Corsair HS70 Bluetooth  Headphones Review

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth look very similar to the Corsair HS70 Wireless but have an overall more muted and sleek look due to their all-black design. Thanks to this detailing and detachable boom microphone, they can easily transition into casual use.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have a comfortable fit. They don't clamp too tightly on your head and the ear cups, as well as the headband, are well-padded. They should be comfortable for long gaming sessions without becoming too fatiguing. However, the swiveling hinges don't have a wide range of motion.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have decent controls. On the left ear cup is a volume control wheel that stops at min/max volume. There's also a mic mute button that feels clicky and has a chime to let you know when it's on or off. However, there's no way to know if the mic is muted or not if you're already wearing the headset, although when you connect to a PC via USB for the first time, a voice prompt tells you its status. The right ear cup has a power button that also acts as a multi-function button. When connected to Bluetooth, a single press answers and ends calls as well as plays and pauses audio. A double-press skips the track forward and a triple-press returns to the previous track. However, you can accidentally play or pause when trying to register a double-press.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth aren't very portable. They're bulky and the ear cups can't swivel to lay flat to make them more compact. Luckily, you can remove their boom microphone when you're on-the-go. They also support Bluetooth, so you can connect your smartphone to them without a cable.

These headphones don't come with a case or pouch.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have a great build quality. Just like the Corsair HS70 Wireless and Corsair HS75 XB WIRELESS, they're made of plastic with metal hinges and faux leather padding. Overall, they feel sturdy, although the cloth lining inside the ear cups may be vulnerable to rips or tears over time.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth are decently stable. Their fit is tight enough to stay on your head while gaming, but they can fall off during moderate physical activity. Thanks to their Bluetooth support, you can use them wirelessly to eliminate the risk of an audio cable snagging on something while you move.

• Corsair HS70 Bluetooth headphones
• Detachable boom microphone
• Small cover for mic hole
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have an excited, v-shaped sound profile. They deliver punch and boom that can help bring out sound effects in action-packed video games. Their bright treble can also make vocals and lead instruments sparkle. That said, some users may find that they sound muddy and piercing. Luckily, their companion software has a graphic EQ and presets so that you can tweak their sound to your liking.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have a mediocre frequency response consistency. Both bass and treble delivery vary depending on their fit, seal, and positioning. You may particularly experience a drop in bass if you have thick hair or wear glasses.

These headphones have disappointing bass accuracy. The range is overemphasized, resulting in extra thump, punch, and boom. That said, some users may find that the high-bass sounds muddy.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have great mid-range accuracy. Although the left and right drivers are slightly mismatched, the low-mids are overemphasized, which sounds muddy or cluttered. However, the mid-mid and high-mid are fairly flat and balanced, which results in clear as well as present vocals and lead instruments.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have passable treble accuracy. It's overemphasized across the range, so the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments sound bright and a bit harsh. Sibilants like S and T sounds are found in the mid-treble range and they have a piercing quality to them.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have alright peaks and dips performance. There's a peak in the high-bass, so mixes can sound muddy and boomy. The mismatch between drivers in the mid-range thins out vocals and instruments in the right driver while nudging these same instruments to the back of the mix in the left driver. There's also a dip in the high-mids, which weakens vocals and lead instruments. The uneven low-treble gives the upper harmonics of these instruments both a bright and veiled sound. Finally, the steep peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The imaging is great. The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The left and right drivers are also well-matched in amplitude and phase response, resulting in a stable stereo image. While there's a small amount of frequency mismatch, it's fairly minor, and the localization of objects like voices or footsteps should be accurately placed within the stereo image. That said, these results are only valid for our unit, and your experience may vary.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth's passive soundstage is alright. It's perceived as wide and coming from out in front of you, rather than inside your head. However, it also seems slightly unnatural, and due to their closed-back design won't sound as spacious as open-back headphones.

These headphones support Windows Sonic Spatial Audio. However, we don't currently test the performance of this feature.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth's weighted harmonic distortion performance is decent. There's a small peak in the treble range at regular volumes. However, it can be hard to hear this with real-life content. That said, the range falls within good levels at max volume, which results in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid with these test settings.

Note: As these headphones support a wired connection and can be used via Bluetooth, all sound-related tests were conducted using their wired USB cable. However, all other tests were done using their Bluetooth capabilities.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth's noise isolation performance is poor. They don't block out almost any bass-range noise like bus or plane engines. They also struggle to cut down mid-range sounds like ambient chatter. However, they can reduce a lot of higher-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit.

The leakage performance is disappointing. They leak a lot of audio, so if you're listening to your music at high volumes, people around you can hear it.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have a detachable and flexible boom mic. Keep in mind that all of our microphone tests were conducted via wired USB.

The recording quality of the boom microphone is great. Your voice sounds full-bodied and clear to teammates and enemies alike.

The boom microphone does an excellent job of noise handling. It can separate your voice from ambient noise, even in loud environments.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have a very good battery performance. They're advertised to have around 30 hours of continuous playback time but we measured around 24 hours. However, battery life can vary according to usage, so your experience may differ. That said, you shouldn't have a problem while gaming, as they use a wired connection to connect to consoles. You can also receive audio while charging.

The Corsair iCUE software is good. To connect to this software, you need to be connected via wired USB. It has a 10-band graphic EQ and presets so that you can customize their sound profile. This software also offers a mic volume slider and a sidetone slider. When your headphones are connected to this software, it notifies you that it's compatible with Windows Spatial Sound, which is its virtual surround feature.

The Corsair HS70 Bluetooth have decent Bluetooth connectivity. While you can't pair them with more than one device at a time and they don't support NFC pairing, they have low latency on Android and iOS, which is handy if you like to chat with teammates while you game. However, their latency on PC is much higher, so they may not be suitable for gaming or streaming videos. That said, apps and devices compensate differently for latency, so your experience may vary in the real world.

These headphones don't support non-Bluetooth wireless.

Update 06/11/2021: We have changed USB Audio to 'USB Type A' to reflect the source port instead of the headphones' port. When using their USB cable, the USB-A connector can be connected to any device with a USB-A port. We have also changed Connection to '1/8" TRRRS' to prioritize the analog connection. Note that the last pole is to help the microphone's crosstalk performance. The scoring of this box hasn't changed.

These headphones come with two audio cables. There's a 1/8" TRRRS cable as well as a USB-A to USB-C cable, which both have full audio and mic compatibility.

These headphones are fully compatible with the Xbox One when using their 1/8" TRRS cable. You can receive audio as well as use their mic.

These headphones don't come with a base or dock.