The new EKSA Star Engine E5000 Pro is modelled after the legendary radial "star" engine - a rotary turbine plane engine typically found on biplanes!

 

Despite the budget price tag, the Star Engine E5000 Pro looks and feels more premium than the similar offering - E7000 Fenhrir headset. It features a green stitch PU leather headband that is padded on top and bottom with large EKSA branding laser etched on top. The headband integrates black anodized flat yokes, which hold the large bulky ear cups in place, allowing them to tilt up and down up to 45 degrees. There is a bit of swivel play but, you cannot properly rotate the earcups around to lay them flat against a desk.  

 

The Star Engine E5000 Pro comes with a detachable unidirectional boom arm microphone with a rubber plug connector and memory wire, which allows you to bend it in place at any angle you want. The detachable boom arm makes the Star Engine E5000 Pro more versatile, allowing you to use it like a normal pair of headphones. 

 

The boom arm measures 15cm long and weighs 11 grams and has a proprietary square plug, which plugs snugly and securely into the headset. It would have been nice if the square plug was a standard barrel instead, as this would make it more compatible with third party boom arm microphones.

 

In terms of performance, the Star Engine E5000 Pro unidirectional mic is the best type to have on a gaming headset. Most call centre type headsets use a unidirectional mic, which is naturally noise suppressing because it only picks sound from the direction of your mouth and very little from the sides and the back. 

 

The Star Engine E5000 Pro also has an additional ENC microphone built-in on the actual headset, which helps filter out background noise, blocking out keyboard typing, fans and background chatter. The ENC noise cancelling mic can be disabled via the software.

 

The front of the Star Engine E5000 Pro earcups have a radial engine styling made of hard plastic, including the grille mesh, which integrates green leds. More green accents can be found on top of the earcups (exposed green coil rubber cabling) and inside the earcups (heat printed green R/L markings). The earpads are thick and springy. 

The Star Engine E5000 Pro gaming headset comes with three different EKSA-branded premium cables with rubber plugs and purple accents. The cables include a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable (1.2 meters/22 grams), a male to male USB-C cable (1.2 meters/29 grams) and a USB-A male to USB-C female cable (70cm long/ 20 grams) designed to extend the length of the USB-C to 3.5mm cable. A soft suedette drawstring pouch is also included and, it is large enough to store the headphones and cable accessories. The pouch is very soft and features a purple heat printed EKSA branding. 

 

The Star Engine E5000 Pro gaming headset works across different platforms including Windows PC, PS4, Xbox One S/X and Android so, you can plug it into an Android phone. The E5000 Pro is a solid gaming headset with plenty of pluses, including a cool radial engine design, good quality microphone, powerful 50mm drivers with high impedance (55 ohms) and high sensitivity (112dB), thick and comfortable earpads and high passive noise isolation which helps immerse yourself into the audio. 

 

You can toggle between 7.1 surround sound and stereo sound right from the headset itself without having to run the software. The bass response is deeper in stereo than in 7.1 surround sound but, you can tweak the stock sound via the 10-band EQ in EKSA's software.

The only potential deal breaker with the Star Engine E5000 Pro is the lack of 3.5mm headphone jack and wireless connectivity. That said, the Star Engine E5000 Pro gaming headset supports two wired options via 3.5mm headphone jack connection and USB-C connection. There is no 3.5mm audio port built-in to the headset. You can buy the Star Engine E5000 Pro gaming headset from EKSA Tech.