Corsair Vengeance 1500 v2 is set to deliver an accurate reproduction of 5.1 and 7.1 channel gaming audio for an affordable price. Its close-back design makes it ideal for budget-minded college students living in dorms and shared apartments. From the distance, the headphones seem to be a fantastic deal, and we can’t wait to see if they will seem equally as good under close inspection.

Design and build

The Vengeance 1500 v2 all made out of plastic materials, even though the arms attached to the earcups look like brushed metal. The brushed metal finish seems to be of high quality, and it’s very resistant to fingerprints. The headband has a generous amount of padding and feels comfortable even after many hours of wear. Corsair went for velour earpads, instead of more traditional pleather ones. Generally, velour earpads help your ears stay a little bit cooler, but they don’t isolate as much. Unfortunately, it seems that the inside of these is padded with a cheap foam that doesn’t really provide much comfort. It’s not very soft and achieving a solid fit requires a lot of time and tweaking. It also doesn’t help that the headphones are more on the heavy side, as they weight 328 grams.

The tangle-free cord includes a built-in volume and mute controls. When you press the mute button, a blue LED flashes red to let you know that your input has been registered.

No good pair of gaming headphones would be complete without a solid microphone. The one that is built into these headphones is sufficiently adjustable and stays out of your way when you don’t need to use it.

Sound quality

Corsair Vengeance 1500 v2 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset features large 50mm drivers capable of impressive sound positioning and surround effect. They have enough power behind them to wow you with headshaking explosions and gun shots. You can notice sibilance in high frequencies, particularly when you play games that are not known for their audio quality. But you have to take into consideration that these headphones cost just a third of what you would pay for many other popular models. We can confidently say that these would pass many blind tests with absolute ease.

If you value immersion, you will love to hear that these headphones let only a very minimal amount of external sound in. As soon as you put them on, the world around you gets quiet, and you can focus your undivided attention on the game in front of you.

What’s in the box?

The Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset sits alone in the box without any accessories to speak of.