Audio is a part of the computing experience that is very often overlooked when people are building their system. We see this every day when someone is talking about putting together an HTPC (Home Theater PC), a gaming system or even a general usage system. They stick with the audio on the motherboard and call it good enough. Even when someone takes the time to pick out a good sound card, they often buy $20 speakers to play this sound through. Today we are going to take a look at a combination audio card and headset from Rosewill this is the RHM-6308. The RHM-6308 is listed as a Circumaural Gaming Headset; we are going to see if this $30 headset can live up to its name.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.
Discuss this in our Forum
