Heavys H1H Headhones Review

Back in college there was an afternoon I was feeling particularly despondent for one reason or another. The only thing I could think to make me feel better was music.

Because this particular memory is from almost 20 years ago, please forgive me if I can’t remember whether I used my laptop, a CD player, or a hand-me-down iPod. But what I do remember is plugging in a pair of dirt-cheap headphones and turning up the volume as loud as possible.

There I sat, staring down at the desk trying to bathe my mind in sound. Were I to play it loud enough, perhaps it would pierce through my brain and make me feel less of whatever it was that I was feeling. I remember a classmate looking at me, seemingly alarmed that the music was so loud they could hear it. Outside of whatever budget foam or cloth covered the cups, there was little to dampen the noise pouring out of the space between my ears and the headphones.

Sometimes you want to turn the world off and immerse yourself into another place.

And I wonder what kind of escapism I could have gotten myself into all those years ago were I wearing headphones like the Heavys H1H.

During the PlayStation 3 era, I became more particular about sound. More specifically, my desire for a quality headset finally came into fruition. For the longest time, sound either came out of a basic pair of headphones or the device playing the noise. Boomboxes, desktop speakers, TV speakers, or the admirable speakers in my first car all got the job done–they produced the noises I wanted to listen to. When I was watching TV, as long as dialog wasn’t drowned out or the soundtrack sounded good enough, I was satisfied. I knew I would never be able to reproduce the massive speakers at the cinema or replicate standing in the crowd at a live show. As for the songs I loved? Usually I heard them out of the left and right channels, nothing more. The concept of subtlety was lost on me outside of a few instances of being swallowed up by surround sound setups at another person’s home.

Wanting to hear things better stemmed from video games, not music. The ability to make sound a crucial element to a game took a few generations to evolve into something more than incredible soundtracks and memorable sound effects. Around the time of Dead Space‘s release I had purchased a PlayStation-branded wireless headset to better hear my games. I wasn’t trying to gain a competitive edge, I just wanted to be immersed more. Dead Space oozed atmosphere and much of that was attributed to the terrifying ambiance always meant to put the player on edge. TV speakers just weren’t the same.

In my 15 or so years of reviewing games and gaming accessories, there have been a number of headsets I’ve plopped on my head. Countless companies have their own idea of what sounds best, what brings a game to life, and how best to give the player what they want. However, it’s quite rare when a brand works to integrate their proclivity for sound and work to apply it across multiple mediums.

Heavys is perhaps a brand you’ve seen advertised across YouTube–and certainly since taking this journey, advertisements for it feel a lot more prominent–one that ferociously targets the Metal fan. Sludgy guitar riffs and thudding, aggressive percussion and bass play as people situate the headphones on their skull, getting a taste of how their genre should be expressed by two solitary cans. Personally, I think the mission statement is an extremely noble one. Why not market your sound for a specific audience and craft headphones that will bring the genre to life in its richest form?

To accomplish this goal, Heavys got Axel Grell, a Sennheiser engineer and expert in audio tech to help design a headphone that would diversify the varying moods that Rock and Metal can employ. And if you doubt the mission statement, merely look at the lengthy list of Shells–interchangeable earcups–that pay tribute to many legendary artists across the Rock and Metal genres.

The Heavys H1H is the brand’s flagship headphone, a profile it will likely build off and iterate from for years to come. The H1H is an audiophile headphone, its primary function is to produce rich and layered sound that caters to specific genres of music. This distinction is important going forward because the H1H’s ability to bring depth to music is tantamount to its design but because the sound quality is so good, it can bring that same quality to gaming.

Let’s get this out of the way: the Heavys H1H is not a gaming headset. However, it is a headphone that can be used for gaming. When players think of gaming headsets, LED light profiles come to mind, wireless dongles connect to a console, boom mics can be flipped to the side. Brands like Steel Series, Turtle Beach, and HyperX market their products specifically towards gaming. Heavys is first and foremost making music headphones that are shockingly effective in the gaming space.

Still, the H1H is one of the best headphones I’ve used to listen to music. One of the features Heavys boasts is that the H1H mimics the live concert experience. In my years of attending a variety of shows at large and small venues, the H1H is akin to being front and center at one of my favorite places: a bar and music hall that can comfortably house around 200 people standing. It’s the type of place where the musicians can be only a few feet away and the music is contained within four walls. This isn’t an outdoor arena where the sound bleeds into the outside world and throughout hundreds of stadium seats.

When I slid the H1H onto my head and adjusted the headband to comfortably rest on my hair and not squeeze my skull, I could feel the slight pressure of the soft foam cushions of the band and the ear cups. And then I turned on Spotify.

About an hour passed of me casually cycling through the potpourri of mixes I had meant to cover my wide range of music tastes. Death From Above 1979’s You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine and its opening track “Turn it Out”, a cacophony of guitar distortion, flooded my ears at a volume I could have never hoped for. The Octopus Project’s “Whitby” with its bloops and bleeps and harmonic vocals bounced and thudded. Indie favorites like Handsome Furs, Future Islands, and Big Thief mimicked the times I saw them live. Synthwave obsessions like Le Matos, Perturbator, The Magic Sword, and Carpenter Brut pulsed like an 80s dance club. And one of my favorite albums of all time, Fuck Buttons’ Tarot Sport, went to angelic, utopian heights, the kind I’ve only experienced when listening to the album in a rental car with an impressive sound system.

While I’ve dabbled in music reviews years ago, I’m not one who has ever been able to foster the lexicon of describing a song. I feel silly attempting to discern what instruments I think I’m hearing or how a rhythm works. I’d probably make the cocky argument that I have good taste in music partially because it’s relatively diverse but not overly broad. But when listening to the songs I have loved for years, the H1H passed the test with flying colors. My music had a depth to it, the more subtle moments in a song were pronounced in a way that usually required independent speakers or a keen ear with higher volumes.

And, honestly, part of this is because the H1H gets so incredibly loud.

Each cup sports 4 speakers for a total of 8. There are two woofers that deliver the mid and low frequencies set in the center of the cups. At the edge of the cup’s rim are two front-facing tweeters that take care of the high frequencies. It’s one of the H1H’s biggest quirks in a relatively no-nonsense headphone but in execution it absolutely makes sense. With your ears situated inside the cups, the two woofers deliver sound right into the ear canal horizontally, creating one layer of noise. Having the tweeters angled at the edge of the cups, they are pointed in a way that will direct the sound towards your ear drums

These 4 speakers get loud and I mean that as complimentary as possible. Loud noises can be a cacophony but one can still discern layers amidst the chaos. When I played my music, it didn’t feel distorted or muddy. Vocals were crisp and clear, I was able to separate the instruments that were harmonizing together.

I was bathed in sound.

Yet it wasn’t sheer volume and depth, it was the whole package… that concert-like experience.

Over the course of the last month I have worn the H1H headphones and used them for about anything that would require sound and the results have been exceptionally consistent.

YouTube content whether it be music videos, podcasters yapping, or game trailers have a bit more intimacy to them based on the raw power of the H1H. The one time I made a call, I was told my voice came in clear and I could hear the caller quite well. I watched liminal space horror and could place all the quiet moments and a quick trip into a few action scenes told me that these headphones could handle a lot.

But we are here for games. How does Heavys’ vision for a Metal-tuned headphone translate in this interactive medium of ours?

To really test out the H1H, I selected a handful of games that I felt best put it through the rigors of its intended design and some a few esoteric choices that go against the traditional grain. I play a lot of games and enjoy a variety of genres, just like with music and I want to go back to so many favorites and hear them through the H1H just to see what I was missing before.

First off was Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2, two of my most beloved games that emphasize music. Thankfully, both games have the ability to select levels and it was easy to skip around to my favorite ones. M/O/O/N, El Huervo, and Jasper Byrne are featured prominently in the first game and Denanton Games helped establish a Synthwave resurgence.

But few games compare to Hotline Miami 2‘s impeccable soundtrack. Perturbator’s “Technoir”, Magna’s “Divide”. Magic Sword’s “In the Face of Evil” and “The Way Home” sweep into the soul like a sword and sorcery epic from the 80s. In one of the bloodiest levels, Carpenter Brut’s “Roller Mobster” slowly builds as the characters ascend a tower to commit violence, cascading into a frenzy of synths that berate the senses. Mega Drive’s “NARC” employs the same grungy soundscape, acting as fuel for the player’s bloodshed.

Wearing the H1H during this double feature, I found it hard not to just bask in the glory of sound. There is a lot shared between Metal and Synthwave, where the layers of instrumentation often create a blockade of powerful sound pressing against the listener. I’ll admit that Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2 are cheating a bit. Players can dial down the sound effects and just bring the music into the forefront. But even when striking a balance, the H1H emphasizes the squelch of a bat against and enemy’s head or the erratic gunfire that punctures the soundtrack. Honestly, I’ve never had a better time playing two of my favorite games.

Next up was a strangely disappointing entry: Drool’s Thumper. This was a game I thought would relish in what the H1H could provide. Dubbed a “rhythm violence” game, players do a kind of call and response to obstacles along a path, all the while music drones and thuds and sound effects grind and sparkle. For some reason, Thumper felt quiet and a bit flat. There were minimal sound settings to adjust, leaving me to wonder if the H1H was actually showing what games might not be properly mixed or amplified. Normally I would have expected Thumper‘s audio to bloom and crash in my ears, not whimper.

Then came DOOM Eternal. How could I not play a DOOM game on a headset meant for Metal? And, unsurprisingly, the H1H instantly blew me away. Mick Gordon’s brilliant score is a Metal listener’s wet dream and it was given renewed life through these powerful cans. Better yet, the thunderously violent weapons and frenetic pace of the game all harmonized with each other, not allowing one element to drown out the other.

My final real “test” was Metal: Hellsinger, a first-person rhythm shooter where players are meant to time their shots and attacks to the beat of an expansive Metal soundtrack featuring vocals from Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, and Serj Tankian from System of a Down to name a few. Metal: Hellsinger is an underrated gem of a game, its entire existence evocative of a Metal album cover drenched in demons and hellish angels. As players build their combo meter, the instrumentals begin to layer on each other until eventually the vocals begin to rise, belting out powerful lyrics as players dole out justice.

It was while playing Metal: Hellsinger and DOOM Eternal that the Heavys mission statement was bearing its ripest fruit and the H1H came alive in its most intended way. These games are Metal as hell in terms of their soundtrack, visual identity, and gameplay. As I was shooting through these worlds, I was able to identify the strength of the soundtrack but just as importantly, I was able to distinguish it from the ambient noise and the sound effects.

Building a combo in Metal: Hellsinger and literally adding layers to the song, the H1H draws out those dynamic shifts. It usually starts with a steady guitar riff and a punchy bass drum to give the player a pace that isn’t overwhelming. Once the game’s kinetic movement works its way into the reflexes, improved play instantly shifts into a more developed song. The whole time, the H1H’s 8 speakers are processing these varying sounds and blasting them into the player’s ears at whatever volume they feel most comfortable with.

Throughout my time with the H1H headphones, I also played an extensive amount of Destiny 2, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Fallout 76, and The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu.

Imagine your Warlock flinging their space magic over a battlefield of skittering Taken. Riskrunner in hand I would spew infinite amounts of bullets hearing the crackle of lightning as my Arc Soul hummed. Glorious explosions of Truth or the palpable vibrations of Thunderlord would resonate in my ears but never be too muddy. The open seas of Resynced as the waves rushed around or the SHHHNK! of the hidden blade making contact with flesh made me feel like I was lurking around the Caribbean. Fallout 76 is simply a game I’m playing all the time and I’ve never been blown about by its sound design but even the dusty ambiance of Appalachia had a kind of quiet peace to it that would be broken up by my gatling plasma or the boiling flames of my power armor’s jetpack.

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu was a fantastic test of the H1H’s capabilities. This is a game all about a sense of unease washing over the player and their friends as they search for treasure in a dense jungle haunted by Lovecraftian evils. Distant screams would feel small but thanks to the boisterous sound of the headphones, I was able to gauge where they seemingly originated from, even if it was a figment of my budding insanity. The game’s sound design is meant to attack the player in meaningful ways to make them uncertain of threats. I could hear bushes rustling and hear the directional shift as I swung my head around. The echo of a matchlock pistol rang throughout the thick trees and exposed beaches.

Over my time of witnessing the marketing of gaming headsets, one of the constants is the ability to produce the quietest sounds. Wear our cans and be able to hear the light footsteps of an enemy whether they are in a hallway above or outside the door. Wear our set and you’ll have the competitive edge.

But what about the gamers who aren’t entrenched in the competitive lines, the ones who want to talk with friends at the same time or play by themselves and get lost in a new world?

To me, the H1H is emblematic of an audiophile headset that wants you to hear games as well as you can hear music. Video games not only sound layered, crisp, and loud–they sound distinct and subtle. Sure, I can hear footsteps with the right tuning. But I can also hear my games as if I was sitting in an expensive home theater, except that home theater is comfortably resting on my ears.

Attempting to describe sound to someone is about the same as attempting to describe taste. One can have a dearth of vocabulary words to better define their thoughts and help materialize a picture in the reader’s head but it still won’t match the lived sensation. The H1H has the technical chops to vacillate between an incredible headphone to listen to your music to and an equally powerful gaming headset. Out of the numerous headsets I’ve tested out and fallen in love with, the H1H is one of the best in terms of what it delivers and how it feels.

Weighing in at 14.5 ounces, or just under one pound, the H1H is comfortable. While Heavys claims the battery life can last upwards of 50 hours, I never tested out that metric with any kind of accuracy. What I do know is that the soft foam on the cups and the headband never felt irritating to my skin nor did it make me feel uncomfortable. My longest session with them was probably around 5 hours with a handful of breaks to go use the bathroom or let my ears breathe.

Sporting an all-black look with a bit of matte black on the removable Shells, things like fingerprints, sweat, and oils are going to show just a bit. Even with a bit of human smudge, it’s a sleek set that looks good on the head, appearing big but not bulky. Because these are premium cans, I felt the need to clean them better than I normally would because why wouldn’t I want to preserve the material of the cloth?

One side of the H1H can be folded towards the headband, allowing them to fit in the included travel case and when flexing them a bit, I never felt like they were flimsy or going to break with too much use, not that I’m going to be condensing them constantly.

The H1H is also one of the first wired and wireless headphones I’ve used in a long time and that is potentially a distinction that might cause some players to question whether or not this is viable as a gaming headset.

Using Bluetooth 5.1, the H1H connects to phones and PCs and other similar devices with relative ease. While Heavys says using the 2.5 to 3.5 audio AUX cable is best for virtually no latency, Bluetooth technology–H1H included–is good enough at this point that it’s incredibly difficult to notice any sort of audio lag. Users can listen to music and then switch to a call and the integrated 5 microphone system will pick up your voice clearly.

The side with the integrated microphone also houses the USB C charging slot and a button to turn on Bluetooth or activate pairing mode. On the opposite side, a dial controls volume and on either side of the dial, buttons control Next/Previous tracks or a similar function. It’s here that users can also switch the H1H off, on, or activate Heavys’ proprietary “Hell Blocker” active noise cancelling mode.

A quirk of the H1H is that when the user reaches max volume or activates Hell Blocker mode, a gruff voice will announce that the mode is activated or that max volume has been reached, reminding me of the voice uttering “RESIDENT EVILLLLLL” after pressing start. Some may find it unnecessary or silly, yet it still has its own charm.

The H1H noise cancelling is phenomenal primarily because, as I’ve continued to emphasize, the headphones have incredible volume to them. When playing my television in the background, I hear a discernible shift in ambient buzzing when toggling between noise cancelling on or off but can still hear whatever is actually playing. But when actually playing content through the headphones and switching back and forth, the audio playing becomes richer and louder with noise cancelling on, due to the microphones blocking out that sound.

As a clean pair of headphones without an abundance of features, the H1H lacks things a gaming headset might. There is no control to adjust game and party volume, something I did miss from my PlayStation Pulse headset. There’s no microphone monitoring and with the quality of the H1H and its noise cancelling, you might talk a little louder than you are used to. And for console users like me, you’re going to need an AUX cable connected to the controller.

During my time reviewing the H1H this has caused a little bit of nuisance both practically and in terms of general connectivity.

An important thing to note: those interested in the Heavys H1H can purchase the headset by itself or as a gaming-centric bundle called the Heavys HeX Gaming Headset Bundle. The H1H retails for $299.99 but I’ve frequently seen it on sale for around $269.99 or less with varying offers usually popping up when visiting Heavys’ site. The HeX bundle usually retails for $329.99 but is often found on sale for $279.99.

When purchasing the H1H by itself, the package will come with a charging cable, an AUX cable, and a traveling case. The HeX bundle includes all the cables, the case, plus a cable splitter to 2 3.5mm jacks and an omni-directional analog dynamic mic with boom arm.

The boom mic with the HeX bundle is shockingly incredible. Not only do I love the ability to adjust the arm at will, the microphone picks up my voice with incredible quality while also blocking out a decent amount of direct noise.

For some context, I’ve reviewed the H1H during a particularly hot summer period. While my house has air conditioning, sometimes a fan blowing directly on me is great. Unlike my PlayStation Pulse microphone which seemingly picks up sound from all directions, the H1H mic lessens the sound of something like wind from a fan. Though I do have to adjust the maximum volume of the mic in my PlayStation 5 settings, my voice still comes in great because I can put it right next to my mouth. But on evenings when my head got a bit sweaty, I did notice some crackling noises, likely from moisture and after drying them off, those distracting sounds were gone. Another thing to keep in mind is that there can be some echoing depending on how tightly secured the H1H is to your ears and how close the microphone may be. Many times I was told my audio was echoing and either turning down the volume, pulling the microphone away, or adjusting the ear cups would solve the problem.

One weekend away from home, I used the H1H with my PlayStation Portal which has an audio jack. During one session, I noticed that my microphone wasn’t working as no one in the party could hear me. The H1H wasn’t connecting to Bluetooth on my phone and I was worried there might have been an issue with the cables. But apparently there can be some connectivity problems when the microphone is directly plugged into the H1H, preventing devices from pairing. Additionally, there are some instances where my chat audio just goes dead and no one can hear me talk. This seems to just be infrequent connection issues with the AUX cord and my controller. The microphone slides into a slot into the H1H and it doesn’t click into place that securely and generally, having the AUX cord extending from the bottom of the controller can cause it to loosen as it butts into your chest or lap. Unplugging everything and/or turning off the H1H and turning it back on again would fix the problem. In the future if Heavys wants to make a dedicated gaming headset, I imagine they find a way to use a wireless USB dongle or come up with an improved cord situation.

When looking at the breadth of my experience with the Heavys H1H headphones, the handful of issues I had do virtually nothing to detract from the most important aspect of the device. I went into my time knowing it was an audiophile headphone that can wedge itself into the gaming space. In terms of cost, it generally lines up with the medium range of headphones and headsets. But I’ve always stood by that if you are spending outside of $300 – $350, it’s going to be incredibly hard to truly notice a difference that justifies the exorbitant costs.

Check out the Heavys H1H on Heavys’ website here.

Or check out the Heavys HeX Gaming Headset Bundle here.

The Heavys H1H delivers incredibly powerful sound that is richly vibrant and thunderously loud. Because it is tuned for Metal and Rock music, Heavys wisely never let volume override the importance of sonic depth. These music genres fill the ear with carefully produced instrumentals and vocals, so why not hear video games with that same attention to detail? While dedicated gamers may lament the lack of features that enhance chat capabilities or other aspects of play, the H1H is a beast of a gaming headset in its own right. Games are not only louder, they are more complex, delivering sounds to you eardrums with new precedent. Whether it’s music, movies, games, or a a simple podcast, put on the H1H and drown yourself in sound.