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Product: Headphones

Developer: Altec Lansing

Minimum Requirements: 1/8 mini jack stereo output and microphone input (standard on Apple computer systems)

Retail Price: $99.95

Availability: Out now

I generally try to avoid writing hardware reviews, mostly because they tend to be dull, technical pieces that lack any kind of personality or user experience. If you read between the lines, they turn out to be something like this:

Altec Lansing's latest entry-level offering in the headset market is a rock-solid product that is totally sweet because they hooked me up with a free pair of headphones that appeals to audiophiles and the average Joe alike.

The sound quality, when combined with the noise-canceling design, allows for a flawless, sublime aural experience especially compared to my $10 radio shack headphones that were so bad I jumped at the chance to review these babies no matter whether you're pumping some phat beats or fragging with your homeboys.

However, the flaws in the microphone's design take it down a few notches, especially compared to competitively priced offerings by Logitech so I think I'm gonna try and snag one of those next and sell this thing on eBay.

Rather than just spit out some trite rag that goes on in inoffensive, bland, boring paragraphs, I decided to put the Altec Lansing AHS602 Gaming Headset through a battery of real-world tests that any Macintosh gamer will appreciate.

Test One: Noise Canceling

Perhaps the most obvious use of the noise-canceling design is to cancel particularly annoying noises so you can focus on your game or music or whatever it is you happen to be using the headphones for. For those of you unfamiliar with such heavy-duty headphones (like I was), merely putting the headphones on is enough to significantly dim whatever noise is in the background, even if you're not actually listening to anything. This way, you don't have to turn the volume up to near-painful levels to drown out any background noise.

This test actually started while I was writing the review and bumping some Kanye West. The noise cancelling managed to completely drown out the ringer on the cell phone (five feet away), earning one point, and managed to drown out my somewhat irritated roommate (eight feet away), who had been woken up from a nap by my ringing phone, earning another point. If that weren't enough, the headphones managed to earn another half point in a valiant attempt to drown out my girlfriend (12 feet away, in person this time, rather than just through the cell phone) who was infuriated because I forgot to wake her up this morning. Frankly, anything that could drown out a significant other would have to cost a lot more than these headphones (and is probably illegal in most of the fifty states anyway), so two and a half out of three points isn't bad at all. The noise canceling capabilities on these headphones do enough to let you concentrate in an active environment, but don't expect it to drown out your roommate's death metal, or, for that matter, a particularly vocal boyfriend or girlfriend.

Score: 2.5 points out of 3

Test Two: Surround Sound

Surround sound hardly needs an explanation; essentially, it's the capacity of the headphones to create the illusion that sounds are coming from a certain direction. This is generally most useful in first-person shooters, ostensibly so you could figure out from which direction you're being shot or something cool like that. In practice, it seems to be more useful for telling which one of your teammates is spamming the communication channels with "AWWWW THAT'S MY BAZOOKA" and other noise like that.

The first test I put the surround sound capacities through was a five-player botmatch on Quake III: Arena's infamous Q3DM17, probably better known as The Longest Yard. For those of you unfamiliar with the map, it's basically a fragfest set up on a bunch of floating platforms, meaning that death is raining down upon you from every angle possible. The surround sound functioned quite adequately here; while I didn't exactly pull any Matrix-quality dodges or anything, there is a definite noticeable difference between a rocket passing by you and actually feeling that rocket brush by your shoulder. One more point for Altec Lansing. It never quite managed to make me check and see if any of the noises were coming from elsewhere in the room, so it's not quite at the level of a well constructed surround sound home theater system, but, for the price and intended function, it's a perfectly serviceable gaming supplement. It also makes listening to The Roots a lot more immersive, incidentally.

Score: 1 point out of 2

Test Three: Design

As Mac users, we, more than anyone else, demand that our electronics not only work well, but make us look good. With that, the first test was pretty simple: what on earth do I look like while wearing this thing?

Needless to say, while I do look pretty darn gangsta in this headset, it's not the kind of thing that I could ever wear with the iPod; the microphone does rotate up around the side to make it less obtrusive for when you're not using it, but it still looks pretty ridiculous. I really wish the mic was detachable or something, because otherwise I'd have no problem lugging these bad boys around. On the plus side, I'll give half a point because they match my aluminum PowerBook G4 12".

The physical design of the headset, indicates more than anything else that the target audience is not the general consumer, but the low-end audiophile. About halfway down the headphone cables is a somewhat bulky remote unit that controls headphone volume, mic volume, and surround sound. It's powered by one AAA battery that has pretty decent battery life, and if it runs out you can still use it as a regular set of headphones minus all the cool features. Frankly, as nice as it is to be able to control the volume and such, I've been leaving surround sound, the mic, and the volume all at maximum the whole time because it's faster for me to just change the settings on the computer instead, meaning that I have a somewhat clunky and annoying remote that is continually falling off my lap or my desk, which kind of tugs on my head. I imagine most of the people who buy this won't be annoyed about it at all; since I tend to work in a rather portable environment rather than the standard desktop/tower environment common to most hardcore gamers, the bulky nature of these headphones is a greater irritant to me than it will be to most of you out there. Also, this might just be me, but I found that after an hour or so of wearing the headset my ears started to feel a little sore. Suffice to say that this headset is very much designed for a conventional desk environment, and anyone wishing to use this headset elsewhere will have to decide if it's worth dealing with assorted ergonomic inconveniences.

Score: .5 out of 2

Test Four: The Mic

Games honestly don't demand all that much out of a microphone; presumably, you're not buying the headset to start your career as MC Team Kill or anything, so anything besides normal voice communication is kind of unnecessary. The attached mic on this particular headset did that just fine; I tested it out on my roommate's PC and was talking trash on Counter-Strike in no time. One point for the AHS602.

The ultimate test that any mic could ever handle, though, isn't mere radio chatter. For $99.95, you'd expect something more than just blurry telephone quality mumbling. So I decided to throw everything I could at it.

That's right. "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

By Bonnie Tyler.

Sung as a duet.

By me and my roommate.

It was too much for the Counter-Strike players. We got booted before we made it to the chorus. Oh well.

1.5 points out of two for the AHS602. Karaoke microphones can barely handle our epic skill on the mic; it's understandable that the AHS602, designed for gaming as it was, crumbled under the pressure. Half a point for effort; at least we made it past the first couple verses.

Ultimately, Altec Lansing's AHS602 headset is a splendid product aimed at a very particular market. If you're looking for a high-quality pair of headphones and a microphone, and if you play most of your games in a standard desktop environment, go for it—it's most likely exactly what you need. If you don't feel like dropping a C-note on an above-average headset, there are cheaper alternatives out there, but for those of you who find yourself in desperate need of a high-quality mic/headphone combo, the AHS602 will provide you with just what you need to create that crap-your-pants atmosphere needed for Doom III or whatever floats your boat.

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