EKSA E900Pro Gaming Headset UK Review (2026) , Tested & Rated | VividRepairs

There's a measurable problem that a significant portion of mid-range headset users run into after about six months: microphone intelligibility degrades in the ears of teammates before it degrades in the ears of the person wearing the headset. You stop noticing your own mic quality. Your squad doesn't. Simultaneously, extended wear sessions above two hours start producing a specific kind of discomfort , clamping pressure on the temporal bone, heat build-up in synthetic leather earcups , that's less about pain tolerance and more about poor ergonomic engineering. These are quantifiable failure modes, and they're exactly what I was looking to assess when I picked up the EKSA E900Pro for testing.

The EKSA E900Pro sits in the mid-range bracket, which is arguably the most competitive and most dishonest segment of the gaming headset market. Manufacturers in this tier routinely make claims about "7.1 surround sound" that are, in practice, software-processed stereo with artificial HRTF applied. They promise "studio-grade" microphones that clip at conversational volume. I've been reviewing headsets for eight years, and I've learned to treat spec sheets as marketing documents until I've run the hardware through actual sessions. So I did. About a month of testing across PC, PS5, and Switch, covering competitive FPS, open-world RPGs, and a fair amount of late-night film watching.

This is my full EKSA E900Pro Gaming Headset UK Review for 2026. I'll cover the audio performance, microphone quality, comfort over extended sessions, and where this headset sits relative to the competition at this price point. No fluff, no parroting the box copy.

Connection is via a single 3.5mm TRRS jack with a splitter cable included in the box, plus a USB adapter for the virtual 7.1 surround sound feature on PC. The cable itself is braided, which I appreciate , unbraided cables on budget and mid-range headsets have a tendency to develop micro-fractures near the jack after a few months of regular use. The braiding here feels reasonably durable, though I wouldn't call it premium. The headband is adjustable with a standard slider mechanism, and the earcups rotate on a single axis for flat storage.

Build materials are predominantly plastic with a metal-reinforced headband slider. The earcups use memory foam padding covered in what EKSA describes as protein leather , a term that essentially means synthetic leather with a slightly softer texture than standard PU. The mic is a detachable boom design, which I'll cover in detail later. Overall, the physical construction feels appropriate for the price tier: not fragile, but not something you'd expect to survive being dropped repeatedly on a hard floor.

The quoted frequency response of 20Hz to 20,000Hz is, as with virtually every consumer headset, a best-case figure measured under controlled conditions. In practice, the low-frequency extension below 40Hz will roll off, and the high-frequency response above 16kHz will likely show some unevenness. That's not a criticism specific to EKSA , it's the reality of dynamic drivers in a closed-back consumer headset at this price. What matters more is how the midrange is handled, since that's where voice intelligibility and most gaming audio cues live. Based on my listening, the midrange here is reasonably present, though slightly recessed compared to the boosted bass and lower treble.

The microphone frequency response is quoted at 100Hz to 10,000Hz. That upper limit of 10kHz is worth paying attention to. Human speech intelligibility is largely contained within 300Hz to 3,400Hz (the classic telephone bandwidth), so 10kHz is more than adequate for voice communication. You won't be capturing the full air and presence of a studio vocal, but for Discord, party chat, and in-game comms, the bandwidth is appropriate. The cardioid pickup pattern is the correct choice for a gaming environment , it prioritises sound from directly in front of the capsule and rejects ambient noise from the sides and rear.

For cinematic gaming , open-world RPGs, story-driven titles, anything where atmosphere matters more than pinpoint positional accuracy , the V-shaped tuning works well. Explosions in action sequences have genuine weight. Music scores feel full. The low-end emphasis gives cutscenes a sense of scale that a more neutral headset wouldn't deliver at this price. I spent a solid chunk of my testing month playing through a story RPG, and the E900Pro made it genuinely enjoyable from an audio perspective. The bass doesn't bleed into the mids badly enough to muddy dialogue, which is a real problem on some cheaper V-shaped headsets.

For competitive play, the picture is more nuanced. The boosted bass can mask subtle low-frequency footstep cues, and the slightly recessed mids mean you're not getting the clearest possible positional information from mid-range audio events. It's not disqualifying , plenty of players use V-shaped headsets competitively and do fine , but if you're primarily a ranked FPS player who needs every audio advantage, a more neutral tuning would serve you better. The E900Pro is better suited to players who split their time across genres rather than pure competitive grinders.

Bass extension is decent. Sub-bass below 40Hz is present but not prominent , you feel it more than you hear it in bass-heavy music and film audio. The mid-bass punch around 80Hz to 150Hz is where the E900Pro really delivers, giving kick drums and low-end game audio a satisfying thump without becoming one-note or boomy. I tested this extensively with a range of game soundtracks and some electronic music, and the bass stays controlled enough that it doesn't overwhelm everything else. Treble clarity is reasonable in the lower and mid-treble range, though there's a slight harshness around 6kHz to 8kHz that becomes noticeable on bright audio sources at higher volumes.

Imaging in competitive FPS was tested across about fifteen hours of Warzone and some Apex Legends sessions. Directional audio for gunshots and vehicle sounds was accurate enough to be useful. Footstep detection was functional but not exceptional , the V-shaped tuning does cost you some precision here, as I mentioned. For casual to mid-level competitive play, the imaging is more than adequate. For high-level ranked play where audio positioning is a genuine tactical tool, you'd want something with a flatter response. Films and TV sounded genuinely good through the E900Pro, which isn't always the case with gaming-tuned headsets that can make dialogue sound thin.

Voice clarity through the cardioid capsule is good for the price tier. I had teammates on Discord confirm that my voice came through clearly and without the muffled quality that plagues a lot of headsets in this bracket. The cardioid pattern does a reasonable job of rejecting keyboard noise , I type fairly loudly on a mechanical keyboard, and while some click noise was audible in recordings, it wasn't at a level that would irritate people in a voice chat. Fan noise from my PC was largely rejected. The mic does pick up some room echo in larger spaces, which is expected from a cardioid capsule without any noise-cancellation processing.

One limitation worth flagging: the microphone frequency response ceiling of 10kHz means the mic captures voice with good intelligibility but lacks the upper-frequency air that makes voices sound natural and present in a recording context. For gaming comms, this genuinely doesn't matter. If you were hoping to use this headset for streaming or podcast recording, the mic quality would be a bottleneck. There's also no hardware mic monitoring (sidetone) on the 3.5mm connection, which means you can't hear your own voice in the earcups while speaking , some people find this disorienting, others don't notice. The USB adapter on PC does enable software sidetone through the EKSA software.

Clamp force is moderate. My head sits at about 57cm circumference (fairly average), and the E900Pro applied enough pressure to maintain a good acoustic seal without feeling like it was squeezing my temporal bones. I wore glasses for several sessions , I normally use contacts, but I specifically tested with glasses to assess the seal and comfort for spectacle wearers. The earcup depth is sufficient that the arms of my glasses didn't create a significant pressure point, though after about two hours I did notice some mild discomfort where the glasses arm met the earcup padding. This is better than a lot of headsets in this category, but glasses wearers should be aware it's not a non-issue.

The headband padding is adequate rather than generous. During my longest single session , just over three hours during a weekend gaming marathon , I noticed some pressure on the top of my head around the two-hour mark. It wasn't painful, but it was present. The metal-reinforced headband slider feels solid and has enough adjustment range to accommodate larger heads. The earcup rotation is limited to a single axis, which is fine for flat storage but means the cups don't swivel to conform to the angle of your head the way multi-axis designs do. Overall, the E900Pro is comfortable for sessions up to about two hours without issue. Beyond that, your mileage will vary depending on head shape and heat tolerance.

The USB adapter is the second connection option, and it's specifically for enabling the virtual 7.1 surround sound feature on PC. Plug the USB adapter in, connect the 3.5mm cable to the adapter, and the headset appears as a USB audio device in Windows. This is how EKSA delivers the surround processing , the adapter contains the DSP chip that handles the HRTF simulation. On consoles and mobile, you're using the 3.5mm connection directly, which means stereo audio only. The USB adapter also enables the software EQ and mic monitoring features on PC.

Latency on the 3.5mm connection is effectively zero , wired analogue audio has no meaningful latency. The USB adapter introduces a small amount of processing latency from the DSP, but in practice it's below the threshold of perception for gaming. I didn't notice any lip-sync issues in films or any input-to-audio delay in games when using the USB adapter. The 3.5mm connection is the more reliable option for console use, and I'd recommend using it over the USB adapter even on PC if you're not specifically using the surround sound feature, since it bypasses an additional conversion step.

The practical implication is that your gaming sessions are limited only by your own endurance and the length of the cable, not by a battery percentage indicator. For competitive players who might run extended sessions, or for people who simply don't want to think about charging another device, this is a genuine advantage. The flip side is that you're tethered to your source device by a 2.0m cable, which can be a minor inconvenience depending on your setup , particularly if your PC is positioned some distance from your gaming chair.

There's also no inline volume control or mute button on the cable itself, which is a minor omission. Some competing wired headsets at this price include an inline remote with volume wheel and mic mute. The E900Pro relies on software controls on PC (via the EKSA application) or your system's audio controls. On console, you'd need to use the controller's audio settings. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's something to be aware of if quick hardware mute is important to your workflow.

The virtual 7.1 surround sound implementation is, as I expected, a software HRTF simulation applied to the stereo signal. It works by processing the audio to simulate the way sound waves interact with the shape of a human head and ears before reaching the eardrums , a technique documented in detail in the research on head-related transfer functions. The result is a widened soundstage and some front-back differentiation that isn't present in pure stereo. Whether it's useful depends heavily on the game. In titles with well-implemented positional audio engines, the surround simulation can add genuine spatial information. In titles with basic stereo audio, it mostly just adds reverb and makes things sound slightly echoey. I ended up leaving it off for competitive play and on for cinematic titles.

Firmware updates are handled through the software application, which is straightforward enough. The software doesn't require an account or online registration to use, which I appreciate , too many peripheral manufacturers now require cloud accounts for basic EQ functionality. Mic monitoring (sidetone) is adjustable through the software, letting you set how much of your own voice you hear in the earcups. This feature only works when connected via the USB adapter; on 3.5mm, there's no sidetone. The overall software experience is adequate for the price tier, though it's not going to impress anyone coming from the Logitech G Hub or SteelSeries GG ecosystems.

On PS5, the 3.5mm connection to the DualSense controller works without any configuration. Audio output and microphone input both function correctly. Xbox Series X/S similarly works plug-and-play via the controller's 3.5mm jack. I tested both platforms during my month of testing and had no issues. The Nintendo Switch in handheld mode accepts the 3.5mm connection directly. For docked Switch use, you'd need a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter or a dock with a headphone output, which is a limitation of the Switch's dock design rather than anything specific to the E900Pro.

The USB adapter and its associated software features are PC-only. This is standard for this type of virtual surround implementation , the DSP processing requires driver support that isn't available on consoles. On Mac, the 3.5mm connection works for audio output and input, but the USB adapter may not be supported depending on the macOS version and the adapter's driver compatibility. I didn't test Mac compatibility extensively, but for the primary target audience of PC and console gamers, compatibility is effectively universal via the 3.5mm connection.

The HyperX Cloud Stinger 2 uses 40mm drivers versus the E900Pro's 50mm, and has a reputation for a slightly more balanced sound signature. The Stinger 2's mic is non-detachable, which is a disadvantage for storage and longevity. The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 uses a ski-goggle headband design that distributes weight differently and is generally considered more comfortable for extended sessions, particularly for glasses wearers. The Nova 1's sound signature is closer to neutral than the E900Pro's V-shape, which makes it better suited to competitive play.

Where the E900Pro has an edge is in driver size and the included virtual surround USB adapter, which the Stinger 2 and Nova 1 don't include at equivalent price points. The detachable boom mic is also a practical advantage over the Stinger 2's fixed design. The E900Pro isn't the outright winner in this comparison, but it holds its own and offers a reasonable value proposition for its specific strengths.

The weaknesses are real but predictable for the price bracket. Comfort beyond two hours becomes a consideration, particularly for glasses wearers. The V-shaped tuning isn't ideal for players who need precise positional audio in ranked competitive play. There's no inline volume control or hardware mute button. And the protein leather earcups will trap heat during longer sessions. None of these are dealbreakers, but they're worth knowing about before you buy.

The E900Pro is priced competitively within the mid-range bracket. For the money, you're getting a well-specified wired headset with a good mic, decent audio for mixed gaming use, and broad platform compatibility. It's not the best headset at this price , the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 edges it out for pure competitive audio and comfort , but it's a solid all-rounder that will serve most gamers well. If you're upgrading from a budget headset and want something that handles both gaming and the occasional film session without compromise, the E900Pro is worth your consideration. My editorial score is 7.0 out of 10.