The Box and Goodies -
The box that the RHM-6308 arrived in was a little flimsy to be perfectly honest. It was a simple plastic cover that wrapped around and fitted into a cardboard backing. Even the slightest pressure caused the casing to warp and we could envision the headset getting damaged easily during shipping. On the good side you do get a very clear look at what you are getting. There is no mistaking what the product looks like or even the features that it offers after checking out the package.

Inside there is an instruction sheet and a drivers/utility mini-CD. There really is not much more to it than that.

The RHM-6308 Gaming Headset -
I was a little surprised by the look of the RHM-6308. It was a little cheaper looking that I thought it would be. It reminded me of some of the old labtech headsets from the early 2000s to be honest. It is very light weight and made almost entirely of plastic. The ear cups are small and perfectly round however the inner padding is actually much smaller than we would have thought it would be for an over-the-ear headset. Underneath these pads is a small 30mm driver which is capable of 10Hz-25KHz range. This range puts it in line with some sets that cost much more, but the proof will always be in how they sound.

Connecting the two headsets is a strap that we imagine was intended to give them a retro feel, but in the end really does add to the cheap look. There are two crossbars that give rigidity and an imitation leather strap that is meant for comfort.  While the one works well (for rigidity) the other does not quite make it, we did not find the strap all that comfortable. Another issue with this design is that it does not fit all that well. When you put it over your head the ear pieces feel like they are sticking out at the bottom, this could cause an issue with the audio quality as outside sounds leak in.

On the left ear piece is a flexible boom microphone that has a range of 70Hz-20KHz with as sensitivity of -47db. These specifications are not bad at all if the rest of the headset can manage to process them.

This brings us to another item; as we mentioned before this is an all-in-one audio solution. In addition to the headset you also have a USB audio card that is attached. The audio on the RHM-6308 is… yup you guessed it a CMedia 6308 USB audio chip. We found this under the hood of the audio controls. It was attached to a PCB with the label AL.TLEAMK6308) USB-533M. The audio controls are about 1/3 of the way down the 6.6 foot USB cable that provides power and connectivity for the RHM-6308.

To be honest with you at this stage of the game we are not hopeful for quality audio. There are some decent specifications and the CM6308 is not a bad audio CODEC, but there are a few things that just give us concern.

The Setup -
Unlike a few of the other USB audio devices we have tinkered with you do have to install a driver and utility to get the full benefit from the Rosewill RHM-6308. The installer is on the mini-CD that comes inside the box and while it does require a reboot it is a pretty solid little piece of software.

As you can see you have a few options for using the RHM-6308. You can opt for normal stereo or you can turn on the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and run the system in 7.1 virtual surround.  The other options include a small mixer, an effects page, a harmonizer (they call it magic voice), and more. Many of these options you would expect to find on more expensive audio products so we are pretty impressed to see them here.

Performance -
With audio gear it is hard to be objective. After all different people like different music and even people that like the same music might like to listen to it in different ways. To make sure that I cover the audio products that we get here at DecryptedTech I like to have more than one opinion. Usually I gather 5 other people to listen to different audio types (gaming, movies, MP3 and CD-Audio). I then ask for a rating of one to five with one being the worst and 5 being the best for each category. As an added item I also ask for a single word to describe the audio quality. I then follow up with my personal feelings and observations.


Gaming -
Gaming was the easiest one test and also the easiest one to observe. When the audio quality is good you can see people register it in the way they react to what is happening in the game. We used Modern Warfare 3 and also Mass Effect 3 for the audio comparison.
The numbers are shown below, while the words used to describe the gaming quality were;
Good
Better than I was expecting
Nice
Flat
Over Processed

Our gaming experience was better than our first impression led us to believe. We fully expected to hear flat and dull audio with more high and mid-range than low. The reality was almost the opposite. There was plenty of low-end, but this also brought in a little mud in the mid-range. Not a lot, but enough to recognize. The virtual surround was nice; during part of our time in Modern Warfare 3 (during the Mind the Gap level) we were able to get a very good feel for the audio quality when shooting from inside the concrete tubes. The sound became louder and seemed to ring in our ears a little. We also noticed that during our game play the games would sometimes stutter. This appeared to happen when the most during combat (which was most of Modern Warfare 3). We tested again with the Sirus headset and did not see the same stuttering. It would appear that at times the USB audio cannot keep up with the sounds that are being pushed.


Movies/Video -
Movies was an easy one also, I have several Bluray titles that are great for this including Pirates of the Caribbean. So I loaded up this title and then dropped in a couple of other movies that have good surround effects.  The response was not as good as the gaming, but still the surround piece did seem to impress.  The numbers and words are shown below.  

For movies the extra bass also diluted some of the audio quality. While the sound was good (especially for a $30 headset and audio card combo) there was just a little too much low-end for the majority of the sound we listened to. The virtual surround was the least effective here; although it was noticeable, it was not enough to truly call it surround.


Music (MP3 and CD-Audio) -
For Music I have a few favorite tracks that I like to use. These are not always other people’s favorites but they serve as a baseline and have some impressive audio features to them that can distinguish between good audio and bad. One of them is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing. It is an amazing track. Other are A Day in the Life by the Beetles, Are you Experienced by Jimi Hendrix, and Cage the Elephant’s Ain’t no Rest for the Wicked. The numbers for this along with their corresponding one word comments are below.

The music experience was pretty good. For most of the audio we listened to the extra bass did not kill our listening experience. However, when we hit our true test track, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s remake of Little Wing we noticed the drop in quality. During this track with good audio gear, you can hear his fingers moving up and down the strings and over the frets. This is in contrast to the hum of his amp all of these elements are really what goes to make up this track and the “feel” of it. When you have heard all of these you notice their absence and it really does take something away from the song.


Comfort -
The Rosewill RHM-6308 gaming headphones are not the most comfortable we have ever tested. More than one of our test subjects made the comment that they felt awkward on their ears and it was hard to find a comfortable spot to put them on their head. Adjusting the earpieces when they are on your head can also be difficult as the mechanism is stiff. The pads on the ear pieces also have a slightly odd shape that does not completely conform to your ears. We found that they pressed down on the top of our ears but were very loose at the bottom (which did allow for outside noise to leak in). The top strap also became uncomfortable after extended use for us as well as two out of our five test subjects.

Value -
Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item.
The Rosewill RHM-6308 costs $29.99 from most etailers and while the construction is not the best the audio quality is still well over the price that you will pay for this product. This is despite the stutter and even with the low-end that we saw. All of that can be adjusted for with a few tweaks (with the exception of the video stutter) so that you will end up with a much better audio experience than you would have if you stuck with on-board audio or if you went out and spent $30 on a cheap soundcard and headphones.

Conclusion -
In the end we found that while the Rosewill RHM-6308 looks and even feels cheap it does have decent sound behind it. Unfortunately the audio is not at its best right out of the box. You will have to tune down the bass to remove a lot of the mud that pops up in the midrange. To add a little kick to your gaming audio we also recommend turning on the 7.1 virtual surround which gives quite a bit more depth and life to the sound. For comfort you will need to have the right sized head and ears or you will find that the RHM-6308 gaming headset will sit awkwardly on your head and can put pressure on the outside rim of your ears. Still for the $30.00 you will shell out they are not all that bad and are certainly better than many of the $40 and $50 headphones we have worked with in the past. We do wish that they would fit better on the head and ears as this would almost certainly add to the audio experience, but sadly that was not the case. To wrap things up; the Rosewill Pro Audio RHM-6308 Gaming Headset is not bad for the $30 you will spend and certainly much better than what you will get from most onboard audio or what you would be able to buy if you tried to pick up an add-in audio card and headpones/speakers.

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