Testing

To test the Siberia, I’ll be using a Creative X-Fi FatalOnety card meaning that the sound card won’t be the limiting factor. The X-Fi’s extra sound changing tools (crystallizer and surround) were turned off throughout the testing as they cause bass distortion at higher levels.

I used a whole bunch of songs, and played Battlefield 2142 solidly for a weekend with these headphones – all in the name of the review honest. After this time, I managed to see the strengths and weaknesses much better than just a quick sound test.
I’ll start with the bad news. As the speakers are at an angle to your head to accommodate your ears, if you have the headset in the wrong position, after about half an hour, your ears will ache. Positioning the headset in the right place fixes this problem, but it slowly slips down without your realising until your ears are on fire. As long as you don’t headbang, or reposition them regularly, you’ll be fine.

Other than this, they are very comfortable to wear over long periods of time. They are more than usable over hours of continuous gaming and you’ll miss the slight pressure the ear pads put on your head when you take them off. As there are many holes in the back of the speakers, ear can easily travel around your eye which stops your ears becoming hot and/or sweating in an intense fight.

Sound quality was pretty good, at least on par with the 5H v2 from SteelSound. Any headset sound review is always biased towards the users opinion, rather than a scientific test.

The bass on the speakers was good, but no better than the 5H. In fact, I would say that it is ever so slightly worse. I couldn’t get the same bass level that I could with, say, the 3H even (although those could get ridiculously loud with an ear destroying beat). This is probably because the frequency response of the 3H is much lower than the Siberia.

Where the Siberia shines is the high notes. Most headsets have muddy bass which overpowers the higher tones. Instead, this headset concentrates on getting both to the same level making neither one more obvious that the other. This means that you can clearly hear a gunshot and where it’s come from in Battlefield. The bass is enough for most games but a little lack lustre when you are playing something that needs a low frequency punch (think rap, drum and bass, techno, dance etc.). It should be noted that these are far from poor bass produced headphones, its just that I’ve used better.

The treble is so good, that even the Windows click sound sounds better with these headphones on.

With an X-Fi, sound quality at max and EAX 5 enabled, you need a good headset to be able to distinguish between the different sounds made. The Siberia does this perfectly as you can pick out the high notes easily. I was playing for a while just shooting whenever because it sounded so good; kills were even better.

I used a few songs to test the headset in different ways. I used the usual Black Sun Empire – Arrakis which puts the bass reproduction up for scrutiny, Basshunter - – Vi Sitter I Ventrilo Och Spelar Dota for bass and high notes, and Darude – Sandstorm which also does both high and low notes. All of the songs sounded perfect, with Arrakis being the only exception as the bass wasn’t quite on par with other SteelSeries headsets, although better than the Razer Barracuda.

To test the microphone, I used Skype to chat for a few hours to make sure that it was up to the job. I found that its best to clip the mic onto your monitor/desk rather than yourself as I managed to walk away with it still attached on more than one occasion.

You’ll have to careful with positioning as it’s so sensitive that the movement of your mouse on a hard pad can be heard and annoy your conversation buddy. Keyboard keys can also be heard. Fiddle around with the position and use all of the Velcro and you’ll soon find the sweet spot where only your voice is picked up.