It’s been over two years since I first stumbled upon the SADES brand. Since then, the company has been doing a lot to push their products globally. When I went to the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in 2014 to meet their Sales Manager, Mr. Deng, he told me about all the things they were doing to tap into the international market.

All of it sounded very promising.

In these past couple of years, they’ve rebranded their package and product design, and have even dived into creating Bluetooth headsets and other gaming peripherals — with mixed results in my opinion. With all those under their belt, it only seemed inevitable that they would try to revamp some of their current products.

This is exactly what they did by releasing the SADES Knight Plus.

What is it?

The SADES Knight Plus is an upgraded version of the previous SADES Knight (a.k.a. SA-907), which was made for a more competitive kind of crowd — obvious from the design.

Priced at US$59.99 on Amazon, the Knight Plus boasts 7.1 virtual surround sound, a cool gamer aesthetic, and bright blue LED lights that can be found not only on the ear area but also on the headband — something I haven’t seen on a headset before.

Despite being one of their higher priced products, however, the Knight Plus does not feature the vibration function found in cheaper products like the Spellond (US$41.03).

What’s new!

The SADES headset driver that comes inside the Knight Plus’s CD is now compatible with Windows 10 , unlike their previous models. Though the software has not changed one bit over the years, this improvement for compatibility is definitely a Plus (*wink*) to the product.

However, I would like to see SADES improve their clunky software in the future.

Design-wise, SADES Knight Plus and its predecessor are very much alike. The only thing that seems to be different is the USB cable: no longer is it made of that braided material that caused issues for me and other users; it’s now made of reinforced plastic.

The increased compatibility and change of material are both welcome additions.

Comfort

For the price, the Knight Plus is pretty hefty on the head — a sign that they actually invested quite a bit of material into it. Instead of going the usual route of reducing plastic and creating a flimsy piece of equipment simply to reduce cost, SADES obviously put in the time to make the Knight Plus feel good.

The cushions on the headband and on the ear cups are really soft and mold well to the head. The headband itself is also pretty flexible despite the overall build being sturdy.

You may find yourself getting a small headache after playing a few hours with the headset on, but it’s nothing a little bit of rest can’t fix.

Performance

The SADES Knight Plus and its 7.1 surround sound work well together, as expected from the brand. Compared to their cheaper models, the Knight Plus has more detail and has more punch in the mids and lows.

It sounded great with most games I played because of that. Shooters like Overwatch and Orcs Must Die! 2 were enjoyable to play with this headset. It did decently with rock, pop, and electro genres of music I listened to. For gamers and casual listeners, this does well for the price.

However, for those of you looking for a more neutral-sounding experience, I wouldn’t recommend it. Listening to a few of my audio mixes, I found that many of the details were drowned out. While the punch I mentioned previously was great, it comes at the expense of getting less out of the highs.

The microphone would be the most disappointing part of the headset. Although its noise-reduction feature takes away the static we’ve come to expect from microphones like these, it also takes away a lot of clarity in the voice.

Considering that the Plantronics Gamecom 380 with its superb microphone is priced at less than US$50 on Amazon nowadays, the quality you’re getting doesn’t suit the almost US$60 price tag.

You can check out the microphone quality in my video review here.

Overall

The SADES Knight Plus seems like a decent option for the US$59.99 price range. Although it isn’t outstanding when it comes to its sound, the overall headset seems to be built with balance in mind.

It has a cool techy design and is made to be sturdy while at the same time providing a great gaming experience, despite the muddy microphone.

As a person who places higher value on sound quality, I would rather go for some of their cheaper products as they have better bang for your buck in that regard. If, however, I put myself in the shoes of someone who prioritizes looks and build quality,  I don’t see why the Knight Plus can’t be a consideration.

If I had to give SADES one piece of advice though, it’d be to focus more on creating their low-priced products rather than trying to compete in the over US$50 range. They’re more likely to be outshined otherwise.

For a more visual look at the headset, be sure to check out my video review!

Disclosure: The seller of this product, Gemini Doctor, provided a sample for an honest review. No monetary compensation was derived from this relationship.