In the world of headphones, few brands are as well known or respected like Sennheiser. It makes some of the best headphones money can buy and it was only a matter of time that it would focus their formidable experience to the world of gaming. The result of that focus is the EPOS Gaming brand, whose sole purpose is to design and build gaming-focused audio peripherals.
The GSP 370 Wireless Gaming Headset is a wunderkind that you would be remiss to pass on. Sure, it’s one of the most blatantly gamey looking headsets out there and not the most comfortable but there are two things that truly make it stand out of the crowd. First is the phenomenal sound quality and second, is the longest battery life on any wireless headset ever. 100 hours to be precise which is honestly some tech-witchcraft.
The GSP 370 costs $350 in Australia and while that might seem like a lot, there really is a lot to like besides those two key things. Let’s get into it then.
EPOS | Sennheiser GSP 370 Review
Taking a look at the pictures, you’d think the GSP 370 is a massive, bulky headset but you’d be wrong. It’s actually smaller than I imagined with the one caveat being the headband design. The headband has a very wide curve that leaves a huge gap on the sides of your head that you can easily fit your hand into. It’s an odd design that I don’t understand. Combined with the rugged plastics and muted grey colour, the GSP 370 looks like a throwback to old-school, military air traffic controllers. You will look silly walking outside the house with these on.
The GSP 370 has a very wide stance and I kept knocking it against door frames while moving around the house. Worse was bashing my daughters in the head everytime they came to my desk for a hug. It’s ridiculous. The plus side to this design is a good, strong grip on your ears whilst minimizing pressure on top of your head. There’s some cushioning on the underside of the plastic headband that isn’t exactly comfortable but gets the job done. I do have to make small adjustments every hour or so to relieve the growing pressure on the top of my head.
The GSP370 is an over ear design with large ear-shaped cups that cover your ears with a snug fit. The cushions are a soft pleather with memory foam that goes a long way in alleviating the tight clamping. I wore these all day with some discomfort but nothing that hurt my ears or ruined the listening pleasure. They are certainly nowhere near as comfortable as some other headsets I’ve used but I wear glasses so most headsets will cause me some discomfort.
The GSP 370 are wireless headsets so you will have some controls albeit far less than any other wireless headset I’ve used. The left earcup has a rather small(and somewhat annoying) power slider switch. It’s so small that it requires using your nail to pull it. Again, not sure why EPOS had to go with this design instead of a nice chunky button. In fact, the only other control is the volume dial on the right ear cup which is so chunky. It’s a large, tactile dial on the outside of the cup that feels really satisfying to turn.
The left ear cup also holds the GSP 370’s noise-cancelling microphone. It’s a huge plastic arm that can swivel up and down and there’s an almost imperceptible click about halfway its swing that activates or deactivates it. It feels really solid and I don’t expect it to lose tension for many years. We’ll talk about the quality of the mic a little later. But in terms of design, the mic sticks out at an angle when in it’s raised position which further accentuates the problems of bashing the headsets when you move around.
Battery till kingdom come
If I had to give just one reason to buy the GSP 370, it would undoubtedly be the phenomenal battery life. When I first heard EPOS claim that it could last 100 hours on a charge, I scoffed. But let me tell you, it took a whole week after I first turned the headset on before I heard the battery warning sound. A week! That’s 7 days averaging 14-15 hours of music listening, gaming, and a ton of mic use for video calls.
I seriously can’t understand what kind of black magic EPOS is using to achieve this but I do know I can’t excuse any other wireless headsets. 20 hour battery just won’t cut it anymore. There is something so liberating that comes with not worrying about charging peripherals. The GSP 370’s nail this and I can see why esports players would use this. Having a battery that can last four full days of competition without charging is just fantastic.
And when the battery does run out, you charge it with any Micro-USB cable. As a bonus, you can continue using the headphones, uhm, wirelessly while they charge. Yeah sounds wrong but there’s no wired mode for these cans. All connection is done wirelessly via a 2.4Ghz USB dongle. The connection is very strong, cutting out somewhere around the 15m mark but I don’t know why you’d be that far from your device.
The GSP 370 works flawlessly with PC’s, Macs and PS4. I was surprised at how easily my PS4 Pro recognized the headset and all I had to do was select it from my devices and I was good to go. One thing to note is that you will get a reduced audio experience on the PS4 and Mac because a lot of the magic with the GSP 370 lies with the gaming suite software EQ. It’ll still be good but forget the virtual surround and the bass will be much less.
It continues to frustrate me to no end that the Xbox doesn’t recognize USB headsets. This means you can never have a truly universal headset for all your devices. I also wonder why EPOS didn’t include Bluetooth here as this would certainly extend the use cases for this headset. But then again, given its bulky size, I really wouldn’t want to wear this on the train to work.
Music to my ears
Having the EPOS | Sennheiser in the name carries a lot of responsibility when it comes to audio and the GSP 370 more than delivers. They have a warm sound with clear highs and a rich mid-range. They’ve also got a ton of bass when you need it. Even more impressive is the sub-bass, that’s the kind of bass that you feel more than you hear. Most headsets are sorely lacking in this department and yet it makes a hell of a difference to the audio.
Sub bass gives that low rumble you feel when a spaceship slowly passes by in a game or movie or the silent rumble of distant thunder. The GSP 370’s capture this sub bass exceptionally well, beaten only by the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9’s. I got goosebumps as capital ship glide by in the massive battles in Halo 2 on PC. Gun fire is beefy and gut-punching in Apex Legends while background soundtracks shine like an orchestra is playing in your room. The sound stage is wider than other gaming headsets, really amping up the immersion. The audio separation is excellent with clear positioning making it really easy to identify the direction of sounds.
The GSP 370’s are also such a joy to use for music listening; something most gaming headsets are pretty lackluster at. With a lot of power across the highs, mids and low end, music sounds rich, warm and vibrant across genres. Doesn’t matter if its rock, classical or hip-hop – you will be happy to listen to anything with this headset. I tend to listen to film and game scores which cover the whole gamut from delicate choral orchestrations to electro synthwave and the GSP 370 handles everything with aplomb. Very impressive indeed.
The sound can be further tweaked using the EPOS Gaming Suite for Windows 10. This unlocks 7.1 virtual surround which in my ears just makes the sound stage a bit wider with more reverb. It sounds pretty good compared to other virtual surround implementations I’ve heard I preferred Stereo mode for a more intimate and powerful sound. The software is also surprisingly simple, no complex EQ’s to fuss about. You get four presets to start; esports, Movie, Music and Flat. You can add your own of course. I did notice that you often have to re-engage the profiles especially if the computer was turned off. It seems that the EQ settings aren’t saved to the headset memory like it is with the Steelseries Arctis 9X.
Mic check 1,2, 3
The GSP 370 has a good microphone. It can’t compete with a proper desk mic like the Blue Yeti or Razer Seiren but I was happy with the overall output. The large microphone is activated once you swivel it down towards your face. A subtle click about halfway through its arc of motion is your signal that it’s now active. The mic is noise-cancelling and I found it does a good job isolating my voice from the background of my screaming kids.
The Gaming suite software allows you to tweak the voice processing — it offers you three profiles, warm, clear and off. My favorite is the Warm profile because it adds some bass and natural tone to my voice while the Clear makes everything sound a bit compressed and nasally. You can hear a sample below.
Other options like Gain, Noise Gate and Side Tone call also can be adjusted with ease. However, it’s important to note that these profiles will only work on a machine running the gaming suite software. If you are using your PS4 or a Mac, then you’ll get the default off sound and no noise cancellation, This isn’t a problem since the mic does sound good without the processing anyway.
Verdict
The EPOS | Sennheiser GSP 370 is a winner in my book. Sure the design is absurdly gamey especially in a world that has moved on to sleeker, lower profile designs that you won’t be ashamed to wear in public. What’s more, this design doesn’t even add to the comfort of the headset. But putting aside the odd design choices, this is a fantastic audio package. The battery life alone is worth the price of admission but when you add on the phenomenal sound in music listening, movies, gaming and you have a winner.
At $350, the GSP 370 isn’t a steal by any means and the competition at that price range is pretty extensive from the likes of Steelseries Arctis 7, the Razer Nari Wireless, Turtlebeach Atlas Wireless and HyperX Cloud Flight just to name a few. But the GSP 370 simply stands head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to battery life and audio performance. And that dear friends, is what makes this headset special.
EPOS provided the GSP 370 to PowerUp! for the purpose of this review.
