A Gaming Headset for Grown-Ups — Fractal Scape Review
With the arrival of the Audeze Maxwell, the bar for sound quality in gaming headsets was decisively raised, and now years later we've received the Fractal Scape, which aims to deliver on the future that Maxwell seemed to indicate was coming, but at an even lower price. Join Resolve as he finds out how the Scape stacks up to its competition.
The Fractal Design Scape is a $200 gaming headset that aims to provide a more mature and classy design compared to many of its competitors. It has a wireless dongle for low-latency gaming, and also supports Bluetooth connectivity. The headset offers customizable sound profiles through a parametric EQ, and its sound quality is generally well-tuned, though the treble can be a bit exaggerated. While the build quality is good, the clamping force and pad material could be improved for longer listening sessions. Overall, the Scape is considered an impressive first headset from Fractal, setting a high bar for gaming headsets in its price range.
00:00 - Intro
01:13 - Build, Comfort, and Design
05:23 - Features
11:10 - Sound and Measurements
16:04 - Comparisons
18:00 - Conclusion
Full Video Transcript Below:
Okay, so two years ago, I said that the Audeze Maxwell would change the landscape of gaming headsets, change the market, that it delivered on so many different things, including sound quality. And in that time, many of you were quick to point out that not much had changed, and we weren't seeing this trickle down to more affordable products. Well, it turns out that it just took a bit of time, because now we are getting some genuinely great gaming headsets that absolutely do compete. This right here is the Fractal Design Scape. And as we all know, scapes are delicious. No, it's a gaming headset that comes in at $200, so it's less expensive than the Maxwell. And it's kind of like if the Maxwell went on a diet. Now, it's not perfect. I still have some issues with it, which I will get into. But it does many things exceptionally well. So, join me as I explain to you what is going on with the Scape and why this matters. Okay, just a quick disclaimer here. This unit was sent to me by Fractal for review, and I should also shout out BadSeed Tech for putting this on my radar. He's got a video out on these on his channel, so be sure to check that out as well. And as always, nobody's paid me to say anything in particular about these, and all thoughts and opinions here are my own. So, for those who are unaware, Fractal is a very well-known PC case manufacturer. You might be thinking, what the hell are they doing making headphones? Well, they are. They make products that aim for a more mature and classy design compared to many of their competitors. And it's obvious when you just look at kind of the PC case landscape. And so it's cool to see them getting into the audio world, but I love that they're taking the same design approach with the Scape. Like, all that sort of design stuff that you think Fractal is known for in the case world, they kind of applied that to the gaming headset. Like, this is effectively a gaming enthusiast peripheral for grown-ups, and everything about this design speaks to me. And I'm pretty sure that back when I was a more competitive player, This is exactly the kind of product that I would have gravitated towards. And that's largely because everything else was about flashy and gaudy designs with all kinds of RGB nonsense and mediocre performance. And back then, there was this idea of like, okay, you could level up your audio experience by getting some real proper headphones because all the gaming stuff was usually trash. But that's no longer the case. And yes, I'm sure that you're all shocked to learn that I absolutely despise RGB. But with that said, the Scape actually does have RGB lights going on in the headphone, but it's not about that, and I think that's what I like about it. It's much more of a subtle integration on the underside of the cup in between the baffle and the pads. And of course, you can turn it off if you want to, which I immediately did, but there are also some indicators there, like when you turn it on, it'll indicate that it is on. Now, for the rest of the design, everything looks clean and elegant. If you don't like the white colorway that they have here, there's also a black one available, but I think the white one here looks pretty cool. It's understated enough when you need to feel like an adult in a work meeting or something like that, but also fun when you want it to be. And in my view, at least, most gaming headsets don't even try to achieve this balance. Like, they're all in an arms race to look as ridiculous as they can. And even something like the Maxwell, which I think does a better job there than most, it's still a super bulky looking and feeling headphone. Now, for the adjustments that you get here, there is some range of motion for the yokes, but it's not an independent range of motion for like the tilt mechanism. It's just one pivot point. But the way that they've integrated this, they've done it in such a way where it does pivot to accommodate a wider range of different head sizes and shapes. So the pivot isn't just straight up and down. It's kind of at an angle. And that's kind of clever if you're going to have just one pivot point. The cup structure is more flat for the back of it, compared to most headphones, like they usually have the driver further into the cup and have some sort of cup system there. But with this one, there's more of like a bayonet system going on for the pad mounting, and the driver actually sticks out away from this back structure, almost like this isn't even a cup at all. So this makes sense for a wireless active headphone, but it's a super unconventional design compared to other closed-back headphones. You don't normally see this kind of thing. Now for the pads themselves. This is one thing that I'm not the biggest fan of. While they are a good shape with enough space inside for big ears like mine, the pad material, like the fabric that they're using here, has kind of like a rough texture to it. Now I don't notice it much when the headphone is in position. But if I'm moving it around for whatever reason, like making it a little bit more comfortable, or for whatever reason I'm wearing it where one of the cups is off, it can get a bit scratchy. And for comfort overall, there is also a bit of clamp force worth noting here. And in my opinion, the headband piece up top could use a little bit more padding or some wider surface area for the padding. It's not a heavy headphone, and that's one of its key advantages over something like the Maxwell, which is around 500 grams, and this one is much closer to 300 grams, but the clamp force is something where if you have a larger head, it might not actually be suitable. For me, I can get through a day with it, but it is something that I noticed, so I would like to see something with a little bit less clamping force going on in the future. Now, one of the things with the build is that while the Scape feels like it's a fairly sturdy and durable headphone, one question I always have with plastic-style headbands like this is how long that's going to last, especially when they are constantly you know being put on and taken off, and this motion is going on with it; you always wonder, like, is this going to hold up over time? But, of course, time will tell. And when it comes to build quality, this is where the Maxwell also feels considerably better. Now, for the rest of the headphone, for all of its functions and features, and everything like that like I mentioned earlier the Scape kind of feels like if you took an Audeze Maxwell, looked at all the good things about it, and did most of them well, most of them, and then made it lighter and less bulky. That seems like what's going on with this game, if I had to sort of sum it up. And really, what that means is that it has a lot going on. So first, this is of course a wireless headset. But it's not just Bluetooth. This has a dongle, much like the Maxwell, which is definitely the way to go for a gaming product. Now at the moment, I don't have any latency measurements for you, that's something that I am working on in the future. But anecdotally, this isn't something to worry about when using the dongle. And it's also quite a bit better, you know, for anybody used to wireless headphones using Bluetooth. Now, it also comes with a really nice looking docking station that charges the headphone when you place it onto the pads here. And this also doubles as the dongle, which you can see it underneath here. And this is yet another nod to Fractal really thinking through the usability of the product. So when you're at your desk, you'll be using it with the dongle. And I just have to say. The range on this is impressive, which makes this incredibly useful, even if just as a headphone to wear around the house. Like, I can be in my bathroom several rooms over, and this thing has no problem staying connected. And yes, exactly what you're thinking. But then, additionally, when you pop this switch over to Bluetooth, You can also pair it with your phone and use it just as a regular headphone connected with your phone, you know, walking around outside, whatever. This is where I have another nitpick. I would have loved to see more volume headroom in the Bluetooth mode. It's loud enough for me most of the time. It's just not loud enough for all recordings. And because it's not an ANC headphone, this is where the signal-to-noise ratio is going to be worse, meaning that you would want to turn it up more when outside. So there's other competing sounds going on around you. So you would want to make it louder to be able to hear your music more clearly relative to that. So I see it as a nice-to-have feature but not its main functionality. Now you do also get a detachable microphone, but the headset also has a built-in mic which is a nice touch. So let me now move over to the microphones and show you guys what that sounds like. Okay, so this is what my voice sounds like using the Fractal Scape's microphone with microphone noise cancellation turned off. In my opinion, this is not a very good sounding microphone, but it's also important to recognize that most gaming headset microphones are pretty bad, with the exception being something like the Sennheiser PC38X. My recommendation is that if you care about the sound quality of your voice beyond just intelligibility, get yourself a standalone microphone because most gaming headset microphones will be pretty bad. Now, one of the key advantages of something like this is it will be more useful in a noisier environment. So if somebody's yelling at you from the other room, that's not going to come through on the microphone. And I can see a bunch of situations where that would be useful. Yeah. All right. So now this is me speaking with microphone noise cancellation turned on, which means that you shouldn't be able to hear me tapping on this keyboard too much. I'm just tapping on the mechanical keyboard here. This is a fairly unrealistic scenario where it's like right next to the microphone. It's probably a little bit more closer to like something like this where it's on the desk. But ideally, you shouldn't be hearing too much of this clickety clack going on. Now, lastly, to do with a microphone is something that I don't love. They have side tone here in their web software. But I want to stress that this is a feature that barely works. The one thing I'll say here, though, is that because this headphone doesn't isolate as much as other close back headphones do, this is less of an important feature to have generally. So I can hear more things going on around outside me or I can hear the sound of my own voice naturally, even with side tone turned off, better than I can when I'm using other close back headphones that isolate more. It's not like an open back or anything. It still has some attenuation, but it's just not as good as other close backs. And for that reason, this side tone feature is probably less relevant anyways. Now, the Scape is technically a close back headphone, but I don't find it to have the best external sound attenuation. This could be due to the way the cup is more like a housing behind the pads and the driver just sort of sits there flush with the baffle rather than actually in a cup. So it doesn't really have the traditional circumaural design that most headphones do. But yeah, the consequence there is that I can definitely hear things going on around me a lot more than even something like the Maxwell. But where Fractal has done a very good thing here is the implementation of three custom modes on the headset. That you can switch between that are based on sound profiles that you create within their web software, and to my surprise it's parametric EQ; yes, thank you Fractal, you can actually change the sound how you want to change it, and this can be stored on the headphones where you can swap between different modes. Now, before you get too excited, there is a limit to the amount of filters that you can use with this. At least as of right now, I can only adjust 5 frequency bands. But goddammit, I will take 5 parametric EQ filters over 10 fixed bands any day. And if anybody understands how EQ works, this is a big deal. This is so much better than fixed bands. But here's the thing. This is where things get even better. The headset itself is already well-tuned. So, you might not even need to do anything at all, depending on your preferences. Somebody over at Fractal has been paying attention, because when you look at the finer points, the little things, it's so clear to a headphone nerd like me that the things they've done here are exactly what us sound quality enthusiasts want. So, let's not talk about that. Let's talk about how the Fractal Scape sounds. But just before getting into the sound quality, here's my fellow reviewer listener to tell you all about this channel's sponsor, Headphones.com. Have you ever tried buying a headphone from an online mega retailer and you either receive a headphone that you didn't know was a return or open box, receive a headphone that's missing parts or accessories, or receive an entirely different headphone than the one you ordered? Headphones.com always makes sure to label when something is open box, and they inspect their returns to make sure that all the correct contents are present. So if you want to buy with confidence, buying from headphones. com may just save you the heartache of expecting one thing but receiving another. Thanks to headphones.com for sponsoring this video. Okay, so the Fractal Scape has a mostly balanced sound signature. It's not exactly neutral. It's definitely a more V-shaped kind of sound with an emphasis on the bass and an emphasis on the treble. So let's take a look at the graphs here. And for those who are unaware of what this is, this is how the headphone performs on the B&K 5128, which is currently the most advanced headphone measurement system. So this is 10 seatings per channel showing the range of positional variation, and we're showing it relative to the preference bounds lifted from the Harman research. So when we take a look at how the Scape's default sound signature performs, you can see that, as mentioned, it's got extra bass and treble. And for me personally, I find the Scape's treble to be just a little bit overboard. And you can kind of see this in the graph as well, and it might be for you as well. But for most of the fine-grained features going on with this headphone or headset, it's really solid. And importantly, its mid-range is great. It comes through with a ton of clarity, great for vocals, acoustic instruments, you know, the typical stuff us picky audio nerds are into. So despite a bit of the flare on either end of the spectrum here, you don't have to deal with the usual weird colorations throughout the mids that many closed-backs or wireless headphones typically have. I think people often make the mistake of thinking that wireless products necessarily sound inferior, and that's not at all the case. And in many instances, the fact that something is wireless gives it all the potential in the world to sound great. It's just a matter of being able to recognize what good is, and for the most part, it seems that Fractal has actually achieved this. They've achieved this where others have failed. I think if I had one criticism, it's that it's not the most natural sounding headphone. Like, it clearly has that exaggeration in the treble, and this can have a negative effect on kind of that sort of sense of smoothness and natural timbre for instrument tones. um and vocals as well like there's occasionally a little bit of the sibilance that creeps in but this is also where i had such an easy time adjusting this to my taste in their web app i wouldn't say this is a requirement it's just how i like it to sound if you have this headphone give these filters a shot and let me know down in the comments below how you like this adjustment now i also noticed something while i was making this video i happened to do several additional sets of measurements of this headphone after filming and i noticed that there was a change to the sound This could be because I had removed the pads during filming because there's a seal that gets created by a gasket system on the inside, But it's also possible that this is just the result of pad wear over the course of the time I've been using it. At the moment, I don't have an answer to this, but it's worth keeping in mind, and you may have to adjust your EQ settings over time. But of course, the big question is, how does a default sound signature like this translate to audio performance in gaming? Well, this is actually a noob question. Yes, that's right, you, you who care about soundstage, are asking the noob questions. No, I'm joking. The answer is that it really depends on the game's sound engine, and importantly, the spectral content of the sound cues that matter to you. And I recognize, of course, that that is extremely unsatisfying, but to help with that, I tested this in a number of games, particularly Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch, and Call of Duty. And I found that for the most part, the scape is quite good. I had no trouble, you know, pinpointing directional cues or anything like that. It's not going to give you skill. I think if anything in competitive situations in Call of Duty, you may want to tone down the upper base a little bit in the web app. But I didn't have this issue at all with Counter-Strike 2. And for the most part, it had decent in situ channel balance, which is largely determined by the positional consistency on the head. One thing to note here is that I had to be a little bit intentional about this. So you want to make sure that the cups are sitting at the same angle on your head. And that's because in theory, you could wear this headphone where the angle isn't perfectly symmetrical. And this is going to impact the frequency response at the eardrum. And you don't want to be artificially creating a channel imbalance when you are wearing the headphone. just because you're not wearing it where it's symmetrical. And this actually gets to my criteria for gaming headphones, or headphones for gaming. You want to find something that has a decent frequency response balance between bass, mids, and treble, and for the sound cues that you're going to care about, so having the customizability there is key. You also want to have good in-situ channel balance, so when you are actually wearing the headphone, and most important of all is comfort. And for the most part, the Scape does a good job at all of these. With the added bonus of being able to swap to different sound profiles just with a button. And I have found this to be extremely useful. Like say you're playing Warzone or something and you have a very specific custom sound profile that you've created for that application, for that game. And then you move over to playing like a MOBA or an RTS where you just want to be listening to music in the background. Maybe it helps you relax or something like that. And you have a different sound profile that you want to use just for music. Maybe you want to use mine. Being able to swap to that with a physical button on the headphone, I found to be extremely useful. And it was something that I found myself regularly using because I found myself regularly in situations where I'd forgotten to change the sound profile on the web app, but I'd already gotten into a match in the RTS game that I was playing. And so it was really easy to just push the button and suddenly my music sounded great. Now, for comparisons, in my mind, again, it really does feel like Fractal is taking a shot at the Maxwell here. To summarize the differences, the Scape is the more comfortable headphone for longer sessions, unless you have a big head like me where the Maxwell is going to be more comfortable because it doesn't have the same clamp force. The Maxwell is about 200 grams heavier or close to 200 grams heavier than the Scape, and that is a meaningful difference. So the way I look at it is if your gaming sessions are like a couple of hours, the Maxwell might be more comfortable, especially with a larger head. But if you're getting into the longer sessions with the energy drinks, the Scape is going to do better there because your neck's not going to get as tired. For sound quality, the Maxwell is still just a little bit better, but it's not by much, maybe with a little bit more focus on the treble, particularly the mid-treble with the Scape. And the Scape's EQ functionality is more useful, in my opinion, because it is parametric, though Audeze does have their customization as well. I don't love the microphone quality on either of them. Like, yeah, they're both fine for gaming, but both sound pretty bad. If you really care about noise rejection, they'll both work great for that. But if you care about the sound quality of your microphone, get something standalone. I wouldn't even bother with either of these. Now the Maxwell wins on battery life, but the Scape has this really cool docking station that charges it. So the actual usability involves charging it and that kind of solves that problem. The thing to keep in mind there though is that there are always going to be questions about battery longevity with these types of devices. And lastly, the Maxwell wins on sound isolation. So just to wrap all this up, when I did my Maxwell review a while ago, I felt that headphone was going to be a game changer and I genuinely do think that it was. So much so that a lot of gaming audio companies had to take a look at what they did to try and compete. And this may just be a coincidence, but part of me feels that the fractal scape here is in large part the result of that. Like I'm not saying they're copying Audeze with this one or anything like that, just that the Maxwell made the gaming headset market way more competitive. And now we're seeing the benefits of that competition with products like the Fractal Scape. At the $200 asking price, the Scape is easily the best gaming headset that I've tested. And I will hopefully be able to take a look at that new HyperX one that Joe has been telling me all about. Go check out Gadgetutech for reviews of that one. But at the moment, the Scape has set a high bar, both in terms of sound quality and feature execution. It's not perfect. It's not without its issues. You know, I'd love it to have a little bit less clamp force for my giant ass head. Maybe some alternative pad materials to make it a little bit less scratchy. But I am genuinely impressed with the performance here. And the fact that this is their first headset is kind of remarkable. And I'm very interested to see what they do next with this. So it should go without saying, this gets a very strong recommendation from me. It's extremely well done. Other audio companies, gaming or otherwise, if you're watching, pay attention to this one. Make things like this. Anyways, that does it for this video. If you guys are interested in learning about and seeing more of the headphone measurements that we do, that'll be linked in the description at forum.headphones.com. And you can chat with me or other like-minded audio people, and you can fight with us in our Discord, also linked below. And until next time, see you guys later. Bye for now.