After a day of work or chasing the kids at the park, it’s always nice to decompress with the newest video game, movie, or album. Unfortunately, by the time the little ones go to bed it’s well past 8PM and I don’t want them waking up to the sound of gunfire, monsters, or even Mario collecting gold coins, so I need a headset. But it has to be of a high quality, otherwise I’m going to miss the soundbar and subwoofer. Thanks to the talented team at Surge Club and its Surge 3D headset, I can enjoy everything that games, movies, and other forms of entertainment have to offer without shaking the house.
Surge Club, a group comprised of former Huawei, HP, and Foxconn employees set out to make one of the most technologically advanced headsets on the market, and after putting this thing through multiple work and play scenarios, they’ve created something special.
I first tested the Surge 3D headset with music, and what immediately jumped out (well before I read up on the device) was the outstanding bass. Sure enough, Surge Club put a lot of effort into drawing out the bass in music with what is referred to as PEEK + PU double layer composite polymer speaker film; if this sounds like jargon, just know that the bass kicks ass. The competition will be nameless, but I quickly switched to a rival headset and the bass was almost nonexistent.
Next up, meetings over Google Hangouts; exciting, yes? The Surge 3D comes with a detachable noise cancellation microphone and overall, the headset performed impressively well. Clear audio with no connection problems, but the mic isn’t the star. What sets this headset apart is the Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, which is not only great for those hour-long brainstorming sessions, but also time spent at the gym, or pretty much wherever.
From there, I took the Surge 3D with me on a flight from New Jersey to California, and this is my only serious gripe about the headset… the lack of noise cancellation. There’s no built-in tech that’ll nix the sound of the plane’s engines, but having flown cross country multiple times with different headsets, the Surge 3D performed admirably, with much higher volume than some of the other devices that I own; probably not great for my eardrums, but I did hear all of the dialogue in the movie.
OK, now it’s time for the main event, gaming! Once again, the Surge 3D headphones are a joy to use. Surge Club touts the headset as having 7.1 surround sound capability and that definitely raised the intensity while playing Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake, where every zombie growl, footstep, and unexplainable bump felt vastly intensified compared to what I experienced with some of the other headsets. Additionally, the max volume was just right.
There are some other things that I like about the Surge 3D that you might find important. It’s relatively light, for starters, and the contoured memory foam earcups don’t hurt my ears as much after a lengthy play session. I also like the touchpad and buttons on the left ear, but admittedly you can find similar controls on other headsets.
I do, however, have some doubts about durability. There’s an adjustable steel slider, but the plastic covering doesn’t feel like it’ll hold up to rigorous use; this led to my gingerly placing the Surge 3D into my backpack while on the plane. But without intentionally throwing the device after coming in last at Mario Kart, it’s hard to gauge the Surge 3D’s toughness. That said, there are few headsets that can survive twisting and dropping over extended periods of time, so my best advice is to handle the Surge 3D with care, just as you would with other products.
All told, while it doesn’t come from a well-known headset maker in the video game space, the Surge 3D is incredibly impressive. Granted I’m not a pro gamer, so I can’t say whether I’d take it into a tournament, but I expect to use this more in my day-to-day. With that in mind, the Surge 3D gets a strong recommendation, whether you need it while at the office or to hear enemies in Apex Legends.
Interestingly, the Surge 3D headset is available for pre-order for just $89, but only 100 headsets are available (29 as of this article). When those run out, the price will jump to $239, so if you want to check out the Surge 3D without paying a premium price, now is indeed the time.
Note: Surge Club sent a prototype Surge 3D headset for review.
