Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Headset

A Closer Look, Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Headset

The MasterPulse Pro comes packaged in a sturdy box with preview flap and plenty of information to assist the consumer in making an intelligent decision about its purchase.

Opening the preview flap gives you a tantalizing peek at the product inside and provides an exploded view of the ear cups, revealing the engineering inside.

The over-ear headset features a well-hidden microphone and self adjusting headstrap. If you look closely you will see the self adjusting cables and non tangle flat cord in bright red. The one thing we don’t like about the self adjusting cables are they are a metallic twisted cable with the potential of snagging your hair.

We were a bit surprised at the removable panels on the ear cups; it’s such an elegant design and makes quite a difference in the tonal qualities of the headset. With the cover off the headset it emphasizes and enhances the bass qualities of audio. Leave the Bass FX cover on and the bass is reduced and we found that when switching from virtual 7.1 to 2.0 stereo it was best to leave the cover on for clearer tonal reproduction. If you prefer heavy bass in your music simply take the cover off.

This graphic from Cooler Master shows the inline sound card / control box, and as you can see there’s a lot going on here. The 7.1 virtual surround sound is an on and off slider. The equalizer has four modes: Off, Music, Movies and Gaming. RGB illumination is controlled by the big button in the center top of the controller or the MasterPulse Pro Software AP. Volume is standard up and down buttons and last but not least a microphone on and off button. The red tangle-free cord is quite long, in the 6 foot range, and takes a little getting used to. We’ve seen a lot of tangle-free cables and we prefer a cloth sheathed round cable to the flat rubberized cable found on the MasterPulse Pro. The hidden microphone is little more than a pinpoint at the bottom of the headset and we prefer a boom microphone to the hidden design. The dedicated inline sound card will take the audio load off your computer, but it’s advantage/disadvantage depends on the quality of your sound system. Those running high dollar sound cards would likely prefer to utilize the sound card and a 3.5mm jack and the MasterPulse Pro is strictly USB, taking the option of using a soundcard-out port off the table.

The adjustable head band has five separate cushions for maximum comfort and the ear cups are well padded and fairly comfortable during long listening or gaming sessions.

Here’s what we mean by fairly comfortable, we placed a AAA battery in the ear cup to show you the size; the ear cup is a bit small for people with large ears. The cup can easily touch your ears and become uncomfortable when it shifts. Notice the self adjusting cable on the right of the ear cup; it’s completely unshielded, and has the potential for snagging on your hair.

The headset’s frame is constructed of aluminum and the unit is pretty lightweight, coming in at 330 grams or about 0.75 pounds. The overall feel is quality construction but like any other headset, durability is a factor.

We like to see the headsets open so we placed a handy cell phone between the ear cups and they held secure, and in later testing cupped our head comfortably.