TQBF

Interesting, this may be it. Thank you for the notice. The issue went away but has returned so something like this seems plausible. If that doesn't resolve it, I will open a ticket as suggested. Thank you both.

After installing the 20H2 update for windows, (Build Version 19042.870) my audio through the corsair Virtuoso SE in wireless mode has become completely unusable. This affects both the mic audio quality and earphone audio quality. The Mic Audio is unusably crackly and laggy when using the default 24Bit 48000Hz setting, and only becomes usable at 24 Bit 44100 Hz. So with that change made, it is workable. The audio through the wireless playback crackles at random. I have tried: Completely reinstalling the drivers. Completely reinstalling icue and the drivers Changing icue version Soft resetting the headset Re-pairing the headset Using Stereo Only Using Dolby Atmos Using Windows Spatial Sound Using 7.1 output from icue. Changing the USB Port (Normally plugged into ST-100, plugged directly into USB port of motherboard). Changing the bitrate to every possible setting. I made no changes to the audio settings or USB settings, but noticed that following the windows update a tool tray icon informed me drivers for the headset were being updated. Is this a known bug with the new windows update? Is anyone else also experiencing this?

Confirmed (with iCue 3.25.60), I am now using Dolby Atmos and - big improvement. I have thought for a while that the majority of the issues I have had with poor sound quality had stemmed from bad drivers or something in the way iCue was processing audio (I was getting crackles & pops, terrible bass, and worst for me - unusable stereo in Apex Legends). For a while I had a workaround using Voicemeeter to equalize and pipe sound differently. But, I held out on these only because my very first experience using them was on my work PC without iCue installed (or its broken launch day drivers), and they sounded amazing then. If I hadn't tried them at work I 100% would have returned them as defective. But - this last update has resolved the issues I had, they sound great again. I can even use the dongle plugged into my Corsair ST100. (Which was another ridiculous problem). The only caveat - when I'm using Dolby they no longer show up in iCue. A small price to pay for having my expensive headphones actually work at last. If anyone else is in the same boat as I was, I highly encourage you to try them with Dolby Atmos.

Unfortunately I have to report extreme buyer's remorse over the audio quality when using the Corsair drivers in iCUE. I am hoping these are teething issues as an early adopter, but I wish I had waited to buy into this product as it frustrates me to own such an expensive headset which is presently a paperweight. I don't want to stop using the rest of the RGB devices I own from Corsair as a sacrifice to keep being able to hear. My initial impression was good, build quality was excellent, comfort was excellent and it sounded very impressive with the in-store audio samples. I was not looking to buy a new headset and am normally very frugal, so this sold me unexpectedly. Thumbs up there. Unboxing, also great. (Virtuoso SE bag is fun but kind of pointless). I bought these on a lunch break at work, and I tried them on the work PC both wirelessly and wired. Audio was crisp, clear and lovely, no hiss. (Note, work PC does not have iCUE). I tried these on my primary gaming PC when I got back and things started to go downhill. I had an older version of iCUE on that didn't recognise the headset, so when plugged in they used Windows 10 default driver and control, everything still sounded good. I updated iCUE and here things dropped from a user interface perspective, iCUE did not like the headset, and pairing was frustratingly inconsistent. At this point it installed its own drivers and the issue with 2.1 or 8.1 channel came up. Eventually I got that sorted by repeatedly uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers. I applied the firmware patch and this also caused some issues, crashing mid install of the dongle update and showing no progress, with a concerning message about how interrupting may cause corruption - but, nothing to do when it crashes itself mid way through! I am lucky enough to have just upgraded my system, so I had a second PC to try this on for round 2. Fresh install of Windows 10, iCUE not yet installed. Same problem, everything sounded and worked quite seamlessly when not using iCUE, but all the same problems emerged once it was installed. To summarize the actual symptoms that made me take these off and go back to my $50 no name gaming headset (Note, these were observed on 2 separate machines, ranked least to most troubling): Bass is kinda weak even with equalization, audio is frustratingly quiet even at max. 7.1 audio sounds like a swimming pool and I can't use Dolby processing as an alternative without uninstalling iCUE. Device failing to recognize when on wireless and losing iCUE pairing to adjust settings. (This has gotten better). Windows would initially would only recognize headset as 2 channel audio. Constant background hiss whenever audio is playing (USB & Wireless)* Cracks and pops, distorted audio in Apex Legends that makes me disoriented. This is what made me take them off and set them down to await some improvement in drivers, it made the game unplayable. I play a lot of Apex. * I don't think this one is mentioned elsewhere in the thread. But in hope of things improving - everything sounded great when initially plugged into my PC. Everything seemed to go wrong with iCUE and the firmware patches. tl;dr - I wish I had read the reviews here and waited a little, right now I don't feel the headset is usable and I'm wondering if this will be addressed or if I should return them.