Psyko 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones Review

Components and Design

After unboxing the Psyko 5.1 headphones, I finally got my first hands-on look at these custom gaming headphones. The first thing that caught my attention after picking them up was the actual weight of these headphones. They are easily a few ounces heavier than standard gaming headphones, but we’ll go more into this issue during the performing testing portion of our review. As you can see from the photo above, the headset has a very flexible design that have a functional purpose as well as an aesthetic one. The next collection of photos will go over each area of these headphones that contribute to the true 5.1 surround sound gamers will experience.

The oversized ear cups look very comfortable, especially with the extra padding Psyko added. These ear cups seem to be perfectly designed to create a tight seal around your ears to help you isolate the sounds you hear during the game. Each ear cup contains a subwoofer that gives gamers the bass sound that works in tandem with the five speakers in the bridge of the headset. Each side of the ear cups can be flipped open to talk with other gamers at LAN parties or for ventilation purposes. The bottom of the right ear cup includes a jack for the detachable boom microphone.

There are five cushions below each of the five speakers in the bridge of the headset. They are a welcome addition to these headphones and help distribute the extra weight created by the unique design of these headphones.

Psyko’s WaveGuide technology distributes sounds from the front, rear, and center speakers in the bridge of the headset down through four wave guides into the individual headphones. The sound from the rear speakers travel down the rear wave guides while the front speaker sound travels down the front wave guides. This is how these headphones independently distributes sound to get accurate directional sound and positional awareness in different gaming environments.

The top of the 5.1 headphones has a clear window and another piece of plastic covering the five speakers in the bridge of the headset. The speakers included in the headset handle the front, rear, and center sound to create a 5.1 surround sound experience for gamers.  The four orange wave guides distribute sound from the front and rear speakers down to each headphone below.

Here’s a close-up shot of one of the subwoofers in the headphone. You can also see the opening for one of the wave guides where sound travels from the top speakers in this headset. You can also see how thick the padding is, which is a key addition to ensuring these headphones are comfortable after hours of FPS gaming.

These 5.1 headphones connect directly into 5.1 audio ports from an PCI sound card or onboard sound through these four audio connectors. These connectors plug right into the included amp where another set of audio connectors are plugged into the motherboard or sound card.

The included amp has two knobs for adjusting volume and directional sound quality. Directional sound and bass are balanced using one knob. Gamers can also tell where sound is coming from through five LEDs that are labeled for left rear, left front, front, right front, and right rear speakers. This is a simple, yet effective design for doing on-the-fly adjustments during heated FPS matches.

Here’s a quick shot of the back panel of the amp where you plug in the audio connectors from the headset itself. There is also a jack for plugging in the AC adapter to power the amp.

Lastly, Psyko created a removable boom mic that swivels and matches the overall style and design of the headphones. It has a heavy-duty construction, but lacks the flexibility we usually like to have with our gaming microphones.