 Alright guys, so today I have yet another audio product from Asus. It seems like ever since they started producing products under the Zonar brand, and I'm actually just walking over here because I'm going to show you guys my personal favorite sound card these days. This is the Zonar Zense, which is an Asus sound card. Ever since they started really producing products under the Zonar brand, it seems like Asus has gotten a lot more serious about audio in general. So this is the Vulcan ANC, and ANC stands for Active Noise Cancelling, and their take on this is that this is the first active noise cancelling gaming headset for gamers. So they're going for comfort and immersive audio, which are noble goals as far as headphones go. I'm a bit of a headphone guy, so I'm actually really looking forward to trying these out. I'm not much of an active noise cancelling guy, I have tried the Beats, although that is the only active noise cancelling headphones I've used, so maybe it was just that implementation I didn't like, but I found just the white noise in the background more distracting than anything else. So what else do they have to say for themselves here? Active noise cancelling gaming headset, no noise distraction, oh, okay, well there, okay, they've addressed that already for me apparently, I'm going to try it out though. Long lasting comfort, directional and clear audio, focus to win, so 85% active noise cancellation for high frequency computer fan noise, well that's one thought, okay, and then 30 decibel noise isolation for low frequency human and environmental noise, cool. Long lasting comfort, lightweight, complete over ear coverage, ultra soft breathable cushions with memory foam, let's start opening this up. Oh, hey, nice presentation here, so they've got some sketches from during the development of the product as well as a view of the actual, looks like a carrying case of some sort for the headset itself. It was actually really handy to have the product come with something like that, kind of like a shield shape here. Okay, what else do we find inside? VIP member warranty notice in like a billion different languages, as well as a quick start guide which hopefully has instructions like plug the thing into the thing. So what do we got here? Okay, battery cover, so it does require batteries, I would have preferred to see it using a USB power, but I guess that doesn't work. Up to 40 hours with one AAA battery though, so I guess that's not too bad. There are left and right markings on the ear cups, okay, and that's pretty much it, shows you how to install the battery and connect the microphone and audio cable. So let's open this baby up. It's got the Republic of Gamers logo on the front. Alright, so it looks not bad in here actually. So there's the microphone, uses like a shiny red plastic and then a matte black flexible piece. So the microphone positioning is actually, it looks like there's ports here and here, so it's not directly so that you're talking into it, so if you breathe, it shouldn't have too many problems with like staticky sounding noises on the other side. So a slightly indirect mic input is actually my preferred method anyway. So look, it comes with an airline adapter. Okay, sure, why not? I mean usually they're available for free on the flight, but thanks Asus. What else we got here? So we've got, oh I see what they're doing, so they've combined the microphone and the headphone cables here. So you can see these are the ones with the two bands and this one has three bands, so it's actually carrying separate signals. See that? Okay, so it all goes into the headphones with one port. Now we get to the headphones themselves. So these are very, very slick looking. So they're folding as you guys already saw, so you can fold them either way, this way or that way. Once they've snapped into place, it's actually not that easy to accidentally move them. Here, I want you guys to have a look at that mechanism because it's actually made of metal, which I think is a very positive thing. See that? So when it clips into place, it's just these bumps right here slipping into place on the other piece of metal, so that should be quite durable. The sizing is also a metal strip right there. So you can see it has a wide variety of different sizes, so you can go all the way from here to quite tiny actually. This looks really, really small. It's not going to fit on my head, so yeah. See, it fits like that. These pads use memory foam, so you can actually see how cushiony they are. They take a very, very long time to retract back, which is great for additional comfort. These are also much larger than they look, so if you have big ears, see there's actually a lot of space around the outsides here. So even though this looks really narrow, what happens is once I put my ear inside, it sits sort of like here inside this cushiony area here. So you can see they're quite large when you get them opened up from the side there. The top band also is using a foam, but it doesn't feel like... Whoops, sorry about that. Just throwing things around here. Hopefully it's all right. So it seems to use more like an air cushion, because I can't even compress... Oh no, there it goes. Okay, never mind. Yeah, that's memory foam. You can see how long it's taking to come back out. Okay, so let's have a look at the sides. We got like a Soos Shiny Chromie logo here. We got like a carbon fiber look on the side. I don't think that's actual carbon fiber, but you know how it is. We've got a switch for the active noise canceling. So hopefully they work even if you're not using the active noise canceling actively. Then we've got the input for... Here we go. So this is where the microphone goes, right there. And then that is where the input goes, which is right here. So go ahead and plug that in. Now it's completely set up. Don't forget, guys, you've also got inline volume control, which is right here with a little dial on the side, as well as your microphone mute right there. All right. So let's put these on and I'm going to sort of... Oh. Ah. Button right here to install the batteries. Doesn't come with batteries, but I'll have to track down a AAA in order to try these out here. There we go. Let's see if I can spend a couple of minutes here and evaluate the comfort. Actually, these are really comfy. They're not really that light. Like they... Asus says, yeah, they're really lightweight and they're reasonably lightweight. Like they're not heavy headphones, but they're not super, super light either. Like something like a SteelSeries Siberia V2 is definitely lighter. They're a little bit bulky in the ears, but I mean, the materials they're made of are just heavy. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. You put all that thick foam on there, it actually starts to add up. And then once you start adding like batteries and things like that, then it starts to get a little bit on the heavier side. However, the top headband is quite comfortable. It's very, very cushiony. So even though these aren't broken in at all, they are quite comfortable. Although, I'll have to actually... You know what? Give me a second. I'm going to try these guys out and see how they sound. So I've spent a little bit of time with them. Now it's funny because Asus' literature claims that this actually is carbon, but... Or how do you get carbon shield? I just don't know if I buy that. I think the whole thing is definitely not carbon. Because if you look at the back, that's definitely plastic. But maybe I can see where the material kind of changes here. So maybe it's a very thin layer of carbon. Although what I can tell you guys, I've gone ahead and see there's a little red LED. So that's what lights up when you turn on the active noise canceling. It really works. So besides these headphones being quite closed, like I'm having a hard time hearing myself talk right now. I actually have music playing in it too, which isn't helping matters. But in addition to that, once you turn on the active noise canceling, then it blocks out more noise. I had my assistant today who's helping me film these videos just try speaking to me in the same voice and then the same voice again. And then I also tried holding... Because one of the things Asus says it's best for is blocking out the noise of fans. So I tried holding my head next to the fans that are on this computer over here and turning the active noise canceling on, turning it off and seeing how much of a difference it made. It makes an enormous difference. Now, if you're going to be using these with like quiet music or you're going to play games quietly, then you'll find the active noise canceling like I often do kind of bothersome because there is a definite hiss to it. That's what active noise canceling is. It's inserting white noise so that it blocks out some of the noise around you. However, they are functional unlike Beats without the AA battery and without the active noise canceling on. So that's a very good thing, which means you can use them without. And they still do have a very noise isolating design overall. And if you're listening to things louder, then it becomes far less noticeable, which is definitely a good thing as well. I'd say in terms of overall audio quality, I've spent very little time with them so far, but the bass is more than satisfactory. These are up there with some of the best gaming headsets that I've used in the past. Maybe not as good as something that's more like a dedicated headphone, something like a Sennheiser HD555, but they're definitely up there with, yeah, the best gaming headsets that I've used. One thing that's actually mentioned on the ASUS documentation that I didn't even notice until now is that they definitely recommend using it with a headphone amp sound card, and I would definitely back that up. So I tried using it on another audio source already, and then I'm trying it on the test bench right now as well just to compare. And the volume level that I'm able to achieve on just regular onboard non-amped audio source is not as high as if I was really listening to music and I really wanted to turn it up. It's not as high as I'd like to get. So I would definitely recommend, guys, if you're going to pick up something like this, then pick up an amp sound card, whether you have that onboard on your motherboard or whether you get an additional sound card that has an external power as well as an amped headphone out port. So thank you for checking out my unboxing and overview of the Vulcan ANC Active Noise Cancelling Headset from ASUS. I'd say this is a very, very satisfactory first attempt for ASUS for a headset, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they have coming in the future. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips from our unboxings, reviews, and other computer related content.