Hyundai HY-500MV stereo headset review
Hyundai HY-500MV stereo headset review
Written by Ken Friday, 31 October 2008 17:59
Hyundai HY-500MV headset
Cheapgadget review
Price paid $7.18 (around £4) including delivery
Buying ultra-cheap gadgets is a great way of satisfying that craving for new toys on a limited budget. As it happens, I needed a headset, partly so I could evaluate the latest generation of speech recognition software, and partly for talking to friends in Ventrilo and Skype. The “Hyundai” HY-500MV stereo headphones with boom microphone, shipped direct from Hong Kong by DealExtreme, fitted the bill nicely.
Cheap gadgets
Over the last few years, a number of Hong Kong based websites have sprung up, offering budget computer accessories such as webcams, as well as gadgets like cheap MP3 players and laser pointers, all with airmail shipping included in the price, and often for less than delivery alone would cost within the UK. DealExtreme.com is one of the larger examples of these sites, offering a wide product range covering the output of a lot of Chinese factories.
Buying from an overseas supplier has a few drawbacks – goods take between one and two weeks to arrive, the quality is mixed, and it’s very hard to get any sort of refund if what you buy is faulty. However, when you are paying less than the cost of a large cappuccino for your gadget, you can afford to take a few risks.
Whether these Hyundai HY-500MV headphones are really made by giant Chaebol Hyundai is a matter of some debate – the Korean company does make a wide range of products, so it’s possible cheap headphones are one of them. However, it’s equally possible that China, with its relaxed copyright laws, is host to a factory that decided to borrow the name. For the sake of the review, I’ll assume they are a cheap copy, and evaluate them on that basis.
Packaging and build quality
The headset is a slightly unusual combination of dark blue plastic headband supporting white arms, which hold large black earpieces, set off by a lime-green inset. The left earpiece supports a slim swivel-down microphone on a length of stiff bendy tube that can be adjusted to fit your face. It’s also worth noting that DealExtreme often ships different colours from what you were expecting, although the functionality should be the same.
The left earpiece also sprouts the cord, at 2m unusually long for cheap headphones. This would be annoying if using the headset with a laptop, but for people like me who like to hide their desktop it’s ideal. Around 40cm down from the headset is a plastic box with a volume control wheel, and the end of the cord terminates in a pair of 3.5mm colour-coded stereo jacks for the headphones and microphone.
Sound quality
Sounds quality is OK – in fact quite good. As expected from small and cheap headphones, bass response while listening to music is poor, and low midrange is a bit weak, leaving the phones sounding bright with too much treble. However, for listening to voice sound reproduction is nearly perfect. The volume seems fairly quiet – I had to turn all the computer volume controls up fully to get decent
The microphone seems good – people listening to me say it sounds very clear, and response in speech recognition programs is excellent. Being able to fold the microphone boom away is also nice.
Conclusions
Overall, these headphones are superb for the price. The odd styling and cheap build quality are a letdown, and I’m never happy with in-line volume controls (the variable resistor tends to reduce quality and introduce noise, although that is not evident on these headphones). However, the sound quality (both headphone and microphone) is great, especially for voice applications.
For the money, it would be hard to find a nicer headset. If you don’t mind waiting a week for it to arrive, and you have £4 to spare, you can’t really go wrong buying a “Hyundai” HY-500MV headset from DealExtreme.
Build quality 5
Sound quality 7
Value 10
Overall 8/10
Price $7.18 (around £4) including airmail delivery from DealExtreme