Here we go again, another ramble about a product that could have been good, but instead get all the bells and whistle of enshitification. The title gives it all, let’s talk about my openback headphone, the corsair Virtuso Pro.
I fucking hate this product, not because it’s abruptly bad, no, but because it’s so close, so close to be a good, maybe excellent product, it gets on my nerve. Corsair Virtuoso Pro. Pro ! I mean, not RGB, not wireless RGB, not gaming Raptor X wireless RBG. No, pro ! Design is sober and elegant, all reviews talk about good build quality and it feels, from the marketing point a view that, when a compagny takes this kind of move, and disrupt theirs habits, they want to attack something. A new market, a niche, a product for enthusiasts and they try by doing (or trying to do) a good job and on paper they did good. Well… on paper.
Sound is good, that’s all
I intended to use this headphone, on my desk at home. I work here all day, it’s calm so I don’t need isolation whatsoever. I like openback headphone because sound is usually great and I feel like my ears are breathing. Honestly Corsair did a good job here, they sound good. Really they do, they are not perfect but I don’t need them to be. They have neutral sound and small emphasis on high bass… but we don’t care, check Rtings or something to check their frequency response. Anyway it’s for listening music while working and remote meetings and they do the job. Sound is the most important part, so what could horribly go wrong ?
Build quality my ass
They are tremendously uncomfortable. The earpads, ugh the earpads, I was expecting a nice cushion, a sweet sensation of, you know, comfort, but no fuck me, the foam in the cushion padding, where is it ? Seriously where ? It looks like there is a large amount of foam because the pads are large, but no density at all, none nada. They probably had it in their gaming chairs. My Hyper X cloud… something that aged around 8 years have 10 times, 10 times, I shit you not better earpads. The imitation leather is dead of course, but they are are still far, far more comfortable.
You’ll tell me: no biggies buy some third party pads an go on. So first, NO. I don’t buy a headphone with a 200€ MSRP to change something just after (I don’t buy it that price, but my point remains valid). Even if I wanted there’s no pads available with third parties, but worse no pads available at Corsair either. No pads, no headband, nothing ! Every piece in this headphone can be disassembled (easily), so it was thought from the beginning as a quality object with pieces you can change for customization options or if they are torn off by time. So why is there no change available ? Why Corsair ? I know! Why bother with replacement parts when the main band itself is craaaaaaaaap. I mean, the foam in every pieces of this headphone is a shame to the word foam but the plastic used around the aluminium headband is… like the rest… it cracks, the cushion around the headband is hold by tiny plastic hooks with the sole purpose of breaking when you stretch the headphone a bit to put it where it belongs, (trash), your head. And finally you’re supposed to adjust the size of the headband to match your head size. The again I don’t know whose job is it, but certainly no plastic pieces in place can do this. At first when the headphone was new, it barely hold in place but now it has it’s own free will deciding if it blocks or not.
Urgh piece of shit. I still hold in esteem my last corsair PSU. Good all reliable like a toyota, but this headphone, on its own, will stop me from buying Corsair again.
Last note
One final note, to all the reviewers on the internet, who put and I quote:
- High-quality materials and build
- These headphones have a great build quality
FUCK YOU