Sennheiser G4ME One Review

Sennheiser G4ME One Review - Performance and Conclusion

Although easier to put on than the G4ME Zero, the G4ME One isn’t as comfortable a headset. The padding is markedly firmer and the grip from the headband is much stronger. Whereas the One felt like they were floating around your head the Zero are very much pinned too it. Not that it’s an uncomfortable headset per se but we definitely noticed it more.

Otherwise, just as with the G4ME Zero, this is a seriously easy to use headset. The simple passive volume control on the right earcup falls perfectly to hand and offers quick and easy adjustment - it really is the best such volume control we've used.


Likewise the microphone is really easy to use, even if it offers slightly limited adjustability compared to a full flex microphone - although the rubber mid-section makes the arm a little flexible it doesn’t really fix in position when adjusted.

Quality from the noise-cancelling microphone is also excellent with it easily being sufficient for recording basic voiceovers and the like, never mind being good enough for gaming.

Inevitably, with its open-backed design the earcups essentially don’t block out any external noise and likewise those close by in a quiet environment will hear clearly what you’re listening to. For an at-home gaming and music headset this isn’t an issue but obviously this makes them less suitable for travel and LANs.

Sound Quality
Given its heritage in headphone and microphone design, not to mention the price of this headset, it’s no surprise that the G4ME One offers excellent sound quality. What’s more it has a much more approachable sound for music listening compared to the G4ME Zero. In other words, it has some bass.


Our major complaint with the G4ME Zero was that it offered plenty of clarity – without being shrill – but really lacked warmth and a bass kick. Well, that certainly isn’t the case with the G4ME One. In fact, it’s almost the opposite – we can certainly see some fans of a more flat sound finding these just a little too bass heavy.

For the majority, though, we feel the warm sound on offer will be more than welcome, especially as the smooth bass delivery doesn’t feel forced and there’s still a decent amount of detail on offer too. We listened to a vast range of music and never once found ourselves feeling underwhelmed by the sound on offer. There is definitely a roll off of treble clarity that takes away that final sparkle, and we’d expect more from a headphone of this price, but for a headset of this price the overall sound on offer is good.


Where this strong bass and lack of treble can make more of an impact is in gaming where the truly competitive will be looking for the utmost in clarity to get that edge. But while we can’t vouch for those elite players we certainly didn’t find our performance was impacted. Moreover the overall bombastic presentation made the likes of watching Titanfall in the game of the same name a pretty spectacular experience.

Conclusion

Overall the Sennheiser G4ME One is an excellent gaming headset. It’s well made with high quality features throughout. Its warm sound quality also makes it a great all-round headset for gaming, music listening and movie watching alike.

Its open-back design does mark it out as a purely stay-at-home headset – and it means you won’t reduce the noise of the washing machine/screaming kids/road works – but as the pinnacle of that sort of gaming headset we think it delivers.

When it comes to the question of value, things are a little complicated, though. With the Sennhesier G4ME Zero that headset’s largely identical predecessor the PC350 is still available for considerably less money. However the predecessor to this headset, the PC360, still demands a high price, making the G4ME One only about £10 more expensive.

Our gut instinct is that this is still a lot of money to pay for a gaming headset that doesn’t offer absolutely every bell and whistle – such as a detachable cable, or LAN-friendly acoustic design – and that if you really want high-end audio then spending £150 on headphones and £20 on a stick on mic would still be the better bet. But, if you don’t want to bother with the hassle of that then the Sennhesier G4ME One is a great, if a tad pricey, buy.