Steelseries Siberia Neckband High quality sound in a high quality package

Author: Toni 'HaoKi' Siik Published: 28.07.2008 Manufacturer: SteelSeries Product Group: Audio In English Suomeksi

Sound Quality

These headphones really surprised me with their sound quality. After using these headphones for the past few weeks while gaming on the computer or while listening to music from my iPod, I really don't have anything bad to say about the sound quality. I've listened to everything from classical music to hardcore trance and metal and the headphones have played back everything beautifully that I've thrown at them.

While gaming I tested the headphones mostly by playing online FPS-games. Good clear playback really can improve your game as you can hear every footstep and explosion with great clarity. How well you can hear and locate footsteps in a tight match really can help you win a round.

I tested the microphone mainly while gaming, and ever getting the microphones position in order, all of the random growls and occasional swear words were recorded and transmitted with good clarity.

Comfort

Despite the headphones small size, they manage to cover ones ears completely, which makes the headphones comfortable to wear. They really are almost unnoticeable, as they really don.t put very little pressure on the ears. This however poses a problem. Depending on the shape and size of one's head, the headphones can feel a bit shaky. Even if the headphones stay on your head fairly well, they tend to slump down slowly. This may put some pressure on the ears and it may feel somewhat uncomfortable. However even if the headphones slip down slowly or feel a bit shaky, they don't fall down that easily.

Another thing that bothers me a little is the fact that you can't have the headphones just cover one ear. I actually find myself using my other headphones on one ear fairly often so that I can actually hear something that people around me talk.

Accessories

As the headphones wire is fairly short (1.2 m), the included extension cord really proved useful. With its help the length of the headphones wire grows all the way up to 2.7 meters, so that it'll reach the back of your computer nicely. The included volume-control is also fairly useful as you don't have to jump back to the desktop to adjust the volume while gaming. Without the extension cord, the headphones wire is just long enough to be used with a laptop or a portable music player. In those cases a longer wire really isn't as useful as it tends to be in the way.

Sadly, as I don't own an Xbox 360, I didn't get to test the adapter that was supplied with the headphones. I am fairly sure though that it does its job just fine.

Conclusion PROS  The sound quality The looks Retractable microphone CONS  The uncertain fit - depending on the user Silver Award! After using these headphones for a couple of weeks I really am happy with them. The sound quality of the headphones is really good, especially when you consider their price. You can get a pair of these for around 65 € in Finland at the moment. The looks of the headphones are really nice, clean and simple. These really are one the best looking headphones that I've seen and used. The retractable microphone really adds more to the versatility of the headphones. This way you can have the best of both worlds. One on hand you have the good quality microphone straight in the headphones, but you can retract it out of the way when you don't need it so that it's not in the way. Really the only gripe that I can think of is the somewhat unsure fit to every possible head size and shape.

Additional Information

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