Last December I introduced to you Sades, a gaming brand who recently landed here in the Philippines with a mission to provide us with yet another option for budget yet quality gaming peripherals. I also gave you the unboxing of one of their flagship gaming headset, the Sades Spellond Pro and today, I am finally ready to provide you with my full review.
I’ve tested every aspect of this gaming headset from its design and construction up to its set of unique features that are definitely interesting, like the built-in dual audio profile and the vibration feature that will provide you with a more immersive gaming experience. The Sades Spellond Pro has a lot up its sleeve and I really enjoyed my time testing it, it’s not perfect though so let’s discuss everything you need to know about this headset.
MY EARLY BREAKDOWN
Pros: Comfortable, Very good audio quality with a lot of bass, Superb MEMS microphone, Dual audio profile, Vibration feature
Cons: A bit heavy, Not so good sound isolation and positioning
SPECIFICATIONS
SPEAKER
Loudhailer diameter: 50 mm
Sensitivity (single player mode) : 95 ± 3 dB at 1 kHz
Sensitivity (multiplayer mode) : 97 ± 3 dB at 1 kHz
Frequency response: 20~20,000 Hz
Impedance: 16 Ω at 1 kHz
Handling power capacity: 20 mW
MICROPHONE
Dimension : 3.76 * 2.95 * 1.10 mm
Sensitivity : -30 ± 3 dB at 1 kHz
Frequency response : 100~10k Hz
Impedance : 200 Ω at 1 kHz
Directivity: omnidirectional
WEIGHT/BOX SIZE/EAN CODE
Weight(Headset only): 360 g/0.79 lb
Weight (Headset & Package): 900g/ 1.98 lbs
Box Size: 21.2×10.8×25.6 cm/ 8.35×4.25×10.08 in
EAN Code: 6956766907791
CONNECTION
Input Plug : Gold-plated USB Plug
Cable Length : 3.0 m/ 9.84 ft
COMPATIBILITY
The Spellond Pro supports USB drives for the following OS :
Windows/Mac OS/Linux
WHAT’S IN THE PACKAGE
Headset User Manual Guarantee Card SADES exclusive sticker Introduction of high-performance audio engine
The packaging of the Sades Spellond Pro is really top notch, it looks and feels really premium.
At the back of the box, we can see all the important features of this headset.
It has a flip-type design that is very well implemented. We have the Spellond Pro name on the left, an LMS (League of Legends Master Series) logo and artwork at the center, and the Spellond Pro gaming headset itself on the right side in a container with a very nice velvet surface.
At the bottom of the box, we have an attached guarantee card.
And inside the box, we have some Sades stickers,
An operational manual,
And an introduction to the High-Performance Audio Engine powered by Bongiovi Acoustics DPS Technology. It’s very evident right here that Sades put a lot of effort with the packaging for this headset.
FULL REVIEW
Design
In terms of design, the Sades Spellond Pro is undoubtedly designed for gamers with a very obvious aggressive look to it. It has a ton of chrome accents around the headset with a combination of both matte and glossy black finish.
Construction
When it comes to construction, the overall materials used is hard plastic with a stainless steel headrail for support. It’s quite heavy at around 370g (my own measurement) but it has a reason for that. One of its selling features is the vibrating earcups and I think that’s the main reason for its hefty weight. For comparison, my Razer Kraken 7.1 V2 weighs around 357g, not so far off compared to the Spellond Pro.
The overall build quality of the Sades Spellond Pro is decent, a bit flimsy in terms of rigidity but that actually helps with the comfort as the headset itself is flexible, although I wouldn’t flex it so much beyond its structural capacity.
Different Parts
On the left side earcup, we have a black glossy finish with chrome accents and the Sades wolf logo at the center that lights up when plugged in. The Sades Spellond Pro only has two colors in terms of lighting which blue(single player mode) and red (multiplayer mode).
We also have on its side the retractable and very flexible microphone. I like this design because it’s flexible yet it stays in place wherever you want. It also has a blue LED illumination with a flashing red at the center when it’s on mute.
Flipping the headset, we’ll see the adjustable stainless steel headband and the Spellond Pro model name.
The adjustment is well defined with a noticeable notch to it and stays in place quite decently.
I mentioned earlier that I wouldn’t advise flexing the headband so much, that is because it has a plastic housing that may break when stretched beyond its limits.
At the back of the headband, we’ll see the two foam padding. For me, these are adequate to prevent the hard plastic headband on touching your head. We’ll talk more about the comfort later.
On the right side earcup, we have the same design but this time at the center, we have the LongZhu Gaming logo that unfortunately, doesn’t light up.
The USB plug is protected with a silicon cap which is a very nice bonus and the plug itself is gold-plated.
Comfort
When it comes to comfort, there are a lot of factors to talk about here.
Let’s start with the earpads, the earpads are very soft and cushy but it’s a little bit on the thinner side compared to most headsets that I’ve tried. But to be honest, it actually doesn’t bother me as I barely feel my ears touching the earcups anyways.
The size and shape of the earcups are large enough to fit my huge ears which is a huge plus for me.
I also like the fact that it uses breathable fabric rather than leather, so it’s more comfortable and doesn’t warm up that easily. You will barely feel any sweat at all compared to leather, although you might want to wash it from time to time to prevent odor and bacteria from building up.
The headband cushion as I’ve mentioned earlier is pretty adequate and it also has the same fabric. And also, like I said earlier, the headband’s adjustment periods are well defined so it’s very easy to tailor it to your head’s shape.
The overall headset doesn’t have much clamping force which helps with comfort, but in return is quite loose when you move your head very swiftly. The earcups also don’t rotate so you can not place it flat around your neck.
In addition, like I also said earlier, the earcups are quite heavy at around 370g because of the vibrating mechanism inside it. So there’s definitely some compromises here in terms of comfort in return of audio quality and a very unique feature.
But overall, I like these earcups and it feels comfortable even after a few hours of continuous gaming sessions.
Another thing that may affect comfort is the relatively thick cable. It has lots of reinforcements on it including the silicone coating, which will help with durability and longevity but it will also add some weight on the left side earcup, not to mention the quite hefty inline control as well.
My advice to alleviate this compromises is to place the inline control on your lap or table to prevent the additional weight. You can also use the built-in cable management strap to attach the excess cable to one of the legs of your table to prevent cable drag.
I feel like the cable protection is overkill but at least with the silicone coating, it doesn’t add any noise when it rubs with your clothing.
Other than that, overall, with some compromises and adjustments, the Spellond Pro is still quite comfortable.
Sound Isolation
In terms of sound isolation, since there’s no active noise cancelation on this headset and that the clamping force is not that great, sound isolation is not very good. You can still hear what’s happening around you unless you crank up the volume.
Volume Level
Volume level on the Sades Spellond Pro is limited in terms of loudness. In my experience, I had to set it at at least 80-90% volume depending on the content I am listening to. But more than 90% is going to be too loud and unbearable anyways so this is really not a big deal
Sound Positioning
Sound positioning is decent but could have been better. You can still hear if the gunfire and footsteps are coming from your left or right as you might expect from a stereo headset, but it’s not as detailed and precise as what you can get from headsets with surround sound feature like my other gaming headsets. I tested this on CS: Go, Battlefield 1 and Rainbox Six Siege, and sometimes it’s kinda hard to pinpoint exactly where the enemy is at especially if they are coming from an angle.
Unique Features
Vibrating Earcups
The Sades Spellond Pro is equipped with vibrating earcups which is really interesting and what’s good about this is it’s not always engaged, the headset will vibrate only when it’s necessarily like gunshots, explosions and other extreme low frequencies. This means it’s not going to be very tiring for your ears while giving you a very immersive gaming experience. It has 2 levels of intensity which is very nice and for my personal preference, I like it at level 1 to strike that middle ground balance, as I feel like the rumbling is too much for my comfort at level 2.
Dual High-Performance Audio Profile
Another unique feature of the Sades Spellond Pro is the built-in dual audio profiles powered by Bongiovi Acoustics DPS Technology.
In Single Player Mode, bass and low-end frequencies are more pronounced providing an immersive experience, especially for FPS games and action-packed games like CS: Go, Rainbow Six Siege, Battlefield 1 and similar games.
The Multiplayer Mode, on the other hand, elevates the high-end frequencies and improves voice clarity for better in-game communication.
These modes are also applicable to music listening. If you want more bass, go for the single-player mode, and if you want more mids and highs, go for the multiplayer mode. This is a very nice option to have that you can toggle on-the-fly with just a click of a button using the inline controls
Speaking of inline controls, it consists of the microphone button, volume up and down, mute, vibration, and the mode button at the center. The buttons light up blue on single player mode and on multiplayer mode, the center button changes to red as well as the wolf logo on the left side earcup. The microphone and mute button also adds a subtle red light on them if they are toggled. The intensity of the LED of the vibration button changes depending on what level it is turned on. And lastly, if you want to turn off the LED of the headset, just press on the center mode button 3 seconds.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the Sades Spellond Pro for gaming is awesome, the vibration feature really helps with that and like I said, it provides a more immersive gameplay. The low ends are really pronounced while maintaining the balance with voice clarity and other frequencies such as background music and the like.
Sound quality for music listening is really good as well and obviously versatile, thanks to its dual audio profile and the vibration feature. You can customize your music listening right at your fingertips with the inline controls, and adjust accordingly depending on the genre of music you listening to. It lacks software support though so you don’t have an equalizer and you can’t control the vibration option other than the 3 available preset which is level 1, 2 and off. But at least it’s plug and play right out of the box.
I think what really separates this from other headsets at this price range is the vibration feature especially for bass lovers out there, pump up the volume to max, turn on vibration to level 2 and blow your heads off.
Microphone Quality
Now, here’s something I wasn’t really expecting. A perfectly usable microphone in a gaming headset. Actually, saying the microphone on the Sades Spellond Pro is usable is quite an understatement, it’s very good at least in my honest opinion. It does a good job of removing ambient noise without introducing unwanted artifacts into the audio. My voice is very clear and I feel like this is something I can use even for some quick voiceovers and whatnot. By far the best microphone I’ve tried in a budget gaming headset. Watch the video below for the actual microphone test in comparison to my Razer Kraken 7.1 V2.
VERDICT
In conclusion, the Sades Spellond Pro has a lot to offer in terms of functionality and overall listening experience. For the most part, it is very comfortable with some compromises here and there, but the feature set and sound quality more than makes up for its shortcomings. The vibration feature really provides that immersive gaming experience partnered with the versatile dual-audio profiles that you can use anytime you want. The microphone is nothing short of amazing, by far the best microphone in a gaming headset that I’ve tried, and would be a great selling point if I need to choose between this and my Razer Kraken 7.1 V2 headset. It could have been perfect for me if it has surround sound for precise audio positioning but other than that, I think the Sades Spellond Pro gaming headset is worth a shot.
