Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE Headphones Review

The Corsair Virtuoso have a straightforward but premium look. They're less flashy than other gamer-centric headsets, with a black and silver color scheme. While they're quite large, they aren't as bulky as many other gaming headsets. They feature a customizable RGB Corsair logo on each ear cup.

The Virtuoso are decently comfortable. While they have good padding, they're a bit heavy and may fit a bit tight on some people's heads. The cups are swappable but unfortunately don't come with other options included; luckily, their normal depth should be comfortable enough for most people. Overall, they should be comfortable enough for shorter gaming sessions, but may cause fatigue during longer marathons.

The control scheme is medicore and better-suited for gaming, as there is no music control from the headphones themselves. While the controls are easy to use, they lack many options and only give you volume and microphone control. The microphone wheel is a bit stiff and has an infinite scroll with audio cues indicating min/max volume.

The Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE have decently breathable pads but will still make your ears fairly warm and sweat more than usual, meaning they may not be ideal for sports or working out. They should be fine in more casual conditions, however, and should be suitable for gaming and listening to music if you take breaks from time to time.

Like most gaming headphones, the Virtuoso aren't very portable. The ear cups swivel a full 180 degrees which allows them to lay flat, and the microphone is detachable, but they don't fold into a more compact format. These gaming headphones will be good for keeping at home or sliding into a larger bag, but aren't ideal for travel or taking with you everywhere.

A soft pouch is included. This may protect the headphones from some small splashes of water, but likely won't protect much from being dropped.

The Corsair Virtuoso has great build quality. They're made from good quality dense plastic, and the headband has a mix of metal as well. The SE model also have a brushed aluminum finish on the ear cups. Both the headband and ear cups are padded with a nice feeling faux-leather that gives them an all-around premium look and feel. These should be able to withstand a few accidental drops or bumps without sustaining too much damage.

The Virtuoso RGB Wireless are a bit tight on the head, though they still will likely fall off from bigger head movements. During gaming sessions they likely should stay quite stable, but they won't be ideal for sports. On the upside, they are wireless, meaning you don’t have to worry about a cable getting hooked on something, which could yank the headphones off your head.

• Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE headphones
• Detachable boom microphone
• USB dongle
• USB-C charging cable
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• Carrying pouch
• Manuals

The Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE have a fairly warm sound profile. They have a dip in low-mid which will push back lead instruments and some vocals, meaning they will sound quite dark and likely won't be the greatest choice for more vocal-centric music. It's worth noting that due to their middling frequency response consistency, you may experience differences in their sound profile depending on their fit.

The Virtuoso have mediocre frequency response consistency. Due to their fit, different people will likely hear slightly different sound profiles from these headphones, especially in the bass and treble regions. You may need to adjust their position on your head every time you put them on to ensure the best sound reproduction.

The Corsair Virtuoso have good bass accuracy. They follow our curve almost flawlessly along the low-bass, with a slight overemphasis in the high-bass range which may make them sound a bit boomy.

The mid-range accuracy of these headphones is good. They stay fairly close to the neutral target curve along the entire range, though the slight under-emphasis in low-mid may result in leads and vocals sounding a bit thin.

The treble accuracy of the Corsair Virtuoso is very good. They stay on or below the neutral target curve for the majority of this range, meaning cymbal and sibilants (S and T sounds) shouldn't sound too sharp or piercing. Some may also find that they lack a bit of detail.

The Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE have decent peaks/dips performance. They aren't the most balanced, with an over-emphasis in the high-bass range, an under-emphasis in low-mid, and another peak in high-mid to low-treble. This will push lead instruments and some vocals back in the mix, meaning they will sound quite dark. We also recorded quite a bit of mismatch in frequency response between the left and right channels in the mid-range, though this is only valid for our pair and will vary from unit to unit.

The imaging performance of the Virtuoso is very good. The group delay graph shows it's just under the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and treble reproduction. Our pair did have a fair bit of frequency mismatch between the L/R drivers. While this test is only valid for our unit, others may experience similar results. Phase mismatch was good and objects (like footsteps) should be located accurately in the stereo image of these headphones.

The Virtuoso's soundstage is sub-par. Due to their closed-back design, the soundstage of these headphones will be perceived as small and located inside the listener's head. The PRTF graph also shows that the pinna interaction/activation is not very accurate.

The weighted harmonic distortion of the Virtuoso is decent. It's within good limits in the bass range, but rises in higher frequencies, which may make them sound a bit impure and harsh, although this likely won't be audible to most. On the upside, there isn't a big jump under heavier loads, which is good.

The noise isolation of the Virtuoso is sub-par. Due to their lack of active noise cancelling, they do a poor job at blocking out the low rumbles of bus or plane engines. However, they do an adequate job at isolating speech, and may help block out some background chatter if you game with other people in the room. Their treble range isolation, occupied by sharp S and T sounds, is very good, though this isn't generally as important.

These headphones have decent leakage performance. The significant portion of their leakage sits in the mid-range, which means that their leakage will sound fuller than that of in-ears and earbuds, but not as loud and full as open-back headphones. Also, since the overall level of the leakage is not very loud, it shouldn't be a concern unless you play loud music in a very quiet environment.

The recording quality of the microphone is quite impressive. The LFE is excellent and will result in speech sounding full-bodied, though the bump in low-bass may make it prone to pops and rumbling noises. The HFE is sub-par and while speech will still be intelligible, it'll likely lack detail.

The noise handling of the Corsair Virtuoso's microphone is very good. It can easily separate speech from ambient noise in most loud environments, and should even be able to handle extremely loud situations like subway stations and gaming competitions.

The Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE have very good 13-hour battery life, and even feature a customizable standby timer which will put your headphones into sleep mode after a specified amount of inactivity. They support passive playback through an included 1/8" audio cable, and can also be used while charging via their USB-C port, which is good as their charge time is very long at almost 4 hours.

The Corsair Utility Engine (now iCUE) offers different options depending on the headphones. With the Virtuoso, you get a good graphic equalizer, presets, as well as mic control and a simple surround sound option. They support 7.1 surround sound, though it doesn't specify whether this is Dolby or DTS. The app also allows you to set the sleep mode timer of the headphones. The settings are saved onto the wireless dongle meaning they will carry over if you plug it into different PCs or into your PS4. The RGB lighting has many customization options that can be set via the software, including displaying red when your battery percentage falls below a set level.

These headphones are a wireless headset but aren't Bluetooth compatible. You must use it with its dongle, or wired via USB.

They have very low latency with their USB dongle and you shouldn’t notice any delay while playing games or watching video content.

These headphones use a USB dongle to connect to your PS4 or PC. They have extremely low latency which shouldn't be noticeable, and offer decent range, which should have no problem reaching your couch or chair.

Update 12/02/2020: We've updated the USB Audio results from 'USB Type-A' to 'USB-C' to improve clarity. These headphones can receive audio when connected to a PC with a USB-C port. The scoring of this test hasn't changed.

These headphones can be used wired via USB-C or 1/8" TRRS cable. They can also be used with their USB wireless dongle. The included USB-C cable is 6.3 feet long, and the included TRRS cable is 5.1 feet long.

This headset will work with PC or PS4 both wireless with its dongle, or wired with any USB-C cable or 1/8" analog TRRS cable.

This headset will not work wirelessly with Xbox One. However, it can be used wired with the included 1/8" TRRS cable by plugging it into your Xbox's controller.

These headphones come with a USB dongle that's compatible with PC and PS4. Unfortunately, they don't work wirelessly with the Xbox One.