Thank you Corsair for sending us this headset to review! While I have reviewed quite a few headsets, it's been a while since I had the chance to give a Corsair one a spin; in fact, over two years. While that headset was a bit bass-heavy for my tastes, it otherwise was quite reliable and had a fantastic feature set. What piqued my curiosity with this Corsair HS55 Wireless and my desire to review it was once again, the feature set and potential for value. Looking over the specs, two things really stood out to me: the 2.4GHz wireless, and Bluetooth features. Well, to be more specific, those two features at the $99.99 price point. I have other headsets with those features, but they also cost a lot more. If you are looking for a quick summary, I'll cut right to the chase: Yes, these offer a great value for the price. If you want more details about the pros and cons, please stick with me. When I first picked these up, I was immediately surprised with how light they are. This light weight also carries over to comfort when wearing them. They also don't clamp too hard on your head, and the padding on top isn't much, but it doesn't need to be - these things are that light! Since I have a large noggin', headphones that are comfortable for many are often not for me, because smaller headphones often clamp harder on large heads, or the ear pads don't accommodate large ears. Neither of these are issues for me with the HS55s. What I found interesting is that they use a uniquely-shaped ear pad that in effect makes them a little less sealed than thicker or flatter pads, but also doesn't irritate my ears, since my ears are a bit on the jumbo side. You see, most ear pads are a circle or oval that has a flat surface that makes contact with your head around your ears. These look like they are like that at first, but if you look closer, you'll see that the outside edge is the farthest out point, and that on the inside of the cup they are round and roll in towards the center of the pad. So, this might lead to a slightly worse seal, but since I have large ears, the pads don't press hard on the far tips of my earlobes. This is great, as a common point of discomfort for me when wearing headphones is at the tops of my ears; these don't bother me in that way! They also are not as hot as some ear pads, despite being made of synthetic leather, which can often encourage sweating. By not pressing hard on your head or touching in as many places, and being light on top of that, these are remarkably comfortable, despite not using premium materials that often lead to more comfort.

As one would expect from a headset of this price (and weight), yes, they are made almost entirely of plastic. The headband, ear cups, and microphone are made of plastic, and the headband cushion is made of foam and rubber. The foam is interesting, in that the first part compresses easily, and after that it's more firm. The ear pads are made of synthetic leather, and there is a piece of metal that forms the slider holding the headband to the ear cups. The ear pads are not easy to remove, so I didn't investigate the insides further (for now, anyway). The buttons and wheel on the headset are easy to press and distinguish, and the wheel feels nice when adjusting the volume. While it doesn't feel premium, it also doesn't feel cheap; I would say the build quality is appropriate for the price point. My only real complaint is that the cups swing backwards, but not forwards. I think I could get a better seal with them if they swung forwards just a bit; most headsets swing just a bit past horizontal for that reason. Not a deal breaker, but something to note. There are two ways to connect to the HS55 Wireless. Unfortunately, using a wired 3.5mm connection is not one of them. Corsair sells a separate wired model of the HS55, if you want that. But there is a wireless 2.4GHz dongle, that is a fairly chunky USB adapter that doesn't feel cheap; I've had USB wireless dongles break before from other brands. This one doesn't feel like that should happen anytime soon. There is also Bluetooth connectivity, and it pairs quickly and easily in my experience. In my experience with Wireless + Bluetooth headsets, there seems to be two main different styles. The first is simultaneous. Basically, you can hear out of both sources at the same time. It's admittedly pretty awesome. But those features tend to be on headsets that cost much more; the cheapest one I can think of with that feature is $149. The other approach is perhaps more common, where you press a button to switch between either input source. That is what the HS55 Wireless headset does. What surprised me at first is that when you connect the headset to your phone (I have an Android), it shows as 'calls only' at first. This threw me for a loop, as I was trying to figure out what was wrong. Thankfully, once I figured out that it defaults to the 2.4GHz dongle when powering it on, you just have to press the power button once and it switches sources. Once you do that, the phone sees that your headset also supports media playback, and everything then works as expected. When you press that button, you hear a sequence of beeps; I found the last two beeps to be identifying ones. If they are low beeps, it's Bluetooth. If they are higher beeps, it's 2.4GHz. It works fine for switching. The Bluetooth button that you use to pair the headset with a phone or other Bluetooth device also acts as a 'play/pause' button. You can also accept or reject calls with it. This is all on the right ear cup.