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amazon SOMIC GS401 reviews
The strongest point of the pair of SOMIC GS401 headphones is the selection of connector pins, making it easy for users to choose a suitable product for themselves.
SOMIC is indeed a ‘savior’ for gamers looking for headphones but does not have too rich financial conditions to buy products of major brands Logitech, Razer… The pair of GS301 headsets has stirred up a segment under $50 in 2020 thanks to its unique design, full LED, a high-quality microphone, and easy-to-listen sound quality.
Coming to 2021, the company decided to immediately launch a successor version called SOMIC GS401, with up to 3 versions for different uses. Let’s find out in this article!
Over the years, SOMIC has also simplified the packaging of its products. From colorful boxes, new products have one-tone boxes, just highlighting the most outstanding features of the headset.
Like the GS301 pair, the GS401 has a detachable microphone; when playing games, it is attached to communicate with teammates, and when it is used to watch movies or listen to music, remove it to avoid entanglement. With the plug-in version, this is the only accessory in the box besides the manuals.
That is our product today. To reduce costs, SOMIC completes GS401 entirely in plastic, including the frame. But in recent times, audio companies have been more experienced in designing plastic headphones, so they feel more sturdy; when picked up, there are no more annoying ‘creaks.’
Being made of plastic has a great advantage that the headset is very light; when used for about 30 minutes, you will forget that you are wearing the GS401 on your head! That is a very good point for a pair of entertainment headphones when users use them for hours.
The outside of the headset is the falcon logo of Stincoo – SOMIC’s gaming headset division when the company recently also has other music headset products.
The V-shaped decoration next to the logo is made transparent so that users can see the RGB color-changing backlight below. This light, when used, will change between colors in the form of ‘Breathing,’ i.e., showing this color and then reducing the light intensity to switch to another color.
On the wire, two wired version is 3.5 + USB, and USB Soundcard 7.1 is a controller. The two huge buttons will only work with the USB Soundcard version 7.1 to switch between different sound modes for movies, games, and music. With the 3.5 + USB version that I have here, there is no Soundcard, so there will only be single sound quality, but we can also control more with EQ on smartphones and PCs.
The left side microphone is an on/off switch for those of you who don’t want to remove the microphone between uses.
And the right edge is a dial to adjust the volume.
Many of you will ask why you have to split it into 2 USB and 3.5mm ports, isn’t just one enough? The answer is that the 3.5mm port will transmit the audio signal to the headset and mic, and the USB will take power for the LEDs. If you do not want to use the light, you do not plug the USB port in, quite simple. This design allows you to use the GS401 3.5mm + USB with mobile devices, which the USB-only version would have to do via the dongle.
GS401 has another 3rd version using Wireless 2.4GHz for those who like neatness. The 2.4GHz Wireless standard that this pair of headphones uses has many advantages compared to Bluetooth.
So how does this pair of headphones sound? In recent years, it seems that SOMIC has also made changes similar to the American sound company Skullcandy when it no longer ‘stuffs’ a lot of bass into its headphones anymore. The GS401 (the 3.5mm version I’m experiencing) has a pretty clean sound quality, emphasizing the soundstage and the ability to put the sound in its place rather than a ‘shabby’ sound.
How will this sound adjustment affect entertainment? Try with the movie King Kong vs. Godzilla; GS401 can reproduce the sound position well, so every time Godzilla roars, a ship or plane passes, you will surely know which direction it is coming. The treble part of the GS401 is quite nice, so in the OST tracks in the movie with this strip, everything becomes quite ‘shimmer,’ giving a feeling of openness and comfort.
But as mentioned, the GS401 does not have too strong a bass, so the roars and drums in the movie will be lighter than the bass headphones. To solve this problem, you can increase the bass range in the EQ section to about 2 -3 dB, then reduce the treble part to a similar range.
In the Justice League movie, Zack Snyder’s Cut is the same thing; locating the noises in the movie is quite easy with the GS401. The lack of excess bass also has the effect of helping the mids be pushed higher, which means that the dialogue in the movie is always clear. That is a plus if you’re using the GS401 with films by director Christopher Nolan, who is known for often making dialogue at a low volume and even lower than the ambient sounds and OST tracks!
Of course, the GS401 is not only a headset for games and movies, but it can also be used to listen to music. Through evaluating this pair of headphones with movies, I also talked about the sound properties so you can imagine how they will be used in listening to music! GS401 is not a pair of bass-head headphones, put this band in full balance with the other two bands, so Pop and Dance fans should find another option or find an EQ preset of their own.
The remarkable sound range of this pair of headphones is mid; it has a slight light direction and is located in a position that easily catches the user’s attention. Songs with lyrics like Amber Rubarth’s Rough Cut are so easy to listen to; every word, every little detail in the lyrics is clean. Treble has a pretty good amount, not as high as possible, but every time it is played, there is a separation; you can clearly hear each small “treble point” and do not stick together in clusters.
Like any pair of multimedia headphones, the GS401 won’t have the highest p/p sound quality for listening to music like a pair of headphones designed to do just that. But it must also be said that SOMIC has well balanced this sound quality to do many things well; for headphones that have to shoulder different tasks, it is a success.
It’s good; now there are many options.
I like that technology company has many versions for a product, putting the choice in the hands of consumers so that each person can find the right thing for their needs. SOMIC has done this with GS401 when there are three versions with different connections.
Speaking of the features of this pair of headphones, this continues to be a hard-to-beat product in the same price range as its predecessor GS301: with color-changing LED lights, comfortable wearing, full control, and with a sound quality that is not “virtual,” easy to use when listening to music when you are not playing games and watching movies.