Logitech G533 Wireless Gaming Headset Review

Logitech is back to be part of our Neptun Wave and therefore we decided to take a closer look at one of their devices. As someone who considers himself as somewhat of an audio enthusiast, I decided to review their G533 wireless headset and give you my honest opinion.
During the evaluation, I compared the G533 to my Corsair V2100 headset, which is at the time of this writing slightly cheaper. As audio quality is quite difficult to pin down, I had to use my Audio Technica ATH-m50x as reference since they are well known for their overall accurate performance.

Overview & comfort

Opening the package was a bit underwhelming to say the least. After being spoiled by the nice presentation of their other products, which is usually very clean and thought through, I was let down by the number of plastic bags that got in my way before I could use the product.
After removing all the clutter and protective film I was pleased to discover the great build quality of this headset. It is mostly made of plastics, but it does not look cheap in any way. The industrial design is exactly what I expected from Logitech. Like most surround headsets on the market they are quite bulky. The embedded controls featured on the left side include a volume reel, the on/off-switch and a programmable button that defaults to mute. The microphone has a little pop filter, is retractable and mutes itself when doing so. The earcups are removable and washable, but the foam on the plastic headrest is not.
The hinges that hold the speakers and earcups are way more loose than I expected. Holding the headset by the headrest causes it to wobble quite insecurely every time you take it off, making it feel cheaper than it is. This is not an issue I have seen in other reviews, so I hope it is unique to my test unit. This looseness stops being an issue once you put the headset on. They are comfortable enough to be worn in long sessions and the weight is so evenly distributed that you do not notice the headset after a while. This comfort comes with a slight downside. Since the headset does not apply a lot of pressure at all, it tends not to stay in place while you move your head. Regardless of how I adjusted the headband, this problem persisted. This depends a lot on the shape and size of your head though.
All aspects of a great wireless headset are present. The battery life exceeded the advertised 15 hours, but keep in mind that this also depends on your preferred volume levels. I had absolutely no problem with connection drops while wandering around in my apartment. The headset managed to stay connected until I decided to go down the stairs and leave the floor I live on.

Audio quality

Surround

Surround sound is a feature a lot of headsets boast with. Designed for gamers, the G533 is no exception to that and it does support DTS 7.1 surround. In theory, this technology can pinpoint sounds in a 2D plane around you and is supported by most games and movies.
A large known issue with surround is a phenomenon that can be described as the bathroom effect. If the spatial separation of sounds is strong, the human ear can easily detect the location it is supposed to come from. However, in most cases the sound gets distorted to the point that it resonates and sounds like speakers in a large bathroom.
The G533 managed to balance the separation and bathroom effect surprisingly well and did a much better job than the V2100, which tends to overdo the separation. Overall the usefulness of virtual surround is up for debate and depends much on what you use it for, but do not expect the same quality you would get from a real surround sound setup.

Stereo

The general audio quality for music listening is a difficult topic since the opinion on “good” sound varies from person to person. The music used for assessment is as important as the personal preference and music taste of the person listening. Instead of giving my opinion, I will try to describe the sound signature of the G533. If you get the opportunity to, I would strongly suggest to try every piece of audio gear before buying it.
For testing the headsets, I used the usual mix of classical music, rock, dubstep and “top 40 radio” music I usually listen to. While listening to the first song, I realized that, even though the surround quality on both headsets was comparable, the G533 vastly outperformed the V2100 in stereo playback. Therefore, to give a more nuanced review, I compared it solely to my pair of ATH-m50x headphones.
The overall quality is very nice. Gaming-headsets usually fall into the trap of overdoing bass and failing to deliver solid midrange and treble. I am pleased to say that the G533 avoided doing that. Bass is very nice, tight and comparable to my reference headphones. Mids are clear but recessed, meaning the midrange gets overpowered by the volume of bass and treble. Highs are a bit distant and lack a bit of clarity, but are far from bad.

Microphone

Obviously, we need to look at microphone performance since that is the point of buying a headset over just a pair of headphones. Again, I compared the G533 against the V2100, because the microphones used in them are similarly sized, retractable and filtered.
The quality of the recordings is surprisingly good. Sound resonated a lot in the room I was testing in, my obnoxious laptop fan was running and I kept typing while recording, but nevertheless both headsets did a great job in filtering out all those noises.
The G533 did a slightly better job at noise-reduction and picked up voices a lot clearer, but it lacks a lot of bass in the recording making deep voices sound strange and very distant.
The V2100 did the opposite: It amplified at the low end and made voices sound very close, personal and radio-like. However, there is slightly more noise and the clarity did suffer a significantly in its recordings.
To get a better impression of the microphone’s performance you can listen to some recording samples below:

G533: https://clyp.it/3tma5znn
V2100: https://clyp.it/c02qpxa1
Laptop mic: https://clyp.it/b3hyrw1f

Conclusion

Overall the G533 headset is a great device. It is comfortable to wear for long periods of time, the microphone records almost noise-free audio and I am pleasantly surprised by the sound quality it is providing. Battery life and reception range are both great and the software is intuitive to use. As mentioned, the usefulness of surround is debatable and I personally chose to ignore it after testing even though it is not implemented badly at all. Based on this I can recommend the headset for anyone looking for a comfortable wireless experience during skype calls or while gaming with friends.