LucidSound LS31 Wireless Headphones Review

The LucidSound LS31 is a gaming headset that doesn’t really look like one if you detach the microphone. They look like regular headphones with thick padding, but the cups do look a bit cheap due to the thin plastic. They have a metallic finish for the headframe and around the cups, which gives it a premium look, but the headset doesn’t actually feel high-end. It also only comes in a single color scheme option.

The LucidSound LS31 is a comfortable headset that you’ll be able to wear for long gaming sessions. The cups have thick padding, and the headband is well-padded too. This headset is fairly lightweight for their bulky design. Their clamping force is also low, and they feel a bit loose on the head, which some may not like. However, the stiff ear cups may make them feel a bit tighter for some.

The LucidSound LS31 have a decent control scheme with many options, but it might be confusing to use, especially right out of the box. You have a dial and a button on each cup. The left ear cup dial controls “game audio” (any audio that goes through the headphones that isn’t a third-party voice-chat app). This means it's essentially a volume dial for your games, Spotify/music apps, video players, or any sound coming from your browser.

The right dial is for chat volume (controls how much you hear your friends in Discord, for example). For the buttons, one tap on the left ear cup mutes the headphones completely, game and chat audio. A single tap on the right ear cup is to mute/unmute the microphone, while a three-second hold is for mic monitoring. However, mic monitoring, or sidetone, is controlled by the game audio dial (left), which is counter-productive since if you want to reduce your own voice, you’ll reduce game audio as well.

It's also important to note that an in-game chat system counts as game audio and not chat audio (we tested it in League of Legends, Overwatch, and CS:GO). This means you won’t be able to mute your online teammates without muting game audio at the same time. You also get an EQ button to cycle between bass, default, and treble sound profiles. Some may also find the buttons very sensitive and might register unwanted actions often.

Like most over-ears and gaming headsets, the LucidSound LS31 aren't very breathable. Their design traps heat inside the ear cups, and you may feel a difference in temperature if you wear them for a long time. This headset won’t be ideal for sports as you’ll sweat more than usual.

The LucidSound LS31 is a bulky over-ear headset that isn’t very portable, like most gaming headsets. However, gaming headsets usually stay in one place, and you don’t need to often travel with them. If you do need to take them on the go, the cups swivel, so it's easier to slide them in a bag.

The LucidSound LS31 don't come with a case to protect the headphones.

The LucidSound LS31 is a decently-built gaming headset. The headband is made of metal and feels solid yet flexible. Unfortunately, the cups are made of thin plastic that looks a bit cheap and might be susceptible to breaking due to impacts. Also, while the hinges look to be metal, it's actually plastic with a metallic finish and won’t be very durable.

This headset isn't very stable on the head. Tilting your head won’t cause much movement, but as soon as your head is moving a bit more, the cups’ weight will make them slide off. Thankfully, their wireless design eliminates the risk of a cable getting stuck on something and pulling the headset off your head. This shouldn’t be a problem during gaming sessions, but this bulky headset is definitely not made for physical activity.

• LucidSound LS31 headphones
• Detachable mic
• Optical cable
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• Micro-USB charging cable
• USB dongle
• Mic port cover
• Manuals

The LucidSound LS31 has a good frequency response consistency. The treble range is quite consistent across multiple re-seats, with the maximum deviation below 10kHz being about 3dB. In the bass range, the delivery is also quite consistent across re-seats and multiple human subjects. However, we noticed that having glasses could break the seal and caused a drop of 6dB at 20Hz, which is not that audible.

The bass performance is decent. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 25Hz, which is good. Low-bass, which is responsible for low-end thump and rumble, is slightly lacking. However, mid-bass, responsible for the punch of the bass and kick instruments, and high-bass, responsible for warmth, are both overemphasized by about 5dB, making the bass of this headset quite boomy and muddy.

The mid-range performance is good. Low-mid is overemphasized by about 4dB, which makes the vocals and lead instruments sound thick and cluttered. The rest of the range is fairly flat and even, with a very small dip in mid-mid, which will barely nudge the vocals to the back of the mix, but this shouldn’t be noticeable to most.

The treble performance is mediocre. The response is uneven and mostly underemphasized. This means vocals and leads will lack detail and brightness. However, sibilants (S and T sounds) might be sharp for some people around 9kHz, but not everyone will hear it as intensely.

The LucidSound LS31 headphones have good imaging. Their weighted group delay is 0.26, which is very good. The GD graph shows that its group delay is entirely under the audibility threshold. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were very well-matched in amplitude, phase, and frequency, ensuring accurate placement and localization of objects (voice, instruments, footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The LucidSound LS31 have an average soundstage. Their PRTF response shows a decent amount of pinna interaction and activation, with decent accuracy. However, there is not a 10kHz notch present. Therefore, their soundstage may be perceived as large, but unnatural and located inside the head.

The noise isolation performance is sub-par. These closed-back headphones don't isolate at all in the bass and mid-ranges, letting in the rumble of engines and ambient chatter around you. In the treble range, occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts and fan noises like A/C systems, they achieve an isolation of 27dB, which is above-average.

The LucidSound LS31's leakage performance is sub-par. A significant portion of their leakage is spread between 400Hz and 2kHz, which is a relatively broad range. So although their leakage won't be as full-sounding as that of open-back headphones, it'll be more noticeable than in-ears and earbuds. On the plus side, the overall level of their leakage is not too loud. With the music at 100dB SPL, their leakage averages at 42dB SPL and peaks at 55dB SPL, which is about the noise floor of an average office.

The LucidSound LS31 use a dual microphone system (one integrated and one boom mic). Speech recorded or transmitted with this gaming headset will sound clear and full-bodied. You'll also be able to use it in very loud environments, like gaming conventions, and it will do a great job at separating speech from ambient noise. It should be noted that our testing was only done on the boom mic.

The recording quality of the LucidSound LS31's boom mic is great. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 24Hz, which is great. This results in a recorded/transmitted speech that sounds full-bodied. The HFE (high-frequency extension) of 4.7kHz means recorded speech will be fairly detailed and present. The response between the LFE and HFE points is flat and even, so speech sounds natural. The audio playback sounds a bit distorted because we couldn't control the volume of the microphone on the test PC.

The LucidSound LS31's boom mic is great at noise handling. It achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 35dB in our SpNR test, which means it can separate speech from ambient noise to a good degree in very loud environments, like gaming conventions.

The LucidSound LS31 have a good 17-hour battery life that will last you long gaming sessions. They take about three hours to charge fully, but thankfully, you’ll be able to charge them while still using them. This shouldn’t be a problem for people who can sit close to their power source. Unfortunately, they don’t have any power saving feature to extend battery life if you forget to turn them off.

This gaming headset doesn't have a companion app with customization options. For a headset with customization software, look at the SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless 2017 or the Logitech G933 Wireless.

This headset isn't Bluetooth-compatible. Thanks to the dongle, the latency of the LucidSound LS31 is low, and you’ll be able to watch TV and play games without noticing a delay between what you hear and see. You can also completely get rid of it if you use the headset with a wired connection.

You can use the LucidSound LS31 with a wired connection with all consoles and PCs. You’ll have audio and mic support. The dongle has a standard Mini-TOSLINK (3.5mm/optical) input jack.

The LucidSound LS31 come with a USB dongle that you can use with PCs and consoles. However, on Xbox One, you’ll have to use a wired connection to the controller to get the mic support. Unfortunately, the dongle doesn’t have any inputs other than the Mini-TOSLINK (3.5mm/optical) input jack. You also can’t charge the headset with the dongle; you’ll have to use another micro-USB cable to do so.