Sony has decided to change the drivers of the Pulse Elite. Originally it was the same as the normal 7.1 headset. The Pulse now has higher fidelity drivers, still utilizes 50mm cans though.

Too bad they stuck with faux leather, would have been nice if there's a cloth-mesh version.

I'll confirm that soon, waiting for a unit so I can test it out. From others who has already got their hands on it, they're saying the build quality is solid and is more flexible than its predecessor.

What fan sound problem? You mean buzzing?

From early reviews so far... yes, you can use these headsets with movies and music perfectly fine.
In fact for music, the headset is already designed to be plugged into any mobile device with a 3.5mm jack — which means, basically almost any smartphone or mp3 player.

As for the bass, the high-mid-lows, trebles and frequency... can't comment on that yet personally as I haven't got my unit yet. But from what I hear, they're pretty darn excellent for $150 usd.

Firmware 4.10 did cause some issues to the headset yeah. But it's been fixed so far with firmware 4.20.
Yours still a problem?

Understand that the mic on the wireless stereo headset is not noise cancelling as well. So it does pick up noise from anything that is within proximity.

Got my review unit.
Will be stress tesing this sweet headpiece over the entire week to see how it holds up to other headsets around its price range.

First impressions - it's really, really solidly built. For $150 (or RM4xx).. I haven't really seen that many headsets that has such good built quality. So kudos to Sony.

Comfort and sound quality, will need more time with it. Will update back soon.

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Added on September 29, 2012, 2:26 pmSide note; I think it's a crime that Sony didn't even include a USB cable with a headset like this... I mean, for $150 (RM4xx)... they can't even afford to include a USB cable?!

Luckily I have spares. But for those who don't, make sure you get a USB to mini-USB cable ready. It's needed for charging the headset.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Sep 29 2012, 02:26 PM

I know how you feel buddy. Sony should have a roadmap of the products they are going to be releasing.
Honestly, it wouldn't suprise me if they would announce a "Pro" version to this Pulse Elite edition next year... something I actually smell coming.


Any USB to mini-USB cable will work, so yeah... the DS3 USB cable does work.


One thing though, the charge time for the headset is slow... really, really slow. From a depleted battery to a full charge will take up to 3 hours++.
Would be faster if you connect it to a high powered USB port (i.e SuperCharger feature on MSI motherboards).

The Pulse is a little too flat for my taste, but sound quality wise... I don't think there's many at its price range that will beat it, period.
The lows are a little weak depending on what mode the headset is currently in, the mids and high ranges are just excellent considering they do not have tweeters in the Pulse.

One gripe though... the sound volume from the headset is somewhat quite low and it does depend heavily on the source. Hate how I need to keep adjusting my volume for every single game and every single movie.
If a game's audio was originally already recorded in loseless audio (MGS4, Uncharted, Dead Space 2, to name a few)... the sound output is more than loud enough.

But in games where audio is downsampled — and this is the majority of PSN games and quite a large number of retail games, particularly multiplatform games — then the sound output isn't loud enough for me.
Even cranking it to the max doesn't give me the amount of punch in comparison to other headsets.

Volume is very subjective though since everyone's ears are different to a variety of ambience volume.

On comfort, the Pulse is very, very comfortable. Just like the predecessor wireless stereo 7.1 headset, the ear-cups has a bulge on the rear side and that means there shouldn't be any pain at the back of the ear (the temporal bone).
The speakers are angle as well, so your ear cartiledges wouldn't be pressing against them which would hurt like a b!tch after a couple of hours (Turtle Beach PX21/DPX21 users know this best).

So far, so good. It's a great piece of headset. Anyone on the fence right now, IMO you should get it if you're finding a high-fidelity headset that delivers clean audio.

Will be continuing to use the headset for a few more days, won't be commenting on the BaseImpact yet as I feel I haven't found a sweet spot for it.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Sep 30 2012, 02:44 AM

Faux leather will always peel under humidity and sweat, especially of those with plush textures. That's why it's always advisable to wipe the cups dry after usage.
It's a hassle I know, but we aren't paying for genuine crocodile leather here so... yeah, it peels over time.

More so when we are in such a hot and humid country.

5-6 hours.

Did you turn up the voice chat volume slider?



Yes, the volume output is a little bit underwhelming for me too — but to each its own, some people may find it too loud.
The VSS isn't as accurate as Turtle Beach's DSS/DSS2 as well. Understandable, Sony isn't using any Dolby Headphone technology here... hence, they don't need to pay royalties and raising the price of the headphone.

A lot of other wireless interference around your place?
Understand that the wireless USB connector is running on a 2.4ghz frequency... so if you have a lot of wireless interference, like modem/routers, mobile devicies, microwave, cordless phones, etc. etc, then your audio dropping is normal.

Wouldn't have mind Sony raising the price to $179 just to include 5ghz support for their wireless support, would have solved all wireless interference issues.

Here's also hoping in the next few firmwares, Sony would allow higher volume outputs to the Pulse headset.

Depends how big your head and ears are. It didn't get too warm for me when I took it through a continuous battery stress test (about ~6 hours).
Most importantly, it didn't make my ears sweat or did I get any headaches (BassImpact at 40-60% with default Game preset).

Though the headband could be a little bit uncomfortable for some due to its 2-piece design and the layer of padding not being thick and plush enough.

Conclusion for comfort, personally... I think the Pulse ranks as one of the most comfortable gaming headsets out there now.

The only thing Sony can improve on the comfort is the use of memory foam on the ear cups and a 1-piece with plush padding for the headband.

Tried it with a variety of movies, both on the PC and on the PS3.
On the PC, it isn't possible (at least, not through conventional methods) to enable virtual surround sound. However, movies being played back in Stereo is still very good, very high-fidelity providing of course the source of the audio is properly encoded as well.

On the PS3, watching Blu-Ray movies is spectacular. I actually feel that the Pulse is actually built for movies instead of gaming at some point of my testing, it's damn good. Considering when many Blu-ray movies has their audio lossless.
I don't think the PS3 is processing DTS or DD 7.1 or LPCM 7.1 through the wireless USB connector at all, rather just using DD 5.1 audio as its source and relaying it through.

Blu-ray movies on the PS3 I tested were Batman Begins + The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Expendables with Movie preset and Bass Impact at 30-50%.

Batman Begins & The Dark Knight -
Both movies have heavy dialogue, a lot of ambient noises and a good surmount of action scenes. The Pulse performed remarkably and you know what they say, you can 'feel' the demented voice of Heath Ledger's role as the Joker. Action scenes are impactful, highs and mids are highlighted really well with just a touch thin on lows, the bass wasn't deep enough.

Inception -
Not going to say much about this except I watched this movie simply because of the soundtrack and the sound effects that was used — you shouldn't really watch Inception in any other form other than having an actual Home Theatre setup, but with the Pulse it is an acceptable alternative.

The Expendables -
Only tested the last 15 minutes of the movie for the gunshots and two words would sum it up — effin' brilliant. The Pulse is built for action movies, period.

Thanks guys. Glad to be of help.




What settings were you using for the song?

Personally, the best setups for me is either the default Game mode or Movie mode.
Shooter, Fighting, Racing is a little too much as the vibration levels there are presets, the Bass Impact slider only adjusts how intense the vibrations are.

Game, Music and Movie mode allows the Bass Impact slider to decide how often the vibrations occur, which IMO is a much better way of utilizing the headset. The vibration modules in the headset is loud enough that it can be annoying if it overwhelms the volume.


Depending on your budget. If you are willing to fork out up to RM450 only, then yes the Pulse is worth it.
There are still better gaming headsets out there, but they do cost a lot more of course.

I've never heard any echo from my friends or any other player in the game talking. Tested it on BF3 and Uncharted 3 personally, no echo.
What do you mean the mic is slow? You mean softer? If so, yes... it doesn't quite pick-up your voice as loud as it did on the older wireless headset. Agreed that Sony should have allowed a setting higher than 3 in the XMB.

Don't understand your last qualm, the sound? The audio output range is indeed quite low and it does depend a lot on the source audio.

1) The old Sony Wireless Headset can be used with the PC, but not with smartphones. No, sound quality isn't as good on the PC as on the PS3.

2) The old model's USB receiver is pretty poor, so if there are too many wireless intereference around then you would experience frequent sound cut-outs or even drop outs. Personally, I didn't face such an issue eventhough my router is less than 3 feet away from my PS3.

3) Drop by heavyarm's shop, it's in Subang though. He should still have the old model for testing.

Yeah, the volume output could be higher. Maybe Sony limited it so the battery lasts longer, that could be the only plausible explanation. Then again in the first place, they should have went with a higher capacity battery.

I'm averaging about 5 hours+ of gameplay at 80-100% volume, default "Game" mode and Bass Impact at the 5th notch.
The sweet spot I think for any wireless gaming headset is to lasts at least 7-9 hours.


For the Pulse, it sounds pretty good on the PC and smartphones. Better than the older wireless headset. However, you cannot enable virtual surround sound.
There is of course a way to get virtual surround sound on the PC though, but it's through unconventional methods.

What I do is, because my dedicated soundcard has Dolby Headphones, I connect the USB receiver into a USB port on the com. Then connect it into the line-out jack on my soundcard.
After that because the Pulse is detected as headphones under Windows, it's easy to just manipulate the EQ settings from my soundcard and enable virtual surround sound.

So why am I saying all this? Because it actually sounds much better than using the Pulse on the PC this way than on the PS3. It's ridiculous.

And yes, the Pulse has a better USB receiver. Still not 5ghz-band support though, but considering the price, it's forgiveable.

Great news for Pulse owners, free app for PS3 that adds new modes for BassImpact and allow users to choose only which mode they want to be loaded so you don't have to cycle through 6 modes to get to a mode you want.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/12/17/...-pre-set-modes/

Now I hope they improve the app with an EQ setting and an auto-off feature, would be perfect.