The ability to talk to your teammates in online games is essential these days, and if you don’t have a decent
microphone or headset, you’re simply left behind. Today we look at the Steelsound 5H V2 headset and see what it has to offer today’s gamers.
Almost all big multiplayer games have VoIP (Voice over IP) capability these days, and many gamers are doing away with surround sound systems in preference for a good headset and microphone combination. Enter the Steelseries Steelsound 5H V2, a headset designed specifically for the gamer market.
The Steelsound 5H V2 sells online for around AU$130, and for the money you get yourself a quality piece of kit. The earpieces are large and very well padded, and kept on your head with enough pressure so they won’t easily come off with normal movement, but not so much as to make it uncomfortable, the overhead strap is also generously padded, so these headphones can remain on your head comfortably for hours on end.
The microphone on the 5H V2 is a retractable item, that comes out from the left ear piece around 5-6”, so at full extension it’s in a good position right near your mouth (for me anyway). The microphone cord is covered in transparent plastic and is easily manoeuvrable into any position you need, and the cord is stiff enough not to sag once you’ve got it where you want it. When the microphone is not needed, it retracts all the way into the earpiece so you almost wouldn’t know it was there.
The drivers (speakers) in the earpieces are very capable units, giving excellent treble and bass response, however I feel they are a bit too biased towards the higher frequency sounds and the mid range can suffer somewhat. For this reason, when you listen to music it can sound a bit odd, with the higher frequencies being quite a bit more prominent than you’re used to. This is not a fault in the 5H’s, but rather a feature (of sorts), the headphones are designed to accentuate these higher and lower frequencies, to make in-game sounds like footsteps and gunshots more prominent and clear, to help you pick up on them easier. Adding to this the fact that the headphones completely cover the ear, they block out quite a lot of background noise to really help immerse you into the game, so this really is a headset designed for gaming, through and through.
{mospagebreak title=Page 2 - More Info and Conclusion}
The cord of the 5H V2 is fabric coated (braided) to help avoid tangles and knots, and includes and inline volume control for both speakers and microphone. The microphone control is a 3 stage switch with Off/Low/High volume settings, with the speaker volume being an analogue dial. The basic cord of the 5H V2 is only 1m long (great for notebooks), but includes a 2m extension cord for both microphone and speakers for people who need to connect it all the way under their desk.
As the 5H V2’s are designed for gamers, they are also designed to be easily transported, for taking to LAN party’s etc... to make this easier for gamers the 5H V2’s can be easily disassembled into 3 parts so they can be thrown in your backpack and not broken, then when you’re at your destination simply click them back together and you’re away, quite a nifty feature.
We found the 5H V2’s to be exceptionally responsive and clear when used in-game. When playing CS:Source the sounds had a much higher level of clarity then normal speakers or cheaper headphones, we noticed we could hear people reloading from much further away than normal, and sounds like incoming bouncing grenades, and footsteps were much easier to pick up on. Steelseries say that the whole point of these headphones is to enhance in-game sounds, and we have to say they do their job extremely well. The microphone over the in-game VoIP was very clear (as I’m told by the others in the office who were playing – we do actually work here occasionally, I swear) with no distortion whatsoever.
Conclusion:
Retailing for around $130, they are not the cheapest headset on the market, in fact they’re more expensive than just about all Logitech, Altec Lansing and Zalman models on the market, but I’m a firm believer in “you get what you pay for” and in this case it’s true. Yes they’re dearer, but they sound better and are more comfortable than every other headset I’ve tried, these will be on my shipping list for sure.
OzHardware Rating – 9/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Product Link)
