Logitech G432 Headphones Review

The Logitech G432 are very similar in style to the Logitech G430, but the pads aren't as colorful. The coating is also made of pleather, which gives the headset a better overall look. However, the build is similar and is mostly made out of cheap plastic. The cups are large and there’s a small cyan accent, common to Logitech’s designs. The mic is also foldable if you want it out of the way when you're not using it. These are gaming headphones, and their look shows it.

The Logitech G432 are fairly lightweight headphones and are comfortable to wear for a while without feeling too much fatigue. However, they can be a bit tight on the head, especially for people with bigger ones. On the upside, the cups are large and spacious and should fit most ear sizes and shapes. The padding material is now pleather instead of mesh fabric, which feels better on the skin.

The control scheme of the Logitech G432 is pretty lackluster and doesn’t offer many options. You only have a single wheel for volume control on the cups, and you can mute your microphone when flipping it up. On the upside, this means they're very easy to use, and the wheel doesn’t infinitely scroll, which is good since you can easily know when you’re at maximum or minimum volume.

These headphones, like most over-ears, aren't the most breathable and trap heat inside the ear cups. They get a bit warmer than the Logitech G430 since the cups aren't covered in the same porous fabric. This shouldn’t be an issue during casual gaming sessions, but they aren’t designed for sports and you should feel a noticeable temperature difference. This will make you sweat more than usual.

Like most gaming headphones, the Logitech G432 are pretty bulky and not very portable. Their cups can’t fold into a more compact format, but the cups do lay flat, which makes it easier to slide the headset in a bag. Also, they don’t come with a case or pouch to help you carry them around. However, you shouldn’t be on the move too often with a gaming headset, so this might not be an issue for most.

These headphones do not come with a pouch or a case to protect them.

The Logitech G432, build-wise, are almost identical to the Logitech G430. They have a metal frame that makes the headband somewhat durable, but the overall build of the headphones isn’t great. They're very plasticky headphones and the joints don’t feel very solid. The cups are somewhat dense and could survive a few drops without too much damage, but it isn’t as solid as other gaming headphones we’ve reviewed so far.

These headphones are fairly tight on the head, so they're somewhat stable. However, the cups’ large design sway around with head movement. This shouldn’t be an issue when gaming, but they won’t be suitable for sports. Also, their wired design means you have to make sure their cable doesn't get hooked on something, which could easily yank the headphones off your head.

• Logitech G432 headphones
• USB dongle
• PC cable splitter
• Manuals

The Logitech G432 have a mediocre frequency response consistency performance. These headphones are prone to consistency issues throughout the range. The maximum variance measured across our five human subjects was more than 10dB at 20Hz, which is noticeable. We also noticed that certain types of glasses could break the seal on these headphones and cause a drop in bass. In the treble range, the maximum amount of deviation below 10kHz is about 11dB around 4kHz, indicating that these headphones' treble delivery is rather sensitive to positioning.

The bass performance of the Logitech G432 is very good. LFE (low-frequency extension) is down to 10Hz, which is excellent. Low-bass, responsible for the thump and rumble common to bass-heavy music like EDM and dubstep, is under our target curve by about 2dB. This shouldn’t be too noticeable for most people. Mid-bass, responsible for the punch and body of bass guitar and the kick drums is only 1.5dB under our target curve, while high-bass is over the curve by the same amount. This might add a bit of boominess to the bass, but it won’t be too noticeable.

Also, their bass delivery varies noticeably across users and is sensitive to the quality of fit, seal, and whether you wear glasses. The response here represents the average bass response and your experience may vary.

The Logitech G432's mid-range is great. The response throughout the range is fairly flat and well-balanced, but it's slightly overemphasized by just over 2dB. This will result in a clear and accurate reproduction of vocals and lead instruments, but they might sound a bit too forward and mid-rangy.

The treble of the Logitech G432 is also very good. The response throughout the range is fairly flat, with some small underemphasis. The broad 5dB dip in low-treble will have a negative effect on the detail and brightness of vocals and leads, while the small bump around 10kHz might make some sibilants (S and T sounds) a bit sharp and piercing. Also, not everybody will experience the treble frequencies at the same intensity, so your listening experience may differ.

The imaging performance is good. Weighted group delay is at 0.35, which is within very good limits. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold. This ensures a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were well-matched in frequency and amplitude. This is important for the proper placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo field. However, we measured a significant mismatch in their phase response. This could make the stereo image a bit weak in the higher frequencies and give the sense that there's a hole in the middle of the stereo field. Note that these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Logitech G432's soundstage is mediocre. The PRTF graph shows a good amount of pinna interaction, with a decent degree of accuracy. This results in a soundstage that sounds large, but their closed-back design and the fact that there is no 10kHz notch present will make it sound unnatural and positioned inside the listener’s head as opposed to in front.

The Logitech G432's noise isolation is poor. Although their enclosure design is closed-back, these headphones don’t block a lot of ambient noise and won’t be suitable for noisy environments like your commute or a large gaming event. Since they don’t have the same porous pads as the Logitech G430, they isolate a bit better, but they don’t do a great job. They do not achieve any isolation in the bass range, important for cutting out the rumble of airplane and bus engines. In the mid-range, occupied mostly by speech, they reduce outside noise by about 6dB, which is barely noticeable. In the treble range, occupied by sharp S and T sounds, they achieved about 26dB of isolation, which is decent.

The leakage performance is decent. A significant portion of their leakage is between 1kHz and 7kHz, which is a relatively broad range. This means their leakage will sound fuller than that of in-ears and earbuds, but not as full-bodied as that of open-back headphones. Also, the overall level of their leakage isn't very loud. At 100dB SPL and 1 foot away, the leakage averages 38dB SPL and peaks at around 51dB SPL, which is just about the noise floor of most offices.

Update 03/11/2022: We received user comments saying that the microphone scores weren't reflective of real-life usage. We retested 'Recording Quality' and couldn't match our original testing. As a result, we have updated our results with new passes that better reflect the mic's performance. The scoring of this box has changed.

The boom mic has a good recording quality. Your voice sounds bright and natural, although lacking in body. Your teammates shouldn't have too much of a problem hearing you clearly, though.

Update 03/11/2022: We received user comments saying that the microphone scores weren't reflective of real-life usage. We retested 'Noise Handling' and couldn't match our original testing. As a result, we have updated our results with new passes that better reflect the mic's performance. The scoring of this box has changed.

The mic's noise handling performance is very good. It can separate your voice from moderate ambient noise. If you're chatting to teammates near a window with traffic outside, they should still hear you clearly.

These headphones do not have a battery.

The Logitech G432 are compatible with the G HUB software, but it doesn’t have the same amount of customization as some other Logitech products. With these headphones, you get a nice 10-band EQ, volume, mic, and sidetone levels, on top of surround sound customization. Also, you have a few EQ presets that you can’t modify. However, you can create and save your own EQ settings, which is nice. You can't map buttons like on the Logitech G933 Wireless and the Logitech G935 Wireless, as these headphones don’t have additional buttons for it. That said, there have been several user reports of problems trying to use this software, which includes startup issues, freezing, and connection issues with some devices. We didn't encounter these problems during testing, but if you'd like to share your experience using Logitech G HUB with this product, please leave a comment in the discussions.

These headphones aren't Bluetooth-compatible. For gaming headphones with Bluetooth connectivity, take a look at the HyperX Cloud Mix.

Thanks to their wired connection, the Logitech G432 doesn’t have any latency issues, which means you won’t have any audio delay. This is great for gaming and watching video content.

Update 10/14/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency value has changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'Analog/USB Audio Latency' at 80 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in a measurement of 52 ms, which is great. We have updated our review to better reflect these changes.

These headphones are very versatile, and you can use them with any platform for mic and audio support. However, you can't use their USB dongle on Xbox One, so you need to use the 1/8" TRRS connection with a controller. On PC, you have to use the included Y-splitter to use both the mic and headphone ports if you aren't using the USB dongle.

Their USB dongle is compatible on PC and PS4, but won’t be usable on Xbox One. You can also set your EQ inside their app on PC and use the dongle on PS4, with your settings still in use.