Today I’m going to be reviewing the LTC Sound Slave 502 headset. This headset can be used as both 2.4GHz or Bluetooth modes and is the successor to LTC’s 501 wired/wireless headset that was released a couple of years ago.
LTC claims that the Sound Slave 502’s are an upgrade to the previous model with regards to having a 2.4GHz Bluetooth connection, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) and more comfortable ear cups.
What’s In The Box
As with most every product, you have a user manual. First, there is a detachable microphone, a short USB-C extension cable, a USB-C to USB-A charging cable and the headphones themselves. Also included is a USB-C wireless dongle. This dongle is used to plug into the computer to allow you to achieve the 2.4GHz wireless connection.
Detachable Microphone 2.4GHz Dongle Type-C Extension Cable Type-C Charging Cable User Manual
Design And Comfort
When pulling these out of the box, my first impression is how nice they look and how durable they feel. They have a bit of weight to them, but in a good way. They aren’t super heavy, but you can tell they aren’t just cheap, plastic headphones. The band that goes across the top is plastic, not it’s a thicker, more well-made plastic. There is of course soft-padded leather that rests on your head when you put them on. Again, a very sturdy feel to all of this.
The band can be adjusted to fit to size by sliding the sides up and down like most headphones today. You shouldn’t have any issues getting them to fit exactly how you are wanting them to fit.
The ear cups have a hard plastic shell and they even twist and rotate which is a feature I absolutely love when it comes to headphones. This allows you to lay them flat on your desk or wherever and not take up near as much space as a set that doesn’t fold. The ear cups are marked with an L and an R so you know which way they are to be worn. There is also an L and an R on the inside of the ear cups too.
On the right ear cup is where all the controls are located. You will find the button to enable/disable ANC, a volume up and next button, a play/pause button, volume down and previous button, the USB-C charging port and the on/off switch. All of these buttons are nicely placed on the ear cup and are fairly easy to push and use without much hassle.
The padding on the ear cups is really good. They are super soft, allowing me to wear them for about 5 hours at one point without any issues, which is something I normally can’t do with over the ear headphones.
The band when it sits on top of your head is comfortable as well due to the soft leather. This is extremely important to me since I am bald, and a lot of headphones don’t have enough padding to be completely comfortable in this specific area.
Controls
On the right side is the power switch. It’s a simple slider that allows you to turn the power on and off to the headphones. When you turn them on, the LED indicator will either be orange for the 2.4GHz mode or blue for Bluetooth mode. Two switch modes, you simply hold down the Play/Pause button for about 3 seconds.
On the underside is the NAC switch as well as the volume up and down buttons. As mentioned above, the volume up and down buttons also act as the next and previous buttons. Located down here is also the play/pause button. Next to all of those is where the USB-C charging port is located.
As mentioned above, these headphones do 2.4GHz wireless mode. If you don’t have Bluetooth available or simply don’t want to use Bluetooth, you can take the included dongle, plug it into a USB-C port on your PC, laptop, Switch or whatever and use them that way. The good thing about this dongle is, LTC includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter in the box, so having an actual USB-C port isn’t necessary.
To pair the headphones in 2.4GHz wireless mode, simply hold the plus and minus buttons for about 3 seconds to put them into pairing mode. They should connect very quickly and easily at this point.
Regardless if you’re using the LTC 502’s in wireless or Bluetooth mode, you will have a range of 33 feet (10 meters) from your PC or device to the headphones themselves.
Sound Quality
The number one question that everyone has is, what was the sound quality like? Out of the box they sound really good. The LTC 502’s use 40-millimeter large aperture drivers that deliver a higher sound and decently good bass.
During gameplay they sound quite punchy and crystal clear, especially when using them in a game that does voice chat, such as Fortnite or something similar. To me, they weren’t too loud which a lot of headphones can be and due to this, I could hear background effects and exposures in a nice, immersive way.
Now, let’s talk about Active Noise Cancellation, or ANC. This is where I feel the LTC 502’s really failed. I don’t believe this is something unique to my specific pair that I was sent as I know a couple of others who had this same problem. But when ANC is enabled, there is a distinctive humming sound in the background that is actually quite annoying, at least to me personally. The overall sound also seemed to be a bit hollower, or shallow in a way.
To me, I’m not sure the LTC 502’s require ANC in any way. When ANC is off, the sound is really good, and any outside noise doesn’t really come through the headphones.
I couldn’t get past the humming sound with ANC enabled, so for the rest of my testing and review period I used these headphones with ANC disabled as there was just a better overall experience without it.
The LTC Sound Slave 502’s have two omnidirectional microphones. One is built-in and located just above the 3.5mm headphone jack. There is also the detachable, flexible microphone that gets you a little better sound during intense gaming and chatting.
I used these headphones while playing Fortnite with a couple of friends of mine and neither of them complained about sound quality coming through the detachable mic as that was what I used at all times. I did do some quick testing over Discord with the built-in mic and was told everything sounded good. Nothing great or outstanding, but nothing bad either.
Battery Life
LTC claims that the Sound Slave 502 headphones will get about 16 hours of battery life if used in Bluetooth mode and 14 hours if used in 2.4GHz mode. Those times drop if you use ANC, so with the 2.4GHz mode and ANC enabled, you drop to about 11 hours and in Bluetooth mode with ANC enabled you’ll get around 12 hours of battery life.
My tests showed this to be pretty accurate at least without ANC enabled. As mentioned above, ANC on these headphones wasn’t a pleasant experience at all and something I chose not to use.
Discount Code
Thanks to the awesome folks over at Redragon for allowing me to review this product and others that they have sent over in the past. They have also provided me with a special URL that anyone can use to save a total of 10% off of your entire purchase across their site. So if you’re interested in purchasing the Redragon x LTC Sound Slave 502 Headphones, or any of their products, you can click this link: Save 10% On Your Entire Order. I believe if you don’t click the link, you can always manually input DECRYPTED as the code during check out.
Final Thoughts
The burning question here is, would I recommend the LTC Sound Slave 502 headphones? Yes and no. If ANC is an important feature, then the answer is quickly a no as far as my testing went. If you aren’t concerned with or in need of ANC, then hands down yes. These headphones are solidly built and very comfortable even after a few hours of continued usage.
They retail for about $59.99 and at that price you really can’t go wrong, even if you get them and don’t plan on using the ANC side of things.
These should be available by the end of this month, February, for $39.99 via this link: Redragon x LTC Sound Slave 502 Headphones.
As with most any product, there is always room for a bit of improvement but overall, these are a solid buy if you’re not looking to spend hundreds of dollars.
As of the writing of this review, the LTC Sound Slave 502’s are out of stock on Amazon but again, should be available by the end of this month, February.
Comments