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	Everglide s-500 Headphone Review
	[ Hardware Reviews ] posted by PrOpHeT on Saturday, March 18, 2006 2:07 AM
	The Everglide s-500 Headphone is the ultimate tool for gamers that pass long hours using their headset for their gaming needs.
	Viewed 40234 times.

The Everglide s-500 Headphone is the ultimate tool for gamers that pass long hours using their headset for their gaming needs. It has been designed for gamers, by gamers, with the aid of leading world-wide professionals such as Sander “Voo” Kaasjager and other CPL World Tour Winners. The headset is available for sale with a price tag of $99.99 from Everglide Store, that is around Lm35. Some might say it's quite expensive for a headset, but when compared to other professional gaming headsets, the price is quite cheap.

Specifications

Transducer: Dynamic
Nominal Dependence: 16 Ohm
Max. Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 102 dB
Max. Power Rating: 100 mW
Weight w/o Cable: 350 g
Cable Length: 3.1 m
Frequency Response: 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz

Everglide s-500

Packaging

The Everglide s-500 Headphone come in a box, unlike other headsets that usually come packed in plastic covers. So what comes in the box? The box contains the headset itself, together with a microphone (optional) that clips to the shirt, and a carry bag that holds the headset with its cable and microphone safe when carrying around. It is a good idea to store this packaging so to be able to transport the headset in it when going to LAN-Parties and other similar events where you cannot lack not having the Everglide s-500 Headphones.

The Packaging

What's in the Box

Design

The Headset’s massive ear cups combined with the big design and the fantastic contrast between its black and silver colours give the Everglide s-500 a futuristic look that makes it the first one of a genre. This plain and fluent design makes the headset look very much like a Studio Headphone kit, having that professional appearance any serious gamer requests, backed up with fabulous sound, and great comfort.

Everglide s-500 Professional Gaming Headphones

Similar to a Studio Kit, this headset does not come with a Microphone and comes as an optional separate item with the headphones, having a clip-on that is used so to attach the microphone to the clothing.

The Everglide s-500 Headphone is available in two colours, white and black, according to your taste and theme.

Sound

Directly from first impressions (as you can undoubtedly, see for yourselves), the Everglide s-500 seems to have been built with gaming purpose in mind from the very beginning. In fact, they are a product of new technological advances, such as the world’s first bio-cellulose membrane used to supply instantaneous audio response in the speaker driver. This membrane is said to be by the company, faster than most conventional speaker drivers found in traditional headphones, making the Everglide s-500 optimized for millisecond feedback to provide optimum gaming audio response. Together with the improved speaker driver, the Everglide s-500 also supplies the user with pinpoint precision from where the sound is coming, being accurate to the pixel from where a footstep or a gunshot is coming. The very large circumaural leather muff apart from making the headset comfortable to wear for long hours, has also the feature of reducing surrounding ambient noise to a minimum (very helpful if used in large events such as LAN-Parties ).

Made for Comfort

While the Everglide s-500 excels in gaming experience sounds, it is a bit of a delusion when it comes to music listening on this headset. In fact, making the speaker driver very sensible to minimal audio response resulted in this Headphone to lack in Bass audio quality. The Everglide s-500 lacks in the Sub-Woofer Effect although this lack in Bass was only noticed in music playing, and did not effect in any way gaming. What is quite impressing is that even on high volumes and high Bass fed to the headphones, the response is still sharp and there is very little distortion noticeable only upon high input from the soundcard. One drawback of these Headphones is that they are not that loud, though this is compensated by the noise-isolation from the ambient.

One feature that personally I think lacks to the Everglide s-500 is an inbuilt volume control. In fact, these headphones don’t have their volume management system that many headsets nowadays have. This results in having to higher and lower volume directly from the audio output itself, not always possible while gaming for example (of course, if a volume control switch is not available with your external soundcard, or on the keyboard). The positive side of this lack in a volume control switch is that the headphones will not suffer from any damage in it, since most of the headsets’ weak point is actually, a faulty volume control switch after some long hours using it.

Speaker Driver

The Optional Microphone

The Everglide s-500 comes with an optional microphone that clips-on to the clothes, such as a t-shirt, or to the headphones cable itself. The sensibility of this microphone is remarkable. It provides excellent sound quality during voice chats (tested on several chatting programmes such as Skype, Ventrilo, and MSN Messenger), and allows the user to speak freely without having to worry about where to place the microphone. Placing the microphone all around on my desk always resulted in good sound quality; all that had to be changed was the microphone volume control from the Volume Control Panel of the OS, so to allow others to still hear you loud, even if the microphone is set to be one foot away from the mouth.

Optional Microphone

Comfort

Surely, Everglide did not consider Comfort in this headset to be an excess. In fact, with long hours of gaming in mind, these headphones are the optimal result of technology in comfort. Comfort is obtained by the large circumaural leather muff that provides noise compression, but also provides the user with that comfy feel that there are no headphones pushing on the ear pinnae. This leather muff proves to be comfortable even after very long hours of gaming, voice chatting and music listening. These very large speaker drivers are supported by a headrest that is itself cushioned and in leather, hence, enhancing the experience of the commodity of these headphones. The connection between the speaker driver and the headrest is jointed, allowing the speaker drivers to move freely back and forward, so to better accommodate the position of the speaker drivers on the head, without providing any headphone fatigue or discomfort. The headphones also allow an impressive elasticity between their left-right speaker drivers, allowing to easily wear the headset without excessive strain on the head. The drawback of these headphones though, is their size and weight. Having the speaker drivers visually enormous, one does feel them shaking or that feel of the headphones falling (although they are not actually falling) when you move your head rapidly, or lowering the head.

Extra Large Circumaural Leather Muff

Conclusion

When looking closely and severely testing the Everglide s-500, the conclusion comes out alone. The Everglide s-500 is a must to any serious gamer around there. They are surely worth the tagged price, and are comparable only to headphones with a price range much higher than that of Lm30. The very large circumaural leather muff does its job perfectly in both comfort and noise reduction, though has the drawback of resulting in a very bulky and maybe oversized headphone. The ultra-light membrane of the speaker driver provides excellent sound quality with millisecond feedback, though lacks in giving that Sub-Woofer effect needed when listening to music. The optional microphone is the best that one could need from a microphone; it provides good audio quality and direction, without capturing unwanted room noise.

Pros:

* Comfy Ear Pads
* Long cable
* Sharp Audio
* Microphone with excellent audio quality
* Carry bag

Cons:

* Suffers from lack of Bass
* Not that loud
* Very long cable gets in the way
* No volume control on headphones
* High Price Tag

Vote

Comfort: 9.5/10
Audio Quality: 8 / 10
Microphone: 9 / 10
Loudness: 7 / 10
Design: 7 / 10

playREACTION’s Vote: 8.1/10

Thanks to Everglide for supplying us with the review sample.