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SLYR
Score: 85%
Developer: Skullcandy
Device Type: Audio
Compatible With:


Function:

Looking for a headset that's stylish? Inexpensive? Easy to pack up and take with you? Compatible with your PC and your consoles? Yeah. The SLYR is all that... and made by Skullcandy, so you know it's sporting attitude.

Performance:

The SLYRs are lightweight and oozing in style and personality, although the ear cups feature a strange shape that, while cool looking, seemed like they might be non-ergonomic and, hence, uncomfortable. Fear not; they feel quite comfortable on and I don't really notice the angled shape when wearing them.

As you can see, the SLYR has an almost futuristic appearance with the angled ear cups. I found that this black and yellow color scheme kept reminding me of Haze, a PS3 FPS from a while back. If you're not a fan of the black and yellow color scheme, Skullcandy also offers the SLYR in an arctic white with black accents and a turquoise blue with orange accents. Yes, I know that turquoise and orange sounds strange, but you should take a peek at them before making any judgments. I think the turquoise SLYRs look cool and edgy.

So, how do they sound? Pretty good, actually. There's not a lot of tweaking to be done here, but there are three different EQ presets: one for a good balance, one for more powerful base and one more for crisp highs. The SLYRs don't have surround sound, but with the Precision Mode (with the crisp highs), I found that I was able to make out the directionality of gun reports and loud footfalls in Call of Duty: Black Ops II pretty decently. Also, the mic worked well for chat. The fact that Microsoft has the chat cord connecting to the controller was a bit annoying, but the wires seemed to stay out of my way; I didn't really notice them much when using the SLYR headset.

The boom mic features an interesting design. When flipped up and away from the mouth, it recesses into the headset and out of the way. And, when in this position, it turns off. To use the mic, simply pull it back down and it turns on. Simple. The mic boom is rubberized and, while not highly posable, can be bent inward a bit. This design feature makes the SLYR headset that much better for carrying around with you; there's no detachable boom mic to misplace and yet the mic can still be turned off and moved out of sight, out of mind and out of the way.

You can also use the SLYR headset as headphones for your iPhone or Android phone by simply using the included headset cord. The removable cord that attaches between the headset and the GMX inline mixer can also plug the headphones directly into your phone. With this setup, you can listen to some tunes and, should a call come in, simply take the call and flip down the boom mic to talk.

When using the SLYR headset with a console, you connect the RCA cable inline with the console's sound, then pluge the headset cord into the mixer and, optionally, the Xbox LIVE chat cable into the mixer. Combined, this puts over 21 feet of cable between you and your console. This means that you can sit back on a couch across the (average size) room from your console and play your game without having the cable dangling in the air. Wireless is great... and expensive, but if you can't go wireless, make sure you have enough wire to make yourself comfortable.


Features:
  • Supreme Sound Technology for Powerful Bass and Precise Highs
  • Foldaway Boom Mic
  • GMX Inline Mixer
  • EQ3 Custom Sound Equalizer
  • Limited Warranty
  • Stylish Design
  • Compatible with PC, PS3 and Xbox 360
  • Built-In PC Sound Card
  • 16' 8" Cable (RCA Stereo Audio / USB)
  • 5' Stereo With Chat Headphone Cable
  • 5' Xbox LIVE Chat Cable

Drawbacks & Problems::

The boom mic is an interesting design, but I should point out one caveat with the design; if you bend the boom mic away from its original shape, you may find that it offers some resistance before it goes all the way straight up. If you assume that it's completely stowed away at that point, the mic will be pointing almost straight up, but it will still be turned on. You will need to push it the rest of the way (ultimately, bending the mic arm back into roughly its original shape) so that the mic is returned to its storage position in order to actually turn the mic off. It's not a big thing, necessarily, but you'd be surprised how embarrassing conversation can be when you don't realize that other gamers around the world are listening in.

If you're looking for a headset to use on your laptop, with various computers that may or may not have decent audio cards or with cell phones and portable audio devices, the SLYR headset is a good choice. You get lots of cord when using it with a PC, which means you can sit back as far as you need or get as close as you like, and when you use the SLYR with just the audio cable, you still have a reasonably comfortable five foot cord.

If your plan is to use the SLYR with a PS3 or Xbox 360 console, however, you need to first take a look at the way you have your console(s) set up. The SLYR uses pass-thru RCA audio connectors to piggyback onto the audio connections between your PS3 or Xbox 360 and your television. This is fine... if you actually use normal stereo audio connectors (RCA) to connect your console(s) sound. While it's true (as far as I am aware) that all versions of the PS3 and Xbox 360 include cables that offer stereo audio out as an option, if you utilize HDMI with audio or optical audio going to your surround sound, you'll have to also use RCA Audio out to use the SLYR headset. Depending on your setup, this might be possible by connecting the SLYR to RCA outputs on your surround sound processor or by setting your console to output audio on multiple ports, but you'll want to verify that you have that ability before purchasing the SLYR, since there really aren't other straightforward options. Mind you, if you have a PS3 or 360 running stereo audio out via the RCA cables, match the SLYR's pass-thru connectors up to the audio cables (color coded red and white), add them between the cable and whatever it's plugged into, such as your television, surround sound processor or system selector and you're good to go. I wasn't able to locate my original Xbox 360 audio/video cable, since I've been using HDMI for quite some time, but J.R.Nip was able to locate his, so I borrowed them to test the SLYRs with Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the 360.

In the grand scope of things, the SLYR headset is in the lower price range of headsets. It doesn't have an excessive amount of customization or lots of accessories to cart around and keep track of, but it does feature a really long cable. If you're not running optical audio on your consoles or if you're looking to use a comfortable headset one or more PCs that don't necessarily have decent sound cards (or, possibly, any), then the SLYR may fit the bill perfectly.


-Geck0, GameVortex Communications
AKA Robert Perkins

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