It’s been a while since we last looked at a headphone. The Edifier G2 Engage arrived at our labs and I have to wonder – Edifier actually has a gaming lineup of audio products?
Before we begin, here’s a little clarification. The one we’re reviewing here is the Edifier G2 Engage, also known as Hecate. There is another non-Engage version which is the predecessor, also known as the Gammatera.
Now, let’s have a look at it.
Unboxing
It’s no surprise that judging by the packaging itself, the Edifier G2 Engage is meant to be a more budget-oriented pair of gaming headphones.
Upon first look, Edifier employed a rather simplistic design to fancy up the aesthetics by including a sleeve that slips in the main box. Not too shabby, since they did take the extra effort to make it look nice.
Opening up the sheath and digging everything out reveals one single item in the box – just the Edifier G2 Engage itself. Cable is not detachable, by the way. To my surprise, there’s no documentation in the box!
[nextpage title=”Design & features”]
The Edifier G2 Engage comes with a common gamer-look of black and red colors, and has integrated boom mic too – which is why I’m referring to the Edifier G2 Engage as a gaming headphone in the first place.
Looking at the entire design, the Edifier G2 Engage fits into the stereotype of gaming gear perfectly well, actually. It has the fitting geometry, font, colors, and vibe. Whether or not this is your cup of tea really depends on your own personal taste.
The Edifier G2 Engage comes with a pretty decent build quality, but solid enough to use daily – though I’m not sure if anyone wants to take the Edifier G2 Engage out daily during commute. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it – just that it’s a little weird since the Edifier G2 Engage has a swiveling boom mic and not a retractable one, and its mic and headphone jacks are separated instead of a combo jack.
Speaking of combo jacks, Edifier didn’t include a Y-cable to combine both mic and headphone jacks into a single combo jack too. This is certainly something to take note of, as certain laptops use combo jack instead.
The cable on the other hand, is nicely braided and has an inline control with two sliders – one for volume and another to switch the mic on and off. Edifier included a little piece of bungee, if you will, on the headphone so that the cable is less susceptible to internal fracture.
Nice touch.
[nextpage title=”Comfort”]
As I’ve mentioned before, the Edifier G2 Engage does have a pretty decent build quality. The earcups are made out of PU leather that creates a seal around the ears with its rather relaxed clamping force. The earcups also have quite a lot of slack to swivel to adapt to the shape of the user’s skull! Seriously, it’s comfortable.
As for the headband itself, the Edifier G2 Engage comes with cushions wrapped in PU leather. Instead of having just one large piece of cushion, Edifier segmented it into a total of 5 parts. Comfortable? Yes, definitely.
Though with that said, the Edifier G2 Engage is seriously meant to be a gaming-only pair of headphones. The earcups can’t be rotated to rest on the shoulders, and the boom mic can’t be retracted into the earcup too.
While the PU leather earcups do provide better noise isolation, be prepared to sweat a lot more than usual as the seal around the ears means much less air circulating across the ears.
[nextpage title=”Audio quality test”]
Testing setup
First of all, we’re iteratively improving our audio test. While we do use multiple devices to test the audio quality, our main setup is a desktop with this list of hardware. It has a Realtek ALC1220 audio chip on the motherboard itself, and its audio traces are isolated from other components.
The audio test is carried out with equalizers disabled and connecting right to the motherboard’s rear panel. Audio files are in FLAC format.
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Test hardware configuration |
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| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-U12S/Noctua NH-D15 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 1700 |
| GPU | MSI GEFORCE GTX 1060 3GT OC |
| Motherboard | ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 16GB |
| Primary Hard Drive | Plextor M8SeGN |
| Power Supply | SilverStone ET-650B 650W |
| Chassis | BitFenix Aurora |
| Fans | Noctua NF-F12 |
| Others | SilverStone LS02 RGB LED Strip |
Listening test
I have to be honest with you right here, right now. When I first saw the Edifier G2 Engage, I thought that it’s a sub-par headphone with sub-par sound quality. I judged it by its looks, which I should have not.
While it has a 45Ω impedance, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom can still drive the Edifier G2 Engage nicely.
By high fidelity, I mean that the Edifier G2 Engage sounds really good.
Adventure Time by Rogue is able to show us that the bass is always fantastically punchy while the mids are still great. The highs are good! Same goes to In The Mood and Skyliner by the BBG Big Band. It just sounds great.
Songs like Dream Sweet in Sea Major by ミラクルミュージカル sounds great with the gramophone distortion noise effect. Its clarity is superb!
Pop music like David Guetta’s remix of Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars, the vocals and background music is fantastic. The highs are just great!
Soundstage
Of course, this is a gaming headphone after all and its soundstage is important. We all need to hear where our enemies are to get a positional advantage before proceeding with our tactics. Overwatch is a game with excellent sound engine, so we’ll use that as the benchmark.
The lateral soundstage is great as I am able to hear pretty much everything that’s happening around my character. Since it’s not a 7.1 surround sound headphone, the vertical soundstage performance isn’t particularly breathtaking.
Recording test
A quick microphone test reveals that the microphone is indeed okay to be used for gaming. It is of acceptable quality, though I don’t think it will be clear enough or loud enough to be used during team fights in a game like Overwatch.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the Edifier G2 Engage review”]
It’s no surprise that the Edifier G2 Engage is a cheap headphone – literally. At a price of just RM159 (or even cheaper here at Lazada), this is one of the pair of headphones that I definitely recommend for gaming.
Sure, the Edifier G2 Engage’s packaging and price might make it seem cheap (and it is, by the way) but it sounds like a champion.
As we here at Nasi Lemak Tech are very critical about the products we review, the Edifier G2 Engage is one of those products that because of its price, it just dispells all of its flaws. Just keep in mind that this is a pair of headphones meant for gaming – not only in terms of sound quality but also its physical build and features.
The Edifier G2 Engage is available on Edifier Malaysia’s very own website. Visit them now and get RM29.10 off your purchase!
You can even get the Edifier G2 Engage over at Lazada for only RM125.90 right now!
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