Sandberg UrbanCruiser headset (From The Northern Echo)

Sandberg UrbanCruiser headset

8:05pm Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

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IF you're into late night gaming sessions then a decent set of headphones is pretty much compulsory if you hope to remain on speaking terms with your neighbours.

The UrbanCruiser headset from Sandberg comes in a variety of stylish colours (including the Freestyler in pink for gaming gals) and costs a modest £23.99.

The cans are just about large enough to cover your ears and once on your head they do an effective job of isolating extraneous noise.

One advantage “proper” headphones have over the in-ear type is speaker size – bigger usually means better.

The UrbanCruiser's have 40mm driver units good enough to dig out the bass notes from your MP3 collection and sensitive enough not to sound overwhelmed when the bombs and bullets start flying in Modern Warfare or Bad Company 2.

Musically, they felt more at home with pop tracks than classical, which sometimes sounded muddy, but I suspect the target buyer will have more in common with Lady Gaga than Edvard Grieg.

They will, however, have plenty of online games usually of the first person shoot 'em up variety.

All games use 3-D positional audio tracks these days. Headphones make it easier to identify when the bad guys creeping up behind you or to more accurately judge the direction of incoming fire.

The lightweight chassis is comfortable for long listening sessions and small enough to replace cheap in-ear buds that usually come with MP3 players. It looks and feels very sturdy - as does the single sided cable. This is a headset built to last.

When you're not using it, the cable wraps neatly around the metal frames that support the speakers.

The cable also has an in-line microphone and a volume control. There are standard jacks for connection to a headphone output and a microphone input.