Zalman RS6F Surround Sound Headphones

Let’s talk extras

It’s an issue I feel a little awkward bringing up, but the extras are often an important part of the purchasing decision for someone in the market for some headphones. It’s not something that is officially written down and the limits for each person tend to vary a little, but if I knew I’d be getting a nice leather carry-bag or decorative stickers then I’d be more willing to put up with faulty surround sound and a weird folding design.

Sadly, the Zalman USB headphones don’t come with any extras. None. De nada. Well, actually that’s not technically true as you do get to keep the plastic dome from the packaging, which will no doubt serve as a decent helmet for the Evil Pinata which resides behind me, boring holes in my back with his evil, laser-capable eyes.

As established, the lack of any extras or carry-bag (which is what we were hoping for) is a bit mystifying for a product which folds up so that it can be carried about, even if it isn’t exactly pocked sized when collapsed.

In fact, the absence of the carry-bag further throws into question just why the headphones collapse. So far the only benefit of the folding design has been that it becomes possible to stand the headphone upright on the ear pieces, but why exactly you’d want to do that is a mystery in itself.

So, now extras have been fully dealt with it only remains for us to discuss price and conclude our thoughts.

Conclusion

So, we’ve had an extensive session with the Zalman USB surround sound headphones now and, as you may have gathered, our impressions aren’t entirely favourable.

The weird design of the headphones means they can be a hassle to put on and take off, the volume is incredibly sensitive and the surround sound capabilities aren’t anywhere near as nice as we would have liked them to be. The multiple speakers housed in the earpieces thankfully never get confused or overlap each other, but then they don’t seem to provide any distinct benefits over a single speaker in each ear.

But enough with the negative – is there actually anything positive about the headphones?

Actually yes, there’s quite a few things. Firstly, comfort – the Zalman USB headphones have massive ear cups which sit around the ears rather than on them. While we could no doubt get into a massive argument with the resident bit-tech audiophiles about how good a sound this gives and what type of earpiece is best, the simple fact is that the cup design is comfortable to use. Especially if you, like me, wear glasses and don’t want your ears pressed into the metal frames for hours on end.

Finally, we get around the matter of price, which is likewise very good. A sturdy pair of these bad boys will set you back around £37 in the UK, or $40 in the US, which isn’t a massive amount either way.

So, the Zalman’s are comfortable and fairly cheap, but looking at some of the alternatives unveils some other decent headphones in the same price brackets. The Sennheiser HD215s, for example, are the headphone-of-choice for two thirds of the bit-tech staff and will only cost £40 in the UK, or an even tastier $43 in the US.

As a set of standard headphones, the Zalman ZM-RS6Fs suffer a little from an awkward folding design and sensitive volume, but they are otherwise a moderately priced, decent set of headphones. As a set of surround sound headphones however, the ZM-RS6Fs leave a bit more to be desired as there is an inevitable let-down when the headphones don’t live up to the expectations.

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

What do these scores mean?