Vankyo CM7000 Commander Gaming Headset – Part 2

I’ll admit – I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly, or I would have waited to post yesterday’s review on the Vankyo CM7000 Commander Gaming Headset. So I was SHOCKED when Canada Post knocked on my door at lunch with an Amazon package.

Firstly, I didn’t expect it to come from Amazon, since I had been dealing directly with Vankyo’s support with the original headset.

Secondly, I wasn’t expecting anything until sometime next week. 7 to 9 business days was just under two and a half. Friday, Monday, Tuesday morning. WOW.

I am super impressed. Enough that I sent CSR Lydia a note, thanking her for the quick response. That’s some great customer service, in my opinion!

So, back to the part of the headset I couldn’t really review yesterday. And it gets a bit weird for me. Let me tell you why.

When I plugged it in, I immediately opened up my sound settings to check everything out. Put the levels up to 100, just as before. Looked at the levels. Saw they were really low, like before. Clicked the test button, did a little vocal test cycle, clicked stop. Maximum level was 2%. CRAP!! That’s what I had from the first one!

Opened up Adobe Audition to do a little recording. Yes. Still barely audible. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!!

So, again, I detached from the USB adapter and plugged the 3.5mm jack into the splitter, splitter into the sound card directly. STILL low. CRAP!!

Well, let’s see how bad it is on a call. Opened up Teams, called the Echo test bot. Hmm. I sound okay in the playback. What the heck is going on?

So I plug the headset into my phone and call my daughter. She says it sounds really clear, even when I whisper. What black magic is going on here?

Back to Teams, through the USB adapter. Call up a co-worker for a test. At least if it’s bad, she’ll make fun of me for it. Always good for a laugh that way. It’s good. It’s clear. I’m baffled.

So I once again dragged my daughter into the mix and started a call on Discord. She recorded it on her end and played it back for me. It was loud and clear. Exactly what I hoped for. But it STILL won’t give me proper levels in Audition.

And then, just for a first-hand account, I had my daughter connect with the CM7000 over Discord and she was crystal clear on my end. Every bit as crisp and clear as the EG3, which I already regard very highly.

Honestly, I don’t know how to interpret it. It works, but it’s still somehow slightly flawed. But it does exactly what it’s supposed to, as far as people hearing you in chats/calls/conferences/etc.

I think I’m going to remain mystified, but satisfied.

Would I recommend the Vankyo CM7000 Commander, based on my experience? I would have to say yes. Even with the bit of weirdness I experienced, and its continuing inability to pull up levels in Audition (which isn’t honestly my intended use for this headset anyway), the sound is quite nice, they are comfortable for long periods, the fit my head wonderfully, and the microphone is delivering crisp, clear sound on all of my calls. Give this a listen:

That recording pretty closely mirrors what I heard coming back in the Discord call.

I think anyone using this headset for gaming or streaming will be quite happy with the results. If you’re looking for a headset for use on Teams/Zoom/Discord/etc calls, you may just get compliments on how good you sound!

Add all of that together with a great support experience when I DID have an issue and I’d have to give the Vankyo CM7000 Commander Gaming Headset five stars. Okay, I WOULD say 4.5 stars, due to the weird mic level thing that I may never figure out, but Amazon doesn’t let you give half point ratings.

Honestly, I’d never heard of Vankyo before. But checking out @VankyoOfficial on Twitter was pretty interesting. They’re officially on my radar now.