Music to your ears...and wallet. by Patrick Evans

July 5, 2006 - Logitech has been known for years in the PC accessories market, releasing sound systems, mice, keyboards, headsets, and more. Taking its shot at the mobile gaming market as well, Logitech has begun manufacturing the Playgear for PSP line, including its stylish PlayGear Mod Headphones.

The PlayGear Mod is a mostly black behind-the-head design with white earpieces. Rigid in design, the headphones almost clasp to your ears with its oddly angled construction, keeping the earpiece in place over the ear. For anyone active or on the go, attachments are included that go around the earpieces allow the user to hook the headphones to the ears, much like typical behind-the-head designs. There is a comfort issue when using the attachments for extended periods, but the option to take the attachments off for casual use after working out eliminates the need to suffer the discomfort.

When testing the sound quality of the headphones, various media were used. The headphones sounded exceptional with Spider-Man 2, delivering a solid sound experience beyond what other third-party headphones are known for. When testing the sound in gameplay, the headphones also sounded as clear as a bell and produced more bass than one would expect from a design of this type. In fact, the sound quality matches or exceeds headphone sets of comparable design by other well known manufactures.

There are a few tiny discrepancies that must be mentioned, however. Designed for the PSP, these headphones only come in the black design without options for different color schemes. While you can't knock them for sticking with the PSP color scheme, you can certainly discuss the short connection cord. Again, designed with the PSP's controller connection in mind, using the headphones on, say, your laptop or Ipod is limited by the cords short length. With as much that went into the sound quality and the design, you would think that the engineers would have considered people using their headphones with electronics that lack a three-foot cord attached to it already.

With these minor knocks, this is still an exceptional pair of headphones at the 30 dollar price range. The headband rests comfortably on the back of your neck while the exceptional sound quality not only obliterates the factory issued headphones, but just about any other pair near this price. Purchase of the PlayGear Mod set is highly recommended for just about anyone looking for a quality pair headphones period, let alone gamers who use their PSPs for gaming and listening to music.

By Patrick Evans
CCC Staff Writer