A unique take on a headset option, we take a look at the intriguing Hori Neckset for Xbox Series X/S.
First Impressions
When opening up the box and taking out the Hori Neckset, I was quite excited to test it out. The curved minimalistic design looked very smart and reminded me of Black Mirror, where they often come up with innovative gadgets that look just like this.
The Neckset was accompanied by two basic leads, one a 3.5mm aux cord and one USB-C cord for charging, making the whole set-up process seem easy and simple.
This was welcome to me as I knew I wouldn’t have to fiddle about with various leads to get going and the Neckset was compatible with anything that uses a 3.5mm aux cord, making it rather versatile in terms of compatibility.
I needed to let it charge for 3 hours before the Hori Neckset was ready to go, with no ability to use it whilst charging. The battery seemed to last around the 10-hour mark, which is ok but when you factor in the 3-hour charge time, it means you are constantly wary that when the Neckset runs out of battery, you will be waiting a while before you can use it again.
Design
The Hori Neckset is fully blacked-out in colour, with tough plastic donning the majority of the frame. The back of the Neckset is a relatively flexible rubber material, allowing for some adjustments, although this rubber strip was quite determined to stay straight and as it was out of the box.
As I mentioned in the previous section, the Hori Neckset has a curved and slender design, with the frame swooping to mould around the shape of your neck and shoulders.
There are two long speakers that rest on either side of your neck, giving you that surround sound experience. They aren’t bulky or in the way, with a perfect size and weight to where you don’t notice them on your shoulders, you simply just hear the sound being boomed out by them.
The Hori Neckset has not too many gizmos on its frame, with a volume button on the right side of the Neckset and the power button, an elevated mute button that has an orange LED to show that it’s muted, a small built-in microphone and a mode selector button on the left side.
I personally prefer this as you don’t get lost fiddling around with endless buttons and dials to adjust things, although I must say some people out there will possibly like to see some more options, such as a voice chat/game mix dial.
Sound Quality and Performance
The sound quality of the Neckset’s speakers wasn’t amazing when compared to a normal gaming headset. The Hori Neckset did to an extent deliver with its 3D surround sound performance, as when playing FPS games like Call of Duty: MW2, you could hear everything from where it was coming from, even if it wasn’t with pinpoint accuracy.
However, this decent surround sound was slightly let down by the not-so-impressive sound quality. The Bass Boosted mode was when I felt I got the full experience of the Neckset’s audio, with the FPS mode seeming to make the rather tinny-sounding audio even tinnier.
I feel an FPS mode should enhance the surround sound and bass as you want to hear everything that’s going on around you and those dramatic grenade explosions or sniper shots, however, it seemed to basically be a reeled-in version of the Bass mode which left me a tad confused.
Even in the superior Bass mode, the audio seemed quite unstable, with the bass and lows themselves sounding off and weak, the mids being solemn and the highs being tinny and somewhat acute.
The fact that you have two speakers at shoulder level as opposed to two speakers pointed directly at your ears definitely hindered the sound quality, with the lack of immersiveness that headphones give you from being so close to your eardrums.
Voice Chat Experience
This was an experience that I was very interested in, as with the mic not being too far from the speakers and it being built-in, I was anxious to see how it sounded when at an Xbox party.
The response I got from my friends for how I sounded wasn’t astounding, with an overall consensus that the mic sounded like an open mic on a shoddy laptop. I had to repeat myself much more than when I speak through my headset, which is a sign that they couldn’t hear me amazingly.
The mic muting system was pretty cool to me though, with a simple tap on the easy-to-find mute button and a small orange LED that alerted me that I was muted making this whole process seamless and easy.
As for the speaker’s role of delivering me what my friends were saying, I did struggle at times to hear them, with the audio mix between game and party chat often getting merged into a concoction of contrasting noises.
This was frustrating when it happened as it distracted me from the game and had me fiddling around with menus trying to get the best audio setting to simultaneously hear my friends and the game.
Conclusion
To summarize on the Hori Neckset for Xbox Series X/S, it is an innovative attempt by Hori that you can really see the vision for. The idea unfortunately doesn’t match totally up with the performance, with sub-par audio quality and a troublesome mic situation being the key letdowns.
The solid build and extensive compatibility do fight back against these cons, however, when you factor in the hefty price of around £100, there simply isn’t enough for me to rate the Hori Neckset for Xbox Series X/S any higher than an overall score of 2.5/5.
I would say stick to a good headset for that price of around £100, however, if you really fancy giving a neckset a go, the Hori Neckset is an ‘experience’ you can try, just don’t expect the greatest of things.
Product Rating:
Design: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Sound Quality/Performance: 2.5 out of 5.0 stars
Voice chat Experience: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Overall ranking: 2.5 out of 5.0 stars – 2.5 Stars
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