Defender Orpheus HN-898 headset review: inexpensive gamer’s joys

It is much more interesting to test budget headphones than expensive ones, don’t you agree?. With the expensive ones it’s more or less clear, and the cheap ones are usually a gift of fate for some people and a waste of money for others. And their thoughtful study is a real adventure for the inquisitive explorer. Take, for example, Defender Orpheus HN-898 headset, which costs from 350 to 500 Dollars, equipped with a microphone on a flexible leg and a very long cable. Interesting? You bet!

Technical Specifications

design, construction

The appearance of Defender Orpheus HN-898 is classical: large overhead ear cushions, adjustable headband, microphone on a flexible leg. The color is black, also quite typical – in a word, Defender is following the well-trodden path of Henry Ford. But it’s really not silly: design extravagances cost money, and the company operates tightly in the segment of the first price.

Build quality and construction reliability is ok, decent and the fit on your head is excellent. The lightweight and soft material of the ear cushions and how well they fit your ears. In Defender Orpheus HN-898 you can play 4-5 hours straight, but do not feel tired and discomfort.

And what is worth saving are the two 3.5mm plugs that connect to the computer. The wire at their base is quite thin, and it is better to connect them to your PC once and never touch them again. The cord is three meters long. In a small room, it’s even good enough to get up from your chair and lie down on the couch, watching a movie.

Sound Quality

Here begins the most interesting part. On the one hand, we have a declared set of promising technical characteristics, but on the other – this is an ultra-budget model, which, in addition, tries to cover several scenarios at once.

As a result, Defender Orpheus HN-898 seized the bridgehead in the form of computer games. All the sound effects, soundtracks, characters’ voices, explosions and, what is almost the most important, enemies’ steps are worked out very well. Let’s remember the excellent fit on the head and give these headphones the first plus.

The second plus can be put on the quality of audio communication during Skype calls: the voice of the interlocutor is perfectly audible. That is, the scenario of “online gaming plus simultaneous communication with partners on TeamSpeak or Skype” is absolutely realistic.

But things are not so rosy with music. Maybe not a minus, but a dotted line. It often happens so: what is good for games and Internet calls, not always suitable for music. The high frequencies in Defender Orpheus HN-898 are abundant, but the bass, on the contrary, is lacking. It is partly compensated by good sound detailing, but all the same there are those who cannot imagine music without violent thundering bass frequencies. And such audiophiles should look at the models with closed ear cushions. Those who like highs and lows the headphones will do.

One more thing about the open form factor. On the one hand, it provides more natural sound. On the other hand, the sound from the headphones can be clearly heard in your surroundings. If you listen to something very loud on these headphones, even a very tired person will not fall asleep in your presence.

Microphone

This is a very boring section because the microphone just works. Works well – the voice is not distorted, the frequency range is not cut off, crackling and background noise does not seem to hear the interlocutor. Solidly done, well done everyone.

Conclusions

Returning to what was said at the beginning of the review – it is really more interesting to test inexpensive “ears” than expensive ones. Here is how many nuances came out! Indeed, Defender Orpheus HN-898 turned out to be more of a gamer than a musician headphone. And as a headset they are excellent. As for music, here they sound at their price, that is very budget and with nuances, which some people will like, and others do not.

So before buying you should ask yourself for what purpose you are buying the headphones, and for what music preferences. And it is not bad to listen to them in the store before you buy: a headset with such low impedance can be connected to your player or phone.

And if you do not have any special requests in terms of music, it is not a sin to remember about the price. Still, these are headphones for the price of a liter of beer in a regular New York bar.