Sennheiser PC 350 On-Ear Collapsible Gaming Headset with Vol Control & Microphone Mute | 
| Brand: Sennheiser
Category: CE
List Price: $229.95
Buy New: $147.00
as of 9/9/2010 07:03 CDT details
You Save: $82.95 (36%)
New (9)
Seller: Rees Office Products
Rating:  139 reviews
Platform: Windows
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Windows
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 9
MPN: PC 350
Model: PC 350
UPC: 858399226743
EAN: 4044156021751
ASIN: B0012XFDWO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Closed circumaural construction shuts out disturbing ambient noise | | • | Large size ear cups for comfortable wearing during long gaming sessions | | • | Large size microphone for highest intelligibility | | • | Collapsible for easy transport | | • | Volume control with microphone mute |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
HEADSET,PC CIRCUMAURAL CLOSED TYPE
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 139
 Superb headset in every way January 28, 2009
J. Portz (CT)
64 out of 65 found this review helpful
I've owned a few headsets in the past 10 years, including Logitech, Altec Lansing, Sony (without a microphone) and a lower model Sennheiser about 5 years ago. I am an avid computer gamer and often go late into the night at stretches of 8 hours at a time or more. And this is the best headset I've ever used in almost everyway.
First impressions on removing it from the packaging (which I had no trouble with, following the directions on the box) were of durability and a solid build. It's well put together, nothing seems flimsy or cheap, but its also surprisingly lightweight. The wire is quite heavy duty, unlike the Altec Lansing and Logitech headsets I previously owned. Not to mention robust strain relief where the wire connects to the headset, the control pod, and the jacks.
The control pod is perfectly positioned and lightweight, so even if it's dangling you don't even feel it, unlike the bulky control pods on some other headsets. In terms of fit, the ears swivel almost 45 degrees in each direction, and extend from the head-bar with solid clicking intervals. The headbar and ears are both covered in comfortable velor padding which unlike faux-leather on my previous altec lansings, don't cause your skin to sweat and stick to it. The earpieces swivel slightly in and out, and if you push firmly on them they will collapse inward with a snap - don't be afraid, it just prevents them from collapsing on accident, which I was concerned about when I saw them folded inward in the pictures.
They collapse solidly but will not do so by themselves. The microphone is adjustable, but not overly so - you have to bend it firmly to adjust the position and it won't bounce back on its own. It descends down from its perch vertically along the headset with a moderate degree of resistance, so it won't flop up or down on its own. And if you want to move it halfway up and leave it there, it won't flop back down, unlike my old headset, which either had to be all the way up or down. Hopefully it stays this way.
In terms of comfort, its extraordinary. Many headsets I've owned claimed to be circumaural, meaning they surround you ears and don't sit on them or in them. But most either never intended to actually follow through on that promise or they are made for people with ears the size of quarters. Even my old Sennheisers sat right on my ears, and my Altec Lansings, while a very nice headset, had padding large enough to go around my ears, but the speakers inside the earphones themselves pressed up against my ears, which became extremely uncomfortable after periods of time.
These earphones are ACTUALLY circumaural. The padding surrounds your ears but never touches them. The only pressure is on your actual head; your ears are never in contact with anything. The velor is soft and the pressure is almost unnoticeable. At first they seemed a bit tight but a little adjustment of the head-bar and a couple hours and they seem to break in a bit. the velor padding on the head-bar rests gently on the top of your head and the whole thing seems to distribute the weight of the headset evenly so you barely feel it.
Now for sound - Everyone knows Sennheiser is one of the premier names in sound quality, and these are no disappointment. Now these are probably not the headset you want if you're just listening to music in a studio or something - but for a combination of a microphone and comfort and audio quality, I doubt there's any better at this price. I began by watching a DVD of Band of Brothers on my computer. At first I thought something was wrong! It sounded like there was some kind of noise coming from somewhere else besides the DVD, when I realized I was hearing things I've never even before heard on my speaker system!
Every sound, especially the mid's and high's are exceptionally clear and sharp. And for a headset that is not a 5.1 headset, the directionality of the sound is amazing. Some here have complained that the base is not heavy enough, but honestly, if you want to have more base than this, you're not looking for audio quality and accuracy, you're just looking for ridiculous base. The base was excellent and sharp, not booming or echoing. Explosions sounded realistic and surprising, without any buzzing or crackling. For sound quality, these are better than my Klipsch Promedia speaker system, and that's saying something.
These also have a closed headset design, and I was initially worried about the sweaty-ear syndrome from this type of headset, but I was suprised and happy to find that after 4 hours, I didn't experience any overheating or sweating of my ears. Maybe in the summertime that would change, but if anything the headset just got more comfortable over that time.
The microphone quality, while it is hard for me to tell myself, I've been told it's excellent, although I had to turn my gain up a bit on my microphone, because apparently its a bit quieter because of the filter on it.
My only con with this set of headphones is the cord I think could be a bit longer, but that's not a big deal, for me anyways. Also, I think a carrying bag might be nice to go with these headphones.
Overall, if you're looking for a headset with superb audio quality, comfort, durability, longevity, and a high quality microphone, not to mention incredibly stylish looks and a classic and understated appearance, you CANNOT go wrong with these for the price. Forget the 5.1 channel headsets with bulky, powered control pods for surround sound and brightly colored headsets, get this one for a lifetime of quality and enjoyment.
Best Headset Ever July 23, 2008
Truth
28 out of 32 found this review helpful
I was the happy owner of a sennheiser 161 for like 2 years, it died because I had the bad habbit of chewing on the string when I got stressed programming. I gotta say this thing is far superior, I was worried it'd be expensive just because it looks a lot nicer and would not be much of an improvement over sennheisers $70 - 100 headsets. I was very impressed when they got here. The audio quality is not super improved from the older headsets, that's not a insult though as the cheaper ones have amazing quality. It has much more capacity for bass. The cheaper headsets sounded really bad on heavy bass parts. A lot of people think a better headset will make the bass louder or more noticeable at least, but its not the case unless you use an equalizer.
PROS:
The best change in my opinion is the microphone. The mics on the cheaper models were great, but this one has AMAZING noise reduction.
The next best thing is the ambient noise reduction. I honestly felt like the ear pieces were like suction cups because you can feel a noticable change in pressure when you put them on and your voice even sounds different to you when you speak. It's not exactly like ear plugs but there's definitely a noticeable drop in ambient noise.
The privacy is pretty good. People can't hear what your listening to when they're on your head, however the second you take them off its pretty loud even at low volumes.
More bass capacity.
More comfortable and nicer looking.
The wire is noticeably thicker...for me to chew on =P
Cons
Still the same cheap manual wheel to increase or lower volume. From experience these seem to break easily or cause one side of the headset to be louder than the other on certain levels.
It produces a crackling sound at 98Khz output sampling rate on my soundcard. I set it to 48Khz and it fixed the issue. Other headsets didn't have this problem.
It gets kinda hot around the ears.
One of the previous reviewers noted that the volume wheel sucks and won't turn the sound all the way off. I gotta say it makes it really quiet. If you want to mute the sound all together you can just set a hotkey with hotkeybind, autohotkey or some other free macro software.
My new gaming set. And classical music set. Bar none. December 17, 2009
Christopher Stiefel (Kyle, TX)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Wow... Just wow... I actually started using these in place of my other set for listening to my classical music when I'm working on the computer. (they won't replace my best set for my quiet time moments of harmony but; they're about a tenth the price too...) After a few weeks of use, they sound warm, sharp but not shrill, not bright, yet full of impact. A nice tonal response all the way across. Not perfect but far from the rather crappy norm.
The higher impedance of these also makes it easier on the equipment and lower on the noise (lower impedance = higher introduced noise; downside is lower power output capability from the same amp (unless it has a multi-voltage-rail type design, but that's another topic).) However, the stock on-board sound-card in one of my test rigs was more than capable of still reaching physically painful volumes without any trouble and have room left on the knob. With higher-end, more potent sound-cards or external setups, lots of room left on the knob.
Still, every person hears differently so you can't go by anyone's opinions but your own. (The average person starts to have a high-frequency fall-off in their early middle age, for example. I do not (yet) but take extra special care of my hearing wearing earplugs where many people do not.) But for an SQ buff like me, these are beyond good, well into very nice. Not perfect, but what is...
Those 'other' gaming sets (and honestly, I've tried them all) and other tiny-multi-speaker sets that try to do a 5.1 setup can not truly hold a candle to the sound quality of these (and you don't need those for 5.1 type sound. I play competitive FPS with these and can easily tell right where everything is without question).
As for the mic; everyone continually asks me what mic I'm using cause I sound so clear and crisp and precise. Since buying these, about half of my regular competition have done the same. All with the same opinions of comfort and quality save one (He's about deaf anyhow honestly. He found them bland but he has the above for-mentioned problem to a rather extreme so he likes very bright sounding speakers to make up the difference for his actual ears. Again, just an example of human differences and how no two people will ever hear exactly the same.)
Comfort, very good, not great. I can play for about 6 hours without too much problem thuogh. After that I have to take them off for a while. But I've found that to be pretty much true of all over the ear or on the ear sets. I'm worried about the longevity of the ear padding material but only time will tell that. I actually wish they had a width selector instead of just the arch effect and springs of the cups. But it's working ok. Tiny bit weak on the bottom. I've seen a few people actually strap them around to snug them up but I'm fine without that step. Doing so however does bring out the lower frequencies even more-so. So, some difference of hearing can simply be due to how they sit on your head. They are very adjustable, but.. Just that one thing missing. I've tried the strap myself, and it works great. But honestly I'm just too lazy. Still without it they are still exceptional in almost every way.
It would also be nice if the mic could be switched to the other side as my hardware is on the right. Mic is on the left and so is the cabling. Cables are plenty long but... still... It would also be nice if they could collapse cup to cup to keep dust or what not out of the speaker areas, but they fold both up into the top so the speaker cups point in the same direction. Another tiny point but something to note.
Volume control and mic mute are just a hair too far down the wire for me. But if you want to tuck the wire into your jacket or something for a long battle session, then it's too short so, unless they make it movable, no winners there. In the end it's very functional with almost no scratch effect and the mic mute works without the notorious bump some give ya when triggered.
Even though it's generally not necessary with the good equipment, I go through a break-in period for all of my equipment before trying to rate them just to make sure any build stiffness is out and they are working normally. I also use them normally at very low volume levels due to my sensitive hearing. Even at these low volumes, they sound wonderful and that's actually saying something. The human ear will tend to 'like' louder (to a point obviously) sounds when comparing different sounds so doing comparisons at lower volumes can give you more truth to what 'you' like. A little test I like to do for myself is how quiet I still like them. Under extremely low power (volume), some speakers change their response characteristics a bit. These sing to me all the way down to 'off'.
Part of my problem being a gamer but being so picky was I never liked my 'gaming' headsets. I spent way too much money trying to find a set I could live with. These are the exception. Not only can I live with them, I like them very much. To make sure my opinion didn't change over time, I even waited over 6 months before posting this review and continued shopping for the perfect gaming set. Right now, I'm stopping and just keeping these. Nothing has come close to the whole package.
All in all, a wonderful product. For the price, near impossible to best. Or at least no one has done it yet. In the end overall quality will depend in your listening tastes, quality of your hearing, and the size/shape of your head. But Sennheiser is known for quality sound reproduction, and these do not disappoint. Could you do better? Sure. You'll most likely spend quite a bit more too. I don't rate max points very often. But these really deserve it.
Amazing... March 24, 2008
Michael L. Yach (Pittsburgh, PA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I had been looking for a new headset for a long while. I've used Logitech, Plantronics and no-name brands over the years. I've always struggled with trying to find a headset that was comfortable to wear for hours on end (I wear glasses plus play games for long stretches) that also had excellent sound quality both for me and from the mic.
Until I bought the PC350s, I had yet to find a headset that would satisfy me.
They are very well made, they sound amazing, they're comfortable (although a little heavy, but not too bad).
I did not buy mine from [...], since I was able to find it elsewhere for nearly $[...] less. I did have to wait nearly 3 weeks to get them, though, since they are so new.
Finally... A Decent Set of Headphones April 13, 2009
M. Mitchell (Florabama)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is my fifth gaming headset and from the gaming experience so far, should be the last headset I buy for quite some time.
On the objective side of things, this headset is quite comfortable with no part of either ear "cup" resting on any part of the respective ears. They don't squeeze too tightly, and do adjust for large heads that you might see on NFL football players. My ten year-old child wears these quite comfortably as well; a head size on the other end of the spectrum.
I've seen various reviews remarking of ears becoming warm and I suppose they might; a little. But nothing really worth talking about.
External noise is blocked well when gaming or listening to music.
The microphone is more than satisfactory in both design and in clarity. Easy adjustment and movement, and excellent voice reproduction- well, the various people with whom I've gamed all say it's been clear and undistorted.
The one feature very different from my previous headsets (and many others) is the link/pivot/hinge connecting the the ear cups to the headband. Very well thought-out design and allows for additional customization of comfort.
Most people, myself included, don't pick up a headset with both hands- one on each ear cup. Instead it's a quick grab of one cup with one hand whereby a fair amount of pressure is placed on that particular hinge. Over time, that begins to break or weaken components. Not so with this headset.
Regarding frequency reproduction, I've run CDs used for tuning mixers with frequency sweeps/white noise/pink noise and I am impressed. While nothing's impossible, I've not yet encountered any distortion with gaming, music or the aforementioned tuning CD.
Granted- distortion potential relies in part, on the quality of the source. On a side note, the soundcard I currently use on my gaming system is the old workhorse Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic.
On the subjective side: "Properly" encoded music files have sounded delicious with clear lows, mids, and highs.
Gaming has become a new world for me with so much more clarity, lovely undistorted explosions, and arresting immersion (Bioshock!). In a previous professional life, I was a DJ and audio editor in television and radio. I'm very impressed by this headset.
Keep in mind, this headset is not intended for reference audio production but they've been more than adequate for my continued amateur work with Reason, Adobe Audition, etc.
Though I was apprehensive prior to purchase, I have NO qualms about the money spent.
(edit) It's some days later I'm drinking Cuba Libras listening to Shaggy in Creative Labs "Entertainment Mode" and the bass is ... well, my only wish would be for this headset to be wireless to make dancing easier. (/edit)
(one more edit 08/12/09) This headset is _GREAT_ with Rosetta Stone! (/one more edit)
Showing reviews 1-5 of 139
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