Corsair’s Virtuoso Max is a headset that tries to do it all. On paper, it’s a dream: premium materials, dual wireless, ANC, and graphene drivers all wrapped in sleek aluminum with a tasteful splash of RGB. But while it aims for greatness, the reality is a mix of brilliance and frustrating compromises.
Let’s start with design and build. This headset looks expensive—and it is. The aluminum frame feels solid and luxurious, and the matte finish with subtle RGB makes it feel high-end without screaming “gamer.” On the front of each earcup is multizone RGB lighting which you can customise to your hearts content. I especially like the way they light up when you power up the headset. The detachable mic and hardshell carry case are thoughtful touches.
But the moment you put it on, you feel that 418g of weight. It’s heavy, and not in a comforting, premium way; it can feel oppressive. The headband has enough padding as well as fontenelles to prevent top-down pressure, but that doesn’t do much to alleviate the inevitable pressure on your noggin. Furthermore, the earcups though large and encompassing are quite firm and shallow.
At first glance, they look like they should be as soft and comfortable as those on the Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro but the reality is far from that. The material isn’t soft to the touch, its scratchy even and combined with a fairly tight clamping force and the aforementioned headband, you’ll be contstantly shifting these about your head to ease the pain. That’s a huge shame because in every other way, the Virtuoso Max is a shining example of what a gaming headset should sound like.
Make no mistake, this is one of the best sounding gaming headsets I’ve had the pleasure of using. Corsair has used 50mm graphene drivers that are expertly tuned to produce a very rich, clean, detailed audio with excellent separation and spaciousness. Bass is deep and tight, mids are warm, and highs are crisp. It feels like I have a mini ampitheater on my head when I put these on with a wonderful movement of sound within the cups that’s hard to explain besides being 360-degrees.
Everything from trap music to orchestral swells to the wide open world of CyberPunk 2077’s Night City sound so rich, vibrant and enjoyable at every turn. Positional awareness is excellent for those of you tracking footsteps in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 while the rest of us can enjoy the beautiful sound of wind blowing across the open plains of the Witcher III Wild Hunt. Every genre of music I listened to from EDM to LoFi beats to Epic choral sounds from Lord of the Rings just excites and moves me through these cans. So much so that inspite of the poor comfort of the headset, I found myself consistently reaching for them to listen to my favorite tracks. Sweet, sweet pain.
Intrigingly, I attribute some of that excellent audio to the fact that the tight clamping force and large earcups seal a lot of the sound in and out. The included ANC probably helps too but if you are looking for a some serious noise-cancelling, forget it. The Max is just good enough to silence your PC fans or AC but don’t expect Sony-level isolation. You’ll still somewhat hear keyboards clacking, kids yelling, or delivery trucks passing by. There’s also a Transparency mode which you’d turn on to make sure you can keep track of the said yelling kids while Mom is away but it’s not particularly good. It does let ambient sound through, but it sounds fake and artificial in a way that you’d much prefer to take off the headset to be sure what you’re hearing.
The mic, however, is superb. It’s one of the better boom mics on a gaming headset, delivering rich, natural voice quality with minimal compression. It’s not better than the Astro A50 which sounds just a tad smoother and more natural where the Virtuoso sounds slightly boosted and not as smooth. Nevertheless, it’s crisp, clear without distortion and doesn’t sound like compressed digital mic from cheaper wireless headsets. Whether you’re chatting in Discord or streaming, your voice comes through clean and professional. Unfortunately, the sidetone feature is weak. You can barely hear yourself unless you shout, making it pretty useless for those who rely on real-time voice feedback.
Connectivity is a high point. Dual wireless (2.4GHz Slipstream wireless and Bluetooth) lets you stay connected to multiple devices—perfect for taking calls while gaming or swapping between PC and phone. Oh and the dual connection is simultaneous – so you can have the Virtuoso Max connected to a PC via dongle and a Laptop or Smartphone via Bluetooth. Priority of audio will always go to the Slipstream wireless device but the headset will switch to Bluetooth automatically if you get a phone call.
For controls, Corsair keeps things minimal, classy and intuitive. On the left ear cup, you get a spring loaded switch to toggle wireless mode and power on and off. On the right, you get a custom button that by default toggles ANC but you can map any function to it via iCUE. You also get a Multi-function button that you can press, push or pull to do a number of media playback functions.
When it comes to Battery life, the Virtuoso Max is up there with some of the best: up to 60 hours with RGB off. Turn the lights on, though, and that number drops quite a bit but you’ll still get well over 30 hours. I’ve been getting about two to three weeks without needing a recharge but your mileage will vary based on your usage. You can use them wired too while they charge which is handy and they support a quick charge of 15 min that gives you 6 hours of battery.
The Verdict
All this sounds great so far except for the price. As of writing, the Virtuoso Max retails for around $465 AUD on Amazon Australia, though some retailers still list it north of $550 AUD. That’s a steep price, especially considering the comfort and software issues. For this kind of money, you should expect a near-flawless experience; similar to the Logitech Astro A50 Gen 5 but the Virtuoso Max is seriously hamstrung by its weight and disappointing wearing experience. It’s just not comfortable and with a sea of extremely comfortable gaming headsets for half the price, its a tough sell. But, if like me, awesome wireless sound means more to you than the potential discomfort, then hell yeah. However, if all day comfort is what you need, then maybe look elsewhere.
Corsair Australia kindly provided the Virtuouso Max to PowerUp for the purpose of this review.
