For over 20 years, nothing has screamed premium quality audio quite like a Sennheiser headset. As the company has evolved, so too has its gaming headsets. With the release of the Epos Sennheiser GSP 600, gamers have been treated to superb audio at a reasonable price. While the GSP 600 has been around for a while, a pair of new colors for the headset has been released. Today we are looking at one of these new variants, the Epos Sennheiser GSP 602.

What’s In The Box

The GSP 602 comes in a straight forward box that screams it is all about business. The GSP 602 takes a prominent position, showcasing its cool blue and orange color scheme. A few highlighted features also make an appearance along with the notation that this is a wired headset. The sides of the packaging breakdown the package contents and some of the key specs of the GSP 602. There is also a cool teardown view of the headset showing off the driver and cup design. The back features some design highlights for the headset available in a number of different languages.

Opening the box we have the GSP 602 being housed in a custom foam interior. I have to admit I absolutely love the way Epos Sennheiser has packed this headset! Come on, you should all know I am a big box person by now. A smaller box, with a slick 70 years of excellence badge, contains 2 wires for connecting the GSP 602 to either consoles or PC along with a handful of documentation including a quick start guide, spec sheet, and safety information guide.

Aesthetics And Build Quality

The GSP 602 is a cool looking headset. It has this futuristic/industrial design that really speaks to me even if it makes the overall build look bigger than a lot of headsets out there. The dark blue and orange color scheme is very beautiful and gives me a Mega Man vibe from looking at it. It almost looks like the GSP 602 could fit right in with the original North American box art for that original Mega Man game! Yeah, I know that cover art looks dumb, but hey it’s futuristic just like the GSP 602!

The frame of the GSP 602 is made of metal and plastic with a cloth and foam padding for the top of your head and leatherette ear cup padding. The ear cups also have a more natural looking ear shape to them, giving them a better feel than the common circle design. The design has a good amount of flexibility to ensure it won’t break under normal usage. The ear cups can be extended, allowing for a good fit on most head sizes. The brackets securing the ear cups to the headset are secured strongly and provide a bit of rotation for a more comfortable fit. One cool touch I liked here was that a pad was placed on the ear cups where the headband and cup have the potential to meet, preventing any possible scratches to the cups.

On the left ear cup is a fixed-length pull-down mic that has an audible click when it moves into and from the mute position. Next to the mic, you will find the port to attach one of the 2 included audio cables for either PC or console usage. These cords attach firmly so there is little worry about them coming loose during gameplay. The only other physical control found on the headset comes from its volume knob on the right ear cup. The knob has a decent amount of resistance to it, ensuring the volume won’t change levels on you accidentally. When lowering the volume you will feel a nice click when it mutes completely.

Specs

I am not the biggest fan of talking about the specs of headsets these days as the true judgment of the quality of a headset comes from actually using them. But for those of you out there who are curious, Epos Sennheiser has listed the GSP 602’s specs as follows.

Product data
General
Ear coupling: Around ear
Transducer principle: Dynamic, closed
Cable length: 2.5 m PC cable / 1.5 m Console cable
Connector plugs: 2 x 3.5 mm (3-pole connectors)
1 x 3.5 mm (4-pole connectors)
Compatibility: PC, Mac OSX, PS4, Xbox One, Switch,
and consoles with 3.5 mm jack input
Warranty: 2 years, international
Headphones
Frequency response: 10–30,000 Hz
Impedance: 28 Ω
Sound pressure level: 112 dB SPL @ 1 kHz, 1V RMS
Microphone
Frequency response: 10–18,000 Hz
Pick-up pattern: Unidirectional
Sensitivity: -47 dBV/PA

Gameplay

After a month of use, the GSP 602 has cemented itself solidly at the top of my personally owned and tested headset list for audio quality. Everything from listening to music to playing games has sounded absolutely fantastic and crisp. Mids, highs, and lows are all very distinguishable to me and I am hardly an audiophile, which makes the distinction all the more pleasant to hear. I always enjoy going back to my favorite songs and hearing slight undertones I have missed by using lower quality audio equipment. The one downside to this is being able to tell which songs in my library are lower bitrate rips from the early/late 2000’s. Guess it is time to upgrade! Movies also sound great with the GSP 602 but I didn’t spend a ton of time with them for this use.

When it comes to audio, gaming will always take center stage for me, and the GSP 602 delivers on every front. From subtle background noises to the popping of gunshots, you can hear it all in fantastic quality. Gamers that pick up lower-end sets seriously don’t know what they are missing out on in so many of their favorite games when it comes to audio. Thanks to the popularity of the battle royale genre it seems more and more gamers are finally starting to get into higher quality headsets as the advantages they can give are sometimes game-changing.

My main BR these days remains Apex Legends, and thanks to the GSP 602 the experience has been better than ever. One of my biggest issues with headsets has always been positional audio. If a sound comes from the right or left, no problem; but knowing if something is in front of me or behind me has always been an issue. While the Astro A50’s have helped out considerably in this regard I would still encounter the issue on occasion. With the GSP 602, I can’t think of a single game I have played in the last month where I had this problem!

Do keep in mind that the GSP 602 is purely a stereo headset. It can be enhanced with the use of an external soundcard that can provide headset virtual surround sound or through the Xbox’s Dolby Atmos for headphones. While the headsets base quality is great, pairing it with my Sound Blaster X3 on my main PC has made it fantastic! Different audio profiles have also been well suited for a number of different gaming experiences using the headset. If you are able, I definitely recommend going this route for the ultimate experience out of the GSP 602.

For you Xbox players out there, using Dolby Atmos for headphones has also been a top-notch experience, almost on par with my PC’s dedicated sound hardware. I have recently been playing through Gears of War 4 for the first time ever and holy crap, what a difference this set has given to the experience as a whole! PS4 and Switch gameplay experiences have also been good but since neither of these systems offers the likes of Atmos or virtual surround, they don’t sound as good to me as Xbox or PC. They still sound better than my previous headsets but it makes me wish they had the same Atmos functionality as Xbox.

It is safe to say I think the GSP 602 sounds fantastic overall, but what about the mic? Well, sadly it isn’t as impressive. It isn’t anywhere near as terrible as the headset mics I used to use to make videos and stream with, but it doesn’t match the quality found from a dedicated USB mic or those found on newer Logitech headsets. In the end, it is passable for what it is meant for and honestly, I think that is good enough for almost every gamer out there looking to just do party chat.

One last little note I want to share about the GSP 602 comes from its closed design. I have never owned a closed design headset before and from the first time I put it on the difference was immediately noticeable. I can’t hear anything going on around me. Yup, the GSP 602’s design, and leatherette cups act as noise suppression! The effect is seriously eerie when I have them on without any audio playing; it’s fantastic.

What It Could Have Done Better

With all that being said there is one major drawback to the GSP 602 that has haunted nearly my entire testing period: it isn’t a comfortable fit for my head. After a short period of use (around 20-30 minutes) the top of my head starts to get sore and other times I would start getting a headache from wearing them. Now, granted, I have a large head so this shouldn’t be a problem for many of you out there. For my fellow big head peeps out there though, be sure to adjust the support band to change how the headband flexes and give it some good stretching to remove some of its tightness. After doing this, it is feeling much better for me!

Verdict

For the asking price of $219, I have yet to come across a better sounding headset. Even the $299 Astro A50 has a number of shortcomings compared to the Epos Sennheiser GSP 602. Everything from music to games just sounds good and is a transformative experience over lower quality headsets. When paired with additional hardware on PC or a feature like Dolby Atmos on Xbox, the experience gets even better. Some users might need to break the headset in more than others, but it is an experience to be had once you finally do. If you are looking for a new headset this holiday and are looking for something high quality that won’t absolutely destroy the bank, the GSP 602 should be at the top of your list for consideration!