Originally Published: 15th March 2021 on eGG Network

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Disclaimer: We received review units, courtesy of Armaggeddon Malaysia in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and not influenced by Armaggeddon Malaysia, and/or its affiliates, in any way.

Armaggeddon has decided to enter the wireless headset with two new earbuds in their new Hornet line – the Hornet-1 and Hornet-3. Since I was happy with the WASP-7 when it came to voice communications (it’s my go-to headset whenever I need to take calls or meetings on my phone), I jumped at the opportunity to check out these earbuds. Boy, I was in for a surprise.

Clipping

I’ll say it outright – these earbuds aren’t great if you’re purchasing them to listen to music. While overall they are usable, what bothers me is how music constantly sounds like its clipping. It reminded me of listening to music on an FM radio when you can’t find the exact sweet spot of the perfect frequency – the music can be heard clearly, but there’s that very slight hint of distortion. Tweaking my equalizer settings helped to reduce it but it’s not something I expect most people to do. When your budget earbuds don’t play well with default audio settings, it’s a point of concern.

This is much less prominent on the Hornet-3, which has a heavier low-end that drowns out the clipping but it is very noticeable on the Hornet-1. The audio quality would be acceptable if the earbuds were priced cheaper, but at RM129 (Hornet-1) and RM179 (Hornet-3) – I expected them to sound better than the notable budget-friendly options out there.

This distortion isn’t present when listening to voices, podcasts and in-game chat (but the quality of your teammates’ voices are out of your control) so if music isn’t a priority to you, the Hornet earbuds are adequate.

Communication

Honestly, the microphones on these earbuds performed a lot better than I had expected, but they are nowhere close to the quality of the one on the WASP-7. Though the sound was slightly muffled, Armaggeddon did a good job with the noise suppression/cancellation. My voice sounded clear when I was speaking normally.

Perhaps Armaggeddon could include the detachable mic in future versions of their wireless earbuds?

Comfort/Aesthetics

Both earbuds didn’t come with custom tips for different ear sizes but they could fit snuggly into my ears. The Hornet-1 felt very light but I was never worried about them falling out of my ears when walking around. No complaints regarding their comfortability.

The Hornet-3 looks like a trimmed version of the WASP-7, which I thought looked pretty cool, but the LEDs were too loud for my taste. I prefer the more subtle look of the Hornet-1.

Control

Though buttonless touch controls look fancy and ‘next-gen’, they were a pain point of these earbuds. When you can’t feel if you’ve successfully pressed a button and you can’t see the lights on the earbuds without a mirror or removing them, adjusting the audio was quite a challenge. The lack of tactility and any visual cues led me to rely on my phone to control my music. The only thing I could do reliably was play/pause the audio and turn them on/off. Adjusting the volume was near impossible – the earbuds kept pausing the music instead.

Game Mode

The Hornet-1 and Hornet-3 feature a ‘game mode’ (tap the buds four times to enable/disable it) which is said to improve audio latency. As to why it isn’t the default mode, game mode reduces the functional range of the earbuds and drains the battery quicker. I played around with the modes and personally, I didn’t experience any perceivable differences in latency with it on. I’m sure results will vary for people with other devices (I tested the earbuds with my laptop, a Pocophone F1 and an iPhone 12), but it didn’t make a difference to me, so I left it off.

PC Pairing Woes

Purely anecdotal but I’ve had wildly different results trying to connect the earbuds to different devices while testing them. Connecting them to my phones was effortless, I had no issues. Turn the earbuds on, select them in my phone’s menu and I was all set – straightforward and fast.

When pairing them with my laptop or desktop it was a whole different story. I had to turn the earbuds on and off and attempt to connect them via the Windows 10 Bluetooth menu many times before I could make a successful connection. Once they were connected they functioned expectedly, even when walking in and out of range causing the connection to drop and pick up again. The problem only came during the setup stage. If you have no plans to use them with a computer, this won’t be of any concern.

Battery Life

No complaints here. Both earbuds were good enough to last at least half a day of constant usage before I had to charge them (in their nice and handy cases). The Hornet-1 is said to have 15 hours battery life (5 on the headset and the case able to provide 10 hours) and the Hornet-3, 32 hours (8 + 24). The cases also make use of USB-C which is appreciated in this day and age.

Conclusion

The Hornet-1 and Hornet-3 are a fair debut from Armaggeddon but are a bit tricky for me to recommend. Like their Starship VI gaming chair, these earbuds are considered pricier than what we’ve come to expect but these come with compromises.

If voice communications and battery life is a priority for you, these earbuds will get the job done. With voices, you won’t have to worry about the distortion that’s present when listening to songs. However, if you’re after a good musical experience, there are much more affordable alternatives out there.

With their first product out of the way, I look forward to seeing Armaggeddon improve future iterations of their wireless earbuds.

The Hornet-1 and Hornet-3 wireless earbuds are available now for RM129 and RM179 respectively, on the official Armaggeddon Shopee store. They’re having a promotion on March 16th where you’ll get a power bank as a free gift when purchasing the earbuds.

Originally Published: 6th August 2020 on eGG Network

Text Version: 

Disclaimer: We received a review unit and two to give away, courtesy of Armaggeddon Malaysia in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and not influenced by Armaggeddon Malaysia, and/or its affiliates, in any way.

First things first, let’s get any misconceptions out of the way – if you’re looking for earphones to mix and master audio or to listen to high-quality FLAC tunes, these aren’t what you’re looking for. Armaggeddon has created a product that’s targeted at a very specific audience – gamers on a budget who want something better than the default headset that comes with their phones. 

It’s not that you can’t listen to music with these WASP-7 – it’s just that when you put them on, you’ll want to hop into a lobby so you can command your teammates to push or gank without dealing with clunky chat wheel UI; not bop out to the latest Taylor Swift release. On that front, Armaggeddon has delivered.

Packaging

Here’s what you get in the box: wired earphones, a detachable microphone, extra tips, and a Y splitter. Nothing fancy, everything you expect comes packaged neatly in the box.

Comfort and Design

While I know it will vary from person to person, the in-ears fit into my ear canals perfectly out of the box. I was able to wear them for a few hours straight with no sign of discomfort. Though there’s no active cancellation, the silicon ear tips did a good job blocking out external noise while it was in use. It also comes with 2 pairs of additional tips in case the default ones are too large or small for you.

The earphones aren’t too flashy, in fact, the most eye-catching part (the golden drivers behind the transparent housing) aren’t visible when they’re plugged into your ears. From the outside, all you see is Armaggeddon’s signature logo and shiny gold inserts peeking through. Subtle, yet recognizable enough for anyone familiar with the brand – something I appreciate since I’m not a fan of over-the-top gamer aesthetics.

Performance

While the WASP-7 features a triple neodymium setup – more than its sibling, the WASP-5 which only has dual neodymium drivers – it doesn’t shine when it comes to music listening. Based on the sound tests I ran, the bass was surprisingly strong, but mids were slightly muddied and highs very muted. Though not a terrible experience, it was only satisfactory. I’ve had better experiences with other similarly priced earphones (wired and wireless) on this front.

However, when it comes to voice communications, the WASP-7 is on a league of its own. Taking cues from more expensive gaming headsets, the WASP-7 has a detachable microphone that plugs into the left earpiece and hangs right next to your mouth, allowing it to pick up your voice loud and clear. I was surprised by how effective the microphone was at picking up my voice during heated gaming sessions.

While I appreciate its sensitivity, it does pick up slightly too much ambient noise when you’re not speaking – try not to use it next to a fan, or make sure you enable noise removal on your communication apps when possible (i.e. Discord Noise Suppression).

The WASP-7 also include a traditional controller on its cable which has a nifty slider that allows you to easily adjust the volume of what you’re listening to instead of buttons that incrementally increase or decrease it. This makes controlling the audio coming through the speakers much faster and efficient. You also get a mute button to toggle the microphone and a button for pause/play operations.

Impressed with the range of sounds that the microphone was able to pick up, I decided to see how it would fare with music – since I noticed it’s something other cheap mics and built-in mics on phones struggled with. While it’s nowhere near the quality of studio-quality condenser mics, it was definitely good enough for home music demos. Again, make sure you’re in a quiet location so it doesn’t pick up too much ambient noise.

If you happen to misplace the detachable microphone or don’t have it with you, you can still use the regular microphone on the control piece. Great for those times when you want a more discreet look, but you’ll have to speak louder due to the mic’s position.

Lastly, if you’re planning to use this with a desktop PC, the WASP-7 also come with a Y splitter so you can plug the device into separate mic and headphone ports. This will also allow you to use it as a dedicated mic or earphone if you want to pair it up with another device. The removable microphone also makes this task a breeze – when you’re not gaming, just remove the microphone and you’ve got yourself a pair of regular earphones. 

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a very capable microphone + headset combo for mobile gaming, you can’t go wrong with the WASP-7. It checks all the bells and whistles when it comes to performance with voice communications and a reasonable price tag to boot. That being said, if you’re in the market for a headset to mainly listen to music, you’re better off looking elsewhere. 

The WASP-7 Pro 3D earphones are available on Armaggedon’s official Shopee store for RM89.90.

Interested in checking out these earphones for free? We’ve got two units of the WASP-7 3D Pro to be given away. Stay tuned to eGG Network’s Facebook and Instagram page for details on how to win them!