A couple of months ago we took a look at the wireless EPOS|Sennheiser GSP 670, a pricey but top-of-the-range headset which delivered on audio quality and battery life. Sitting just below it in the EPOS|Sennheiser gaming range are the GSP 601 and 602 headsets – wired closed acoustic headsets with white/black and blue/orange colour schemes respectively. At AU $319, they’re still getting up there in price, but it’s not quite as big a hit to the wallet as the GSP 670, and if you don’t need wireless connectivity for gaming, they could be just what you’re after.

I received the GSP 602 to review, which is that nice royal blue and orange variant, and it sports a pretty cool design. The overall size of the headset is quite large, with chunky design elements pushing out including a large volume knob on the side, but the headset doesn’t feel too heavy on the head. There’s quite a bit of cushioning around the headband, which is also where you’ll find two tension adjusters, while the ear cups themselves can also be independently adjusted, and feature lovely leatherette plush cushions. There’s only one control on the headset, which is the aforementioned volume knob, which works well enough but lacks firm ‘clicks’ or hard settings for adjustment, meaning you’ll either do a bit of back-and-forthing when looking for your exact preferred volume, or just turn them up loud to max volume. The microphone on the left ear cup activates when you move it down from its vertical position, and is easy to operate. Please enjoy these photos of the GSP 602, in the incongruous setting of my backyard.

Inside the box, you get the headset, along with two options for cabling. One 1.5m cable just ends in your standard 3.5mm jack, which you can use in your PS4/Xbox/Switch or phone (if it’s from before the great headphone jack purge), while the other 2.5m cable has your standard PC green/pink headphone and microphone jacks. Both are actually pretty high quality, and braided nicely too. The only real design quirk this time around is actually connecting them to your headset. The jack is deeply recessed into a little canal inside the left ear cup, and it can be a little tricky to know when you’ve firmly connected, or if your cable is only half-in, which of course leads to audio issues when you try to use the headset. I’ve seen some other reviewers have the same issue too, so I’m reasonably certain it’s not entirely because I’m a neanderthal who can’t make simple connections, this time. Once it is in though, you’re magic.

The audio quality for the GSP 602 is superb, especially for a stereo headset. For gaming, on PS4, Xbox and PC it excels, providing a great soundstage where the thump of gunshots or explosions are just as crisp as quieter effects, like the crackle of holograms in Marvel’s Avengers. While only a stereo headset, I didn’t really have much trouble with positional audio, and was pretty capable of locating enemies purely based on where I was hearing them within the headset. On PS4 I did notice I had to crank the audio a little higher than on other consoles, but that could be an issue isolated to me. Nevertheless, as a closed acoustic headset it isolates audio very well, clamping around your ears and preventing much of the terrible outside world from leaking in, while also preventing sound from escaping and bothering others as well. The microphone is decent, picking up my voice clearly and crisply, but with no a huge amount in the way of noise cancellation, although it’s not bad by any stretch.

With music and movies, the headset works great as well. While it doesn’t have a huge amount of bass, and as a plug-and-play headset there aren’t any presets to fiddle around with, music sounds natural. Movies, particularly if you have a high-quality file or Blu Ray, also sound great and immersive too, due to the closed-ear nature of the headset. To be honest, it’s too bulky to really consider listening to most of your music with outside of home, but at least you won’t annoy your housemates thanks to the great sound isolation. It’s also worth mentioning that as a stereo headset, the GSP 602 is compatible with external sound cards like the GSX 300 , which unfortunately I didn’t have on hand, but does present another option to get some virtual surround sound going as long as you’re willing to splash the extra cash.

The GSP 602 is a very high-quality plug-and-play headset, that offers amazing sound quality with great comfort, and works with anything that has an audio jack. At AU $319, it’s still at the high-end of options available, even though it’s a good $100 cheaper than its wireless bigger brother. It’s worth considering whether you pair it with an external sound card like the GSX 300 or look into a headset with native virtual surround, but if you’re fine with stereo and you’re just after a reliable, high-end audio experience, the GSP 602’s are more than capable.

We reviewed a review sample of the EPOS|Sennheiser GSP 602, provided by the company.