Personal computing has had its ups and downs of the last 10 years and these have not always been because of consumer reaction. In many cases the manufacturers have failed to meet the expectations of the people they are selling to. One of the biggest places where the market has failed the consumer is when they moved to “good enough” computing. We saw this as far back as the Pentium III when Intel pushed for onboard audio, networking, modem etc. These devices were not the greatest of components, but they were “good enough” in the eyes of the manufacturers. Now the situation is shifting (very slowly) as these components are no longer good enough in the consumer’s eyes. They are demanding more from their hardware. One place where this shift has been the most obvious is in the audio market. Today we have a product that is supposed to fall well outside the good enough range. This is the CMStorm Pulse-R gaming headset. Let’s take a look and see if it really can.
The Box and Goodies -The box that Cooler Master wrapped up the Pulse-R in is a nice one. It is not a typical plastic or cardboard box. Instead it is much more like a gift box with a hinged lid (still cardboard though). This main box is wrapped in a sleeve with some nice graphics. These will leave you with no doubt as to what you are getting (there is a nice picture there).If the picture and the highlights on the front of the box do not sell you then Cooler Master has put some extra highlights on the back. Here all of the major features of the Pulse-R get spelled out for you. Once you are finished with the outside (we imagine it will only take a couple of seconds) then you can pull the cover off and open the box. To be honest with you I was a little surprised that the Pulse-R was just nestled inside a plastic liner. However, plastic liner aside your Pulse-R will be well protected in shipping. Underneath the liner you will find a small instruction manual and the removable audio cord, in short everything you need to get going.
