CORSAIR – HS65 SURROUND Wired 7.1 Surround Gaming Headset for PC, PS5, and PS4 with Sound ID Technology – Black

Over the past 5-6 years, I’ve run through close to three dozen different gaming headsets in my search for the “perfect” set of cans and have auditioned, returned, recycled, kept, or retired budget, mid-tier, and top-of-the-line wired and wireless offerings from Razer, Hyper X, RIG, Astro, Logitech, Turtle Beach, Sennheiser, Corsair, and SteelSeries. Does this latest offering from Corsair stand out amongst its competition–mostly. It does offer top-notch sound quality, solid construction, simple and effective controls, fairly deep customization options via the iCUE client, and outstanding mic performance. The only niggles I found during my audition and use were slightly finicky fitment and some minor but noticeable issues in surround sound rendering.
The HS65 is what I would consider a budget-oriented mid-tier surround headset…it is obviously geared towards the gaming crowd but does not feature any RGB or over-the-top “gamerish” aesthetics or design flair. Each of the oval earcups features a reflective Corsair logo in the middle of a round honeycomb inset that looks like an open-backed speaker grill, but these design elements are strictly cosmetic–the headset is definitely closed-back and does a really good job with passive isolation of outside noise. The earcups are padded with very soft, glasses-friendly memory foam cushions that feature a satiny smooth fabric on the inner walls and on the cushioned surfaces that touch the skin, with soft PU leather on the outside–that same leatherette covers an equally soft memory foam cushion that runs along the entire underside of the headband. Earcup size is thankfully quite generous as the over-the-ear design actually completely enclosed my ears without any noticeable on-ear overlap. Time will tell how long the PU leather lasts before it starts to peel, flake, or separate, but this is an issue that is typical of every synthetic leather product I’ve used over the past few decades.
Despite weighing ~260 grams (with another 20 grams for the cable), construction is very solid with a mix of higher density plastic and metal for the headband–mine did not creak or feel cheap in any of my stress & bending tests. The earcups smoothly rotate a bit more than 90 degrees to fold perfectly flat for easier storage & placement on a desktop or table–sadly, there is no carrying case or even a cloth travel bag to keep the headset & USB dongle together. The rotating mechanisms on the earcup hangers feel reassuringly solid without any cheap looseness or wiggle; however, vertical earcup tilt is only about 5 degrees or so, meaning most fitment adjustments are accomplished through headband sizing and earcup rotation. The headband does not feature any numbers or hash marks so resizing has to be done by feel rather than sight/memory. Personally, I found out-of-the-box clamping force to be unusually high for a headset this light; even with all that soft padding on board, my ears became fatigued and the top of my head was sore after about an hour or so of play. Stretching out the headband worked wonders for me, but because the metal construction in the headband is so robust, I had to remember to do this every time I donned/doffed the headset or those hotspots and earaches would return quickly–YMMV.
The flip-to-mute microphone boom is of a rather unusual design…instead of looking like a round, flexible bit of wire, it features a flat, rubberized ribbon-like design. I was a bit leery at first, but whatever memory-retention wire is inside the flat boom construction works very well to retain both inward and outward sideways bends as well as slight twists to get the microphone angled just how you want it without slowly creeping back to its original shape, even over longer gaming sessions. However, the thick-but-flat design does mean it is virtually impossible to bend the boom directly upwards or downwards (like a tape measure–it can twist and bend side-to-side, but you can’t bend it straight up or down). In practice, however, I doubt that such precise placement will be required–the microphone seems to be of very high quality as voice capture was outstanding with no artificial DSP or watery sound. I was also concerned that the omnidirectional pickup would let a lot of ambient sound intrude into my gaming session, but that did not prove to the be case based on my sample voice recordings.
The smooth rubberized headphone cable is captive on left earcup which is slightly unfortunate because you won’t be able to replace the cable if the plug or earcup connection gets stressed and starts to go out on you…but again, this is a slightly more budget-oriented design so a few compromises to keep costs down are expected. The cable terminates at a combo 3.5mm plug so you can use it on virtually any source component with a headphone or combo jack; the flip-to-mute boom microphone folds completely vertical and out of your way, but it does not integrate neatly into the earcup as do some of the HS65’s competitors. There is a single volume dial on the left earcup…that is the extent of the onboard controls. This simplicity is refreshing, though it cuts both ways–you don’t have to remember what button or dial does what or fumble for the right controls in the dark, but it also means that every other significant function (EQ selection, sidetone adjustment, mic boost, surround settings, etc.) is only available when using the USB dongle on a PC/Mac with the accompanying iCUE software client.
The soundcard dongle is a small USB pigtail that my iCUE client recognized immediately and even downloaded a new firmware update upon startup. Unlike most of the similarly designed gaming headset competitors I mentioned, this Corsair dongle supports high-resolution sound formats up to 24-bit/96KHz. Within the iCUE client, you have access to a powerful 10-band EQ with the range to make boosts/cuts up to 12 dB, as well as 5 additional presets: Pure Direct (flat), Movie Theater, FPS Competition, Clear Chat, & Bass Boost. In addition to adjusting microphone & sidetone volume, iCUE gives you an additional slider for up to another 10dB of mic sensitivity gain. You can also turn the voice prompts on and off which was actually helpful to indicate the status of the surround setting, mic status, mic feedback (sidetone), etc. If you get the white HS65 headset, you can even change the color in iCUE so a white headset shows up on your dashboard. There is also an option within the iCUE client for something called “SoundID Personalization.” The idea is that you pick your preferences (A or B) from a series of repeating sound clips with slight adjustments to the sound until you get a custom EQ profile that is supposed to represent your preferences across multiple EQ bands. In practice, I found this setting to be useless because the repeating sound clips are only a few seconds long as opposed to the complex and variable musical selections, game, or video soundtracks I routinely listen to.
Personally, I do not have much use for gimmicky EQ settings (although the Movie Theater EQ was fairly engaging and fun without being overblown in any one particular area) so I left the EQ in Pure Direct and auditioned a number of video games, movies, and songs I was intimately familiar with. Sound quality was exceptionally good, especially with high resolution audio tracks and streams. Bass *quality* was outstanding though these are not what I would consider bass-head cans…there was just a slight lack of lower-bass bloom and “kick” that actually made listening less fatiguing than normal, though I did miss the occasional visceral “whomp” of a deep bass guitar or a chest-rattling explosion. Mids and highs were positively wonderful, clear, detailed, and airy…if you enjoy high quality sound but are not a fan of extremely bass-heavy headphones, you will love what you get from the HS65s.
The only area where the HS65s faltered just a bit was in surround processing, but you may not notice if you don’t know what you’re missing already. Corsair markets these as featuring Dolby Audio; but it is not the same surround solution as Dolby Atmos for headphones. The difference seems to be 7.1 surround in a 2D plane (iCUE’s Dolby) vs. object-oriented all-around-surround (Dolby Atmos). During an Atmos-encoded demo track, Window’s Atmos processing produced a smooth and uniform soundfield where the sound source moved fluidly in all directions including behind the listener and over/under. In the iCUE-based 7.1 solution, the soundfield flattened and sound sources that were behind and below the listener actually became almost silent. It was a subtle difference to be sure, and would only really show up in an Atmos-encoded soundtrack anyway, but as some games are now including Atmos mixes, pinpoint sound source localization could be affected. Still, in regular use, in-game immersion was thorough and compelling and only those already used to Atmos-based surround would likely notice the difference.
The closest competition in terms of design and features is probably the Logitech G Pro X (pictured next to the HS65)…while the HS65 is less expensive, both are of similar size, performance, and mic quality, though I dare say the Dolby Audio of the HS65 is a bit livelier than the DTS:X 2.0 solution of the Pro X. I personally found the Pro X a bit more comfortable, but if you don’t have a very large head, the HS65 shouldn’t be a problem at all. Bottom line–if you care about audio quality but are on a bit of a budget, the Corsair HS65 is definitely a strong contender in the crowded mid-tier surround headset market.

The Corsair HS65 Surround Gaming Headset, in Carbon, is the perfect gaming headset for the cost conscious gamer looking for premium performance, with quality construction – and without all the bling. And just because they aren’t flashy doesn’t mean they don’t look slick.
I was immediately taken by how well this gaming headset is constructed. The overall look & feel are really top shelf. I was apprehensive about the design of the head band but after playing Sandstorm for many hours over many days, I can attest to the fact that the HS65’s are very comfortable. No crown soreness or fatigue. YMMV. The ear cups are also a combination of pleather & breathable cloth – something I hadn’t really considered or experienced before, and again – great comfort for hours – with no heat build up or that clammy feeling. Nicely done Corsair!
The individual ear pieces do rotate a bit, extend with a satisfying amount of friction points and the flip-away microphone is pretty ingenious. I suspect some users with larger head geometry may find these a bit constricting, but for the average adult or younger gamer I think comfort will be very satisfying.
These can be used either via the mini jack or in conjunction with the USB dongle. Those pieces are also quality built. Personally, I’m not a big fan of headsets that incorporate all the RGB bling – there’s plenty of other places for that – and as an understated design, I find these to be a perfect compliment to my entire Corsair keyboard & mouse ecosystem. There’s really nothing to gripe about with these. My impression is as the title suggests; budget friendly with premium performance. But what was really surprising was the actual audio performance. Upon unboxing and connecting these up to my Legion 7i gaming laptop, I ran thru the SoundID calibration tests and found the resulting audio quality to be spot-on. Having tried similar customization on other sound products, I didn’t expect good results but Corsair did a great job with respect to the HS65’s. Bass is articulate, plentiful and balanced. The mids and highs are equally clear & balanced and overall – this headset sound phenomenal. I wasn’t expecting it – in this price segment – but these do deliver! Music sound equally good. If one isn’t into the personalized SoundID calibration, the iCue Software gives you all the EQ and sound profile control you’ll ever need. But for me, once I clocked in the first full day of Insurgency: Sandstorm and I heard all the nuanced stuff I had been previously missing – I was sold on my personalized SoundID profile. It was honestly a quick, one-and-done run-thru process. Foot steps, commander calls, the entire soundstage (near & far field) presentation while in-game is very remarkable. There is a rotary volume control and some might find themselves wanting for a tad bit more volume – but for me – these get plenty loud enough and the isolation from the outside environment is simply perfect.
The fold away microphone is also pretty cool. I would have preferred an in-line mute switch but I learned quickly to adapt to this new way of shutting off the microphone. I am going to assume some people won’t like it… but that’s to be expected. To each their own.
Over all, these are a very high performing, solidly constructed headset and the performance level is a well above their ‘Weight Class’. Since audio is SO highly subjective, I would simply say to go give them a try for yourself. What you will save buying these can be spent on other key essentials.
Pros:
Solid build quality
Comfortable head band even though it looks meager
Very comfortable, dual-material ear cups
Ingenious fold-away microphone armature
Excellent imaging and sound fidelity with no perceivable distortion
The bass on these is excellent!
Great Corsair iCue integration with surprisingly effective & personalized SoundID calibration
Cons:
None really
Notables:
Some may find themselves wanting for a touch more volume/gain
May not be suitable for people with larger head geometry

I’ve always been aware of Corsair but mainly through their PC fans and components. Then I had a chance to try their HS65 Surround Sound Gaming Headset and I was skeptical of what to expect from a gaming headset. I wasn’t sure if it would meet the same standards I had from using other names more recognized for their headsets. I was a fool! This headset is amazing and everything you’d want from a headset.
Out of the box you get the headset with attached 3.5 audio jack and 90 degree swiveling ear cups and a 3.5-to-USB adapter (there’s also a warranty booklet and instruction pamphlet), its simple and short. Design of the headset is also pretty standard with a volume control on the lower rear of the left earmuff, a microphone on the front of the left earmuff, earmuffs the fold 90 degree to lay flat when hanging on your headset stand or wall hook, and soft almost memory foam like cushions for your ears. The top band is wide over your head and ratchets out to adjust for comfort so it always feels good to wear, not heavy but also a very durable heavy duty feel. The microphone is a thin blade of bendable rubber which is both minimal and allows for infinite adjustment for your preferences without sacrificing clarity of sound. Stylish too, the silver mesh with Corsair logo on the sides of the ear muffs is very appealing and cool!
I used the headset for my PS5 playing “Horizon: Forbidden West” which allowed me to really feel the surround sound of the headset. As I walked across plains and deserts in the game I was able to hear robot creatures sneaking up behind me, in the hero’s base I could hear distant allies echoing from down metal hallways, their voices reverberating as if they were actually down the hall from me in my home while the friend across from me in the game was clear and crystal as if speaking right in front of me in my living room. Sound was highly adjustable, I normally play with the volume control at halfway but even that was too loud for me…I dare say you may never need to turn it up to full volume! Designed for console and PC gaming there was a feature I didn’t get to try called SoundID which allows for your sound preferences to be recorded and automatically used each time you play a game. Just calling that out because it seems like a cool feature, I simply don’t have a gaming PC to test that on.
These are a real surprise and a very pleasant one at that! While I’ve never had reason to doubt Corsair fans or components, I just assumed nothing special from their headset and I was proven undoubtedly wrong! These are one of the best gaming headsets I’ve ever owned and I would highly recommend you look at these next time you’re shopping for a headset for your PC or console gaming system.

Corsair has been releasing headsets for sometime, with many of their greatest versions being wireless. However, if you’re in the market for a wired headset (3.5mm or USB), you’re in luck! No need to worry about batteries to charge, all while being comfortable for longer gaming sessions.
In the box you’ll find the headset with an attached 3.5mm cable, a USB adapter, and some warranty information. Since this has a 3.5mm connector, the headset will also plug into the headset jack of your PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for audio and chat use. It’s important to note that while you can just use the 3.5mm jack, you will not be able to take advantage of the 7.1 surround sound (Dolby Audio) using the iCue software installed on your PC.
There is a simple volume control on the left earphone, and the attached microphone is posable to allow for some preference on positioning. To mute the headset, simply lift the microphone upward until you hear a click. The audio quality is really clear with this headset, and with the iCue software you can further define you audio listening preference using a series of listening examples provided by the software.
I should note, that if you have “Dolby Access” installed and licensed for use, you can turn on the Dolby option in Spatial Audio settings on your Windows 11 PC. The iCue software is also not necessarily required for use with the headset jack or the included USB adapter, but will allow for switching Dolby Audio for the 7.1 surround sound option in the app. The microphone input was also clear during my gaming and chat sessions over Discord and while using during video calls. The padding on the earphones and on the head strap are also comfortable, making longer sessions easy, as the headset doesn’t weigh much. The HS65 doesn’t offer any type of RGB lighting found on their more premium models, but none of those cosmetics effect the audio quality of the headset.
Overall, the Corsair HS65 offers great quality sound, comfortable wear, and is a great value if you’re using this on multiple devices with a headset jack. The iCue software offers the ability to use 7.1 surround sound with Dolby Audio, but doesn’t break the bank. I’d say this a worthy headset to add to your gaming rotation, while being capable of taking a conference call.