EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 External Sound Card Review

August 3, 2020

EPOS have continued their expansion into the gaming market as of late. After previously releasing the GSP 370 and GSP 670 wireless headsets recently, they’re now beginning to expand into new sectors of the gaming audio market. The latest EPOS release is the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300, an external USB soundcard that they believe will take your game to the next level. After spending some going ears-on with the device, I definitely can’t disagree with that.

One of the first things I noticed about the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 is just how minimalistic the design is. It’s sleek and slight in a way that made it fit into the décor (read: clutter) of my desk without a problem. A matte metal finish, slim body and the odd curve make it a really attractive device to have on my desk, especially when I prefer to avoid the RGB madness that has taken over the world. As far as buttons and connectors go, it really is ultra-minimal, with a volume dial (with a ring of light that changes colour to denote if virtual surround sound is on or not), a button to change presets and simple connections at the back to hook up a 3.5mm headset and/or microphone (if your device uses separate connectors). There’s no complexity here and that’s certainly something I appreciated.

What that simplicity means is that all of the sound customisation you’ll need is contained within the EPOS Gaming Suite software. From within that, you’re able to fiddle with equaliser presets, microphone settings and also what you want the smart button on the device to do (either swap between presets or toggle virtual surround sound on and off). The software comes with a suite of inbuilt presets, such as music and esports, but you’re also able to freely edit these or add your own, and each of these can have virtual 7.1 surround sound individually enabled as you see fit. It’s a pretty powerful little tool, and something that I was able to get a handle on extremely quickly.

I didn’t need to stray too far from the inbuilt presets, with most of my time being spent with the  Esport (Treble) preset, but every preset I tried made a notable difference to the sound coming through the Sony WH-1000XM3s I hooked up via 3.5mm. The Music preset added a noticeable bump to bass, while the Esport preset did the opposite, dampening bass and amplifying treble to make gun shots easier to hear. The idea of implementing different presets for different games and being able to freely swap between them at will is fantastic, if not something I personally want to spend hours investing in.

Beyond the equaliser settings in the presets, the other audio component the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 brings is some wonderfully accurate virtual 7.1 surround sound. My 2.0 WH-1000XM3s went from giving me little idea of where I was being shot from in PUBG to being able to pinpoint where the shots were coming from. I could hear the direction footsteps were coming from, allowing me to plan around enemy movements effortlessly, instead of painstakingly trying to work out where sound was coming from.

What I loved the most about the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 though, was that it was completely compatible with my rig and headphones without any special tuning or needing to get into a PCIE slot. I just plugged it into a USB port and plugged my headphones in via 3.5mm and I was good to go. There was no need for additional connectors, meaning that any set of 3.5mm headphones or headsets you have (and I’ve amassed a small collection at this point), will work without issue. It was nice to just plug everything in and have it work first time (unlike absolutely any time I need to install a new component in my PC and somehow forget to plug something into the PSU).

Overall, the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 is a wonderful little device. The software suite is relatively powerful, the design is sleek and attractive, its simple to set up and use, and there’s plenty of freedom to use just about any set of headphones/headsets you want. Add in a relatively low cost of entry at $129.95 AU and the EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 is super easy to recommend.

The EPOS|Sennheiser GSX 300 was reviewed using a PC with EPOS Gaming Suite installed, and was provided by the company.

Positives:

- Simple and attractive design
- Virtual surround sound is fantastic
- Freedom to use any 3.5mm headphones/headsets you want

Negatives:

- Only a few presets installed by default

Overall Score: