Photos and Features
Gamdias used the name Hephaestus v2 for their new headset. This was an odd choice, both because it is actually hard to say and also because Hephaestus is actually the Greek god of blacksmiths and craftsmen. I think Hephaestus would be a better name for a headset with a metal finish. That said the Hephaestus does have a few things going on. For starters, it’s a huge headset. It has large round earcups and a large headband to go with it. This isn’t a bad thing, a lot of people, myself included have big heads and prefer a headset that doesn’t push on our ears. The Hephaestus v2 reminds me a lot of the HyperX Cloud headsets that are very popular only with round earcups, not ovals.
The headband on the Hephaestus v2’s is a traditional style. The top of the band has a fake leather covering it with the Gamdias logo embossed into it on top. The bottom of the band has a black mesh and about a half inch of padding.
The headband has about an inch of adjustment in it on both sides. It attaches to the earcups with a double hinge that lets you flip the earcups sideways like in the top photo on this page or you can fold the earcups in to take up a little less space when packing them up. It depends on if you need the headset to be flat or take up less space overall. This flexibility helps with people who like to turn one ear to hear around them or to cool off their ear. The headband also has a large L and R on the sides to help you get the headset installed correctly, this is especially important with 7.1.
Like I said before, the earcups are large and have a round shape. On the side they have a small vent, but beyond that they are mostly sealed. The Gamdias logo is on each earcup and there is also a half-circle cut in the side of each cup that lights up red.
The Hephaestus v2 uses 50mm drivers in each ear. This means that this is a virtual 7.1 headset. The speakers have a sensitivity of 119 and a 32 Ohm impedance. Sadly, they didn’t list a frequency range, I was curious how they compared to the other headsets I have tested recently. Not having that listed doesn’t give me a lot of confidence, though. The speakers have fake leather padding keeping the speakers up off your ears.
With the Hephaestus v2’s being a headset, they do of course come with an attached microphone. It isn’t removable but it does have a nearly 360 spin range on the pivot on the side. The boom itself is flexible as well. At the end of the boom is a plastic enclosure with the microphone in it.
The Hephaestus v2 has a 1.9-meter length cord. The cord itself is thick and has a black sleeving on it as well for extra protection. This is a USB headset so at the end was a standard USB connection.
In line on the cord is also a small controller. On one side you have a volume control and the other side has two buttons. One turns the red lighting on and off and the other mutes the microphone. On top, there is a Gamdias logo. The logo is a hidden button as well that will turn the earcup vibration on and off. Overall I like that they include an inline control but I found that the vibration button doesn’t really show what it is or for that matter you can’t tell if it’s on or off. The same goes for the microphone mute as well. Both of those buttons should be right on the front and have a status indicator. Or they could go cheaper and just use a switch, this way you can see when they are on and off.
