Gaming headphones play an integral part in every gamer’s setup. The Acer Predator Galea 500 is one such peripheral that brings your games, music and movies to life. At first glance, the Galea 500 looks intimidating and rightfully so. Even the box that came with it is abnormally huge; whether Acer Predator is overcompensating for something, we will never truly know.

Unboxing the Galea 500 was already a chore on its own as the box was way too big. Most gaming headphones come in medium-sized boxes that can be easily dismantled; Acer Predator takes it one step further to up the wow factor of the Galea 500, putting it in a tall hexagon-shaped container that took me almost 10 minutes just to get it open. An unwelcoming start to a review, might I add.

It’s Freaking Huge

Aside from the obvious “that’s what she said” joke, the Galea 500 is insanely huge right out of the box. Design-wise, it looks like any other pair of gaming headphones, but with a few extra features thrown in. One of the first things you’ll notice is the non-retractable headband; instead, you’re greeted with a rubberised headband that can be stretched to fit slightly larger heads. What’s bad about this is that my head is way too small to fit the headphones, even in its current shape.

This means that there isn’t a properly secure fit onto my ears and head, making the headphone wobbly at the slightest of movements. This was the first thing that irritated me to a great deal; I would have to keep adjusting it periodically and sometimes, it would just slip right my ears without any warning.

Other than its sizing and fitting, the Galea 500 comes with ulluminated Acer Predator logos on both sides of the earcups in its signature blue colourway. This is blocked off by a circular grill, which gives off a more subtle approach without the LED logos getting too bright. Encased in the left earcup is a retractable in-line mic that is also illuminated with the same blue hue. This is also another cause of annoyance because it cannot retract all the way into the earcup. While you won’t really notice it, a simple side glance to the left and it’s there ready and waiting.

The Sound Makes Up for its Design

I would consider the design of the Galea 500 to be a hit-and-miss at best, but what really blew me away was the sound quality. First thing first, the Galea 500 was built for more than just gaming, it was fine-tuned to even bring your favourite movies and music to life. I’ll come back to its benefits when gaming in a bit; when used for music, the Galea 500 made almost every song on my Spotify sound many times better than it usually does. Well, I did say almost every song; mumble rap is horrible and whoever listens to it should be shot (present company included).

Putting it through the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack (I’ve been binging on it for weeks), the results came back far greater than I could’ve expected. The Galea 500 had great highs and mids when it came to music with a classical element. Even putting it through ‘Serenade in G Major’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the sound came out so much better than most headphones I’ve run through so far. The only one’s the Galea 500 did lose out to were from major audio engineering brands like Bose, Sennheiser and the like.

However, it does hold its own against other formidable gaming brands. Lastly, I had to test out ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen because… well, it’s Queen. Safe to say, I was left a very satisfied listener. The lows were particular impressive as well with the likes of Deadmau5 and Daft Punk actually sounding pretty solid. Bass drops were significant without smothering the overall quality of the song.

Movies were also a joy to behold as I paired the Galea 500 on almost everything I’m currently binge-watching on Netflix at this very moment. Some of it includes season two of Jessica Jones, Altered Carbon and some Brooklyn 99 reruns because I need my daily dose of comedy. The sound was pretty clear and concise, which is due to its bio-cellulose membrane driver. This gave it that ideal surround sound that is steadily becoming a common trait in most headphones.

3D Soundscape Technology

Of course, none of this could’ve been accomplished if it wasn’t for Acer Predator introducing its 3D Soundscape Technology into the Galea 500. The headphones come with an in-line remote that gives you the choice to tune it the way you want it to. However, there are only three options: Music, Movie and Sport. While the first two are completely obvious, Sport mode doesn’t really help much when it comes to sports-related video games so I couldn’t understand the purpose of it being there.

There is also the choice of 3D Soundscape, which turns whatever game you’re playing into real life. More specifically, if you’re into first-person shooter games, the Galea 500 is the pair for you. With the 3D Soundscape feature turned on, you’ll be able to hear exactly where your enemies will be coming from. You have no idea how helpful this has been whenever I play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).

To be honest, the Galea 500 actually helped me get a few chicken dinners since I’ve had it. What’s great about the 3D Soundscape feature is that it picks up noise from all directions. For example, tilting your head left to where the sound is coming from, you’ll pick it up from the right earcup and vice versa. It’s this sort of technology that makes games like PUBG and CSGO borderline cheating, but who cares right.

The Galea 500 is also one of the very few gaming headphones that comes with a USB port rather than a headphone port. While this took some getting used to, I realised that the overall sound quality is much better as compared to headphones with the usual 3.5 mm jack.

Worth it?

While comfort and design is a bit of a letdown for me, the Galea 500 is a beast in terms of performance and audio quality. Sadly, one thing that does disappoint me a great deal about the Galea 500 is its price tag. Standing at RM1,399, that is an exorbitant amount to pay for a pair of headphones, especially one that is from a gaming brand and not from one of the more popular household names.

With that sort of price tag, you could easily go for other gaming brands that offer similar performance at one-third the price. You will even have enough spare cash to get yourself a decent gaming mouse and keyboard to boot. With that said, the Galea 500 is a decent pair of headphones with great performance ratings.