What a Creative way to listen to Games...

A Creative Sound Blaster Arena Headset Review for Games


Specs

Headphones-
Driver Units: 40mm Neodymium Magnet
Frequency Response: 20Hz ~ 20kHz
Impedance: 32 ohms
Sensitivity (1kHz): 105dB/mW

Microphone-
Microphone Type: Noise-Cancelling Condenser
Frequency Response: 80Hz ~ 16kHz
Impedance: <2.2kohms

Interface -
Connector: USB Type-A
Cord Length: 8-foot/2.5m Oxygen-Free Copper cable

Official Site: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=872&product=18979&listby=

Pics



Introduction and Backstory
It's been a while since I've done a review but with my most recent purchase, I like them too much to keep the enthusiasm inside myself no longer. As many know from my last review, my laptop setup consisted of sound wise was my Sound Blaster 5.1 Surround USB External Soundcard and Razer Barracuda HP-1 5.1 Gaming Headset (located in sig as well). Now don't get me wrong, the speakers on my G71GX-RX05 are pretty alright, especially if I want to listen to some shoutcast radio within the house while I chill writing or doing chores. It's gaming that I have a high standard for in regards to audio.
First things first though, some back story - it will be a bit long winded but it'll hit the review process sooner than you think.

Unlike alot of people, I'm optimistically positive of Creative. Yes, they have somewhat lost their touch over the years since the Audigy days we all remember. Even I had a hard time finding the right [vista] drivers for my [old/removed] desktop's Creative Xtreme Gamer X-Fi sound card. The one thing though once I did find the right drivers was fall in love with EAX and the X-Fi's sound itself(Alchemy is ESPECIALLY Helpful with my older games). I love how certain games just make the X-FI sound good, especially with EAX (like Doom 3, etc.) Because of this though, I can't suffice with onboard sound anymore, games sound lacking to me without EAX or X-Fi sound. So once I got my new laptop, I immediately grabbed the X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB External Soundcard and then I fell in love with my games sound all over again.

This may come as a shock but my G71GX-RX05 travels with me alot, unlike what people think I find the laptop to be very portable and not that heavy at all (I do go to the gym alot though). So I can't be hunkered down to my desk with speakers, it's one of the main reason why I grabbed a laptop in the first place, to lose the shackles to the desk and one room. So with the External sound card I grabbed the Razer Barracuda HP-1 5.1 Headphones... yeah I know what you're thinking but these headphones were a bit different than others I've tried. They really had three different drivers (Sides, Rear, and fronts) and sub that convinced me pretty well where things were at and bumped as well. I was happy with it so don't judge ! I was pretty happy with the sound setup until...

We fast forward to today...

With me transporting my laptop nearly everywhere I went with my Targus backpack, it was a pain to plug in my external sound card and headphones due to how much wire they provided, too much in fact that I often just had a bundle mess of wire always. The headphones were getting a bit subjective as well as I had to always be adjusting the drivers individually all the time (yes, it had a external controller for that). I was sick of the mess and clutter and reminded me too much of my desktop days with speakers. I just wanted some good sound without the problems I was currently having. I almost reverted to using the onboard sound of the laptop and just buying some good stereo headphones but reminded myself alot of what I would be missing (EAX, X-FI, Alchemy, etc.) so I held unto my current setup.

That's until Creative decided to answer my prayers... they popped out the Creative Sound Blaster Arena Headset. The day I saw them, I knew - I wanted them, so I waited until I saw a good price (found mine for $50 during the Holiday rush) and grabbed them.

Design
I do realize that these headset absolutely don't match my laptop but I actually like the white ! Now these do come in Three flavors and the differences are very minor (besides price):

Arena (White & Black- not Soundcard dependent),
Complexity (White and Red - not Soundcard dependent),
And Fatal1ty MKII (Black & Red- Somewhat Soundcard dependent for Silencer)

Besides the different color schemes , all three have the same design wise, each with two plush leather (non replaceable) cups with a detachable boom mic on the left side. The plush leather material is also used for the top of the head rest, but in my opinion is used at a bare minimum compared to the headphone's cups. Which is a bit disappointing as it means you could get some discomfort within a few hours of use if you have the headrest clamped a bit close to your head. Good thing the headset is adjustable on both sides as you can raise the headrest a bit from your head and for those with bigger heads, it's a bit of a good thing.

To go deeper about the cups of this headset, they are moveable by the way by about 130 degrees, so it tries to conform to your head pretty well. It also means that it can also come in handy for easy packing and travel as it can lay flat unlike other headphones which stand straight up on their sides. The plush leather on the cups are very comfortable but due to personal preference, I'm not a fan of leather on headphones/headsets. They produce higher heat and sweating can happen, making the leather a bit sticky/nasty. I kinda wonder why they didn't use velor-type material, as it's more comfortable and breathable than leather. The pads are still comfortable mind you and I'll still use the headset but be ready to clean the cups from time to time.

Now the boom of the mic is pretty cool as it's not only detachable but very flexible. Now detaching is pretty easy but alot of people might have a hard time attaching the mic back as there is only ONE way to do so. You have to attach it into the hole while the portion in which you would talk into has to be point straight UP in the air (like towards the ceiling). I've read a couple reviews already of people not being able to attach it from the side or downward but reason - there's only one way to attach it and I already explained how. Anyway, the mic is very flexible and can be totally away from your face if you want but it reads best with being a bit close to your face. The mic can rotate about 180 degrees so that's also a plus.

I will come out with it as well that the headset does look a bit cheap with all the plastic around the headrest and cups but with the leather plush cups (and headrest), metal adjusters, and pretty much other pluses I mentioned above salvages that "cheap" idea quickly. I can understand that all the plastic was meant to make the headset be/feel alot lighter which it does. So thumbs up for that Creative, it's a very well rounded, well made, and lightweight design!

Software and Drivers
Well, due to it being a usb Headset, it's surprisingly plug and play ready. With that, no drivers are really needed for it to work immediately which is nice, literally runs off your onboard sound. Onboard sound sucks IMO, so what's the point anyway. So in goes the installation cd that is provided with the headset, pretty much holds your hand through the whole installation process too - very user friendly for beginners in the ordeal. It does have Vista 64bit drivers by the way for those who were wondering, not too sure about windows 7 but forums have reported that it is working on Windows 7 (I won't take the jump until I hear that Steam and a few other programs fix their kinks to the change over).

Due to its already plug and play workmanship, if you wish to use your onboard sound and/or laptop speakers, just unplug the usb cord from the slot. Within a few seconds your onboard sound/speakers will kick in like you never even installed the headset (like regular 3.5mm headphones), nice! I do sometimes to listen to my shoutcast radio around my home while I chill writing or doing chores. It also works vice versa as well, plugging in the headset will disable your onboard sound and speakers and revert to your Soundblaster drivers. Some configuration may be needed on your part though, like for me I had to disable my optical out and HDMI out for some reason for the switching to work properly. It all varies and might be different for each owner, it does work rather well all in all.

The software that get's installed that is a bit important is... of course the driver but I was talking about the Creative Entertainment Console. Now you can't change the Speaker configuration [headphones] obviously but what is important here is the Bass Settings, which don't sound too good out of the box. Thanks to CNET Australia reviewing these headphones before me, I was able to find a great sweet spot in regards to Bass on the Arena Headset with the settings at 6dB gain and the cut-off frequency at 30Hz.
Once with those setting , the bass on the Arena can beat pretty hard, just don't go too loud on the volume or you'll distort a bit. Now the volume can be adjusted through the Entertainment Console or general volume icon on thee startbar but you can also change the volume through the attached Volume controller (forgot to mention on the Design portion of the review) along with muting the mic or turning it on. Volume on the Arena is pretty excellent as I never have to go above 10, so this can get extremely loud and blow your ear drums out as it can go up to 100.

Now I personally don't have EAX selected in the Entertainment Console as it becomes too echo like for my taste but it kinda is automatically used (no matter if the setting is off or on) in games that use EAX, so enabling it in the Entertainment Console is kinda pointless. Now the X-Fi Crystalizer is pretty well done and supposedly it makes your audio a bit crisper and clearer, to me it sound like it makes certain instruments louder, so I leave it at the Maximum setting. Personally though, I don't bother listening to my favorite mp3's on my laptop, I have a Cowon S9 mp3 player that has the Best Sound quality you can buy with BBE+ 3.0, which sounds better than anything IMO.

Back to the headset though, Personal preference goes out to how you the user wants to have the Equalizer and Mixer set at, I pretty much left those alone. Now the one cool setting is Microphone. As stated on the box, it includes the Silencer Feature. It blocks out/ muffles outside sound in order for you to talk to your team mates or friends clearly. Now don't knock me too much but I'm not much of a online gamer on PC but user reviews say the Silencer Feature works pretty well. Hats off for that, the online community will be glad you have it as well. Now you also have a VoiceFX feature for your Microphone which can make your voice sound like various people like an Alien, to a demon, to even a Robot (heck they even have a male to female setting). It's pretty funny and fun to jerk your friends around with.

Performance
Looks like we are now down to the nitty gritty of what this review is more about and the headset is meant for, GAMES! Now the X-Fi CMSS-3D of the Entertain Console was meant to be enable for, you guessed it, games! X-Fi CMSS-3D does what you think it should do, create a 3D like surround sound that you can't believe your headphones are producing. It's quite outstanding and jaw dropping when it comes to games. The games that I think utilize surround sound well for example are Condemned, F.E.A.R, Quake 4, Doom 3, and Wolfenstein (all used for my test/review) - all shooters, I know but pinpoint sound is really a godsend!

First games I tried were made by the same people, Monolith Production's F.E.A.R and Condemned. Both excellent scare fest first person shooters, that require a keen ear to bums who are either sneaking up on you or needing to find where the next soldier is screaming at. I will start with saying that the ambience in both games is unbelievable! I could swear up and down all the time that I could hear stuff right outside my the headset, and you probably wouldn't believe me. Seagulls screeching off in the distance, telephones with the answering lady repeating herself from afar, stuff like that sounds like they're not even near you or near the cups of the headset. What you do hear "inside" the headset helps a whole lot, pinpointing where your bullets need to fly at. The CMSS-3D works so well, I can literally hear in between the left and right channels and literally behind me of where I need to shoot. It feels as though you have your very own cheat key and the games got easier as you can tell by the footsteps where your enemies are coming from and where they are headed, it's something I expect from a 5.1 sound system not from a headset!

Next games I tried were from the good guys from ID Software (technically), Doom 3, Quake 4, Wolfenstein (2009). Doom 3 was like a benchmark back a few years ago in various areas, whether graphics, sound, and gameplay (felt more like a giant tech demo but that might be just me). What it did pretty good was knowing the right moment to pop out the enemies when you least expect them, like those Imps right behind ya. The Arena pinpoints where they are at rather well now though, so even though it wasn't that scary then - it's not much even moreso due to this headset (I recommend setting the ingame sound to surround instead of stereo to widen the surround field) . The EAX in Doom 3 though is not to my liking though, a bit OVERsaturated so expect lots of engine noise constantly [from the machines in the game]. Quake 4 on the other hand has been perfected by the Arena headset! Let me explain, my Surround 5.1 external sound card, no matter what driver, had the OpenAL in Quake 4 broken. Popping sound in and out like you were jumping in and out of a pool, this even happen on my desktop's Xtreme Gamer sound card - which is strange that OpenAL works fine on the Arena Headset. The EAX, Ambience, and pinpoint sound accuracy is really well done in Quake 4 in combination with the Arena Headset, so now I can finally enjoy Quake 4 like it should be (so be sure to go into Quake 4's Advanced Audio settings and change it to OpenAL). The 2009 Wolfenstein is on the same level as Quake 4 in sounding pretty great but be sure to switch to 5.1 in the ingame sound settings.

Pretty much, if the game has some in game sound settings, despite you using the headset, switch to 5.1 sound if you are able to get a broader sound stage and better results with CMSS-3D!

Final Thoughts
Looks like we are nearing the end of the review but let's drop a few things left not mentioned in the review so far.

The last nitpicks I have might just be due to personal preference than being problems themselves. As mentioned above, CMSS-3D is pretty awesome but the same can't be said if enabled while listening to music. For some odd reason your songs will sound a bit brighter (air like in actuality) and the bass will be a bit subdued (almost totally removed in all honesty) which I particularly don't like (but as mentioned before I listen to my songs on my MP3 player anyway.)
Some people may like it but I believe a few people will agree with me that CMSS-3D is meant for games and movies, not music.
Also, be sure not to lose the CD for the Arena Headset, because Creative has not bothered to pop some drivers on their website at all for the Arena. So if you lose the cd and want to install the drivers, you could be out of luck for a long while.

Now For those who were wondering, the cord is about 8ft long but I keep mine wrapped up a bit with some velcro, laptop owners don't need that much cord. There is also talk of due to the usb port being used for audio, it strains the cpu a bit but in my tests it is so miniscule you don't notice the frames that are dropped (maybe 2 or 5 frames in your games, that's all). Nothing to cry over.

Other than that, the audio is great , crisp and clear and the surround is pretty convincing. Besides a few things I kinda cried about, the Creative Sound Blaster Arena Headset is worth every penny I spent on it. My games have gotten much better to listen to and play, there's less mess/cords for me to deal with, and overall is one of the best products I've seen... I mean heard from Creative in a long time. Hopefully this is going to be a trend for Creative from now but at least they brought a smile to my face. I hope this review was helpful to anyone who may become future purchasers and for those who were wondering about this new headset from Creative.
Until the next review!

Pros:
+ Fantastic Sound
+ Impressively Convincing Surround
+ CMSS-3D is a MUST for games!
+ Comfortable leather Plush Cups
+ Very lightweight design
+ Travel ready
+ Easy Installation
+ Plug and Play
+ Able to switch from headset to onboard sound conveniently
+ Generous 8 Foot cord
+ Volume controller easily accessible on the cord
+ Microphone software is pretty cool, Silencer works along with VoiceFX
+ Nice Color Scheme
+ Great Volume
+ Mixer and EQ very configurable
+ Headrest very adjustable for any sized head
+ Cups comfortably conform to head

Cons:
- Could use a bit more padding for the headrest
- Would have preferred Velor padding for the cups
- Cheap look plastic design may turn some people off
- CMSS-3D not so good for music IMO
- Don't lose the CD, Creative has not bothered to put the drivers on their website
- May be too much cord for some people
- Uses a bit of CPU but not too much to even be concerned about

Side note: Didn't use Source/Valve/Steam games due to the fact EVERYONE does for these type of reviews and I thought I'd think outside of the box. Also, no DVD playback was mentioned whatsoever in my review due to me not having the right software on my computer at the time of me writing this (getting Windvd next week) and I also watch my DVD's/Bluray's on my PS3. Thought I'd let the few people who pm'd me or future people know why neither two subjects weren't even talked about.

Here is some video's of the unboxing of the Arena headset and Complexity version along with two interview video's. I will also provide the links of CNET's Review and Kotaku's Review of the Arena headset. Hope you enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZeBgCzTAOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRmd-NmBUXU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXNXSxpUlus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNTOoOtWih8

Kotaku's REVIEW: http://kotaku.com/5410243/sound-bla...ng-headset-review-whos-that-sneaking-up-on-me
CNET REVIEW: http://www.cnet.com.au/creative-sound-blaster-arena-surround-339298749.htm

 

Good review, +rep.

 

great review.

 

Reduce the image size...

Then its possible to read it comfortable.

(And no, text from Edge to Edge of the screen isn't nice, consider smaller headings too)

Edit:
And any comparisons? I couldn't see any on a quick scroll.

 

Images have been reduced per request! Thanks for the good comments so far everyone (and rep CZX58 Shadow !)
In comparison to my Razer Barracuda HP-1 5.1 Headset, the Arena surprisingly beats them IMO. I had to constantly try to find a sweet spot in settings for the HP-1 but with the Arena's it's already ready to go. There were sounds effects I never heard before compared to the HP-1 and the headphone virtual surround on the Arena is pretty convincing. Kinda like simplicity rather than extremes, so I never compared to a full fledged system (as I otherwise for sound system I have a sound bar, so I pretty much suffice with virtual surround). They are pretty great sounding headphones, especially for gaming - you'll have to hear it to believe it !

 

Ah still, big, but readable right now

Something else that could be interesting - you are just focussing on games - how is the headset for Skype?

And maybe you could have a mod change the title so that its clearer - something in the direction of a "products so and so review for gaming" - because this is what you have reviewed.
Personally I'm not a gamer... heck, haven't got a single game on my laptop

So I would look for audio quality for skype and music - something you do no focus on - although you do touch on music.

For music, onboard sound isn't too bad actually, especially, the better your headphones get, the better onboard sounds, and the smaller the difference to other cards.

(On Sony EX85 it was sort of Sony X1060 (MP3 player) > X-Fi Go > Onboard, with Sennheiser IE8 its no longer so clear - but the X-Fi is a fair bit louder than the onboard card)

But for gaming - nice work

 

@DetlevCM: Title changed for review and thread, thanks goes out to the mod who did so ! Hopefully the review is helpful to a few people - lot's of views but not many comments ...

 

nice review....but i heard that creative SB is a software synthetizer...is it true?

 

Great Much more logical to the reader and much more pleasing to the eyes now

Well done

I suppose with reviews most people will read them - some didn't expect the gaming angle.
And on the other hand - if there are no questions there won't be many posts.

And as far as I remember you elaborated on all the important points for games.

I have heard the same - its quite possibly true as the X-Fi Go stays rather cold so it cannot process anything inside it

The question here is, will this be a problem for what you do?

Also, from what I heard it varies between products.

 

it will sound different
a REAL sound come out from hardware synthetizer is much better than sound on steroids

besides software synth do eat a little to much resource on computer

 

Creative SB is just a brand name. My personal experience with CMSS for music is the same as the OP's, it utter crap. This looks like a sort of USB sound card + headset solution.

I call for more pics!

@Detlev, at the end of the day, this is a gaming product. So it makes sense that the OP did it from a gamer's point of view which I am guessing is essentially what he bought it for.

 

Agreed, I mostly have CMSS off when I am listening to music, CMSS is only on during my video watching and games. I will try to post some more pics sometime this week !

@devilcm3: I personally didn't see much resources being used (hogged) up while I used the headset, and my games didn't get hit hard or hardly at all (between 2 to 5 frames lost but no biggie in my opinion). I think that "fear" that people talk about external USB sound sources is kinda non-existent but I also overclock my CPU and GPU ... so maybe that's why I don't see much of difference when using it or not.

 

I'd say its more:

"Today's computers are so powerful that a CPU driven "soundard" does not lead to significant performance loss otherwise"

Imagine a 1950ies car, attach today's caravans <strike>to caravans</strike> to it and see what sort of a performance hit you get.
Get a large modern SUV and attach the caravan and see what performance hit you get now

 

That's what I meant, thanks ! While the headphones now are a bit more than what I paid for them (lowest I've seen recently is about $70 on Amazon), I still believe they are pretty worth the price (moreso IMO). Gaming [and music] wise, this headset sounds wonderful (crisp sound and great surround) especially since it's from Creative of all people .

 

Ad700 review

 

Good lord, those are some ugly looking cans.

 

I've bought this awesome quality headset together with a friend...Something no tests mention or focus much on is the Microphone..We can hear a loud sort of static noise. The same noise from both our mic's when talking together...Any clue where to go with this problem, or how to fix/improve it?