There are some hard-working peripheral companies out there right now making a big play for your 2021 Christmas wish list. Amongst the top-tier contenders you need to be paying attention to are EPOS, a company that’s churning out some of the best headsets of the moment, even if they should have double checked what an Electronic Point of Sale is.
Their latest creation is the twin H6PRO – available in both closed back and open back forms. This is a 3.5mm wired beast, a top-of-the-line headset for people who value being tethered to their electronic equipment. If you’ve been paying attention to this company, and its shared history with Sennheiser, you’ll likely already know that the H6PRO is a force to be reckoned with. You’ll also be prepared for the fact you’re going to have to pay for it, and with an RRP of £150, you will.
The H6PRO retains EPOS’ recent design direction, marrying industrial joints that connect each sleek earcup with a plush, premium-feeling leather headband. They look cool and modern, without screaming that they’re primarily for playing games. They feel like a mature gaming headset that knows full well it doesn’t need RGB or an array of fancy accoutrements to sit amongst the best in the business.
The H6PRO feels solid and well made, happily taking some pushing, twisting, and pulling beyond what you’d typically get up to when putting them on your bonce. The metal sliders allow you to find the right fit, gliding easily into position, and everything about the build tells you that this is a premium product, allowing it to sit in a plush, modern environment without being out of place.
Controls are minimal, with a large volume dial on the right ear avoiding the issues that it’s older, albeit cheaper, brethren the H3 experienced. Besides that, as with many EPOS headsets you’re looking at a microphone arm that can be swung up out of the way, which in turn mutes the mic as well. I’m now utterly spoilt by the EPOS H3 Hybrid’s magnetic mic arm, and with its inclusion here I’m hoping this is now a permanent part of the EPOS range. It’s glorious, coming with a replacement plate to cover the connections.
So how does it sound? In an unsurprising turn of events, the H6PRO’s audio is exceptional. EPOS truly are defining themselves in the gaming space with the quality of their audio, and whether it’s been their true wireless earbuds or their external DAC, there’s a distinct quality that consumers can now expect from the brand.
I have to start out with the bass response, as it’s good enough to elicit an audio-based spiritual experience. It rumbles, it pounds, but there’s none of the overwhelming flab that some gaming headsets seem to equate with bottom end. I’ve been reviewing Shin Megami Tensei V on the Nintendo Switch, and there’s a tone in the soundtrack that the H6Pro does such a good job of producing that I find it very hard to concentrate on actually playing the game.
Combining them with the Xbox Series X and racing through the British countryside of Forza Horizon 4, things become even better, with perfectly tuned engine sounds firing directly into your ear with vigour via the perfectly tuned proprietary drivers of the H6PRO. The brisk and vital soundtrack here complements the action perfectly, and I really can’t imagine many headsets managing to come close in terms of replicating the detail and liveliness.
Passive noise isolation on the closed back headset is very good, with only minimal bleed through from that distracting world outside. When you’ve got audio being pumped into it it’s going to take something truly explosive to interrupt your concentration here. I can see the H6PRO being a real hit in the esports arena, with its exceptional audio and passive noise isolation doing a great job of cutting out distractions that could knock you from the top of the podium.
The removable mic arm feels utterly solid in place, but it only takes a sharp tug to take it off. There’s a flexible section in the middle of the arm which allows you to angle it nearer of further away from your mouth, and in use the H6PRO does an exceptional job of conveying your voice across the internets into the ears of whoever’s listening. While it all amounts to a fundamentally no-nonsense headset, EPOS have got every essential aspect of headset design absolutely perfect.
