You might know Corsair for internal components, but the longtime memory maker has been slowly easing into the world of peripherals. Its keyboards are an excellent choice for budget-conscious gamers, and the Scimitar is one of the few remaining MMO mice on the market.
Photograph: Brad Bourque
The updated Void Wireless v2 might just find its way into the winner’s circle of our favorite gaming headphones. These lightweight, comfortable gaming headphones boast Dolby Atmos support for excellent spatial audio, excellent battery life, and only a little bit of software funkiness, all for a very reasonable price.
They have a really natural, open sound that I found helps them disappear, making my games feel more immersive and close. There’s a really crisp snappiness to them that I think is particularly good for gaming, giving you a high level of detail, as well as great awareness of any important noises and alerts for more competitive games. If you have a larger head like I do, this headset is a great option that I have enjoyed my time with.
Atmos Immersion
Photograph: Brad Bourque
Dolby Atmos support in headphones is awesome when gaming, and I’m always impressed by how much it adds to basically any title. I played some Halo Infinite and Cyberpunk 2077, both of which support Dolby Atmos, and I could really tell the difference with the feature enabled, especially when combined with the Void v2’s distinct sound profile. The way it separates close sounds and background audio makes both cinematic games and casual shooters feel richer and more immersive.
Even in games without Atmos support, I found the spatial audio really precise and clean. I’ve been playing a lot of the first-person factory-building game Satisfactory lately, and hearing machines whir and hum as I sprint past them adds a new layer to my gameplay. I can even hear which are working or not without having to look at their lights.
The built-in microphone probably isn’t going to land you any voice acting gigs, but listening back to recorded audio of myself, I didn’t find it too grating. It has that tinny tone to it that will make it instantly recognizable as a gaming headset, but it’s at least clear and crisp enough that I wasn’t worried about being misheard.
Fit and Finish
Photograph: Brad Bourque
I have a big head. It’s not my fault, but it isn’t up to headset makers to cater to those of us with oversize noggins. Not only did the Void Wireless v2 fit my big head easily, I didn’t even have to extend the top of the headset to its maximum for a good fit, which is a rarity in my testing. I’m also a fan of the earcups, which are a squishy, breathable mesh, which I like over the sweaty faux leather that some more premium headsets use.
That said, I’ve grown fond of the suspension band on Steelseries headsets, and I miss it here. That extra band of stretchy material helps take a lot of pressure off the top of my head. Corsair uses a nice squishy chunk of padding at the top, and they’re significantly lighter than my usual pair, the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless (8/10, WIRED Recommends), so overall I’m very pleased with how comfortable they are, even for a few hours at a time.
Photograph: Brad Bourque
If I’m going to use a headset regularly, it needs a visible way to indicate that I’m muted. A light is preferable, but the Corsair’s microphone clicks upward and gives an audible voiceover that lets you know the mic is muted or unmuted. There’s a mix of voice prompts and beeps, and I generally prefer beeps to spoken voice prompts. Language issues aside, a voice prompt will always interrupt whatever is happening onscreen or in a chat, but eventually you’ll always learn what a certain beeping means. You can turn off the voice prompts in iCUE, but that doesn’t replace them with beeping, it just makes them not play at all.
I’m glad we’ve reached a point where most gaming headsets can run for way longer than you could reasonably game in one sitting. Of course, I’m terrible at remembering to charge my devices, but charging them twice a week was enough for regular gaming without ever seeing a low battery warning. Corsair quotes them at 70 hours on 2.4 GHz, and with the lights on and regular gaming and video watching, I’d put them comfortably above 45 hours.
The Software
Photograph: Brad Bourque
You can use the Void Wireless v2 on PC without an app, but if you want to use all of the features you really need to download iCUE. I already had Corsair’s peripheral management software on my machine for my AIO cooler and some of my components, and it picked up the headset right away without an update.
iCUE is stuffed to the brim with features and app connections, as well as the ability to change settings in a very granular way, but the interface can be a little awkward to use, especially for making more basic changes.
There are two physical buttons on the side of the headphones, one of which has a power symbol on it. You can hold that button to turn the headphones on or off, or press it once to switch between Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz. It still works that way if you haven’t set up a Bluetooth device, so if you press that button the audio will just mute until you press it again. The button beneath it is locked to media controls, which is great for quickly pausing your music, but I doubt anyone will take these to the gym, so I’d rather see that button be user-controlled.
That’s because there are a ton of very specific functions, including keyboard inputs, text fields, and even a macro maker where you can save a series of actions to a single press. In fact, the extra options for customizing your functions makes it a bigger bummer that only one button is mappable—the volume knob’s click.
A Great New Pair
Photograph: Brad Bourque
Another headset you might consider at this price point is the Steelseries Arctis Nova 5X Wireless (8/10, WIRED Review) which offers an extremely similar set of features at about the same price. It has similar battery life, but adds Xbox Series X/S support, and features a better mobile app experience. If battery life is everything to you, definitely check out the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless (10/10, WIRED Recommends) which has an unbelievable 300-hour battery life.
That doesn’t necessarily make them a better choice: If you go with either of those headsets, you’ll miss out on Dolby Atmos, which I think sways the comparison largely in favor of the Corsair, assuming you aren’t playing on Xbox.
Spatial audio makes such a massive difference in gameplay, and I’m really glad to see it on a lightweight, wallet-friendly pair of gaming headphones, especially with a great matching sound profile. I’m more than willing to overlook a bit of awkward software that I was already using in order to get that experience, especially with such a comfortable fit. If you have a bigger head and are after a nice headset to game with, I’d recommend you check out the Corsair Void Wireless v2.
