Today's Tech News and Reviews
The folks at MPOW have been nice enough to send their MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset along so we could take a look for the upcoming holiday season. This is the first time we’ve seen this product line so let’s take a closer look at this very interesting device.
The MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset is a solid-looking and very comfortable wired headset with some very sophisticated features at an entry-level price. The EG3 Headset has 50mm Drivers, a stereo USB cable to connect to your PC/Mac, has a noise canceling mic, and there are LEDs in each muff which add to the very stylish headset.MPOW claims they can emulate 7.1 Surround sound using their software package, and that was an interesting experience trying to confirm this. The included microphone has an on/off switch for team online gaming, or silent running and a very flexible stem. There is a volume control on the left earmuff at the back which is at a natural feeling location and it’s very easy to increase or decrease the volume as needed. They are a plug and play device but to get everything out of the MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset the software drivers need to be downloaded via MPOW and installed. Let’s go deeper:
In the box is the MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset with a USB cord. There is also a foam windscreen for the microphone. The instruction book in several languages, and finally, a multi-language pamphlet to get you to the software drivers. The drivers are in a zip file and believe me: it takes way too long to unpack and install those drivers for my Win 10 OS. I just left the room for a half-hour then came back to restart the PC. After that, the MPOW Audio Interface is installed and becomes an icon on your taskbar. I first played with the EG3 Gaming Headset before installing the software package. The MPOW Headset is pretty simple and easy to operate with or without the software installed. Plug it into an open USB port and it will work immediately. Add the software drivers to gain some utility. To enter the advanced manual controls for the Software package, you simply right click on the speaker or microphone icon and an entire new list of audio manipulation tools for speakers or Microphone. For the Speaker: Volume control, Sample Rate, Equalizer, Environmental effects, 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter, Xear Sing FX, and Xear Surround Max. For the Microphone, you get Volume Control, Sample Rate, Xear SingFX, and Microphone Boost.
I’m only going to speak to a few of the advanced settings; that kind of adjustment is personal and should be played with that in mind. Notice: certain advanced settings need to be enabled with a click box so look for that on those pages. Volume Control is the same, in basic or advanced mode. Sample Rate can be changed from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz. The standard setting is 48. Leave it there. Once you enable the Equalizer, you get this interface where you can either pick preset eq settings like “Rock”or Jazz” or Classical” among others or create and save your own. The 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter has a lot of interesting and fun options including having the signal spin around your head in a clockwise or anti-clockwise manner. Huh. Environmental Controls allow you to customize your reverb from a bathroom to the mountains. There’s a lot to unpack there and you can easily get too weird or crappy sounds. So make small changes, take your time, and be willing to listen and experiment and you should be able to dial these headphones into something which absolutely fits your needs and desires for gaming, Skyping, or just listening to music. Or you can turn it back to simple controls if you get overwhelmed with the choices. It’s that easy. Note: once you pick a setting, when you right-click on the Mic or Speaker Icon, that setting screen is the default for that device. While playing with the Mic settings I noticed that you cannot hear the Microphone effects such as Echo or Magic Voice on the Xear SingFX in the headphones. Mic Boost is enabled by default. Thanks to Joe for commenting that he read the article then pointing out that I totally missed some of the fine print to get to these advanced settings. I have adjusted the review and rating to reflect that.
The MPOW EG3 Gaming Headphones were comfortable and stylish: the sound was clear with obvious stereo imaging and the 50mm drivers push full-range sound with a quality typical for this price range and PC gaming or music needs. The microphone sounds clear when gaming; my friends could hear my voice just fine and in the software interface you can turn on Mic Monitoring so you can hear your own voice. I suggest using the foam windscreen to get rid of your breathing sounds. I also used this headset to make and receive video calls with various applications such as Skype, or Messenger. The USB cable is soft and non-tangling, the earpads are comfortable even after playing for hours. The MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset is a stylish, well-appointed good sounding headset with effective noise reduction, a clear microphone, and a nice USB cable. The headphones have a lot of utility and ability to amuse and abuse your ears. Don’t get carried away with the settings, too much Reverb will crush the audio signal with mush, and the EQ while obvious is a very personal choice. Lucky it’s just a click to return to a flat EQ. They seem like a great device for the upcoming Holiday season at a reasonable price. 9 out of Ten. Thanks, MPOW!
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
Driver Diameter: Ø50 mm Sensitivity: 105±3 dB Impedance: 32?±15% Frequency Range: 20~20000 Hz MIC Dimension: Ø6.0×2.7mm MIC Sensitivity: -38±3dB MIC Impedance: 2.2K? Headset Interface: USB Audio Cable Length: 2.2m (7.2ft)
Package Contents MPOW EG3 Gaming Headset× 1 User Guide× 1 Packing Box × 1 Cotton Mic Protector × 1
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An audio specialist with over 20 years of audio engineering experience. When not sitting behind a sound board, he enjoys spending time with his family, including his two youngest sons, as well as rock/mountain scrambling, rappelling and taking his Jeep into hard to find areas (until it has to be dug back out from the dirt).
If you right click the speaker icon, it gives your more options for the surround sound and equalizer.
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