If you’re a competitive gamer, then crystal-clear audio is very important. That’s why today in our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review, we’re going to explain this amplifier in detail.
Commonly, on-board sound cards should be plenty enough for you to hear your enemy’s distance. But in some cases, there’s still something lacking. If you’re finding a solution for better sound performance, you’ll either need to get a new headset or an amplifier.
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 is an excellent amplifier with game-changing features. We previously reviewed the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1200 PRO, but that comes at a higher price. If you’re on a tight budget, the GSX 1000 is plenty enough.
The GSX 1000 exists because some people don’t need the extra features like hooking up lag-free communication options. You also have VoIP softwares like Discord and TeamSpeak to compensate for GSX 1200 PRO’s ChatLink feature.
As we’re still in a global pandemic, you’ll be sitting at your home playing games online. Moreover, the GSX 1000 offers the same features for a lower price tag! If you’re a fan of surround sound, the GSX 1000 features 7.1 virtual surround sound.
Using this feature enables your headset to gain a premium feature without entirely buying a new one. You can grab the GSX 1000 for $230, which is $20 less than the GSX 1200 PRO.
But is GSX 1000 worth it? There are more features to discuss about it, but we’ll cut the introduction here. Let’s first discuss the packaging here in our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review.
EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 Packaging
As we look at the box design of EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000, it’s fairly small. The design resembles that of GSX 1200 PRO’s box, which are both minimalist. The only difference is that the GSX 1000 is missing the ChatLink logo.
At the front, you’ll see the EPOS|SENNHEISER logo, model and the product’s purpose. There’s also an image of the amplifier unit in the middle, and the features at the bottom-left.
On the other side of the box, you’ll find useful information in different languages, and it tells you why you should grab one. The left and right sides also come with useful information, showing you its technical data and included accessories.
There isn’t anything particularly moving upon shaking the box, which means it’s probably packed well. Let’s start unboxing and check what’s inside.
Upon lifting the box cover, we get a black box that contains all of your accessories and the amplifier itself. You’ll first see the amplifier on top, seated firmly to prevent it from getting damaged physically.
As we got access to the product unit, its size looked compact. It may just be able to fill in some extra space if your headset comes with a carrying case. Other contents include a red micro USB cable, AUX cable, and a manual.
All of the inclusions are simple since the amplifier will do all the job of improving the sound. Let’s discuss the features further in the next section of our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review.
EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 Review – Design and Functionality
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 looks slim & compact, so it’s a 10/10 when it comes to portability. It also has a smooth touch display in the middle, and the plastic design has a matte texture to it.
If you take a closer look, there’s an aluminium ring around the touch display. Its purpose is to control the volume levels. Spinning the wheel feels decent, which is very convenient while you’re gaming.
Underneath the amplifier, you’ll find a rubber stand with EPOS|SENNHEISER logo. The stand isn’t really necessary but is a cool feature to have since it gives you access to angling it upwards.
The I/O ports are all located at the back, with a micro USB port, a 2.5 mm speaker jack, a 2.5 mm microphone jack, and a 2.5 mm headphone jack. We were expecting the jacks to be at the front or left side, but it isn’t that big of a deal.
As we hook it up to the PC using the included micro USB cable, the touch display turns on with red LEDs for texts. The GSX 1000 can easily be operated without any use of 3rd-party software. All you need to do is plug your headset/sound output device.
While we weren’t operating the amplifier, we noticed that it automatically turns the light off, preventing the bright lights from hurting your eyes and saving more energy.
On each corner, you’ll find horizontal lines (total of four) which contain different profiles. Initially, you’ll get built-in presets, but you can modify all of them. What’s more, is that you can save your profiles within the amplifier.
To start utilising these profiles or modifying them, you’ll have to press them. Pressing once toggles the profile while holding them down for a bit saves your modified settings.
These profiles are quite useful, especially if other people were to use it.
As we said earlier, the GSX 1000 doesn’t need any software. Within its touch screen, you’ll find everything useful. At the upper-left corner is where the Source Switch is. Toggle between speaker out and headphones by tapping it once.
Beside it is the Audio Preset. By default, the presets are Gaming, Music, Movies, and Default. Again, tapping it switches between four different audio presets.
If you’d like to change the audio channel, you can find the toggle button at the screen’s bottom-right corner. By default, it’s set to 2.0 (Stereo). To change it, tap it once so that it switches to 7.1 virtual surround sound.
As soon as you switch to 7.1 virtual surround sound channel, you’ll also gain access to reverb and speaker orientation options.
You can modify the Speaker Orientation, which is located on the right side. Toggling gives you the ability to manually switch your speakers’ position. The speaker position can be either front or rear.
If you want to enhance the music experience, there’s also a Reverb feature. There are three levels, and one of them might be the best-sounding for your headset. Plug-in your current headset and evaluate your opinion since it will also depend on your headset.
There’s another useful feature called Room Scale Reverb Control, located on the left side. Things get a lot better because it starts changing the sound stage by a large margin. You’ll also find an indicator of the current sound stage set to as a plus sign.
The last option is the Sidetone, and you’ll find it at the bottom-left corner. Its purpose is to help you listen to your microphone in real-time. That’s a convenient way of sound-testing. Tapping it changes the sound level of your microphone.
Let’s not forget to discuss the key features in the next section of our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review.
Key Features of the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000
Convenient Touch Display
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 works independently without any use of the software. Configure everything through its excellent touch-responsive LED screen.
Large Volume Ring
Adjusting the general volume settings are made easier. The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 comes equipped with a large volume ring, making it easier to adjust while doing something else.
Lock Your Settings
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 features settings lock, and its purpose is to prevent any form of accidental presses.
Slim & Compact
Whether you have a PC or laptop, the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 has a small design that fits any bag, where you can carry it conveniently.
Sensor Activation
Normally, the lights on the display of the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 comes off if you’re not using it. To check it conveniently, hover your hand above the amplifier.
Crystal-Clear Sound
Add extra effects and upgrade overall audio quality with the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000’s excellent features!
7.1 Virtual Surround Sound
While most people find 7.1 virtual surround sound a “gimmick”, the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 provides one of the most accurate virtual surround sounds to exist.
If you’re amused with the key features, then let’s head over to the next section of our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review; the specifications.
Specifications
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 comes with different sample rate options, but it depends on the audio channel selected. The stereo channel can go up to 24-bit and 96 kHz. The 7.1 channel is limited to 16-bit 44.1 kHz, but it’s understandable if it’s for gaming purposes.
For the microphone jack, you can get up to 16 kHz 16-bit audio quality. The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 only needs 5V of power from its micro USB port to power up the amplifier. You’ll also get a total harmonic distortion of 0.005% THD @ -3dbFS.
The micro USB cable isn’t that long but isn’t a big deal if you consider getting a long cable headset. It works on both Windows & Mac and comes with a 2-year warranty.
These are all you need to know on the technical side. Let’s dig deeper and see the results after the test in the next section of our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review.
Hands-on with the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000
To test the audio quality, we will use the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSP 500 gaming headset. Let’s focus on the four presets available.
The eSports Preset increases the treble but significantly lacks bass. Since FPS games rely on footsteps & gunshots, the bass is one thing you need to remove to increase the sound stage.
If you’d like to add more bass, the Music preset does it pretty well. It adds more gain to the bass by a fair amount, which is ideal, especially if your headset’s drivers aren’t that punchy. Overall, you can still use this preset on games without major drawbacks.
It’s surprising to see that there’s also a Movie preset for a gaming amplifier. This mode isn’t ideally excellent for gaming, as it will make everything very confusing. But upon testing it with immersive movies, it sounded great.
If you aren’t particularly sure what’s the best preset for your tasks, stay at the Default preset. Generally, this preset is the sweetest spot for everything you do.
The EPOS|SENNHEISER GSP 500’s microphone sounds excellent even without the amplifier, but it’s a bit lacking in sound level & voice quality. Using the GSX 1000 gave us a better microphone quality than using the on-board microphone jack.
We’ve noticed that the GSX 1000 adds more bass to the mic, making it more of studio-style voice quality. There’s no dedicated mute button, so hopefully, we’ll see it as a firmware update soon.
Gaming Experience, Is It More Immersive?
For gaming, we jumped into CS:GO’s deathmatch servers. When we compare the on-board audio and the amplifier, the amplifier gave the headset a significant bump in audio levels. Switching to eSports preset widened the sound stage, but we’d like to try the 7.1 virtual surround sound as well.
As soon as we enabled 7.1 virtual surround sound, the eSports preset sounded weird. Switching back to the Default preset eliminated the weird sound. Surely enough, we were able to accurately pinpoint enemy locations better.
CS:GO heavily relies on footsteps & gunshots, but the Stereo audio channel is still superior during prolonged sessions or if you’re just used to it. The game can also set the 3D Audio Processing to HRTF, so you don’t need the 7.1 virtual surround sound that much.
The story can be different if you play games like PUBG. We’ve tested the 7.1 virtual surround sound with PUBG as well, where maps are a lot bigger. This game is where we highly recommend GSX 1000’s 7.1 virtual surround sound.
Overall, the features that the GSX 1000 offers are overwhelmingly positive. Let’s further discuss it in the summary section of our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review.
EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 Review Summary
As we close down our EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 review, we also need to share our opinions for you to understand how excellent the product is.
We’re amazed by how it improves your headset. The overall design is excellent, and the touch responsiveness is great, too. There’s no mute button, but you can mute your microphone through your headset or PC.
Even if it’s possible for you to accidentally touch something in the settings, you shouldn’t forget that there’s a lock feature. We’d also like to point out how easy it is to switch between your headset and speaker outputs.
Moreover, you get a lot of useful features to improve the sound further. Lastly is the virtual surround sound. Like we said many times, it’s rare to see how 7.1 virtual surround sound performs as excellent as this.
Even if this amplifier is quite pricey, this is the best alternative to buying real 7.1 surround sound headsets. Overall, we’re delighted with the performance & features that the EPOS|SENNHEISER GSX 1000 delivers.
It’s not for everyone considering its price, but it does the job well. It’s an excellent way of improving the audio of your speakers/headset and microphone. If you’d like to grab one, click here.
