A fantastic helmet for the price
PDP Gaming may be onto something here with their new line of 'LVL' headsets. I received what they dubbed the LVL40 Color Block Wired Stereo Headset, featuring 40mm neodymium drivers, ear cups with breathable mesh cushions, and a two-way noise-canceling microphone with passive noise filter. And being licensed by Nintendo specifically for the Switch, the LVL40, of course, must use a 3,5mm jack. It's a mouthful, I know, but what it all amounts to is actually one damn good headset. Don't let the $29,99 price tag fool you into thinking these won't do the job – they will, as long as you don't care too much about the quality of the mic.
First and foremost, the LVL40 looks fantastic. Bass is deep and rich, thanks to the previously mentioned 40mm neodymium drivers. The driver is the element that converts an electrical signal into sound, and these are made up of a neodymium magnet. This will provide the headphones with more effective bass response and better overall sound quality, and it rings true with everything I've tested with these headphones. The gunshots hit like they should, the shock of steel hit with incredible clarity, and, to my surprise, it was the best headset I listened to music with on the Switch. I plugged them into my PS4 controller to listen to Red Dead through them, and I have to say the game has never sounded better.
The build quality is also surprisingly high for such a budget-friendly headset. The headband is soft enough to give you hours of comfort, and the ear cups are nice, breathable cushions, but good luck if you wear glasses. The cups themselves are on the small side and I found that after just 10-15 minutes of use with glasses my ears started to hurt. I know this is a common problem among in-ear headphones, but I found the issue particularly painful here, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone struggling with it.
Comfort under conditions
But if you don't wear glasses, these headphones stay comfortable for hours. I was able to keep them on without really noticing them for at least 60 minutes, but inevitably they sweat after prolonged use. I don't think you can really avoid that - I've yet to find a headset that stays dry for hours of play. In fact, the LVL40 holds up and would work well with any type of streamer used to long sessions. of play. The headband itself easily slides up and down, to accommodate varying degrees of head size, and things feel solid as if they were holding up after years of use.
There's another area where this headset can't keep up, and that's microphone quality. I used the LVL40 to record the latest episode of the COGconnected podcast, and was quite surprised at how badly I sounded hearing the finished product. It all sounded like I was talking on the phone – hollow and unclear. I expected the microphone quality to be better considering how I enjoyed the headset, but for those looking for a headset that stands up to the quality of the mic, you'll have to look elsewhere. Luckily, if you use them for your Nintendo Switch as intended, there aren't too many games that even support voice chat.
The last thing I would say about this, and I know this really comes down to personal opinion, but I find the neon colors to be completely garish on the headset. I first thought I'd like the color palette as I'm a big fan of colors when applied to the counter-joys, but on a pair of in-ear headphones it just looks loud and obnoxious . The fact that you can't remove the microphone doesn't help the looks either, so it would be nice to see more traditional grey/black colors added to the range. They use these colors with their Xbox One version of the LVL40s, which makes me think it can't be too difficult to get other colors.
Latest Thoughts
Again, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these headphones. The sound quality is more than most people would ever need, with only the most hardcore audiophiles, I imagine, being able to spot where the headphones are lacking. However, if you're looking for a headset with a quality microphone, steer clear of this, because as happy as I was with the way the headset sounded, I was equally disappointed with the mic. PDP Gaming also recently released their LVL50 headset, which is completely wireless, while the LVL40 uses a 3,5mm jack. I always appreciate the simplicity of something that's plug-n-play. Either way, for $30 you really can't go wrong here.
***Headset was provided by PDP for the purpose of this review***
