Tesoro Gaming Peripherals Review

Tesoro Kuven 7.1 Gaming Headset Review

Manufacturer: Tesoro
UK Price: £56.36 (inc VAT)
US Price: $79.99 (ex Tax)

Finally in our Tesoro round-up is the Kuven 7.1 gaming headset, which retails for a reasonable £56. We say reasonable because most of the other headsets that have come our way in the last 12 months have cost much more than this, with the exception of BitFenix's Flo. However, the Kuven 7.1 (actually called the Kuven Devil 7.1 as it's black, with the white version called the Angel) is a much more substantial headset all round.


For starters, it has large padded cushions on the headband and circumaural earcups. These are soft enough to provide a particularly comfy fit, although the headset itself is a tad weighty so your head can feel a bit tired after long gaming sessions. There's no hint of overheated ears though, but our other small concern is the headband. It's certainly extremely sturdy, but there's not much extension to be had. At full stretch its good for an above average-sized head but if you have a particularly large noggin, it may not quite envelope your cranium the way it should.


The large, non-removable microphone boom is flexible and can be bent inwards or outwards, although it can never sit less than about two inches away from your mouth. This is a bit further than we're used to but a few test recordings and a Skype test call saw it record fairly well, with just a hint of white noise, but this shouldn't be an issue in games. The main issue with it, is that folded in towards your mouth, it can't then rotate upwards without banging into the headband. Here it folds itself out again meaning you need to re-fold it inwards towards your mouth the next time you use the microphone.


Both earcups can fold flat for easy storage or transportation and the cushions themselves are removable for cleaning. The earcups tilt up and down and combined with the rotation, can probably find a good fit on most heads. However, the rotation only goes one way, whereas many more expensive headsets offer a fair amount of rotation both ways to offer more flexibility when it comes to fitment. The headset is fairly flexible in general but this isn't quite the same.


Included in the box are both a type 2 to type 1 adaptor that converts the individual headphone and microphone 3.5mm jacks to a single cable, and also a 2m extension cable for the two-cable mode. Both the 1.2m cable fixed to the headset and these other cables are covered in braiding, with up to 3.2m in total if you use the extension.

There's an in-line volume control and microphone mute button and unlike most we've seen, this is fairly small and light so shouldn't weigh you down too much. While you can connect straight to your PC's audio jacks, there's also a 7.1 USB sound card. With just one monstrous 50mm driver in each earcup, though, the effect is purely software based and isn't hugely convincing, although is noticeable in games.

What is noticeable, however, is the bass. In 7.1 mode with the USB sound card, it's actually quite terrifying in battles with even far-off explosions creating lovely booms that ooze atmosphere without completely killing other ends of the audio spectrum. Smaller sound details such as voices, bullet impacts and environmental effects did make their way through but seemed less inspiring.

In music the same was true, with the mid-range suffering next to a very enthusiastic bass, but this was soothed somewhat by tweaking equaliser settings to give it a boost and reigning in the bass. Music certainly sounded clearer and less distorted switching off the 7.1 channel mode in the basic audio software too, with the mid-range benefiting the most - we're possibly being a bit picky here but there are some areas where holes can be picked.

Conclusion

If spending more than £60 on a gaming headset isn't for you then we'd strongly suggest you add the Kuven 7.1 to your shortlist. It's well-made, comfortable and can be used with or without its USB sound card. The bass will certainly keep you entertained in games, particularly the likes of Battlefield, Call of Duty or Crysis and this transfers to music too.

Likewise, if vocals and more detailed sounds are more important, it's possibly not the best option but it's far from bad here and a quick tweak in your music software's equaliser will likely iron most of these issues out. It's not perfect, though, with audio quality or ergonomics but it's comfortable and does most things you'd expect from a sub £60 headset. As it's not quite an unequivocal recommendation it just misses out on an award.