Touring Logitech's Audio HQ: Making of the Artemis Spectrum

[Rick]

In searching for the perfect wireless gaming headset, I recently expressed my overall dissatisfaction with available options. Even today’s best wireless offerings remain deeply flawed by one or more issues ranging from sub-par audio fidelity, a poor microphone or buggy firmware.

Shortly after that publication, Logitech reached out to us for a tour of their audio headquarters in Camas, Washington. Having identified the scarcity of quality wireless gaming headsets, Logitech spent the last 18 months designing what it believes to be the best sounding, most well-featured headset on the market, gaming or otherwise. In fact, Logitech is so confident in the Artemis Spectrum, it bravely (foolishly?) threw its creation to a small pack of skeptical tech journalists in hopes they'd go home impressed. Ballsy.

The Artemis Spectrum is scheduled to arrive in Q3 2015 in two flavors: G633 (wired) and G933 (wireless). The G633 should appear this month. Both headsets feature a custom audio driver that delivers high-end sound, retractable noise-cancelling microphones, multi-platform support and lots of bells and whistles.

Read the complete article.

 

[Kibaruk]

Although my limited hands-on time with the G633 and G933 were positive, I'm standing by for our G933 review unit before casting final judgement. There are glimmers of great potential here, but important items like microphone and noise-cancellation quality, wireless reliability, battery life, wireless range and performance, durability and the practicality of some of its features have yet been fully explored. If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930.

What?!

Deadline much, huh?

 

[Puiu]

Even at 200$ I still find such headsets to be pretty expensive. I at least hope they sound good enough.

 

[gamerk2]

Still worse at the same price as a Xonar DGX paired with mid-range headphones (such as my trusty Audio Technica ATH-M50s). If you want an audiophile headset, just get audiophile headphones, a decent soundcard, and a $5 clip on mic.

 

[Jos]

Although my limited hands-on time with the G633 and G933 were positive, I'm standing by for our G933 review unit before casting final judgement. There are glimmers of great potential here, but important items like microphone and noise-cancellation quality, wireless reliability, battery life, wireless range and performance, durability and the practicality of some of its features have yet been fully explored. If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930.

What?!

Deadline much, huh?

It was a tour of the facilities with some hands-on time, not a review

 

[cartera]

Even at 200$ I still find such headsets to be pretty expensive. I at least hope they sound good enough.

I love my G930, and can't rate it high enough but I do agree they are not cheap. I got mine for £60 refurbished, I would not of dreamed spending £180 RRP.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

Although my limited hands-on time with the G633 and G933 were positive, I'm standing by for our G933 review unit before casting final judgement. There are glimmers of great potential here, but important items like microphone and noise-cancellation quality, wireless reliability, battery life, wireless range and performance, durability and the practicality of some of its features have yet been fully explored. If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930.

What?!

Deadline much, huh?

Yeah I just upgraded my old G930 to another G930, feels like money well spent.

 

[BlueDrake]

Just noticed in the article at the end, a small typo which can easily trip someone up.

"If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930."

I imagine that's to be G933? Also I'm looking forward to a review. Are able to test the G633 when, that's out as well? I'm toying with a headset upgrade, and since seeing these be announced. I wonder if it's worth waiting for these, over say the Cloud II which has a semi-close price tag. At least for me given it's $100 for the Cloud II here in Canada.

 

[Rick]

"If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930."

I imagine that's to be G933?

Good eye! Fixed.

I've actually been testing the G633. It is a great sounding headset and really comfortable with a tight seal. The microphone seems to perform well for communication. I've been using it for phone calls too and have been very happy with it. I've heard good things about the HyperX Cloud II but I can't compare directly... never used it.

Logitech was aiming for "Early September" in August. We're about to pass up that ETA however and still no exact release date. We're also still waiting on the G933 review unit.

In the meantime, if you have any specific questions about the G633 let me know and I'll gladly take a stab at answering them.

 

[Kibaruk]

Good eye! Fixed.

I've actually been testing the G633. It is a great sounding headset and really comfortable with a tight seal. The microphone seems to perform well for communication. I've been using it for phone calls too and have been very happy with it. I've heard good things about the HyperX Cloud II but I can't compare directly... never used it.

Logitech was aiming for "Early September" in August. We're about to pass up that ETA however and still no exact release date. We're also still waiting on the G933 review unit.

In the meantime, if you have any specific questions about the G633 let me know and I'll gladly take a stab at answering them.

It was exactly what I said on the first comment... also, it makes no logic what you say in the end:

There are glimmers of great potential here, but important items like microphone and noise-cancellation quality, wireless reliability, battery life, wireless range and performance, durability and the practicality of some of its features have yet been fully explored

That's why I said deadline much, it felt rushed and not the common quality of techspot.

 

[JamesandBennie]

"MSRP is set at $149 and $199, respectively. In the land of high-end headsets, the G933 in particular is aggressively priced."

Pfft. 'Real' high-end headphones (true audiophile) cost $350-1000+. I'm guessing they're just referring to the gaming headset in general.

 

[Rick]

That's why I said deadline much, it felt rushed and not the common quality of techspot.

Hmm. Well, it is what it is. It's an overview of the tour and my hands-on experience.

It's not what you wanted but I think we're OK with that... it's just not a review. There won't be a review of the G633, so there was definitely no rush to get this out. There will however be a G933 review but that headset won't be out for some time.

 

[Rick]

"MSRP is set at $149 and $199, respectively. In the land of high-end headsets, the G933 in particular is aggressively priced."

Pfft. 'Real' high-end headphones (true audiophile) cost $350-1000+. I'm guessing they're just referring to the gaming headset in general.

Headsets not headphones, so yes, you're observation is mostly right.

There wasn't a side-by-side comparison so any conclusion is anecdotal, but I would like to note a couple of fellow testers remarked they sounded much better than their price tag. One person specifically stated they "sound as good as" his Sennheiser HD 650s, but take that as you will... hard to say without a side by side comparison and/or knowing the individual's level of audiophile..ness.

Even if they fall short of professional audiophile gear, I think its safe to the Artemis Spectrum is sounds remarkably good for a mass market consumer offering. It seems unlikely they could compete with $1200 headphones, but do keep in mind their audio driver is novel technology -- so Logitech could be onto something... or not.

 

[VirtualInsanity]

I can't believe with all this gear Logitech still release terrible sounding gear!

I'll take an interest in Logitech again once they produce gear with...

1) Good sound quality
2) Good physical/mechanical build quality
3) Good value for money (not 'cheap', too much cheap crap around already, I want good value)

 

[Qrox]

"If nothing else though, the G930 should prove to be one heck of an upgrade from its the predecessor, the G930."

I imagine that's to be G933?

Good eye! Fixed.

I've actually been testing the G633. It is a great sounding headset and really comfortable with a tight seal. The microphone seems to perform well for communication. I've been using it for phone calls too and have been very happy with it. I've heard good things about the HyperX Cloud II but I can't compare directly... never used it.

Logitech was aiming for "Early September" in August. We're about to pass up that ETA however and still no exact release date. We're also still waiting on the G933 review unit.

In the meantime, if you have any specific questions about the G633 let me know and I'll gladly take a stab at answering them.

Don't know if you've tested this, but I would like to know if the headset suffers from the same problem as the G430 / G930 where if you play music (eg Windows Media player) in the background and you go into games (World of Warcraft, Guildwars 2, Trine to name a few), then the volume goes up and down.

I've noticed this bug on my G430 the most when the game is busy loading or when multiple sound effects come into play. Many users on the Logitech forums have been complaining about this for ages.

So far the only way past this that I've found is to use a very old version of Logitech Gaming Software (LGS), but then it doesn't support any of their new products.

Basically I just want to find out if you get the same thing with the G633. (Not this problem only happens when connected via USB, with the surround turned on in LGS).

 

[Zenodroid]

Do they play loud ? by loud, I mean louder than g35. it isnt enough to have clear sound, it need to be loud too. action and horror movies just arent the same, when u cant hardly hear what is happening, just bc u use logitech headset and netflix... gamers do watch movies too, you know.

 

[Phr3d]

Thanks Rick, for a fun and informative review, it accomplished exactly what Logitech was hoping in that a 'disinterested person' gets to examine and report on the volume of tech required to produce something that we tend to take for granted - headphones been around for a while, seems like plenty of time to get the kinks worked out.
As a 930 owner, I can vouch for the degree of effort they have put into the construction, I was very hesitant to spend the money, but after two somewhat abusive years they still work well - and my box of alternative mfg's headphone Parts is testament to those that Don't.
I'll await your in depth review of the 933, as I see 5GHz and bluetooth as solid requirements in this day (microwave reminder was welcome, our Panasonic can wipe out 2.4GHz communication like a military frequency sweeper, and for 10-20 min you can't do anything but watch your food cook).
But the attention to sound surprises me quite a lot, it has always suffered in favor of construction and usability. Having DTS engineers working closely with the sound presentation design gives me confidence that they might actually do it this time.
Pardon the pun, but this could be a real game changer, something that has been a Long time coming for headsets.

 

[Shigawire]

Even at 200$ I still find such headsets to be pretty expensive. I at least hope they sound good enough.

I love my G930, and can't rate it high enough but I do agree they are not cheap. I got mine for £60 refurbished, I would not of dreamed spending £180 RRP.

I quickly got rid of my G930. Its audio depth and quality were atrocious.

This G933 however seems promising.. But I do not accept the premise that so-called "7.1 surround" is even a good target for good surround.

True surround has been and always will be "binaural audio" - which can be handled by any normal stereo head phones or ear plugs. No fancy "Feature X" required.

I'm pretty sure their "Feature X" for surround is merely a repackaged and rebranded Head Related Transfer Function. HRTF is the basis for binaural audio. And to achieve a good HRTF approximation, you need physical approximations of varying ear shapes as well as the cranial mass bridging the two ear canals.
I saw a bunch of equipment for exactly this purpose.

So I couldn't really care a rats *** about their "Function X", but what I do care about is that their new physical drivers are of great quality. And that is something I can believe in and be excited about.

So, yes I am intrigued.