The LucidSound LS100X looks to dish out good gaming performance at a competitive price, but in such a saturated market, does it manage to stand out?
Lucidsound might not be a brand that you have heard of before, but their massive range of headsets manages to cover every price point of gaming headset on the market. They have premium and budget options available across the board, and the Lucidsound LS100X looks to capitalize on the midrange gaming headset market.
However, the issue with the majority of LucidSound headsets isn’t that they’re bad performers, just that they are pretty boring. They’re not offensive, nor are they game changers in any capacity.
The LS100X is no different – but it still does a decent job.
Key Specs
- Connectivity: 2.4GHz wireless connection, Bluetooth, detachable microphone
- Dynamic drivers: 50mm
- Compatibility:
- Wireless: Xbox/PC over 2.4GHz
- Bluetooth: Mobile/PC
- Features: Detachable microphone, memory foam earcups, up to 130 hours of battery
- Price: $99 / £99
- Where to buy:
What’s in the box: LucidSound LS100X, wireless connection dongle, microphone, USB-C cable
Setup and design
Getting the Lucidsound LS100X set up is simple. All you need to do is plug in the dongle to your Xbox or PC, flick the switch to the chosen platform, and turn the headset on. Over Bluetooth, you just need to set them to pairing mode and you’re pretty much good to go.
The LucidSound LS100X has incredibly comfortable memory foam earcups. While in the week or so of using them daily, we found that the memory foam was still mostly rigid, but still extremely comfortable on the head.
It helps that the Lucidsound LS100X is incredibly light. We’re talking several hours of gaming in Diablo 3 – and there was no inkling of any aches or pains that a heavier headset can cause.
However, the headset does slip off of smaller heads, even if you adjust the headset to the tightest it can possibly be.
We did like the volume controls being tied into the side of the earcups, with the two wheels on either side controlling microphone volume or game volume, allowing you to mix how loud your party chat is on the fly.
However, the microphone felt flimsy. Once we tried to mold it into the shape we wanted in front of our face, it never really managed to fit into place. After this, we submit to the headset and just removed them entirely. With the mic detached, the LS100x could easily pass for a regular pair of headphones for day-to-day use.
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Sound quality
Much like with the EPOS H3, there’s really nothing to write home about regarding the LS100X’s sound quality. There’s no offensiveness in any of the highs, mids, and lows, with a decent bass to every single hit and fight that we got into on the Xbox.
At the price range of around $100, you can do much worse, but you can also do a lot better. Comparing these to the feature set of the JBL Quantum 610s, it becomes more of a question of what you’re after out of a headset. For a similar price, the JBL Quantum 610s might not support the Xbox, but they do bring neat features to PC like 7.1 surround sound and a semi-decent microphone.
The biggest upside to the headset is not in its sound quality but in its battery life. We used these for a solid week, out the packet and with no prior charging, to find that they’re still going. Lucidsound claims you can get up to 72 hours of listening time over 2.4GHz, which is incredibly impressive.
On PC and Xbox, they’re supposed to implement Windows Sonic, Microsoft’s algorithm for simulating surround sound in headsets. While we could barely tell that the console and PC were doing something with the LucidSound LS100X, we think it’s yet another hardware manufacturer gimmick that won’t get properly used by a majority of the headsets or headphones that supposedly support it.
Microphone quality
The microphone didn’t outright suck, but it struggles to give you reasons to use it. It’s yet another $100 headset with a lousy microphone, the benefit with the LS100X is that it’s removable.
LucidSound has fitted a red tip on the end to indicate whether or not it’s life, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just terrible to listen to and terrible to try to talk into it clearly.
While in use, the microphone creates a tinny, low-quality output, something that is exasperated by the compression from either Xbox Live or Discord chats.
They state that it’s a ‘boom mic’ and let’s face it, it needs a whole other guy to stand there, holding it in place while it straightens itself out over the course of your game to sound moderately good.
As the microphone slowly straightens itself out, we noticed the quality lessening as it began to struggle to pick up our voice, slowly including the wider room and the noises that go along with it.
Should you buy it?
The sound quality of the LS100X won’t blow anyone’s mind, nor will the lackluster microphone performance. If you have a smaller head, you might also want to steer clear. The LS100X’s are certainly usable, however, if you’re looking for better quality, you might want to look at bigger, rival brands like Steelseries.
