In the past, I’ve been very impressed with several products from Patriot’s Viper line-up. They’ve produced everything from peripherals to memory that have performed very well including their Viper Steel memory we checked out on Modders-Inc. So, when they asked us to take a look at their Viper V380 Gaming headset, I jumped at the opportunity. The Patriot Viper V380 is an ergonomically designed, virtual 7.1 surround sound gaming headset with a detachable boom mic and of course, RGB lighting. But of course, with any gaming headset or audio device, RGB may look cool, however, it’s all about the sound quality. Over the years, I’ve tested dozens of gaming headsets, headphones, earbuds, and soundbars. Far too many times I’ve been disappointed by gaming headsets especially that look great, but sound terrible. However, I have yet to run into a Patriot product that was a disappointment. So, will the Patriot Viper V380 live up to the quality I’ve come to expect from Patriot? Let’s find out.
• Ergonomic closed-ear design for passive noise
cancellation
• 7.1 Virtual surround-sound
• Hi-Fi 53mm Neodymium Drivers
• USB Interface
• Durable braided 2.1 m cable
• Convenient on-ear sound controls
• Full-spectrum RGB illumination
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
• Impedance: 64Ω at 1kHz
• Sensitivity: 106 + 3dB at 1kHz
• Detachable Environmental Noise Cancellation
(ENC) Microphone
• Frequency Response: 100Hz-10kHz
• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): 60 dB
• Sensitivity : -42±3dB
• Pick-up pattern: Omnidirectional
• Viper Software
A Closer Look at the Patriot Viper V380 Gaming Headset
The Patriot Viper V380 is a 7.1 virtual surround sound RGB gaming headset. The Viper V380 uses 53mm, Hi-FI Neodymium Drivers, and an over the ear ear-cup design. The Viper V380 connects to your PC via a 2.1 meter, braided USB cable. The Viper V380 doesn’t use the traditional design. The ear cups on many headsets are either oval or round. However, the Viper V380 uses more of a rectangular design that is said to be more ergonomic.
Looking a bit closer at the outside of the ear cup on the Viper V380, you see the Viper logo illuminated by RGB lighting. There is also an RGB ring that goes along the outer edge of the ear cup. There is a mesh panel on the side of each ear cup that gives the Viper V380 the illusion of being an open-back headset. However, the Viper V380 is a closed-back design. Each ear cup is attached to the headband using a metal hinge. The headband is adjustable to be able to fit a variety of head sizes. The metal hinges retract into the headband to make the Viper V380 smaller. Basically, it’s adjustable. On the inside of the headband, where the hinge meets the headband, there is a wire that connects the audio for each ear cup to the headband. This wire is even braided. Its something most won’t even know. But it’s a nice touch never the less.
The Viper V380 has leather ear cups with plenty of padding. The inside of the ear cups have an oval shape to them and are covered in felt. The amount of padding on the ear cups make the Viper V380 very comfortable. The combination of the closed-back design and the leather ear cups helps to keep the sound in the headphones and even helps to keep other sounds out. The Viper V380 offers more of a passive noise canceling effect.
The headband on the Viper V380 is also leather and has the Viper logo on the top, outside edge. Like the ear cups, the headband on the Viper V380 has ample padding. The padding on the headband just adds to the comfort of the Viper V380.
The controls on the Viper V380 are on the left ear cup. There are two buttons on the bottom edge and a knob on the side. The first of the two buttons will scroll through the different presets for the RGB lighting, as well as disable the lighting. The second button is a microphone mite button. The knob to placed just below where the hinge connects to the ear cup. This knob controls the audio volume. Next to the LED button is where the USB cable connects to the headset. Unfortunately, this cable is not detachable. On the opposite of the USB cable from the buttons is the mic port for the detachable boom mic. There is a small rubber cover for the mic port for when the mic is removed.
Subjective Testing Procedures
Now let me start by saying that audio products may be the most subjective products that we review. Unlike processors or graphics cards, there aren’t benchmarks we can run to definitely say X performs better than Y. We all have our preferences when it comes to audio products. Some people like Bose and some do not. Some like closed-back headphones, others prefer open-back. Some even like Beats headphones. So, what sounds good to me, may not sound good to you. I’m simply informing our readers of my experiences with the Viper V380. With that being said, let’s get into it.
I love reviewing audio products. They’re my favorite products to test in fact. As the Viper V380 is a gaming headset, the first thing I did was play some games. The games I play do vary since as new games come out, there are better games for testing audio. I usually play Skyrim for audio review. Due to its vast open world, Skyrim is a pretty good game for testing 7.1 surround sound. That being said, it’s more just an excuse to play Skyrim. Even better for testing 7.1 surround sound is GTA V. Both the gunplay and conversations throughout Los Santos are great for testing surround sound. In fact, the combination of Skyrim and GTA V has become my benchmarks of sorts for testing audio in games. I’ve also added Red Dead Redemption 2 for the same reason as GTA V.
I generally watch the same movie when testing audio. That movie is Black Hawk Down. It’s great for testing both 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound. It also won the Oscar for best sound mixing in 2002. I also watched the Matrix using the Viper V380 for this review. Overall, I’ve spent upwards of about 40 hours or so using the Viper V380 gaming headset for music, movies, TV, YouTube, and gaming. When testing audio products, I have a set sampling of music and movies I use in testing. The music is a mix of everything from 90’s rap, classic rock, heavy metal, and even a little classical music. One song I always listen to the Eagles Hotel California. The reason for picking this specific track is it’s the song I listened to on Sennheiser’s $55,000 Orpheus headphones at CES several years ago. Ever since that experience, Hotel California made it into my audio testing procedure.
The software for the Viper V380 software is pretty straight forward and easy to use. There is only one page technically, with different expanding menus. There are three sections with a total of six expending menus. These sections are Speaker, Mic, and LED. There is an image of the Viper V380 on this page. To the right of the image, there are six bars that correspond to the different menus. When the bars are red, this feature is enabled. When the bar is gray, the feature is disabled. To the left of the image of the V380, there are three sliders that control the mic and speaker volumes. There is one slider for the mic and one for each channel on the headset.
The three expanding menus in the Speaker section are the Equalizer, Xear Voice Clarity, and Xear 3D. The equalizer allows you to adjust the levels of ten different frequencies between -20 and +20. The Xear voice clarity allows you to adjust the voice clarity and noise suppression. The last menu allows you to enable or disable the Xear 3D sound.
There Mic section has two menus. These menus are Xear Enc and Xear Magic Voice. ENC is Environmental Noise Canceling. Xear essentially turns stereo sound into ether 5.1 surround sound or, like in the case of the Viper V380, 7.1 surround sound.
In the lighting section of the Viper V380 software, you can enable or disable the LED lighting on your headset. You can also adjust the speed and brightness of the lighting on the Viper V380. In this section, you can set the lighting to one of five different effects. These effects are Constant, Breathe, Streamer, Neon, and Rhythm. My personal favorite is the Streamer effect. Now, the Viper V380 software is optional. You can simply plug it in and go. If you want to change the lighting effects, you can just hit the LED button on the headset to scroll through the different preset effects.
With streaming and online gaming as big as it is, a good mic has become an essential part of any gamers set up. Whether its an XLR mic, USB mic, or a mic on your headset, most gamers have a mic these days. I was always a proponent of XLR mics of all others. This is mostly because I’m a petty elitist. However, even I have to admit that over the last few years, headset mics have come a long way. The detachable mic on the Viper V380 is no exception. For being a mic on a gaming headset, it sounds very good. The last time I tested a gaming headset with either a detachable mic or one built it, it sounded terrible. The audio often came out muffled, or sounding like you’re in a large empty room, and far from the mic. But the mic on the Viper V380 sounds pretty good. Even when compared to an XLR mic. The first test clip is from my Audio Technic AT2035 hooked up to the Sound Blaster K3+ audio interface. The second clip was recorded using the detachable boom mic on the Viper V380. Both clips are raw audio recorded in Adobe Audition. Not editing was done to the audio.
Audio Technica AT2035 XLR Mic Test Clip
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Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of the audio produced by the Viper V380, as well as how comfortable the headset is to wear. Even after several hours wearing the Viper V380 while editing images, I never really felt like I had to remove the headset because it felt uncomfortable. The sound was great. I never ran into any distortion, even at high volume. The sound was clean and clear in games, movies, music, and even in voice chat on Discord. I was rather impressed with the mic quality on the Viper V380. Full disclosure, I haven’t reviewed too many gaming headsets over the last couple of years. So I don’t know how far other headsets have come in terms of mic quality. All I can say is the Viper V380 has a pretty good mic.
I try to not look at the prices of products I review until after the review. This is to not develop any presuppositions before I begin testing. Then, throughout the testing, I try to guess a price range I feel this product fits into. For the Viper V380, I assumed the price would land between $70 and $90 USD. For once, I was correct. At the time of this review, you can get the Viper V380 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset on Newegg for $74.99 or Adorama for $89.99. I could not find a price on Amazon as it was not available on Amazon when writing this review. I feel that $74.99 is a good price for a great gaming headset in the Viper V380.
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Patriot Viper V380 RGB Gaming Headset Review In the past, I've been very impressed with several products from Patriot's Viper line-up. They've produced everything from peripherals to memory that have performed very well including their Viper Steel memory we checked out on Modders-Inc.
