Corsair Vengeance 1400 Review

Corsair Vengeance 1400 Review

Manufacturer: Corsair
UK price (as reviewed): £63.50 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $79.99 (ex Tax)

The Vengeance 1400 is physically the same headset as the Vengeance 1500 above it, which costs about £10 more, but the latter connects via USB and supports virtual digital surround sound, whereas this model is an analogue stereo one. Having the two options is a good move, as those who have invested in a decent sound card will have little use for a USB headset. At £64, the Vengeance 1400 faces stiff competition from the excellent Qpad QH-90, which can now be found for £70 a few months after its launch.

The Vengeance 1400 is supplied without any extension leads or adaptors, but its thin, non-detachable and braided cable is plenty long enough at 3m. It also has a discrete in-line remote featuring a clip, a volume wheel and a microphone mute switch with handy green and red indicators. The headset itself sports 50mm drivers, as well as a uni-directional and noise cancelling microphone.


The external plastic frame with its brushed aluminium effect isn't too weak or flimsy anywhere, nor is it much of a fingerprint magnet, but the QH-90's aluminium body is still far nicer. Nevertheless, with plenty of padding and a synthetic leather covering, the headband is very comfortable and does a good job of preventing the headset from feeling too heavy. It's also very wide, and there's a significant amount of height adjustment, so the Vengeance 1400 should fit comfortably on even the biggest heads. Meanwhile, the sections supporting the earcups can rotate forwards through about 90 degrees and the earcups themselves have some wiggle room, allowing them to adjust to the shape of your head.

The circumaural earcups have a large circumference and are also very deep such that our ears had plenty of breathing room inside and never became overheated. The velveteen-covered memory foam padding is comfortable, but with their soft leather coating the earcups on both the Asus Vulcan and especially the Qpad QH-90 are even more so, and also have better attenuation of external noise. The Vengeance 1400 also clamps to your head with a well balanced amount of pressure.

The microphone isn't detachable or retractable, but can be rested facing upwards on the left earcup. It has a good range of vertical motion, and is firmly attached so that it won't slip down over time. However, attempts to bend it inwards closer to your mouth typically result in it reverting to its original distance, but thankfully this is sufficient to capture your voice, even at low volumes. It does pickup sound from multiple directions, but it still recorded our voices clearly. In certain positions it's affected quite severely by nasal breathing, but adjusting its height will fix this, and it does a decent job of drowning out loud keyboard strokes, for example.