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Product:
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SteelSound 5H v2 USB Headphones |
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Price:
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$115 (CDN) / $103 (U.S)
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Supplied By:
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SteelSeries
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Author:
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Mars
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Date:
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October 5th, 2006
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Rating:
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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The SteelSound 5H v2 USB Headphones also have a retractable microphone. The wires for the microphone are housed inside a flexible
steel tube that has a plastic outer shell, eliminating the wires from binding and breaking from prolonged use.
Testing:
The SteelSeries website shows the SteelSound 5H v2 USB headphones available with or without a soundcard. My review set did not include
the aforementioned soundcard and as a direct result for testing I will be using the on board motherboard sound ports and the supplied
USB adapter.
- AMD 64 X2 3800 (OC’d @2.6)
- Asus A8N32- SLI Deluxe
- 2 Gig OCZ PC 3200 Platinum
- 2 BFG 7900 GT’s (SLI)
- I-Star 750w Server Class PSU
- Plextor PX-716SA SATA DVD Burner
- Seagate 320Gb SATA II Hard Drive
- Games -> F.E.A.R
- Games -> Quake 4
- Games -> Call Of Duty 2
- Sound -> Various music
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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Under Windows XP, the device was immediately recognized and installed; the next step was to install the drivers from the CD. This
was a bit of work, as the CD auto run feature did not work, and I was forced to search for the executable manually on the disk.
Once the drivers were installed an icon was placed in the task bar, clicking the icon opens the control panel for the headphones.
The driver installation also set the C-Media USB device as my default sound device in Windows.
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Click image for larger view
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Click image for larger view
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Within the GUI the user can set whether the output is either analog or digital and if the analog output it is directed to headphones
or speakers. Pressing the speaker shifter tab opens an area where the user can change the way the virtual 7.1 sound is processed.
There are icons for the speakers that can be moved around to simulate speaker placement in relation to the users sitting position.
The effect tab opens up a control panel allowing the user to select various predefined sound effects, as well as custom or
predefined equalizer settings. Using various chat programs with voice technology, I was able to voice chat with people and was
heard with the utmost clarity and definition.
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Conclusion:
After spending a couple of days listening to a wide variety of music and playing a host of games, I was moderately impressed
with SteelSound 5H v2 USB Headphones. I found the virtual 7.1 surround setting of some benefit in games, but not as effective
as a four point speaker surround system. While gaming I found the SteelSound 5H v2 USB headphones did not live up to what I
had expected in terms of pin point accuracy of other opponents although some sounds such as foot steps and gun fire sounded a
little more up front and pronounced. At times there was too much reverb and echo and required some major tweaking for the
different games that I played. Overall I feel that the SteelSound 5H v2 USB headphones did a decent job of taking information
from two channels and reworking them into a virtual 7.1 environment with only two speakers. The audio music quality was pretty
good through these headphones and the microphone was able to transmit my voice in chat programs with an almost real life feel to
it. Overall, I'm awarding the SteelSound 5H v2 USB Headphones a final rating of 7.5 out of 10.
If you have any questions regarding this review, be sure to visit the SteelSeries
website for more information or discuss them in our forums.
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Pros:
- Nicely integrated headphone and microphone
- Foam and cloth earpieces
- Can be dismantled for easy transportation
- Volume and microphone control pod
- Variable wire length
- Decent sound quality headphones
- Microphone voice quality was clear and well defined.
- Comfortable to wear for long periods
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Cons:
- Virtual 7.1 offered some benefit
- Could not pinpoint other players like four point speakers can
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