Thorough review! I like that you are exploring crystal clear vision so you can see my tail lights better in I-racing.

Nice Video, thank you! I have been wanting to try VR again and I hear this one is the best and most clear out there.

Thank you so much Mover. Great review

Tough since the Bigscreen Beyond basically has the same resolution and clarity, probably better since micro-oled > qled. Crystal gives you some benefits for that extra $500 but man, the Bigscreen Beyond is less than 200g and the Crystal is almost 900g.

I'm split between buying the Crystal or waiting on the 12K. The 12K will be amazing but the Crystal reviews are tempting me to buy it and give it to one of my daughters when the 12K comes out. I have the Pimax 5K and the FOV is insane. So much more immersive when the fov is 200 degrees. It feels like I'm actually in whatever virtual world I use it for. But, the resolution is low. I wish Pimax would give an updated time frame for the 12K. If they said it would be 2 more years I'd grab the Crystal but if they said the 12K was coming out next year, I'd hold out.

Totally love my Crystal, I got it with controllers and it works surprisingly well for none sim VR too. I also have the counter weight. It did take some getting used to going from G2(the Cadillac of VR headsets) but i got used to it faster than i thought when I put it on for the first time. I've done sittings of several hours both sims and FPS, it evne works with my VR gunstock, which u didn't think it would given the size of the thing.

Been flying in dcs with crystal since it was released. Pretty spot on review.

I LOVE my studioform creative counterweights. They completely improve the sense of the HMD.

Great job on the review. I have had a very similar experience with the Crystal. FOV on headsets vary by individual, in my experience the Crystal has quite a bit more fov than my Rever G2 had. Something around 10 to 12 degrees more horizontal. Vertical it was about the same but the clarity and performance boost from DFR make all the difference. I am currently on a 10900k with a 3080 and am very pleased. After dialing in I am around 50 to 72 fps in DCS depending upon the aircraft and usually 45-50 for MSFS 2020. I have the hand tracking unit ordered so I will try to let you know my thoughts on that once I get it and test. Love your channel, have a good one and happy hunting. Oh I needed to add the DMAS headphones make for a nice add on as they get you about the same quality sound as the HP did and are much better than the standard headphones that come with it.

I just got the 15mm face pad installed last night. HUUUUUGE difference. So now I have the Apache strap with heavy counter-weight and the 15mm face pad. I wore the headset for nearly 2 hours last night with no pain on my head or face. Great!

A tip: Attaching additional weight to the back of the goggles is one option. As I use the Crystal exclusively for (seated) flight sim, I have mounted 2 pieces of the well-known cable management system on the ceiling to take the weight off the Crystal at the front. Works perfect.

Thanks Mover. I've had my eye on the Pimax Crystal for some time. I only have the Oculus Rift S and the aspheric lens is a real pain. Really interesting about that comfort strap and quite surprised Pimax didn't include that as an optional extra in the package. Like you, I'm waiting to upgrade both laptop and buy a new desktop with absolutely insane performance.

Great review.

Glad it's working out for ya. My other concern was barbell distortion so looking at f10 grid map showed bulging. Also there was red blue yellow chromatic abberation when looking at things. But maybe it was a quality control issue. Anyway for now I went back to the g2 it's so much lighter and easier.

I've had the Crystal since they first released it and I love it. I also moved from the HP Reverb G2. A comfort strap of some sort is critical to wearing the Crystal. Without the comfort strap it was hard to wear for even 30 minutes, with it, I can wear it for many hours, it was that big of a difference for me. I'm running a 13900k and a 4090 and performance is great. I frame lock at 60fps and set the refresh to 120, that seems to work best for me.

I was part of the Kickstarter. And switched to the Pimax 5K.i miss the wider FOV after having gone to the Vive. Glad to hear that foveated rendering works. Tempting.... 😂

I love my Crystal and they just keep improving it. 72 Herts for DCS is perfect as you said. Quadviews for eye tracking is a game changer. Love this headset

I've had the Crystal since the public release, came from a G2 V2, and I have the same computer specs you do. Your excellent review is spot on, mostly matching my experience. A few things. Is it possible you have the 42 ppd lenses? My FOV feels a little wider than the G2 (35 ppd lenses), although clarity may be the difference, and will improve with the wide angle lenses. I see those as a must extra. The difference in ground rush in my peripheral vision from the G2 is more than a little noticeable. The feel in the Crystal is more like I remember from the T-38 as I got over the overrun and close to the threshold. Love it. The 15 mm face gasket (basic is 10 or 11mm) helps comfort and gives extra room for prescription lenses. Clear lenses to protect the Crystal lenses isn't a bad idea either. The included USB hub is rubbish. I plug everything into the motherboard back panel and use an old Apple iPad charger plugged into the wall for the USB 2 connector. This is a variation from the suggestion of a German YTer. Now I'm getting 3 - 4 1/2 hours in DCS, vs 2+ hours plugged into the hub or mobo, and the battery charges much faster when the headset is off and idle. The trick for disconnecting the battery from the headset or the charger is to unlatch and move one side at a time. Very easy after doing it awhile. Not using DCS supersampling (DLSS), but only the DLAA, and finding good shadow settings is the key to exceptional quality. Most of what DCS does in their shadow settings can be done more efficiently (higher fps) a better visual quality in OpenXR Toolkit. Enjoy.

I like the wireless connectivity and pancake lenses on the quest 3. Playing VTOL VR without a cable getting in the way when looking around is nice. Same with all my racing sims.

I got Quest Pro and installed Quad Views foveated rendering in DCS. The gains are incredible. Also clarity contrast resolution all amazing...

Bought a Crystal a few weeks ago. Utterly brilliant, get theDMAS speakers, comfort strap and 14mm foam cushion. Frame rates will take a hit if you upgraded from a G2 and to get the best out of it you’ll probably need a 4090 and a 13900k. IL2 has never looked so good. It’s how I imagined VR would be when I bought a Rift S 😊

I've had my Crystal for about 3 weeks. Awesome headset. It is temperamental when it comes to setting it up. I had issues with the supplied USB hub and getting the eye-tracking to work. I couldn't calibrate the eye tracking until I replaced the hub with a 3rd party powered USB hub. I've read that the headset is picky with its power source. I too have the Apache strap and counter weight. I agree. Much better on the face and neck. I just got the 15mm face trim in the mail today. I will be putting that on as well. It's still gets a bit uncomfortable after a few hours wearing it. Especially on the bridge of my nose and forehead, even with the counterweight. Brings memories of UPT. I also have the hand tracker, which is pretty damn cool. I have no perfected the set up yet for DCS, but I play to do more tinkering soon.

Glad to see you upgrading since Windows is discontinuing WMR soon. I agree that comfort strap is a lifesaver... I couldn't wear mine for more than about 15 min, initially, but with the comfort strap I can wear it for hours. Do yourself a favor and get the DMAS audio for it, the off ear audio solution is much like the G2 and is so much better than what they gave you on that one. If you or your viewers have any questions you can't find answers for, I have lots of videos on my channel as well to try and help. Next thing we need to get you in is a motion platform :) Keep the great content coming, been a fan of your channel for a long time!

Nice 20 mike mike on the shelf...I remember finding brass on the ground at our test ramp on the way far side of the field...

Pretty much my thoughts too. Pros out way the Cons. The comfort strap is a must. Curious to hear what you have to say about battery life in a few weeks. I seem to have to change mine every couple of hours.

This is just my experience so far in DCS (F-18). Doesn't play well with AMD GPU's so keep that in mind. Having to reconnect it several times to get rid of the issue with one lens flashing and the other completely off can be a pain. The separate battery charger and the battery on the headset have zero tolerance when it comes to inserting or removing it from the cradle/holder. This also extends to the cable connection to the headset as this is the most convenient spot to disconnect it in order to fix the flashing lens issue. Removing the headset in order to interact with the keyboard and or sip on your coffee will automatically go into a reset of adjustment for position or eye tracking (if you haven't disabled auto ipd). The buttons that control the power and volume are not the greatest for function (Push button) or position as that's normally where I lift it up with my hand (right-handed). There is limited viewing space as you will notice the top and bottom and side to side black screen (tunnel vision). Also, for some reason the bottom of screen is always blurry unless you readjust the headset after auto adjustment. I didn't have any issues with comfort or the weight, but I am a former Marine so maybe actually being trained to carry the burden maybe a consideration. That being said, I would still recommend these overall if not most of the headsets on the market to date and I have been using VR since the original commercial headset came out. The clarity and ease of function for flight VR is still one of the most enjoyable with this headset and I haven't had any issue shooting down Airforce/Navy pilots, even while chewing on crayons. Yes, I'm looking at you Mower/Donkey...err Mover/Gonky.

Just got my Crystal today, replacing the Big Screen Beyond I got in January. I got the beyond because I wanted something light because I have had a fusion and artificial disc in my neck. The beyond was pretty uncomfortable for me, lots on pressure on my eye ridges and nose. Worked with their support and they were great but I couldn't wear it more than an hour at a time. The crystal is freakin impressive, first time in a while I've said Wow! in a VR headset. But yeah it's a beast and I feel it. I also just ordered the kit for the strap and weight. Hope it works wonders lol

Since my very first VR headset I've always McGyver'd a counter weight to take it off my nose and incease comfort. On my Quest 2 that weight is a 20,000mAh battery so I can run the thing for 10 hours without charging and still have comfort.

How well would this work if you use reading glasses? Would you wear them or not needed?

Great video! Mover would you be interested in trying Falcon BMS sim. I've recently heard great things about it so would be super curious about your opinion with your f-16 experience

Thanks for doing this. I'm going to buy one, as my Reverb G2 is on its way out. I tried the Quest 3 with the Oculus Link cable and it was worse than my G2. I later learned it uses lossy compression and it can't compare with native DP/HDMI.

It would be my dream to have a full motion VR set up !!

I upgraded from my reverb G2 and doing back to back tests the pimax has slightly larger fov but not drastic. But the performance is better than the G2. Love my crystal but the pimax top strap or aftermarket comfort strap is necessary. I also upgraded to the thicker 15mm comfort face gasket.

CW, in MSFS were you using DLSS 3 with frame generation to get that 50fps? Or was that without frame generation? Thanks for the video.

Great Video. Can you put the information on were you went to get the comfort scrap and weight?

Hope you point out the *massive* Quality Control and bad Customer Service issues that Pimax has...

Sounds like the CPU predated the GPU a tad so I expect you'll feel some bottleneck going away. I went Gen13 last year but a much bigger jump, so I really felt that one. Can you flip the eye tracking and get a manual IPD? The reason I ask is that in Elite I have a massive cockpit (STS) so it's more comfortable and better FOV with a wider IPD. When I'm in a more Earthly jet with a firewall of instruments in my face, the tighter IPD is needed. ........ Or maybe I just have eyes like Jim "Wash Out" Pfaffenbach from Hot Shots?

Off topic, where can we get an "in thrust we trust viper" t-shirt?

I came from the HP reverb G2 to the crystal and was initially disappointed with the comfort level. Looking at a PIMAX video on how to adjust the set helped somewhat. I was looking at getting the pimax top comfort strap to further improve comfort until I got the thicker face cushion. Wearing glasses, I found that the provided face cushion did not provide enough gap between the lenses and my glasses. I got the 15mm face cushion. I found that not only did it resolve my issues with glasses, but the comfort level improved. I find I now can wear it for hours at a time. There is a small hit to the FOV but for me comfort overrides this.

Damn 4090 and 14th gen. Got a beast of a pc

I’m surprised on the fov comment, I’ve had the crystal for a while. While it’s much smaller fov than the 8K i still think it’s pretty expansive.. that really surprised me, I guess I did not know that G2 had such a wide one

Im thinking about the Crystal, but im waiting until the Deckard/Index 2 is released before i make a decision. Content with my G2 for now.

I'm totally respecting the non-endorsement clause, but I do want a counterbalance for my headset. Thx for the tip!

the setting up is what scarces me and has prevented me to get it until now

The full Crystal VR headset that is currently available maybe nice, but it is far too expensive for me and it looks too heavy for me to think about doing long sessions with wearing it. Also some have problems or issues with PIMAX products. I will see what the Crystal Lite VR headsets have to bring to the table. They are more reasonably priced and maybe a little lighter weight on the head. I am in no hurry to get a new VR headset. I will wait and watch the videos when the new products are released for sale. Take care.

Hi , Do you have any setting or recommendation for making VR recording like this very smooth without shaking ? Because normally it's very shaking ! Thank you.

The Crystal is a great headset, best one I have owned so far. The comfort strap is a must. Another downside though is the requirement to have the battery charged, even if plugged into the PC… the included powered USB hub did not work for me, I purchased a separate USB hub and cable on Amazon and it has been great. Also, if your gaming space allows for it, the cable pulley system is a fantastic way to deal with the cable while seated in the rig, with the pulleys it feels like I do not have a cable hooked up to the headset.

I'm actually shocked that the FoV isn't wide enough. Why else wear a toaster-oven strapped to your face? Hope the new lenses or what ever their fix is helps! I'm going to try Steam's wireless link with the Quest3. Might give up some clarity, but the form factor and wireless are really nice to work with.

How does a FOV of a G2 or a PIMAX compare to the real world helmet mounted display? Do you have a perfect 180 degrees field of view when wearing a JHMCS? Or is it classified information? I'm just curious if it is one of the things I should focus on to make simulation more realistic when buying my next VR headset (I currently have the G2).

I wonder if bigscreen would send you one for review. I’m tempted to buy one, but haven’t found a reviewer I trust yet.

I’m mostly curious how things farther out look. That’s been the thing that’s kept me out of VR for iRacing especially, I makes me question my braking points. I love the quest 3 I have, but I really don’t use it for flight sims or racing sims because of that. It’s still clearer than my G2 that I had so many issues with the lead me to sending it back to HP and turning me off of VR for a long time. I can not wait for VR to catch up to monitors in terms of clarity.

I had the headset from launch. the graphic is great. it was out of the world when i 1st got into the viper. on a 4090 running at 90fps with DCS at full setting. only issue i got is the ghosting on speeding object.

how fast does the eye tracking work? ie can you dart your eyes to a dial for a split second and see what you need to or does it lag?

Do you still have that binoculars scuba diving Google’s view like in the HP Reverb G2 ? 😂 I have the HP Reverb G2 but it’s not good anymore , I have a lot of stutters 😢 now !

The latest Crystals come with a adjustable top strap.

After just a cursory experience with KZfaq reviews of the Crystal and Crystal Light, I'm still curious about the tracking efficiency. I don't see anyone demonstrating the looking high and back over the shoulder like you need in a dogfight and the enemy is getting behind you. Does it keep good tracking in those cases?

Yep, pimax seems the best choice after all, i was looking a lot in the beyond, but, no eye tracking it's a big deal. I'm waiting for the 12k and for the 5090 to change my setup :O

I have the Pimax Crystal and Reverb G2. I'm not a fan of the Battery and need to have it really. I like the FOV of the Pimax but not sure I like it really it better than G2. Still trying to figure out the eye tracking, DFR and quad view which I haven't really used yet or notice it being that great. It is clearer than G2, but not as comfy for sure. I do not like the weight , or when I'm talking on discord or Teamspeak, with teh G2 I can just lift the headset on top of my head and leave it and talk and hear, but with the Pimax I can't set it on top of my head or lift it and continue to talk using the mic

With your neck you should look into the big screen beyond. i run a stripped down reverb g2 because of the same reason my neck is %&@KED . for me resolution an weight are the key selling points of any headset

Good stuff, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. Just wondering if you experience any nausea in VR. Also curious as to if real fighter pilots tend to be less sensitive to the motion issues. Roller coasters don't bother me, but that Avatar 3D movie a few years back had me almost puking.

"Wherever you look it's going to give you the highest resolution" - if you keep your head still and move your eyes from the centre of the screen to the left or right edge, does it still get sharp all the way?

I am waiting for the pimax12k since it is the wide FoV version of the crystal.. I hope it will be good

You could try a thin bungie chord dropped from above (maybe the ceiling) to take some of the weight off your neck.

Great first impressions

Hey mover.. if you're upgrading to 14th gen intel cpu would you mind letting us know what motherboard you went with? I've been looking and some of them require BIOS updates to boot with a 14th gen cpu. All current ones are ready to go with 12 and 13th gen, but 14th is still hit or miss.

I love my Pimax, but single biggest complaint is the charging system. The hub sucks, and can't even maintain a charge when playing. You can overcome this with the Infinite Power Mod, but this means running another cable and spending more money. Otherwise, it's an amazing view when it works, particularly with the Almalence plugin. When the Crystal doesn't work, good luck. This is definitely a headset for those that are able and willing to tinker and deal with international RMAs when something doesn't work. I never had those problems with my G2, but man, it sucks flying with the G2 when the Crystal is going through an RMA.

I'm looking into this dcs thing but I've been out of the loop for a while. Quick background. I gotta go from the ground up new. I'm 50 years old and have the money. But I don't want what I don't need. I love flying and racing and that's it. Full stop. I'm ecm USAF honor grad from way back in the 90s so I'm smart enough, but I'm Gonky technically challenged because I haven't gamed since Microsoft 2004(the metal cased one) and Nascar ea sports in the same era. It's all going to be new construction. But I absolutely want nothing to do with the hyper serious Red Flag crap. That's work. I want to have fun and do some viper and hornet stuff. I'm also a 1000 hour ag pilot and former CFII so I think the tailwheel stuff would interest me too. Normal flying isn't what I'm looking for other than maybe instrument app. practice. To me this should be fun. Any advice including your setup specs would be awesome. I'm sorry for the long post. I've been watching your channel for a 100 years so I know how your videos align with what I'm looking for. Any additional advice would be awesome.

The official Pimax Comfort Top Strap is even more comfortable than the Studioform Apache Strap (I have both and I much prefer the official one as it's just more comfortable and easily adjustable when putting on the headset each time). I do still use the Studioform counter-weight with it though since that does help a bit. Just FYI. I find that the horizontal FOV with the Crystal is pretty well identical to the G2, but the Crystal has significantly better vertical FOV which is maybe why you felt like you were looking through a "soda straw" (because of the squarer view in the Crystal due to the increased vertical FOV). Overall it's an improvement over the G2 in terms of FOV in my experience.

I had a reverb g2 before the crystal, and the crystals FOV is much better than the G2. Also, the crystal has edge to edge sharpness that the g2 doesn't have.

I have the same CPU/GPU as you. Well be good to see what difference the 14900k makes in DCS! Have a good one 😊

Hi Mover, how narrow do you think the FOV of the Crystal is when compared to the helmet of the real jet? thx

Will keep my Aero👍

You should try the big screen beyond ,The world's smallest VR headset. Featuring OLED microdisplays with 2560 x 2560 pixels per eye, custom pancake optics, and SteamVR tracking - all in an unbelievably small form factor weighing just 127 grams. And for ultimate comfort, Bigscreen Beyond is custom-built for you - fitted to the shape of your face and sized for your eyes - using a 3D Face Scan.

Now that the Apple Vision headset is out, companies will start improving their headsets. I'm going to wait until can upgrade my PC rig

I have 13900 k and 4090 I can get 90 fps with med settings in sims , however I went to 72 lab mode and runs nice on higher settings very cool😮😊

You're allowed to speak in metric... the rest of the world gets ya 😉 I'm still very happy with my G2 and in no rush to upgrade. But this headset does look like the next logical step! Question: How is your neck after prolonged wearing of a flight helmet? I mean, I have done 8 hour motorbike rides.. (my shoulders do cover most of the weight) so it's not too bad. But, do you think.. if VR came out with a full size helmet.. and the screen was your actual helmet visor, would this be a better option in the future?

I have the G2. I thought the main selling point of the Pimax was it's incredible wide field of view? You just said it wasn't...

Am I seeing resolution pixelation? Or is that YT compression?

I got a bad one in yesterday. Low fov below what is normal , and the eye tracking is broke and one speaker is out. Sent pics to Pimax and now they are gonna replace it and a bad controller it came with.

I highly recommend the Pimax official comfort strap. It’s a lot better than the Apache strap and keeps the headset in place better.

Unfortunately my experience with the Crystal was the opposite. The amount of chromatic aberration was crazy and no amount of adjustment helped. Had to return it.

Assuming you've in the past (how distant would be interesting) used actual military flight sims, how do the visuals compare?

Quest 3 is sweet spot of PCVR for non VR ONLY players (Play both VR and monitors) unless money is not your problem at all.

Eye tracking is the biggie for me. Whether it's on the Aero, QPro or Crystal it makes such a big difference to performance i'm not sure I can see myself buying a headset without it now.

I must be one of the few non-simmers using a Crystal, which I only bought the other week. The size takes some getting used to - I accidentally punched myself in the headset at one point, doing something that would have been safer in a smaller device. Mostly I'm loving it, but it's definitely a product for enthusiast tinkerers, not the wider market that's now playing VR. Maybe they should be marketing it that way, because it's as extensible as the Somnium VR is promising to be. Pimax aren't good at comms and PR, which is a shame because they've increasingly been delivering the features they promised at the start.

Great

With the price of this set and the death of the HP G2 I'm now priced out of the VR scene for a long while.

Wait wait wait....you don't use flight controls (stick, etc) for DCS or MSFS? Just keyboard+mouse?

@C.W. Lemoine & all others, you should know that the quality in this video is worse than what you actually see in the Crystal. This is because videos and screenshots of the VR image unfortunately only record the "poorer" resolution of the QuadView (peripheral view).

thanks , i'll keep the G2 for now, sounds like 1700 is approx. price, a bit steep

Dammit after watching this I went ahead and bought it

I have both. It’s not worth by any stretch of the imagination the additional cost compared to the g2.

test WarThunder (free mmo) VR air sim - game using one thread cpu, and i think not use quadview

Thanks Mover. Especially since WMR is going bye bye ...( for most Reverb users). Sucks but it is what it is.

I thought the pimax was supposed to have the widest FOV?

When are we getting the apple vision pro review out?

Im disapointed with crystal. flying in day its perfect, but in late sunset, or night.. its horrible.. looks like 6bit image, or worse. much worse like G2... i trying everything for tune image.. but looks like too low color bits. can help somebody?

I can see Future air force recruiters asking young adults. How many hrs have you spent flying DCS. 😂. They will be ready. That thing looks like a Temu version of the f35 helmet

VR......how do i use my ''Virpil Sticks/Control Panels/Stream Decks'', because VR is still so stagnant and bodtched as a tech. I can upgrade from VR to Tobi eyetracker2 2 and its like jumping 10 yrs into the future, VR is a mess?

Bro, please play Tekken 8 using the UEVR MOD. Us rez scale 1.6 or so. It is epic.