Not everyone who plays games is into e-sports, but there is a large following for e-sports in general, especially a few of the most popular games. Payouts are in the millions of dollars and players are starting to become household names. None of today's players though have found the universal success that Fata1ty has. Fatal1ty paved the way for today's players, won twelve world championship titles, was profiled on MTV’s True Life TV show, and he created his own brand of products. Thorin did a great video covering it all earlier this year. Johnathan Wendel managed to transition huge success across multiple games into a brand. Over the years we have seen a wide variety of products including motherboards, ram, PSUs, and headsets. I actually think a lot of today's gamer crowd may even know him more as that brand than anything else. The reason for the history lesson today is because this past CES Fatal1ty and Monster announced a partnership to bring out new headsets and for a while now I’ve actually had the new Fatal1ty FxM 200 here in the office to test out. So today I’m going to take a closer look at it and see how it performed.

Product Name: Monster Fatal1ty FxM 200 Headset

Review Sample Provided by: Monster

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

Amazon Link: HERE

 

Specifications
Headphone Style Over-Ear
Weight 8 Ounces
Microphone Detachable
Connector Type Single 1/8 in. (3.5mm)
ControlTalk Yes
Circumaural Or Supra-Aural Supra-aural
Magnet Type Neodymium
Noise Cancelation Type Passive
Sound Isolating Yes
In-Line Volume Control Yes – With microphone mute
Warranty 1 Year

 


Packaging

The packaging for the FxM 200 has the Fatal1ty theming covering the front of the box. There is, of course, the Fatal1ty logo but in addition, the side of the headset is featured in a large photo across the front. But it’s the red and black background that is a signature on all of the Fatal1ty products. Down along the bottom they also highlight that the headset works on the PS4, Xbox One, and Mobile but PC is missing. With Fatal1ty being a PC gamer that is especially interesting to me. Beyond that, the Monster branding is slipped in and they also highlight that the headset is ultra lightweight at 8 ounces.

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The back of the box has the PS4, Xbox One, and Mobile logos again but this time, they also mention PC but there is a note that you need an adapter. There is a smaller photo of the headset but the angle better shows the entire headset compared to the front photo. To the left of the photo each of the headset’s features are mentioned with lines going to their locations. Then down at the bottom, all of the features are repeated in a few other languages.

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Inside the headset comes in a formed plastic tray and it also has plastic tape over the headband. The cord wraps around to the back side of the tray and is wrapped up inside of a bag. They include a quick start guide, a yellow paper explaining how to register the headset, and a warranty and manual book.

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Photos and Features

Like with the packaging, Fatality headphones in the past have all had a similar theme. They are typically black with red trim. So the first time I saw the new FxM 200’s it is a drastic change. They went with a more elegant looking gray and dark gray on the earcups. In fact, they look like they are made out of metal. So when I picked them up I was really surprised at how light weight they are, I was expecting the exact opposite. At 8 ounces the FxM 200’s are much lighter than the other large headsets that we have taken a look at. My initial impression from the light weight wasn’t very good, I went in expecting this all metal high-quality headset and picked up a flexible headset and it made them feel cheap to me. Once I got over that and I saw that one of the main selling points was the light weight I did start to understand, though. Like with gaming mice, less weight is typically good and it should hopefully translate to better comfort later on.

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So the earcups have a black ring around them and then have a brushed aluminum finish. In the middle is the Fatal1ty logo but they keep it all simple and clean, no flashy lights or bright colors. Sadly none of the specification listings or information on the headset gave me any information on what is most important about the headset, the drivers inside. So I don’t have a driver size, but I do know they use Neodymium magnets.

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I mentioned the headset looking elegant and beyond the subtle colors on the headband and earcups a lot of that is because of the maroon color they went with on the pads. No one else is going with a color like this and I love it, it looks great. The pads are extra thick, from the side profile you can see they the pads are about as thick as the earcups themselves. The padding is a fake leather and because of that, it will seal to your ears well, cutting out outside noise.  Inside the cups, the mesh is also maroon to match as well.

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For the headband, Monster and Fatal1ty went with a traditional band design. This means the padding is built into the underside of the band and the band slides to expand. The Monster logo is small down at the base of the band but then up on top of the band they put a huge “Pure Monster Sound”. The padding at its thickest point is about as thick as the earcup padding but overall I normally look for a little more padding, with the headset being so light weight they most likely didn’t need much, though. The padding does have that same maroon finish that I liked on the earcups as well.

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Being a headset not a pair of earphones the FxM 200’s do need a microphone right? Well, they include a boom microphone that plugs into the bottom of the headset. It has a flexible boom and a foam cover over the microphone at the end to cut back on any wind or breathing.

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Normally there isn’t much to talk about when we get to the cord of a headset but this time around we have a few things going on. For starters, the FxM 200 doesn’t have the standard sleeved or round cable. They went with a rectangle shaped cable with a smooth rubber finish. I’ve seen this same cord before on SteelSeries’ high-end headset and earbuds and it is marketed as a tangle free cord. I was really excited to see this because I’ve had a great experience with this cord type and they really are tangle free. In line, the cord also has a volume control. It has a clip on the back, then the volume on one side and a microphone mute on the other side. On the front, they also slipped in a ControlTalk button. ControlTalk is for hands-free calls on your mobile phone and also for controlling your music playback. Last but not least we have the end connection. The FxM 200 uses a single 3.5mm plug. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, in fact, it opens up support for gaming consoles, mobile phones, and some thin laptops as well. Normally though headsets like this would come with a cheap adapter for hooking the headset up to a PC and they didn’t include one. This is especially baffling when Fatal1ty himself is a well known PC gamer.

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Audio Quality and Comfort

So for my testing, I split my focus between audio performance, comfort, and overall usability. I tested the headset on my phone but then for the rest of my usage I tested on my PC with my own Y cable adapter. I did this because the DAC on my PC is going to best push the FxM 200 and frankly that’s where I spend most of my time.

Starting with overall comfort, I was surprised at just how much the lower weight affected the overall comfort. Specifically, I normally run into issues where the top band starts to get uncomfortable on headsets when gaming but that wasn’t as big of an issue with the FxM 200’s. There isn’t a ton of padding up top, but there is less pressure from the headset so it stayed comfortable through most of a gaming session and a quick bathroom break refreshed everything and I could keep going. The same goes for the earcups, I would have preferred they be a little larger and go around my ears. They almost get around my ears but sit on the bottom. For a partial on-ear design, they were comfortable. The padding on the earcups was stout so that isn’t a huge surprise.

Moving into the audio performance I wasn’t sure what to expect. Past Fatal1ty headsets haven’t really been known for amazing sound quality but the FxM 200’s did sound good right out of the hole. There was more bass than I expected from the mid-sized earcups and the sound quality was good overall. I would have preferred a touch more in the highs, though. Cranking the sound up I didn’t run into any distortion or issues. Overall they sound good, similar to other good sounding headsets like the Cloud and the Siberia 200’s but I wouldn’t put them up against higher quality headphones.

While doing the rest of my testing there were a few other things I did notice about the FxM 200’s. For starters I found the volume control to be a little small to use, making it hard to spin. I mentioned it before, but I love that they went with a tangle free cord and in all of my testing I wasn’t able to get it to tangle up. Every headset should have this same cord. Speaking of the cord the cord was far too short for anything beyond mobile and console gaming. I also really don’t understand why they wouldn’t include a splitter for PC use, I used my own for testing but it seems like a big omission for a headset with a PC gamers name on it.

 


Overall and Final Verdict

At the end of the day the new Fatal1ty FxM 200’s are very interesting. My initial impression was that they felt really cheap due to the light weight design, but after spending more time with that I do think that focusing on being extremely lightweight is a great way to go for a headset, especially when you pan on having it on for extended periods of time. This made for a comfortable headset something that I ccan rarely say about a mid sized earcup design, I normally need huge earcups that don’t touch my ears at all. The silver and maroon design has a nice elegant style that I think better fits the now much older Fatal1ty fan base, going with the normal red and black flashy look doesn’t really fit older gamers as much as it used to. The tangle free cord is also a great way to go and they perform really well.

But for every good thing about the headset, I did have a downside to go with it. The lighter weight design does give off the impression that it’s a cheap headset. I had multiple people say this as their first comment when trying them out. While the audio performance wasn;t bad, I did feel the highs were a little flat. Most importantly though were the issues I had with the cord. For starters the cord was extremely short. This isn’t a bad thing for use with a game console, you don’t want to get tangled up. But there are other situations like PC gaming that a little more length is required to be able to use the headset, even if your plug is right on your desk like mine. That leads me to the other issue. Fatali1ty was well known for all of the PC games that he dominated at, but his own headset doesn’t come with an adapter to be able to even use the headset on a PC. I completely get why they would use a single 3.5mm connection, that is what mobile devices and consoles use, but at least include a cheap adapter for everyone else.

So in the end I think Monster and Fatal1ty came up with a really good headset design. I think the focus on an ultra-lightweight headset might take a little bit of consumer education to help show people the benefits and to remind people that lightweight and a little flimsy doesn’t always mean cheap. But if you were eyeing the new Fatli1ty headset as a new headset for your gaming rig you better remember to pick up a cord extender and a 3.5mm splitter. That said this is a great headset for the console gaming crowd. 

fv5recommended

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #38200 23 Sep 2016 17:42
Fatal1ty has started working with Monster and now has completely new headset options, check it out!

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