Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 5 3.5mm/ USB Connector Circumaural Stereo Headset

Pros: Construction is very solid i like the cup design and folding over with a flat edge to easily rest on things. The sound playback is crisp and clear.

Cons: Like everyone else the USB power buzz is a real pain. I have checked and it isn't a bad ground on the usb jack. Turning the power slider down can fix it on your end so you don't have to hear it however if you use any voice chat programs vent, TS, or mumble, any time you speak everyone else listening has to endure it. I had high hopes but it's not worth it if it makes everyone you talk to online hate you.

Pros: Sturdy, comfortable, great audio quality via 3.5mm

Cons: USB.... Whine occurs whenever an audio source is started, audible during quiet moments gaming, movie, music.

Mic loops sound back through the headphones whenever there is audio. Ridiculous. I agree with the other reviewers, headset is not use able over USB.

Other Thoughts: Headset could be use able via 3.5mm using a 1m ext cable and a 4 pin to two 3 pin 3.5mm adapter, about 15 more dollars. Waiting to hear back from tech support, not expecting much. Buy at your own risk.

Pros: Very nice looking paper weight

Cons: Well in the first week the micro usb jack failed so you could not use the mic. About a week after that the 3.5 mm failed so it became a paper weight. I called MADCATZ support because I purchased the warranty. They informed me that the jacks had failed and it was my fault. (they told me the same thing about the buttons on my R.A.T.7 that failed at the same time bought at the same time. Nice metal construction but extremely weak design, the electronics in this device could have been installed by a 5 year old. Do not buy this product or any other MAD CATZ product because you are only playing Russian roulette. You could get a fair headset, only after you return 8 or 9 back in I don't have that kind of patience to wait for a year after I paid for something to finally get a product that works. Feel free to get anything but this. Very Weak.

Pros: Price
Adequate Sound
Dynamic Ranges
Solid Bass

Cons: USB whine

Other Thoughts: Other than the USB whine when not in game (it's apparent then), you get a lot for the price. My other headset is a Bose Quiet Comfort 25 but I can't use it for gaming (no mic). This headset, despite not being noise canceling, has good sounding drivers and a microphone that comes across crisp and understandable by others.
I can't fault the headset for features not included, but I do think they could have done a better job to filter out the power whine (USB power) when no other audio is playing. I know it's just not a noisy (poorly grounded) port as it has been tried on two high end gaming machines.

Pros: This headset feels amazing..it comfortable, and feels like it could handle a beating with the materials it made out of.. sound wise they also sound great. They aren't surround sound like the tiamat 7.1 I also have..but for everyday use and use on a laptop or anything without the 5 3.5mm connectors these are perfect.

Cons: not a big deal..but I wish the 3.5mm plug had the dual design instead of it being in 1 3.5mm.

Pros: This handset is quality and well worth the money to shell out. It feels very sturdy and is very comfortable for long gaming sessions. The removable Mic is also very convenient as you don't always need it. MadCatz/ Cyborg products are showing up Razer in a lot of ways.

Cons: Not really a Con I can think of and I have used them for more than 2 months.

Pros: All the hype about it is accurate.

Cons: High pitch hum, did an rma, 2nd one I received had the same problem. I contacted madcatz support, they said it was probably a bad batch that newegg received. However, newegg can't honor a refund if it is manufactured replaced.

Instead of risking getting another defective one from madcatz, I just processed a refund from newegg.

Pros: - The built quality looks good

Cons: -I have Win8 pro 64-bit and windows doesnt recongnize the usb drivers for the FREQ5 making them worthless to any Win8 gamers.

-Support from MAd CAtz is inexistant. The cyborg site makes no mention of any support or software for the FREQ5.

-Technical support is currently unavailable and im getting no anwser to any tickets.

Other Thoughts: I have a madcatzxbox controllerfor my PC and a Cyborg RAT5, they all work great with Win8 and I tought why not try FREQ5 but turns out to only be a never ending source of frustration. I will return the headset and go back to my Creative headset.

Pros: Durable:

The joints are metal! Quite a lot of it is metal from what I can tell, but I'm really happy about the joints. About half of the headsets I've owned have had their joints break first. For the other half it was a wire in the cord, which I believe was in part due to the added weight of in-line controls on the cord bending them around more on those headsets. The FREQ 5 has it's volume and mic controls on the ear cups, so that's every major source of dead headsets addressed for me.

Also, all of the cords are braided in (what I think is) nylon. I guess this is supposed to help prevent them from becoming too tangled, or something -I'm not 100% sure. It's not creating any issues for me though, so I don't really care about it.

In summary, the toughness of the FREQ 5 is definitely it's main attraction for me... and the only reason I haven't returned it.


Microphone:
The mic is detachable, very adjustable, stays where you put it, and has allowed my teammates to hear me just fine when I'm playing multiplayer games. My only complaint here is the feedback hum it generates that I can't seem to get rid of. (See the entry on this under Cons)

Cons: Bad Volume Control Options:
Beware! The FREQ 5 doesn't give any kind of clue as to how high or low the volume is set to, and the headset resets itself to it's maximum volume (which is loud enough that the headsets can double as speakers) every time it's plugged back in after being unplugged, and every time my computer is restarted after being shut down or suspended.

Also, for some reason plugging in the headset removes my windows "Volume Control" taskbar icon, and grays out the option to add it too the taskbar in my "Sound and Audio Settings" menu. There are other ways to access that menu, but it's still annoying. The FREQ 5 also grays out the option to mute the Microphone slider in the volume control menu. Thankfully, all of my volume controls are restored when I unplug the FREQ 5. If they weren't I'd have filed a support ticket and/or returned the headset by now. This is not addressed in any of the instructions that came with the headset and of the cons I list here this is the most annoying to me, as I really dislike anything that limits my control over my computer.


Bad Equalizer Control Options:
Like the volume dial, there is no way to tell what equalizer setting the headset has active. You just have to start listening to something and move through the settings until you find the right one. There is also no way to simply disable the equalizer, but I find it doesn't seem to make anything sound different if I simply leave it to (what I believe is) the 'game' setting. In fact, after I tried out the three different settings on it I've just left it on 'game' and haven't felt the need to adjust it at all.


Ear Cup Design:
The design of the of the ear cups can be an issue sometimes, and at the very least I wouldn't call them 'spacious' like the product details section does. At the wrong angle they can pinch my ears, and I feel I'm having to re-adjust them a bit more frequently than previous headsets I've owned. That said, I can still wear the FREQ 5 for hours of gaming/music listening/whatever without noticing any significant soreness. So I guess I can live with the design, but I would have preferred one with less sharp angles.


Microphone Hum and Feedback:
There is an distinct hum whenever the microphone is unmuted and anything with an audio track is open. When unmuted the microphone also picks up my breathing and plays it back to me, if I don't position it carefully.

I don't know for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I were able to mute the "Microphone" slider in the volume control menu (which, I remind you, the FREQ 5 disabled), it would fix the hum and feedback. I recall doing a similar fix for previous headsets, but because of the randomly grayed-out mute button I can't experiment with it on the FREQ 5.

Because of the hum I've learned to keep the mic muted when I'm not using it, so I sometimes forget to unmute it when I start up a multiplayer game. Several times now I've discovered this part-way

Other Thoughts: While I seriously wonder how these bugs were allowed to exist, the FREQ 5 still performs to my satisfaction. By that I mean I'm just VERY glad to finally have a headset that feels like I won't break it by accident. So I won't be returning it, but if I had known then what I know now, I would have definitely looked around more before making a final decision on what headset to buy.

Pros: -Very solid look and feel, quality build
-Mic was very effective, moved well and stayed where I put it.

Cons: -Constant white noise
-Lack of drivers/software
-Mic-off light a bit annoying (opinion)
-On-headset volume control mostly useless (opinion)

Other Thoughts: -I'll start with the easiest issue first, the on-headset volume control. While it is literally functional, it takes at least 10 full rotations to have a noticeable increase or decrease in volume.

-Secondly, for me, the mic light indicating that it was turned off was simply too bright. When I have my mic off I position it pointing up so that I can drink or eat or whatever else. More than likely just a habit I've formed over the years, but with this mic it's a glaring beacon in my eye. I ended up moving it down as far as I could, but the range of motion on where you can move it to is fairly limited.

-No software comes with them. You rely on whatever OS you are using to identify and install them correctly. There is no functionality in adjusting the sound or mic settings outside of the default Windows 7 (for me) options.

-The biggest con, and the reason I ended up returning these, is the ridiculous amount of white noise while using the USB connection. It's immediate upon launching any program, regardless of if that program is playing sound. Tried them on three different computers, using motherboard, front case, and monitor USB connections (utilizing both 2.0 and 3.0 connections) and the white noise was the exact same throughout. Googled the problem and saw a few other people with the same issue, with no solutions anywhere. I submitted two tickets about the issue, one as a Cyborg product and the other as a MadCatz product but received no reply from either. After about a week, my tech support account on the MadCatz website magically deleted itself, so I contacted MadCatz customer support via live chat. They were as helpful as they could be (suggesting I try other USB ports) but ended up only trying to continuously sell the product to me. "I actually have that headset on my desk right now, I use it all the time, there shouldn't be any white noise," etc. They advised me to return them for a replacement (side note, I did not order from Newegg, but from another reputable vendor).

Having seen other people complain of the same issue, I just returned for a refund. While I hoped that these would be as great as they are pricey, the set I received simply wasn't.

I sincerely hope that if anyone has ordered these, that your set works beautifully. I would have happily overlooked any other issues had the white noise been non-existent.