Bloody M660P Gaming Headset Review
By Jason Vaught
Manufacturer: A4Tech / Bloody Division
Product Name: M660P Moci Hi-Fi Gaming Headset
Model Number: M660P (Inline Mic), M660 (Boom Mic)
UPC: 4711421927413 EAN: 4711421927413
Price As Tested: $78.95 (Amazon)Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Bloody.
Bloody gaming has released a new addition to their M660 series headsets, the M660P. The M660P has the same 40mm drivers and the same MO-CI (Mycelium of Carbon IT) dual diaphragm as it’s older brother, the M660 Chronometer. What the M660P brings to the table is an in-line microphone instead of a boom mic. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? That’s one of the things we’ll be testing in this article for Benchmark Reviews.
What makes a headset a “gaming” headset? Some manufacturers add lights, some add virtual surround for directional hearing. In reality, any headset can be used for gaming. But manufacturers know, or at least they should, that when you label it “gaming” then it has certain expectations it should meet. With headsets, gamers want their cake and eat it too. They want immersive sound, quality playback of their favorite music, long session wearing comfort, and in some cases lighting on the outside of the headset. Can Bloody live up to the demands of a modern gamer? That’s what we’re here to find out!
Features & Specifications
HEADSET
Speaker Unit: F40 mm
Impedance: 16 ± 20% O
Sensitivity: 102 dB ± 3 dB
Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20 KHz
MIC.
Mic. Frequency Response: 75-16,000 Hz
Mic. Sensitivity: – 45 dB
CABLE
Cable Material: 48-Core Copper Cable
Main Cable Plug Type: 3.5 mm Plug (Audio/Mic)
Main Cable Length: 120 CM
LED USB Cable Length: 100 CM
3.5 mm PC Adapter Cable Length: 100 CM
Bloody M660P Gaming Headset Overview
Bloody has been creeping onto the gaming scene at a steady pace over the past few years, with offerings of mice, keyboards, and a plethora of headsets, they aim to fill the budget gaming gap, without compromising quality and features. The Bloody M660P is presently available selling online for $78.95 (Amazon).
The majority of the product photos you will find online only show the outer cans to be red, when they are actually just gray, and only light up red when you have the optional USB power supply cable plugged in.
Here we can see why a steampunk enthusiast would love this headset, they’ve got gears! What appear to be 3D printed, the gears don’t move and are stationary to the outer cans. Here we can also see Bloody’s hand logo, as well as the MOCI Technology label.
Here we can see the M660P’s abundant wiring configurations. The diagram that Bloody provides doesn’t include the USB cable, I’ve added it to this diagram to completely show what you’ll be looking in terms of PC gaming. Note, every wire you see above, you will use at the same time if you use this headset with a PC and you want the cans to light up red. That’s right, the USB cable is ONLY for the cans to light up, it is not a USB DAC.
Touching further on the photo above this one, here is what will sit on your desk when not in use. A whole bunch of wires in one hot mess. If you choose to use this with just a phone, then you can limit the amount of cables easily, but you still retain that large, in-line adapter as it is not removable.
Bloody M660P Gaming Headset Detailed Features
Now we’ll take a closer look at some of the detailed features that the Bloody M660P Gaming Headset has to offer.
The wires are sleeved in an unusual cable sleeve, it’s almost like a shoe lace type material. It provides no rigidity, and is not what you would normally see on gaming gear. It does, however, seem similar to the old sleeved cables of hi-fi headphones.
The ear pads are coated in a “protein leatherette”. While leatherette or pleather type ear pads are not uncommon, these seem very thin and a little too soft for comfort. They don’t form a very good seal around your ear, while this may help with keeping your head/ears cool, it also allows outside ambient noise/sound to penetrate your listening experience.
Here is a closeup of the gears on the cans and the continued use of gears on the headband. The gears on the headband seem to help stabilize the thin metal to prevent tuning fork type effects, the like of which we seen with the HyperX Cloud Revolver Headset.
Here we can see the cans lit up with the USB cable connected. Red is the only color the M660P is capable of producing, sorry RGB fans, not this time.
Testing & Results
Testing Methodology
The Bloody M660P Gaming Headset was tested with a variety of games, music and movies/TV shows. Since sound perception is very subjective, for my testing I decided to focus primarily on the perceived sound quality as well as the quality of the in-line microphone. This headset was tested with Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Killing Floor 2, and Battlefield 1 for 30+ hours respectively. For the testing equipment, I utilized both on-board audio and an external sound card, (the Creative Sound BlasterX G5). I also tested the headset with a virtual barbershop environment that I found on YouTube.
Test System
- Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99
- System Memory: HyperX Savage 64GB (8x8GB)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 2011-v3
- Audio: On-board and Creative Sound BlasterX G5 7.1 Headphone Surround (external sound card)
- Video: 2 x XFX Double Dissipation R9-290X (4GB) (Crossfired) (1 card after-market water cooled)
- PSU: Seasonic 1200W Platinum
- Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2412M IPS 24″ x 3 @ 5760×1200
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Results
This headset performed quite differently with different content, so I will break this down on a per content basis.
Movies/TV Shows: When using the on-board audio, I found the headset to lack depth and to sound a bit tinny. The sound stage seem odd and somewhat distant. When I switched over to the G5, the sound quality improved admirably, but the tinnyness and the odd sound stage remained.
Music: Distant and tinny, with on-board sound. The ear cups lack of firmness and inability to fully close around my ears leaving the bass notes virtually non-existent. When utilizing the G5 sound card card, the sound quality improved immensely and the headset became a decent listening experience.
Games: Once again, the Bloody M660P has let me down, it doesn’t have the depth one needs to immerse themselves in gameplay when using on-board sound. No bass, and directional sound detection is difficult. Utilizing the external sound card helped with quality and increase the sound stage, but didn’t help with directional sound. The in-line mic received many complaints from my teammates in terms of sounding distant and if I moved at all, they could hear it rub against my shirt.
Gaming Headset Final Thoughts
When I write a review for a product and I notice one or more odd things about the product, I try to justify (in my own mind) the manufacturer’s decisions/thinking on the choices they made in the product. While I can understand trying to appeal to a wider market by making the microphone less obtrusive, I cannot understand why you would still label this product as “gaming”.
There is nothing gaming about an in-line microphone, this part just doesn’t make sense to me. I can forgive sound quality issues as my perception of quality may or may not align with your perception of quality. But when you take a boom mic, and relocate it to an in-line, I just can’t forgive that.
Bloody M660P Gaming Headset Conclusion
When trying to gauge and measure the performance of a headset it will come down to sound quality and microphone clarity. The Bloody M660P does one of these decently (when using a sound card), given that you use it only for gaming, and the other not so much. The microphone on this headset could use a lot of improvement. It feels like Bloody relocated the microphone to be in-line just to appeal to cell phone users who want to use a set of full sized cans while talking on the phone (not that many people).
Appearance wise the headset is not bad at all, the red lit cans is nice and the gears would appeal to a wide range, especially steampunk enthusiasts. The bright silver gears on the head band need to go and/or be painted black, as they just stick out way too much.
The Bloody M660P feels like it is constructed solidly, except when you feel the ear pads, they seem ultra thin and don’t give any confidence to longevity. The cord sleeving seems like it could be torn easily and doesn’t give the feel of durability.
Functionality wise, the headset does function, but doesn’t work very well as a headset. It does function decently as a set of headphones, but there are better headphone options out there for the same money. The in-line microphone leaves a lot to be desired. Your squad-mates will complain about not being able to hear you as well as lot’s of background noise/static.
For the price of $78.95 (Amazon), this is not a great buy. The microphone just ruins this unit for me. The regular M660, has a boom mic and is cheaper. If I were having to choose between the M660 and the M660P, I would choose the boom mic version over the in-line any day.
The Bloody M660P is a very odd headset, mainly because of it’s abundance of cables and cable connections and breaks in the continuity of the connection through the use of multiple adapters. The more breaks in the line, the more sound degradation you will experience, not to mention he more points of failure you’re adding to your headset. Let’s face it, the majority of people don’t use a set of cans this large to walk around and talk on their phone, this would be a very niche market. I cannot, at this time, recommend this headset to anyone, there are just better options at this price point and even at lower price points.
Pros:
+ Lights up
+ Decent sound when utilizing a sound card
+ Nice aesthetics
+ Lightweight
+ Multi-device support
Cons:
– Odd cable design (too many cables)
– No USB DAC despite having a USB plug
– USB plug only light up the headset, thus adding more cable management issues
– Cable sleeving odd for gaming gear
– In-line microphone
– Tinny, distant sound
Ratings:
-
Performance: 7.00
-
Appearance: 8.00
-
Construction: 7.50
-
Functionality: 7.50
-
Value: 8.00
