Radiant Dark

This is the part where Ryan gets really really cross with me.

I originally bought one of the WoW wireless headsets by Creative via Amazon back in late February. After an order snafu I received it in early March, and was pretty happy with it right up until last month. That was when the extendible plastic "arm" that connects the headband to the right earcup snapped in half when I was doing nothing more than removing the headset from my head after a raid. Unfortunately, by that time, I was long outside Amazon's return period, and Creative's support people refused to issue a warranty return, insisting that the problem was due to mishandling by me. So I sucked it up and paid for a replacement.

Tonight, after the raid, it happened again. Same problem. Same exact problem, in the same damn place. As I was removing the headset from my head, the headset adjustment arm simply snapped in half. The right earcup is now dangling from the headband by a wire.

This time I know it wasn't the result of mishandling. Ever since the first incident, and shelling out another $160, I'd been neurotically careful whenever I was putting on or taking off the headset: I would put no more flex on the headset adjustment arms than was absolutely necessary to slip the headset on over my ears. And this one lasted even less time than the first one.

The headset is aesthetically beautiful. It has fantastic sound quality. It's light on the head and the earcups are wonderfully cushiony, and so it's comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The glowy lenses are pointless but eyecatching and cool. And the voice tap is a really nice addon.

However, my experience has been that in terms of the headset's actual physical construction, it's junk. There is absolutely no excuse for using materials that fragile in a piece of computer equipment at that price point, and it's impossible for me to justify paying out of pocket to replace mine a second time. I have plenty of complaints about the competing Logitech G35 -- it's not wireless, the sound quality isn't that great, and it's not exactly Comfort Central -- but at least the headset adjustment arms were made of flexibile aluminum, such that they wouldn't simply break during normal, everyday use and necessitate me having to replace the thing twice in a five-month period.

Sorry, Ryan -- I wanted to love this thing, and it broke my heart.

I've had mine since before they went on sale and haven't had an issue. I've even layed in bed watching something on my computer and fell asleep with it on and the ear cups twisting. But, I've heard others that have had the same issue as you.

It might be that I don't have a big head (literally) and that I don't have to extend the arms in order for the headset to fit, thus no extended pressure on them. It's the only thing I could think of.

Chonna and I have our gripes about the headset, neither of which are audio quality or comfort - they're related to the odd bugs that come up with not being able to get the mic configured and maintaining connectivity. I will say that I was initially concerned with the build quality because of the all plastic construction. Mine have been off and on my head a fair amount, tossed in a backpack and taken on flights and they appear to be holding up pretty well, but I can understand how something like this happened.

Arindra,

It is worth noting that I had that EXACT same problem. EXACTLY. Took them off my head one day and SNAP. And I handle my gear damn well.

Ryan had mentioned to me while I was sitting down with him at lunch one day that apparently the manufacturing facility that produced them had some issues with the fabbing of that part. There were some impurities or something that caused the plastic to be brittle in that spot. Supposedly the newer runs don't have that issue, but that doesn't help you.

I will send this link to Ryan and see if he can at least get you in touch with the right person or see if he can work his Silver Tongued magic to have one of the guys there help you with a replacement.

I considered getting one till I saw that quite a few folks on amazon complained of the same issue. I decided I'll just stay micless for a while longer