boat load of money better spend on a faster GRU. Get a nice Sennheiser set like an RS-20 instead. Perfectly ok for gaming, great to listen to your music and even your GF will not mind using them. Hell, for $299 you can buy 2 (his and hers) and have change left to take her out on a few dates :)


 

James296

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[citation][nom]Pennanen[/nom]With the price these come, all of those.[/citation]

ah then you want morine...I mean marine-proof :p
 

kinggremlin

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From the box
Works with PC, MAC, smartphone and tablet

Really? A smartphone? Who the hell would buy a $299 headset like this and use it with their smartphone? Someone needs to tell THG that "The Onion" is a spoof site, and not a real news source.
 

cTs Corvette

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Lol, for a long time I had a set of $5 Coby headphones (no mic) that I played Counter-Strike with. I didn't have any problems telling where someone was with them. My only consideration for a new headset back then was "Is it cheap, and does it have inline volume control?" If it broke, who cares, it was $5. Now I'm on my third set of Turtle Beach X1's (all the "better" versions of this headset have been worse) that are held together with wire and electrical tape, but I just can't find anything that I like better. They are the perfect balance of decent sound (too much bass for music, doesn't bother me while gaming though) and incredible comfort, and I wish TB would remake them instead of trying to "improve" them. But spending $300 on a headset? Yeah, not going to happen. I mean really, I didn't even spend $300 on my video card.
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]sixdegree[/nom]Instead of military styling, how about military grade durability? Game peripheral companies should take notice that there's a big market for some gaming mouse/headset/keyboard that won't break after a year of usage.[/citation]

i firmly beleive that every piece of head mounted anything, should have to use metal to re enforce any area where the product would fail,i dont care if there is plastic on the thing, so long as if i take all that plastic away, the thing still holds onto my head.

this is a problem from every pair of headphones i have ever owned, even higher quality ones get cracks in the plastic for me.

[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]From the boxReally? A smartphone? Who the hell would buy a $299 headset like this and use it with their smartphone? Someone needs to tell THG that "The Onion" is a spoof site, and not a real news source.[/citation]

lets assume that it does work with smartphones/tablets

lets say you are at home, and have this you want to do something and not be tied to a computer, and you have some calls to make.

well there you go, no longer tied to the computer, and no need to smash a touch screen on your face to talk to someone.

if gameing really takes off on a tablet, as in we get real games, i could see something like this being useful, remember, diablo like games lend themselves well to touch and console interfaces.
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]cTs Corvette[/nom]Lol, for a long time I had a set of $5 Coby headphones (no mic) that I played Counter-Strike with. I didn't have any problems telling where someone was with them. My only consideration for a new headset back then was "Is it cheap, and does it have inline volume control?" If it broke, who cares, it was $5. Now I'm on my third set of Turtle Beach X1's (all the "better" versions of this headset have been worse) that are held together with wire and electrical tape, but I just can't find anything that I like better. They are the perfect balance of decent sound (too much bass for music, doesn't bother me while gaming though) and incredible comfort, and I wish TB would remake them instead of trying to "improve" them. But spending $300 on a headset? Yeah, not going to happen. I mean really, I didn't even spend $300 on my video card.[/citation]

sennheiser hd555
get a mic that attach to the cable

personally i have a blue yeti for my mic, so i dont need a on headphone mic, but these things... its hard to get better in that price range,

if you have the amplifier though, an old sennheiser hd 430 cant be beat, for 20-50$ you get a 600 ohm headphones, granted they are 20 some years old, but quality, you cant beat it of under 300$,
 
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Just got my pair of commanders in the mail. Wearing them right now. These are absolutely amazing. Mic is crystal clear (after turning off all the crap my soundcard was trying to do which made everything sound terrible... gotta let the hardware do what it was made to do!) The sound isolation is so crazy that I didn't even notice my roommate come home... scared the crap out of me seeing a face in my doorway when I thought the house was empty.
 

kevin davies

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Hey guys!

I've updated the article to include the technical specifications from Plantronics.

When I was hands on at PAX the headset seemed much more durable than a lot of other high-end gaming headsets I've tried out in the past. They were designed in conjunction with Plantronics military and aviation devisions and the headset seemed to live up to them. I've used various military electronic hearing protection cans in the past and the Commander headset, from the exterior at least, stacks up well.
 

kevin davies

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[citation][nom]kinggremlin[/nom]From the boxReally? A smartphone? Who the hell would buy a $299 headset like this and use it with their smartphone? Someone needs to tell THG that "The Onion" is a spoof site, and not a real news source.[/citation]
Indeed, it does work with most smartphones! The headset uses standard 3.5mm plugs to support these. The 3.5mm plugs attach to a dongle that controls the activation of Dolby 7.1 Surround and connects to a PC via USB.
 
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