[section_title title=”Performance and Testing”]
Performance and Testing
Now is when we go deeper into Mordor by looking at the performance and additional features that go along with this headset to see what makes this thing tick. This is marketed as a gaming headset, and people sometimes do go out and pay ridiculous prices for gaming headsets, I think Steelseries hit a good price with this and have got a great performance back too!
Now I don’t know about many people who use their PC’s but I’m not a gaming only person when it comes to mine. It really is multi-purpose for me, I listen to music, watch ridiculous YouTube videos like Jeremy Kyle of all things, etc, as well as games, so needless to say I’ve had this headset through some paces to see if it works well for things other than games. I tried it with bass heavy songs, atmospheric games that require quality sound, and even some of my favourite shows to watch, just to see how it goes. I haven’t had any bad experience with this headset at all, and the microphone for all that it is when you look at it, performs rather amazingly well under the circumstances!
The build quality of this headset is fantastic to me, the thing can definitely take a bit of a beating. I have a 4 year old in the house and it’s survived that hurricane of madness more than once. With me being a clumsy guy added to the mix, I’d say this is a headset designed to last, rather than to just be a temporary fancy piece.
Software
The software for this headset is rather simple and easy to install, it’s mostly used for the sound side of things, making it sound just how you like it, whether it’s for gaming or whatever else you want. The presets for sound are Movie, Music, Game, basically all you essentially need, easily changeable at your fingertips, there are further presets for the Equalizer, they are as follows:
- Custom
- Balanced
- Performance
- Immersion
- Entertainment
- Music
- Voice
The fun side is the changing colours, you can change to any colour you want at all, which is why I’d deem this software a requirement really! Changing the colours is easily done, simply click the LED symbol, and choose your colour and you’re good to go! There is an Illumination Effect which has presets too, they are Steady, ColourShift, Multi Colour Breathe and Disable Illumination (for those spoil sports).
Comfort
For me personally, the first line of defence when it comes to getting a headset is judging how comfortable it would be, especially when I sit for long sessions on my PC. The Siberia 350 is a very comfortable headset to be wearing for long periods of time. I had a Corsair Vengeance headset and it was not only not as comfortable to wear for extended periods, but the Corsair headset got far dirtier, far quicker. I feel the suspension headband is the best part of this headset for me personally, it means not only does it feel comfortable as soon as you slip it onto your head, you don’t need to adjust it after someone else uses it either. The headset literally adjusts itself to the shape of your head without you having to mess about with it. I haven’t really felt the headband hurt my head at all, there hasn’t been any rubbing up against my head to get me bothered, even when I wear a hat to have a go at the PC.
The earcups fully surround the ears and means the headset is completely isolated and you will not hear anything in the background while you’re playing games, and people probably won’t hear what you’re playing either! If you wear glasses you will probably experience a little bit of discomfort if you’re wearing them for an extended period of time. The wire on the headset is a bit of an annoying thing, I feel it’s rather short at 1.5m, with my PC being not much shorter a distance from me, but thankfully it’s plugged in my keyboard now!
Sound Quality
When it came to testing this, I had it tested with many files, I couldn’t test on smartphones due to the USB connector. I feel that this headset performs at a fairly high-level and out performs previous headsets I’ve had in my possession which is quite a lot I have to say, I mentioned before about playing Montas with this headset. When I used the headset for this particular game I was truly terrified, even with it being summer and in the middle of the day! In Battlefield 4 I could hear everything crisply and clearly, and it was refreshing to hear a game and only a game, rather than my ear slipping out and hearing the kids watching My Little Pony… I also felt this handled the bass very well, and I felt my bloody eardrums shaking while I was listening, with this being a headset designed specifically for games in association with “The World’s Best ESports Teams” I feel it did very well handling things other than games. The sound quality I feel has earned the price tag and then some, the style is original too with the earcups colour changing led’s.
Microphone Quality
While the microphone isn’t something you can remove from this headset, it is however a nice discreet one that you can literally push away into the earcup. Now if you compare it with standalone microphones, god knows it isn’t going to win some spectacular award, but what it does is really great as it saves people on a budget wanting a good gaming headset from buying a microphone while they’re at it! That the headset is something you can simply take out and put away when needed is a very handy thing indeed!
