The Machenike brand has appeared on the domestic market relatively recently. The company's range includes gaming laptops, monitors, and various peripherals, but today we will take a close look at the Machenike GX30 Pro Midnight headphones. They are at the lower threshold of the mid-price segment of such devices, cost about five thousand rubles, and you usually don't expect much from such "ears."
The gamer-oriented brand Machenike has appeared on the domestic market relatively recently. It will be all the more interesting to find out how it intends to win people's hearts. The company's range includes gaming laptops, monitors, and various peripherals, but today we will take a close look at the Machenike GX30 Pro Midnight headphones. They are at the lower threshold of the mid-price segment of such devices, cost about five thousand rubles, and you usually don't expect much from such "ears." However — a little ahead of myself — they managed to surprise me. But first things first.
Technical specifications
- Type: Over-ear headphones
- Connection type: wired (USB), Bluetooth, via radio channel at a frequency of 2.4 GHz
- Speakers: dual, 50 mm and 12 mm
- Microphone: non-removable, retractable, omnidirectional
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- Battery life (with backlight off): 130 hours
- Weight: 320 g
Packaging and equipment
In the box with the headphones is an instruction manual, a 1.5 meter long USB-A–USB-C cable for charging and wired connection, and a receiver consisting of two parts. The first part is the receiver itself with a USB-C connector, and the second is an adapter to a USB-A connector. The solution looks interesting and even elegant, if only you, like me, do not have USB connectors located close to each other in the system — in this case, the "dongle" covers one of the neighboring connectors.
Design and operation
Machenike GX30 Pro are classic "earmuffs" with large soft ear cushions that tightly cover the ears. Inside the ear cushions, as far as one can judge by touch, there is ordinary polyurethane foam, and they themselves are made of so-called eco-leather. The same goes for the headband.
The headphones look massive, weigh 320 grams, but feel comfortable on the head. I spent many hours of gaming sessions in them without any discomfort. But there is a drawback to the design: although such headphones cut off some extraneous noise due to the tight fit of the ear cushions, there is no ventilation inside. Therefore, they may be a little hot in the warm season.
The headbands are made of anodized metal, beautiful, purple. And in general, the reliability of the design is not in question. There is a slight lack of ability to rotate the cups to fold the headphones into a backpack, for example. But this model is more for home use. Although I went out with it to the city without any problems. This is facilitated by the design of the microphone, which is conveniently hidden in one of the cups.
The microphone is on a long flexible boom. It remembers the position well, that is, if you wish, you can use this method of adjustment. The microphone is omnidirectional. The sound holes in its body are only on one side, the side of the intended source, that is, the mouth. This is how passive noise cancellation is implemented. There is also software noise cancellation, but more on that later.
I would prefer the headphones to be without backlighting at all, but it is here. There is only one mode, only one color — a pleasant, purple one. Both the cups and the microphone are illuminated. The backlight is turned off, and this naturally has a positive effect on the battery life. The manufacturer claims about 130 hours of operation, but this is apparently without backlighting and when connected via Bluetooth.
On the right cup there is a USB-C connector for charging and wired connection. Next to it is a small LED indicator. Machenike GX30 Pro can be connected and charged simultaneously via one cable, which is convenient and not always found in wireless headphones. In addition to the cable, the headphones can be connected via the already mentioned receiver or via Bluetooth.
The four control buttons are located on the right cup, they are easy to feel with your hand, but this is where the convenience ends. In an attempt to provide maximum functionality with a minimum of controls, the creators of the headset have assigned so many actions to the buttons that you will definitely need to keep the instructions on the table for the first time.
Judge for yourself, one button, marked with the universally recognizable "Power" icon, is assigned to play-pause, call rejection and answer, entry into game mode, power control and deletion of information about Bluetooth connection. Moreover, a long press for one and a half seconds is a call rejection, and a long press for three seconds is a power off. And even the timings in Dark Souls no longer seem so merciless. The other buttons are not so loaded, but are also used for many things. In general, you need to get used to the controls.
Sound
As I said, you don't expect any particularly high-quality sound from headphones in this price category. Nevertheless, as a gaming device, Machenike GX30 Pro copes well. The headphones have dual drivers — 50 mm and 12 mm — and two modes: music and gaming. We measured the frequency response in both modes, and surprisingly, the gaming mode turned out to be more balanced than the music mode, although it would be more logical to expect the opposite.
In both modes, you can see the bass and high frequency boost typical of gaming headsets. But the dip in the middle in the gaming mode is much less pronounced. So it makes sense to use it. However, you can customize the sound to your liking with some errors through the proprietary software.
The manufacturer also claims the ability to connect to PS5 with lag-free audio transmission.
Software
The proprietary software for Machenike GX30 Pro, although it does not have an intuitive interface, is striking in the number of useful settings. I consider the ten-band equalizer to be the most useful in this case. In it, you can quite finely tune the sound to your liking, select one of the presets or save your own preset.
The utility configures 7.1 spatial sound. Moreover, in the preview window, you can listen to how the sounds will be positioned. You can choose the size of the virtual room with the corresponding amount of reverberation.
There are several dynamic effects, such as smart volume adjustment and dynamic bass boost. If you need to clearly hear the interlocutor through music or sound effects in the game, then this option is also available here.
There are fewer options for the microphone. You can, for example, assign a funny effect to change your voice.
And there is also noise cancellation — even, as the name says, with artificial intelligence. It is difficult to say how artificially intelligent this noise reduction is, but it works well.
I rarely see such an extensive set of settings for software, and the software itself for headphones for five thousand rubles is not always found.
Pro
- Connection and charging via one cable
- Software with a large number of options
Contra
- Overloaded and non-intuitive control buttons
Diagnosis
Machenike GX30 Pro are headphones with a nice design and flexible software settings. They are definitely not created for those who want to listen to music. But for video game lovers, there is a complete set of necessary options, mainly, of course, software. You can probably get used to the inconvenient controls. And in general, for this price category, the headphones have more advantages than disadvantages.
