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Thermaltake Shock Console

Thermaltake Shock Console Review – Gamers demand a lot from their headsets, but one area where most fall short is in the category of compatibility. As a result, we tend to have one headset for our gaming consoles and another for our PC. Thermaltake’s SHOCK CONSOLE gaming headset is the company’s valiant attempt to desegregate your gaming systems and unite them under one set of foam-lined ear cups.

The headset features a matte black rubberized finish on the outside of the cans and the headband, with red plastic plates surrounding the ear pads. There’s also a red plush headband pad. Each side of the headset glows with red LED dragon logos. With lots of ambient light in the room, the logos have a rather pinkish hue, but in the dark, they appear a much richer shade of red. Both the flexible mic boom and the cord sprout from the left can and there’s a black L and R indicator above each ear pad. This is a stereo headset, even though the decoder box relies on USB and optical inputs.

As such, the Thermaltake SHOCK CONSOLE gaming headset supports PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, and PC gaming. If you plan to use this with the Xbox One, however, keep in mind you’ll need an external stereo headset adapter, which Thermaltake doesn’t supply. Microsoft recently updated the controllers with a native phono port, so these will be compatible with the SHOCK CONSOLE right out-of-the-box.

The foam ear pads are oblong in shape and covered in a breathable black mesh fabric. They’ll rest on the outside edges of your ears, but the headset itself is light enough that extended gaming sessions don’t make this uncomfortable. The headband is adjustable and we like that the headset mic is removable.

Under the plastic shell, this headset features a pair of 40mm drivers equipped with neodymium magnets. The sound they deliver has a good amount of bass, but the mids and highs remain crisp and clear regardless of how much sound these puppies are pumping out. Another feature we like is the inline audio controller, which provides discrete volume dials for mic and game input—a must-have for multiplayer gaming scenarios. The unit also features a mic mute switch and a 2.5mm cable for plugging into the console game controllers. Crucially, there’s just enough length to these wires that you won’t be yanking the headset off in the heat of battle, yet short enough to make sure they don’t get tangled easily. We do wish the inline audio controller box had a clip on it though.

When you factor in the price, the Thermaltake SHOCK CONSOLE makes a good case for itself as your next allpurpose gaming headset.