TLDR: The Corsair Virtuoso Pro is good and becomes pretty impressive with a bit of EQ. If you need a microphone, I think this is pretty ideal, especially for the price. And even without the need for a (btw. detachable) mic it's still pretty good. Somehow.
About two months ago, I stumbled across a post on a German blog about Corsair Gaming, Inc's Virtuoso Pro. A gamer headset from a gamer company for gamers. Please excuse my snark, but that raises just about every red flag I can think of.
But somehow, it did pretty good in Igors measurements. Rtings also measured it and it still did well, but other than those two, there's just not a lot of good information on the thing.
About three weeks later it got a bit cheaper (130,-€, instead of the usual ~160,-€. It was 110,-€ last year too). Not exactly cheap, but fine for the assumed performance, and the included microphone solved a problem with my current setup.
By now, I've been running it for a month… and it's good. Not only is it good out of the box, it takes well to EQing. Which, for me, is the absolute kicker and opened the doors to combining it with pretty a cheap Fiio JA11 / JCally JM12 with flashed firmware as they come with built-in PEQ via Web-USB interface (the app is a burning pile of trash btw.) and microphone pass-through, just a lack in power. But the Virtuoso Pros are pretty sensitive anyway making it a pretty perfect match.
I'm currently running them with this EQ:
Preamp: -5.7 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 28 Hz Gain 2.8 dB Q 0.800
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 150 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 0.800
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1500 Hz Gain 2.9 dB Q 2.300
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 2700 Hz Gain -2.5 dB Q 2.800
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3900 Hz Gain 6.0 dB Q 1.800
Here's my reasoning for this, if you are interested.
Tap for spoiler
First of: My preference is a good amout of rumble falling towards some warmth and then basically just Harman 2013.
If you check squig, you'll notice a big boost towards the bass. This is a decent call by Corsair, as open-back headphones tend to underdeliver in sub bass and a boost here can hide this effect to some degree. I just dislike the bump and would much rather push the sub bass via EQ.
Then there's a dip, a sharp rise, followed by another dip, I wanted to smooth out. This is mostly for clacky, metallicy, poppy sounds and some over-tones. I guess it "adds presence" to some instruments.
After 6-8k the measurements get wonky anyway and depend on the exact geometry of ones ear and head. As such I never really touch these anyway and the Virtuoso Pros do good here anyway.
But that's my ears. You better tune to your set. ;D
Imo, there are just two problems, both having to do with microphonics:
Corsair somehow thought a nylon sleeved cable was a good idea. Visually, I agree. Microphonically, it's terrible. I don't have a huge problem with it, but both the mic and the ear cups easily pick up any noise that comes with any movement of the cable on pretty much any surface. This is stupid. Secondly, unless you're a horse, the microphone has to be bent into an L shape. The arm is just too long and the microphone is prone to plosives. Not a good combination - even if the L-bend makes it easy to fix.
Other than that; I'd say they are pretty good headphones… with a microphone! Which is rather perfect for my use-case, where I switch from PC-gaming plus voice chat to my phone plus music and mix and match tasks as they come.
Edit: words & phrasing
Edit: updated EQ settings
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