Austrian Audio PG16 Pro Gaming Headset Review – A solid start, but there is still a lot to learn!

1 - Einführung und technische Daten 2 - Unboxing 3 - Haptik und Tragekomfort 4 - Sound- und Mikrofon Check 5 - Software 6 - Zusammenfassung und Fazit

Sound Check

Here, too, you can clearly see the engineers’ experience. The sound is already pretty good for a gaming headset. Of course, it’s a bit muffled on this model as well and doesn’t offer perfect resolution, but the PG16 is definitely far from sounding like a tin can, and voices aren’t as overemphasized here as they usually are on gaming headsets. With a bit of fine-tuning on the equalizer, the sound is quite pleasant and, in the end, stands out clearly from most gaming headsets to my ear. In terms of maximum volume, the Austrian Audio device is rather restrained. It should always be kept in mind that these are my personal and therefore subjective impressions.

Music

Fun to listen to with the PG16. Without an equalizer, the low-frequency sound is a bit restrained, which might not be the best choice for the headset’s target group. With a bit of tuning, however, this can be remedied well and should satisfy even the biggest bass mania halfway adequately. I had the headset in use again for several days and ran it through my usual course of songs for evaluation.

I particularly liked the PG16’s spatial reproduction of lute instruments, which is of course quite fitting for me as a big fan of rock music. The vocals aren’t quite as emphasized, but again, I like it “natural” much better than when the voices are over-emphasized. Overall, the headset cuts a good figure here and can clearly outshine many of its illuminated or fancy gaming design colleagues.

Gaming

The headset is also a good partner when gaming. However, I am generally of the opinion that headphones with a good, spatial sound are also well suited for gaming. Of course, some gaming headsets emphasize certain frequencies in order to better perceive voices or footsteps. However, if the price is a miserable sound in general, I can gladly do without it and prefer the solution from Austrian Audio.

For the gaming test, I once again used good old CS:GO and found the tracking of steps and opponents to be great right away. The excellent shielding also came into its own here, as I could barely hear the running TV in the background.

Movies

Certainly not the actual task of a gaming headset, but since I often watch movies and series on the PC, I naturally wanted to test it briefly. The Avengers are a lot of fun and the bombastic sound effects are also a lot of fun with the PG16.

Microphone check

The foldable microphone, or rather its arm, does not look particularly high-quality considering the price range. Although this design has proven itself thousands of times, the flexible arm is somehow also always a small predetermined breaking point. I was also initially surprised that the microphone recordings were extremely quiet. At first I had put it down to the software not being installed. After installing and quickly removing the disastrous program, which I’ll talk about in the next section, I set out to find the cause of the silent recordings. As it turned out, you can activate the Mic Boost in Windows on this model, which finally fixed the problem. The settings for this can be found in the sound control panel:

Of course, I also have a small recording for demonstration purposes, and I first recorded without the Mic Boost:

For the second recording, I used the microphone gain in the included software, which produces a clearly audible noise and may also cause distortion:

And finally, a recording with the Windows microphone gain, which apparently does a really good job in combination with the PG16. The voice can be clearly understood and is recorded very faithfully. This makes the microphone really fun to use: