PowerA LucidSound LS500/P review

When most people are looking for a gaming headset they want it to have a few things: work with their platform of choice, sound good, decent mic, and a reasonable battery life. Other features like noise cancelling are nice but unnecessary, as well as adding to the price of the unit. The LucidSound LS500 does away with such frivolities and focuses in on what you really need in a headset, delivering a surprisingly good pair of cans for under $70 USD.

Taking the headset out of the box the first thing I noticed is how light it is. The LucidSound LS500 boasts long haul battery life of up to 70 hours, so I was expecting a heavier fit. Instead it is a lightweight and comfortable headset. This is thanks to the plastic construction, which feels a little cheap but makes up for it in featherweight comfort. It even includes glasses slots to make long wear for four-eyed folks like me.

It’s not as comfortable as Turtle Beach’s solution but does a far better job than the likes of top dog Razer BlackShark’s for glasses comfort. Despite this, they are living up to their battery life quotas as I have yet to charge this headset after many tens-of-hours of testing.

This lightweight plastic construction delivers a headset that weighs only around 260 grams. The mesh construction headband also does well for long hours of gaming. If it’s not my glasses tiring me it’s pressure on the head, and I can say this headset stays comfortable for many hours-long gaming sessions.

LucidSound LS500/P specs

(Image credit: Future)

Drivers: 50 mm audio drivers Connectivity: 2.4 GHz via USB Type-A and Type-C dongle, Bluetooth Mic: Boom mic (flip-to-mute, noise reduction) Weight: 261 grams Price: $70 USD | $100 AUD

Connectivity will depend on the unit you have, either Xbox or PlayStation, but both come with a handy dongle that can also be used on your PC. The dongle is quite large, but has USB Type-C and Type A connectors which is a nice touch for versatility. The 2.4 GHz Connection can be activated by holding down the ear cuff button for a few seconds, or you can swap to Bluetooth mode using the power button. Unfortunately, you can’t do both at once, but at this price I wasn’t expecting anything that fancy.

(Image credit: Future)

It is worth noting that the chat boom style mic doesn’t appear to work in Bluetooth mode, and only responded when I was gaming with the dongle connection. In game it works just fine, with mic monitoring available by the other ear cuff button—though it’s never worked for me. Still, for a headset this cheap, the mic has fine quality pickup with pretty good voice isolation, and I was having no problem clearly shouting out enemies and mining goods in our Deep Rock Galactic adventures.

But how do they sound? Really quite great, especially for the price. I spent hours just riding my horse around in Ghost of Yotei on PlayStation 5 just enjoying the sounds of nature and the breeze through fields. When coming to campsites, I’d be able to ride around them and the directional sound always pointed me in the right direction. In Hades 2 on PC I was able to turn on the vow or rivals and locate Hecate’s true form by the direction of her voice.

Buy if...

✅ You’re on a budget: This has to be one of the best headsets I’ve tried that’s under $100, let alone under $70 USD.

✅ You want it simple: This headset has thrown out heaps of often unused bells and whistles to come in well under budget.

Don't buy if...

❌ You want full features: This budget headset has cut out the unnecessary extras to maintain a budget price. If you’re after fancy stuff like noise cancelling, you’ll have to pay more.

❌ You want a great mic: This headset has put the mic on the back burner. It's good enough for chat but for streaming and content creation you'll need to spend a bit more.

When listening to music, sure other headphones would do a better job, but these really aren’t bad. There’s a surprisingly good breadth of sound, with treble and bass both coming through clear and well tuned. Though the latter is a little lacking especially if you’re used to bass boosted cans. Still, I doubt you’d get much better for a regular, non-gaming headset that cost around the same amount of money. They even look reasonably stealthy with the boom style mic in the upright position. It’s certainly a gamer headset but doesn’t go too hard on the gamer aesthetics so you’re not embarrassed to wear it out in public.

For under $70 USD, the LucidSound LS500 provide a really well rounded headset that has focussed on the most important qualities to gamers. Having such great audio quality for this price really is a huge win. All the sacrifices that have been made to get this headset to the price point are really worthwhile ones, leaving just what you need in a quality gaming headset. Great audio, a decent mic, and the ability to connect to whatever you need.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: PC Gamer. Open at source →