The Sennheiser GSP 670 offers a truly premium game audio experience with immersive 7.1 surround sound capabilities, booming bass and crisp highs, but at £299/$349, is a premium audio experience enough to tempt gamers away from Razer and Logitech headsets that cost almost half the price? For the most part yes, but like most things in life, the GSP 670 isn’t perfect.
Pricing and availability
Sennheiser GSP 670 review
The GSP 670 has a similar aesthetic to the rest of the Sennheiser range, sporting a black body with dark grey accents, providing an understated look compared to the LED-packed headsets on offer from the likes of the Logitech G935, but they’re certainly not slimline. In fact, the GSP 670 is what the cool kids would call a “chonky boi”. It’s made primarily from plastic, featuring only a handful of metal components, but that doesn’t really detract from the overall premium build of the headset. The premium feel of the headset extends to the dual material earcups, featuring leatherette on the outside for passive noise cancellation and soft-touch suede on the inside for comfort. It goes without saying that the large, soft, over-ear cups are very comfortable and help to reduce pressure on the ears, but I’ve found the headband fit is a little too snug for my liking over prolonged periods of play.
You’ll find a range of buttons and dials on the headset to control just about every aspect of your audio experience, including overall volume and dedicated chat volume controls, an audio EQ switcher and a button to trigger the pairing mode. There’s also a hefty microphone mounted on a boom arm attached to the left earcup. It’s flexible so you can get the right fit for your face, and handily, it automatically mutes when flipped up. It provides what I’d consider to be fairly average audio recording quality. I had no complaints whatsoever from other party members, but I don’t think it’s quite clear enough for streaming – after all, there’s a reason that most streamers and YouTubers use dedicated microphones instead of gaming headsets. There’s also background noise reduction on offer to help cut out the clicky-clack of mechanical keys, but it does so at the sacrifice of overall quality.
The GSP 670 is wireless and rather than rely on Bluetooth, it features 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity for low-latency transmission, communicating primarily via a tiny USB receiver plugged into your PC or PS4. You’ll also find Bluetooth connectivity, so you can connect your phone and take calls while you’re gaming. This also means that you can use the headset to listen to music in day-to-day life, although the chunky nature of the headset might make you stand out on your morning commute. The issue is that, unlike most of the competition, the GSP 670 doesn’t offer a place to store the USB receiver within the headset itself – and it’s very small. It’s a bit of an inconvenience when taking the headset to a friend’s house, and if I’m being honest, I can see myself misplacing it at some point in the future. You’ll get between 16- and 20-hours of battery life per charge depending on whether you use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to connect, although using both at the same time causes the battery to drain much quicker – around 10 hours in our experience. The good news is that the headset features quick charging to get you untethered in minutes. You’ll get around two hours of use after only seven minutes of charging, and you can game & charge at the same time using the provided 1.5m microUSB cable. If you want something that’ll last a lot longer, take a look at the Sennheiser GSP 370 with an impressive 100-hour battery life.
The audio quality is superb, as you’d expect from a company with an 80-year tenure in the audio industry. It offers impressive virtual 7.1 surround sound capabilities with pinpoint accurate directional audio that helps immerse you in the game, and booming bass that doesn’t muddy the mids and highs. Everything, from the crunch of dirt as you walk through a collapsed building to the clink of ammo shells hitting the floor, is perfectly simulated. It’s a truly premium game audio experience, enhanced further by the Sennheiser Game Suite software. The software, available for Windows, provides you with the option to switch between EQs focused on music, eSports gameplay and movies to further enhance the audio output without needing to play around with settings yourself. The difference is noticeable, and that’s why it’s all the more disappointing that you can’t save the audio profiles to the headset itself – they’re only available when running the software on PC, not when playing PS4 or listening to music via Bluetooth.
Verdict
With 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the Sennheiser GSP 670 is the ideal option for those that want a headset both for gaming and everyday use, although the chunky nature of the headset might make you stand out walking down the street. It features a number of adjustments and soft-touch material that should provide a comfortable experience for the majority of consumers, but I found pressure would build up around the headband over long periods of play. But, of course, the audio quality is the main reason to pick up the GSP 670. It offers booming bass that doesn’t overpower the mids or highs and a simulated 7.1 surround sound experience that really helps immerse you in the game. It’s further enhanced via advanced EQs available as part of the Sennheiser Gaming Suite on PC, but without the ability to save profiles to the headset, the EQs aren’t available when using the headset with the PS4 or listening to music via Bluetooth. Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You’ll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
