Gaming Device Features Built-In Subwoofer
As gamers look for new ways to more fully immerse themselves in their games, they’ve had the option of turning to vibrating headsets over the past several years. With the attached microphone, these headsets are great for interactive online gaming. Finding that right combination of comfort and features has been difficult, though. A new gaming headset from Rosewill, the RHTS-8206, hopes to find that sweet spot. It includes a control module that allows the gamer to use one of two settings for the intensity of the vibration, which gives it an interesting feature vs. many other vibrating headset options. It also has design features aimed at keeping
the user as comfortable as possible. “We wanted something that was modern and stylish,” says Brian L. Chan, product specialist for Rosewill. “That’s the direction we want the company to go to.”
Sweating The Details
Chan says the RHTS-8206 sprung from Rosewill’s design and engineering teams’ desire to perfect the concept of headphones with a vibration capability. Development of the headphones required several months,
Chan says, and the designers at Rosewill put together quite a few different design ideas before settling on the current configuration, which was released in May with a suggested price of about $60. “We’ve always wanted to do something like this, but we didn’t see the technology where we needed it to be,” Chan says
It’s Gotta Be Bumpin’
The vibration mechanism resides inside the USB-connected headphones. It consists of a subwoofer that creates the vibration, using an extremely low frequency any time the audio in the game is a deep, low sound. The audio frequency determines what type of vibration the system will generate. You can set the intensity of the vibration in the headset to low, high, or off. An audio chip built into the control module will read the intensity setting and then adjust the amplification of the audio signal. “We did a lot of tweaking,” Chan says. “We wanted it to feel like you wereactually there.”
RHTS-8206 Specifications
The RHTS-8206 requires no batteries, as all the power the unit requires is provided along with the audio signal via its USB cable.
- Chipset: CM6206-LX
- Connector: USB
- Cord Length: 6.6 feet
- Weight: 0.99 pounds
- Headphone Frequency Response: 0 to 20KHz (front and center drivers), 20Hz to 20KHz (rear driver), 30Hz to 150KHz (subwoofer)
- Microphone Frequency Response: 30Hz to 16KHz
- Headphone Input Impedance: 64O (front driver), 32O (center and rear drivers), 8O (subwoofer); all are plus/minus 15%, except for rear driver, which is plus/minus 10%
- Microphone Impedance: 2.2KO
- Headphone Sensitivity: 88dB (front and center drivers), 117dB (rear driver), 89dB (subwoofer); all are plus/minus 3dB
- Microphone Sensitivity: Minus-56dB, plus/minus 2dB
