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Test: JBL Quantum 810 Wireless gamingheadset

JBL may be pioneers in the audio segment, but they are actually quite new to gaming headsets. In the last two years, however, the company has done everything to change this fact by officially pumping out new models – often with good results.

Rating 4 out of 5

Opinion

The Quantum Wireless 810 is a good no-frills headset. Aside from the clunky design, there’s not much to complain about, and this is a versatile and great-sounding choice for the vast majority.

Positive

  • Really good sound quality
  • Active noise reduction
  • Record battery life

Negative

  • Big and a little “bready”
  • Flat spatial sound
  • Mess with the software

— –

The Quantom 810 Wireless is new for this year and landed in Swedish stores just before the summer. With a retail price of around SEK 1,800, we are talking about a headset in the upper middle class, where there is fierce competition. On top of that, the 810 Wireless lacks a gimmick or killer feature intended to draw any kind of niche audience, so JBL has to rely on a solid foundation job and attract a broad, quality-conscious group of buyers.

Design and comfort

The Quantum 810 manages to feel heavy (418 grams) and plastic at the same time. The headset is grey-black with brilliant JBL logos on the covers. The lighting can be controlled in detail in the Quantum Engine software, but seasoned – and semi-old – battery life lovers will learn to turn this off immediately.

The headset has a number of controls on the covers, such as on/off/bluetooth, a chat sound mix that allows the user to set the sound balance between voice communication and game sound, active noise reduction, volume and mute button for the microphone. It’s actually trivial to learn what fits where, but after a whole summer with this headset, the fine motor skills fit like a glove. Otherwise, we find a fold-down boom microphone and outputs for 3.5 millimeters and USB-C for charging.

This is a comfortable headset with soft faux leather covers. Even with noise reduction turned off, it insulates well against outside noise. However, it is not a model we would enjoy outside the gaming room; the profile of the head becomes very large due to the very broken headband and the large hoods. The microphone cannot be removed either. Even if the headset connects smoothly via Bluetooth, it does not feel very good outside the safe corner of the home.

Sound quality

In the Quantum 810, JBL has succeeded in crafting a really good-sounding headset for both games and music. In the first-mentioned scenario, it shines with a full and detailed sound that impresses regardless of genre. Some wireless headsets can sound a bit soft or underperform at high volume, but we can’t detect anything like that here. In fact, the headset would have liked to go a little higher!

Quantum 810

We prefer the Bass Boost mode in all test environments, but it doesn’t work at all with the two surround technologies on offer: DTS and JBL’s own Quantum surround. As usual, these boost the various channels of sound direction and provide significantly better accuracy in fps games, but in all honesty we prefer the ‘default’ mode any day of the week, which gives the sound significantly more character and richness.

Musically, we have nothing to complain about; The Quantum 810 sounds both phenomenal and well balanced and can handle everything we throw at it. The sound gets a noticeable quality increase with the noise reduction switched on. Although it sucks up more battery, we see no reason whatsoever not to use the noise reduction mode, as it does a perfectly fine job of blocking out noise from things like computer fans and dishwashers.

Quantum 810

The microphone is not embarrassed either, but offers a clear and distinct sound that pulls in the sharper direction. It is very targeted and does not remove unwanted keyboard matter or the like.

Functions

Quantum Engine is a good program for customizing the headset’s functions. Here there are plenty of options, modes and presets to botanize around without it getting messy. A few times there seems to be a conflict between the Windows sound settings and those in the Quantum Engine, which forced us to a restart here and a couple of turns in the computer’s sound menus there. JBL’s software also crashed on us a time or two, but it’s not really much to write home about.

Quantum 810

The battery life does not quite reach the 43 hours that the manufacturer announces. However, the headset lasts well over 30 hours before it surprisingly dies in the middle of a gaming session. It’s more than acceptable but we would have liked a clearer indicator or notification when the battery is about to die. Fortunately, it is possible to charge and play at the same time – if you have two USB ports left on the computer, that is.

The Quantom 810 is flexible with its support for both 2.4 GHz and bluetooth. We have primarily used it together with PC, but also with mobile phone and Nintendo Switch. Playstation consoles are also supported wirelessly, while you can use the 3.5mm cable for Xbox.

Specifications

M3 recommends

Product name: Quantum 810 Wireless
Manufacturer: JBL
Tested: July 2022
Connection: Wireless (2.4 GHz or bluetooth 5.2)
Works for: Pc, Playstation, Switch, mobil, Xbox (3,5mm)
Rec. price: SEK 1,790
Taken: From SEK 1,790 on Amazon

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