Posted By: Raw Kryptonite
Gaming headphones review: Logitech G933/G633 - 06/06/16 11:23 PM
G933, wireless version discussed here.
G633, wired version with otherwise the same features.
I've got to say something about these headphones. I've gone through a fair number of headphones, gaming and a few decent music sets with a mod mic added.
Feature-wise, the old Logitech G35 (wired) was hard to beat. I tried. Something as simple as the mute indicator light on the boom was huge but rare. Some have that now, but it should be all of them. An easy to find mute button, volume, function buttons, stowable mic that mutes when the boom is raised, decent sound (not the best)...but when Logitech integrated their drivers into a single interface, it ruined it. Having a Logitech keyboard, gaming pad (G13) and gaming mouse (G602--BRILLIANT!), I was stuck with the new driver. The driver is infamous for introducing interference to the headphones. A constant buzzing. Logitech offered no fix other than rolling back to the early drivers. Then there's the problem of the wire. A very good wire with woven casing and plenty of length, but simply IN THE WAY. I wanted wireless.
I went through a fair number of headphones after the G35's let me down, eventually returning or resellling several.
Sennheiser PC 350
SteelSeries 7H
Some kind of Turtlebeach headphones
Klipsch Mode M40 w/mod mic
Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega Wireless
One or two others I can't recall, but I ended up frustrated and settled for the Klipsch's for music and the Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega Wireless for gaming.
It was a compromise. Not bad feature-wise, but had some annoyances that bugged me every time I used them.
I noticed the Logitech 933 when it came out last year, but was turned off by the price. I won't go back to wired for gaming, so the 633 was out, although it has the same features otherwise. The Sound Blasters pissed me off for the last time and I finally ordered them. Amazon had them $20 off now, excuse enough.
What do I like:
-No interference sound like the G35's!
-It's got a short, every easily stowed mic. Folds up as well as pulls out, and it's flexible. Noise cancelling, but I'd imagine it's powerless with the racket around here. Don't blame Logitech. The mic stows away so nicely when upright that I usually have to take the headphones off just to find it to flip it down. It looks really good up, no boom sticking out of the side of your head. One might think there was no boom at all.
-Easy to find volume and it's a dial, not push buttons. Not the big roller dial I liked on the G35's, but almost as good and easy to locate.
-The lighting was a turn off, but it's highly customizeable. Most importantly that includes OFF. Even if you like that sort of thing, you can't see it! As long as I can turn it off, that's fine. And I can.
-The function buttons are easy to customize. Switch between surround and stereo, mute TS, change the eq...pretty much whatever you want to do.
-Mute the mic: a simple button press on the ear cup or raise the boom. It has the mute indicator light as well as an audible reminder.
-Variable mic feedback so you can hear yourself just enough to not shout at people. Major feature IMO.
-The profiles you set up automatically change when a game is launched, if you want that. I just use a default profile. This works alongside the profiles for other Logitech devices, like my G13 keypad and G602 mouse.
-Dolby 7.1 or DTS.
-Closed ear design, but not an uncomfortable air tight enclosure. The ear cups can be taken off if you want, but I don't see much reason.
-Decent battery life. The Logi interface will tell you how much time you have left on the charge, not just a percentage of charge. This is directly affected by your lighting options. Drop them like I do and you get around 12 hours or so IIRC. I should charge 100% and check to see if that's still the case.
-Charging is done by the usual micro USB cable most devices use these days, not some proprietary plug. You can use the headphones while charging.
-Auto-off after a reasonable amount of time with no sound input to save battery life. Hit any button to wake them up.
-Not a feature I use, but you can plug in a 2nd audio source with a 3.5mm analog input.
-I don't have a PS4 or X1, but they can be used with those, so if I end up with one I'm still covered.
-The battery is Logitech's, but removable. Perhaps a better one in the future? Also, the wireless receiver dongle can store inside the left ear cup.
-COMFORTABLE.
The shape of the ear cups is the best I've found. Probably the first ear cups that are literally around and over the ear. No pressure whatsoever and glasses-friendly. Nicely spaced and held out from my head enough that my ears aren't flattened. Not hot as a result. You can wiggle your ears under these things, if that makes sense. I've heard some reviewers say that looking down or up that the headphones would fall off. My G35's did that sometimes, they just weren't tight enough for me to look down at my feet. I'm not having that issue at all with these. No slippage. I'm sure that's an individual thing, but since the G35's did that for me and these don't, I figure that's worth mentioning.
Sound quality:
I don't really get why they call this 7.1 surround sound. The side channels are what turns this from 5.1 to 7.1, but I can't tell the difference between the sides and the rears. In a demo, the just seem to repeat each other, completely redundant. In that way, it's a bit of a letdown. Why they don't just call it a highly successful 5.1 instead is beyond me. I guess it just looks better on the box. Excellent as 5.1, misses the mark as 7.1. I have my rear and side volumes set differently in an attempt to differentiate. IMO, good stereo is fine for gaming, I'm not a surround snob. Still, it sounds good in a 5.1 sense. Switching to stereo is done at the push of a button on the ear cup.
For music, it's not bad! Having the eq helps of course, but most gaming headphones are abysmal for music. These don't compete with my Klipsch set, but using them so I don't have to pull those out isn't a big disappointment either. You could get by with just these if you aren't an audiophile (not that I am either).
What would I change:
-Might make the mic boom a little longer, but as it is, as far as I know, it picks me up just fine. I can also up the mic gain.
-More battery time is always good, but I'm not complaining. The battery is their own, but removable from the right ear cup. In the future, maybe we'll get a replacement with more life.
-I expect many years out of these as long as Logitech doesn't screw us over again somehow on the drivers. Worth the price IMO, but $130 wired, $180 wireless (on amazon) is still probably $50 more than most want to pay. I've paid more before and certainly less, but these give me more for my money than any others have before.
Bottom line:
8.5/10 for me.
Music can always be better, although it's not bad and these are classified specifically as "gaming" headphones.
7.1 is more like 5.1.
Even better battery would be welcome.
Best I've had and I'm extremely happy. Thought they were worthy of spreading the word.
G633, wired version with otherwise the same features.
I've got to say something about these headphones. I've gone through a fair number of headphones, gaming and a few decent music sets with a mod mic added.
Feature-wise, the old Logitech G35 (wired) was hard to beat. I tried. Something as simple as the mute indicator light on the boom was huge but rare. Some have that now, but it should be all of them. An easy to find mute button, volume, function buttons, stowable mic that mutes when the boom is raised, decent sound (not the best)...but when Logitech integrated their drivers into a single interface, it ruined it. Having a Logitech keyboard, gaming pad (G13) and gaming mouse (G602--BRILLIANT!), I was stuck with the new driver. The driver is infamous for introducing interference to the headphones. A constant buzzing. Logitech offered no fix other than rolling back to the early drivers. Then there's the problem of the wire. A very good wire with woven casing and plenty of length, but simply IN THE WAY. I wanted wireless.
I went through a fair number of headphones after the G35's let me down, eventually returning or resellling several.
Sennheiser PC 350
SteelSeries 7H
Some kind of Turtlebeach headphones
Klipsch Mode M40 w/mod mic
Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega Wireless
One or two others I can't recall, but I ended up frustrated and settled for the Klipsch's for music and the Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega Wireless for gaming.
It was a compromise. Not bad feature-wise, but had some annoyances that bugged me every time I used them.
I noticed the Logitech 933 when it came out last year, but was turned off by the price. I won't go back to wired for gaming, so the 633 was out, although it has the same features otherwise. The Sound Blasters pissed me off for the last time and I finally ordered them. Amazon had them $20 off now, excuse enough.
What do I like:
-No interference sound like the G35's!
-It's got a short, every easily stowed mic. Folds up as well as pulls out, and it's flexible. Noise cancelling, but I'd imagine it's powerless with the racket around here. Don't blame Logitech. The mic stows away so nicely when upright that I usually have to take the headphones off just to find it to flip it down. It looks really good up, no boom sticking out of the side of your head. One might think there was no boom at all.
-Easy to find volume and it's a dial, not push buttons. Not the big roller dial I liked on the G35's, but almost as good and easy to locate.
-The lighting was a turn off, but it's highly customizeable. Most importantly that includes OFF. Even if you like that sort of thing, you can't see it! As long as I can turn it off, that's fine. And I can.
-The function buttons are easy to customize. Switch between surround and stereo, mute TS, change the eq...pretty much whatever you want to do.
-Mute the mic: a simple button press on the ear cup or raise the boom. It has the mute indicator light as well as an audible reminder.
-Variable mic feedback so you can hear yourself just enough to not shout at people. Major feature IMO.
-The profiles you set up automatically change when a game is launched, if you want that. I just use a default profile. This works alongside the profiles for other Logitech devices, like my G13 keypad and G602 mouse.
-Dolby 7.1 or DTS.
-Closed ear design, but not an uncomfortable air tight enclosure. The ear cups can be taken off if you want, but I don't see much reason.
-Decent battery life. The Logi interface will tell you how much time you have left on the charge, not just a percentage of charge. This is directly affected by your lighting options. Drop them like I do and you get around 12 hours or so IIRC. I should charge 100% and check to see if that's still the case.
-Charging is done by the usual micro USB cable most devices use these days, not some proprietary plug. You can use the headphones while charging.
-Auto-off after a reasonable amount of time with no sound input to save battery life. Hit any button to wake them up.
-Not a feature I use, but you can plug in a 2nd audio source with a 3.5mm analog input.
-I don't have a PS4 or X1, but they can be used with those, so if I end up with one I'm still covered.
-The battery is Logitech's, but removable. Perhaps a better one in the future? Also, the wireless receiver dongle can store inside the left ear cup.
-COMFORTABLE.
The shape of the ear cups is the best I've found. Probably the first ear cups that are literally around and over the ear. No pressure whatsoever and glasses-friendly. Nicely spaced and held out from my head enough that my ears aren't flattened. Not hot as a result. You can wiggle your ears under these things, if that makes sense. I've heard some reviewers say that looking down or up that the headphones would fall off. My G35's did that sometimes, they just weren't tight enough for me to look down at my feet. I'm not having that issue at all with these. No slippage. I'm sure that's an individual thing, but since the G35's did that for me and these don't, I figure that's worth mentioning.
Sound quality:
I don't really get why they call this 7.1 surround sound. The side channels are what turns this from 5.1 to 7.1, but I can't tell the difference between the sides and the rears. In a demo, the just seem to repeat each other, completely redundant. In that way, it's a bit of a letdown. Why they don't just call it a highly successful 5.1 instead is beyond me. I guess it just looks better on the box. Excellent as 5.1, misses the mark as 7.1. I have my rear and side volumes set differently in an attempt to differentiate. IMO, good stereo is fine for gaming, I'm not a surround snob. Still, it sounds good in a 5.1 sense. Switching to stereo is done at the push of a button on the ear cup.
For music, it's not bad! Having the eq helps of course, but most gaming headphones are abysmal for music. These don't compete with my Klipsch set, but using them so I don't have to pull those out isn't a big disappointment either. You could get by with just these if you aren't an audiophile (not that I am either).
What would I change:
-Might make the mic boom a little longer, but as it is, as far as I know, it picks me up just fine. I can also up the mic gain.
-More battery time is always good, but I'm not complaining. The battery is their own, but removable from the right ear cup. In the future, maybe we'll get a replacement with more life.
-I expect many years out of these as long as Logitech doesn't screw us over again somehow on the drivers. Worth the price IMO, but $130 wired, $180 wireless (on amazon) is still probably $50 more than most want to pay. I've paid more before and certainly less, but these give me more for my money than any others have before.
Bottom line:
8.5/10 for me.
Music can always be better, although it's not bad and these are classified specifically as "gaming" headphones.
7.1 is more like 5.1.
Even better battery would be welcome.
Best I've had and I'm extremely happy. Thought they were worthy of spreading the word.
