SteelSeries always has a knack for providing the world with stunning sound for any application, and the addition of the earbud headphones to the mix is no exception.

The full headsets that SteelSeries has delivered have always been top notch. With computer gaming, the sound is crisp, clear and very well placed. You can hear the rustling of grass behind your left shoulder, you can hear the sounds of gunfire coming from great distances, you can hear it all. Unfortunately, that sound clarity does not transfer to the in ear headphones with ease. It’s one thing to be able to produce that kind of sound with large speakers that surround your ear, it’s another thing entirely to pull it off when it’s in your ear. During testing with World of Warcraft, I just didn’t get the sound clarity that I was hoping for. I won’t chalk it up to a flaw in the design of the earbuds, it’s simply a shortcoming of the earbud style itself.

However, for music enjoyment, these deliver in every way I was expecting. The packaging comes with two different in ear inserts. The typical rubber dome shaped inserts, as well as a three layered design that I’ve never come across before. I’m assuming that this design is for keeping more of the sound going into your ear and not escaping, but I didn’t notice a difference, other than the discomfort of the insert. It’s pretty big, and unless you have big ear canals, you’ll probably want to stick to the traditional inserts. Cord length is pretty standard, it’s long enough to keep your iPod in your pocket and still have some room to move around, but not so long that you are tripping over your own cord. The wire is the new softer rubber design that is resistant to kinking, and doesn’t catch on everything like the standard wire covers to. The bud fits pretty well in the ear and doesn’t fall out at the slightest tug like the stock iPod earbuds seem to.

The sound is second to none. Rock, techno, pop, even spoken word all come across clearly and balanced. The sound was never too tinny or too full of bass, it was a good mix of levels and made for a very enjoyable music listening experience. It also offers a small amount of ambient sound dampening. I tested the headphones on an airplane and I was able to hear the music at a reasonable level without getting outside sounds in. Granted, they’re certainly not design for noise canceling, but they do a pretty good job of keeping the noise out all on their own.

Overall, these headphones are best for your iPod. They put out a great sound, they’re comfortable, and the price is definitely right. Leave the computer gaming to the big headphones, and take these along with you when you need a good music fix.

Many gamers around the globe will recognize the name Razer, long known for its PC gaming products before the niche market was even developed there wasn’t an aspiring PC gamer who didn’t want a Razer mouse strapped to their hang fragging way in Quake III Arena. The company has expanded into all markets of gaming geared products. The lightweight Piranha is the latest headset from the company which offers a combine headset and mic setup, how does the headset fare in the ever crowding marketplace?

The first thing you notice about the Razer is the USB cable dangling off the end next to the red mic and green headphone plugs. This powers the hypnotizing blue Razer logo on each of the earpieces and the cord-based volume control unit. A nice little touch not seen on most headsets that would really make you stand out at the next LAN party.

The headset features a swivel microphone as opposed to the hide-away ones used on SteelSeries’ lineup of headsets. The mic has a 90 degree rotation and meshes in with the contours of the headset while in the up position and rests far enough away from your mouth in the down position. There is very little adjustment to its placement when down, the plastic constructing the unit isn’t very formable, with good reason as moving it too much would prohibit it from return to the up position. The gain on the microphone is excellent for its distance from your face, in our tests microphone recording was excellent, clear, and crisp without any static on the files we created or over Vent.

Sound output was great as well, although a little lighter as far as a medium volume setting goes compared to other headsets we’ve tested. This is by no means a problem; you just need to be careful when switching between headsets, or going to speakers. To test sound we utilized several high quality AAC files in Apple iTunes, a combination of tracks ripped, purchased, and listened to directly from a CD were used, with all sounding excellent. The bass spectrum wasn’t as punchy as we would like, and when compared to the upper models of rival SteelSeries’ offerings I was a little disappointed, but sound output was great otherwise with crisp music and sound effects in World of WarCraft (our benchmark title). Moving the headset to an Apple 5G iPod also yielded similar results, a slightly softer bass but overall excellent quality sound.

Comfort is the biggest thing, besides sound, when dealing with headsets and the Piranha is a light-weight entry into the market with its over-the-head band and padding make it rest easy on the ears without nearly any fatigue after a long raiding session. The padded earpieces fit over the ear for the most part providing a good cone of sound, however the headset is not noise canceling.

The little touches also add up including a ridiculously long cable which is braided until about the last foot when it separates into three distinct wires (mic, headphones, USB). I would have liked to see a little less of the three separate cables as most gamer’s systems are going to have the three ports fairly close together negating the need for so much unbraided cable. The in-line remote, as previously mentioned, features a bright blue Razer logo, microphone mute button, and headset volume control along with a clip to hang it from your clothes while playing.

The $80 MSRP headset is a great addition to your gaming setup with excellent sound quality and the noise-canceling mic is one of the best we’ve seen. The unit doesn’t have some of the flashy bells and whistles found on some of the competing products, and its bass output isn’t exactly gamer tuned, but a solid, light-weight and comfortable construction with its own set of perks certainly put the Piranha in the top of its class.

Back in the late 1990’s and early portions of this decade all the cool kids had CD players and 64MB MP3 players in high school. One of the inventions of the time was the neckband headphone, with some of the first being released by Sony and quickly picked up on campus by the elite few who could afford them. They were a showcase that you knew how to look good, and keep a neat head of hair while rocking out to Third Eye Blind or Dave Matthews. Today the neckband headset has fallen by the wayside to pave the way for inexpensive and unimposing earbuds ushered in by the Apple-era of MP3 players. Still neckbands are being released, and in the gaming scene they make a comeback with the SteelSeries Siberia Neckband, albeit to some mixed results.

The feature set of the Siberia Neckband is just as rich as all the other entries in the niche manufactures collection. These assets include solid construction, detectable volume control, expanded use for home and gaming, as well as a great sound from the ear cups themselves and the retractable microphone. The previous Siberia model lacked the latter option, instead opting for more functionality as a MP3 accessory with a external mic.

The two biggest options with any headset is sound, and comfort, one of which the Siberia Neckband keeps up the proud tradition of the SteelSeries line, the other, seems a bit off from previous offerings. First the good, the Neckband sounds just as good as its big brothers with deep bass and crisp audio clarity in our standard bevy of tests including gaming (Audiosurf, World of WarCraft, and Portal) and music (both direct from a PC and using a Apple 5G iPod). You can never really complain about SteelSeries and audio quality, their audio processing capabilities of their entire line of headphones is second to none.

However the comfort of this device is the one area where it is lacking and this is a direct effect of the choice in neckband style over the traditional over the head band. While the Siberia Neckband isn’t big, bulky, or particularly heavy, the headset does tend to slip, quite a bit if you’ve been perspiring. As the headphones drift down, and the neckband itself tends to angle downward, the added pressure on the top of the ears can cause some discomfort after extended playtimes. While this can easily be altered by taking frequent breaks (as you should do anyway) sometimes Shattered Halls won’t run itself and you’ll need a marathon session.

The rest of the features are great including Xbox 360 support which just puts icing on the cake (cake which isn’t a lie of course). The 360 adapter plugs into the micro jack on the bottom of your controller, then the included extension cable can be used to plug the output sound (the ear cups) directly into your receiver while allowing your mic output to pass through the console and onto the game you are playing over Live. The retractable mic also makes it easy to stow the unit when not being used, or easily pull it out for the latest Call of Duty 4 match when your buddy comes online. This is easily one of the shinning points for the unit.

As far as construction goes, it’s up to SteelSeries aforementioned solid quality. The headphones don’t feel hollow, the neckband itself stretches to fit just about anyone’s size head, and the spring mechanism distributes the same amount of force no matter the size of your noggin, big or small. The elegant white color matches with both iPods and your Xbox 360, so if color coordination is your thing, consider yourself set.

If you’re able to get past the shortcomings in the comfort of the headset you’ll find that the Siberia Neckband proudly carries on the tradition set down by SteelSeries of producing a great array of units specifically tailored to the gamer. Maybe with some modifications a v2 could eliminate the slipping problem and craft the second coming of the neckband where users are free to once again rock out, without messing up that wonderful head of hair.

SteelSeries has one again outdone itself, creating yet another worthy addition to an already stellar line-up of headphones, this time with the all-purpose Siberia full size. What makes the Siberia different from the range of headphones we’ve reviewed previously from SteelSeries is its all purpose nature, and, unlike the 3H, 4H, and 5Hv2, the Siberia does not come with a built in microphone.

Like the 5H, which gets a lot of use around Entertainmentopia HQ, the Siberia features large ear pieces fully cupping the ear and helping to eliminate almost all ambient noise. The cups are padded and covered in a silky material making them comfortable for extended use. Coming in both black and white, the Siberia does not feature an adjustable headband; instead the plastic constructed band is stationary while a tension held secondary lightly padded headband stays snug to the top of your head, keeping the headset in place while moving.

The standard cord length (about three feet) is optimized for MP3 players residing in your pocket allowing for a full range of head motion without any tension on the cord. Also provided is a six foot extension cable for use with stationary devices like an audio receiver or computer. Curiously the cord based volume control only controls the earpiece volume (not the mic like on the pure-gaming series of headsets) and is located on the extension cable, and not the built in piece. From a design standpoint it can easily be seen how this was done, using the volume control as the intermediary connector between the two lengths, but those looking to purely use the headset for iPod or Zune use might be disappointed.

The only troubling design choice is the separate microphone, making the headset a questionable purchase for anyone who will be devoting more time towards online gaming than using the audio device for other purposes. The mic has a clip to place it on your shirt (sorry to all the nude Team Fortress 2 players out there) and is fully removable from the main headset right down to the cord, but for those hardcore gamers, you’ll want to look at the 5Hv2 with its retractable and excellent sounding microphone for your pure gaming need.

Of course a beautifully constructed headset is only as good as its sound quality and through all of our tests, the Siberia retains the high fidelity quality set down by its predecessors.

We tested the Siberia with a variety of devices since it is billed as an all purpose headset. The first test is the standard we run with all headsets, World of Warcraft. In this test the beautifully orchestrated soundtrack by Blizzard crept through the padded earphones wonderfully, easily standing up to the best we’ve tested so far (5Hv2). Bass levels were good and small subtle effects like water dripping were crisp, clear, and precise.

The second test was with an Apple iPod 5G. The iPod is easily the most popular music device available, and the while and black look of the Siberia fits extremely well with the color motif employed by Apple (even through our iPod is black). Sound quality was just as excellent as with our gaming tests. Treble and bass levels were excellent, spoken bits were also presented very well, clear, without any of the audio levels attempting to overtake the other. Most of the tracks were encoded in Apple’s AAC format with a few high quality 192kbps MP3 files thrown in for good measure.

The final test was with a Pioneer VSX-1016TXV-K receiver coupled with a Sony DVP-NS71HP DVD player and two movies in Dolby Digital, Constantine and Transformers. The dialog heavy Constantine performed well in our tests with in-movie ambient noise clearly audible such as water dripping, footsteps approaching from behind, and the subtle “hell-speak” in the film’s climax. Transformers, a more bombastic film with heavy use of bass also performed above expectations from the very beginning, Peter Cullen’s low, deep voice easily impressed with the Siberia. The headset comes packaged with a 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold plated adapter for use with home receivers and devices which require the larger plug.

As stated previously, the Siberia holds up the high, proud tradition of the SteelSeries name providing excellent audio quality, and versatility for those looking to spend money on a multi-purpose headset. While we can’t recommend it for sole gaming use, for those who will be dividing your time amongst many different activities that require a high quality, well built device, the Siberia is unmatched.

The latest and greatest from SteelSeries’ line of award winning headsets is the 5Hv2, incorporating everything that made the original 5H such a gaming favorite and building upon that to deliver one of the best, if not the best, headsets on the market. After having reviewing the 3H and 4H in previous months, I was anxious to see if the 5Hv2 was going to be able to top to audio performance of the 3H and the comfort of the 4H, but after weeks of testing, the 5Hv2 comes out on top in both categories.

The headset is built of sturdy plastic, giving it a solid feel, even though some of the features, such as disassembly, may lead you to believe otherwise. For easy transport the unit can be taken apart into three separate pieces. The top headband, and each earpiece are completely independent pieces, and when assembled are held together tightly and the audio connections between the headband and earpieces is done via gold plated connectors.

The cord is braided, giving it an elegant feel and just that little bit of notice you’re working with a higher end, more expensive unit. The actual cord length is rather short, coming in around three feet, but SteelSeries includes a full extension cord, making it easier for users whose towers are on the floor, or require some cable routing to get to. As with the 4H, a small audio control unit is included allowing you to change the mic sensitivity and earpieces volumes. This remote has a small clip on the back for those who will be using the unit on the go.

As with all SteelSeries units, the 5Hv2 also comes with a fully retractable (and nearly hidden) microphone in the left earpiece. The microphone is fully adjustable and easily slides in and out, making the headphones ideal for both gaming and non-gaming use.

To test the unit we did our standard series of tests, music, movies, and video games. Since all SteelSeries products are geared towards gaming, that’s where we started. Using World of WarCraft as our benchmark (since it was used previously in our 3H and 4H reviews) I was pleasantly surprised to see that the audio quality, which had dipped a bit with the 4H, was back up to 3H levels. The ambient sounds came across crisp and full through the unit, even at a medium volume setting. The splashing of water in Nagrand was wonderful to hear, and the SteelSeries’ bread-and-butter, the bass, really came through while battling for Halaa. This is definitely a gamer’s headset.

For music we tried a number of different genres to get an accurate picture of how the headset would perform. To start we loaded up Dane Cook’s new Rough Around the Edges to see how a spoken word album would fare. Unfortunately, not so well as Cook was easily overtaken by the more bombastic crowd noise and yelling at times, making some of the albums tracks difficult to hear. We’ve noticed this recording problem using other headsets and speaker set ups, so it’s not entirely the 5Hv2, but the headset does seem to amplify it. Next up we mixed up a playlist in Napster consisting of 80’s, hip-hop, and rock, of which the 5Hv2 easily cleared the floor with its brethren providing a clean sound, dwelling a bit in the lower range because of the bass-focused setup, but still making the music completely listenable.

The 5Hv2’s big difference from the original 5H is its added padding, making it one of the most comfortable headsets we’ve ever tested. Along the headband and the earpieces, we never once experienced any fatigue or pain while testing the unit. The ear cups are big, and broad, easily encompassing even the largest ears, and the unit as a whole is not overly heavy, leaving no straining of the neck, even during long playtimes.

Everything about the 5Hv2 shows that SteelSeries once again delivers a high quality, highly usable unit. The audio performance is excellent, the comfort level doesn’t lead to the need for acupuncture, and the little things like braided cables and gold plated connectors all lend themselves to this being one of the finest products on the market and an easy recommendation for any gamer.

Last month we had the chance to review SteelSeries’ entry level headphone/mic combo in the 3H, a small, albeit very well made and productive gaming headset for just about anyone to use, but geared for gamers. We’ve now had the opportunity to try out the 3H’s big brother in the way of the 4H, another winning entry from the company who knows what gamer’s want, and delivers each and every time.

The 4H improves up what made the 3H so economical and useful by increasing the size of the ear cups, now allowing them to encompass your entire ear, providing an added bit of noise canceling. This was one of the major drawbacks to the 3H as it didn’t cancel out ambient noise, and at times, it seemed as though devices like fans, or even your CPU cooler could get in the way of the action unless you used absurdly high volumes.

Staying with the traditional hidden microphone, the 4H hides a retractable mic inside the left earphone, making it easy for gamers using voice chat to pull out the opposable device at a moments notice, or simply use the headphones without the mic getting in your way.

As with most expensive headsets, the 4H comes equipped with a cord remote allowing for on the fly adjustment of headphone volume and microphone sensitivity, the former controlled via a dial, the latter with a three position switch. Since it’s a common occurrence to get your cords tied up between Red Bull and Mountain Dew slams, the remote also comes equipped with a handy clip for attaching to your shirt sleeve, or elsewhere if you decide to play sans clothing.

The construction of the 4H is also continuing with SteelSeries’ top notch choice in materials. The mic itself is the most noticeable with a series of metal and rubber rings making the boom flexible and adjustable from the top to the bottom. The plastic construction of the 4H is sturdy, and the set never feels cheap like a lesser brand. The solid ear cups provide more than enough weight to keep them in place, and after prolonged periods of playtime, you never feel as though your neck might snap off.

The only real disappointment with the unit is the sound, while the 3H handled bass very well, albeit in an exaggerated sense, the 4H’s sound seems duller, less rich, especially during non-gaming us. Just listening to AAC encoded tracks from iTunes, the sound seemed much quieter than previous headsets we have tested and there didn’t seem to be a lot of definition in the sound. Granted these are gaming headsets first, but with some games providing rich, orchestrated, or licensed soundtracks, it was disappointing to see the 4H just pass on our audio tests, while still excelling at the loud, booming bass of games. I’m by no means and audiophile by nature, but after switching back and forth between the 3H and 4H, I actually preferred the 3H’s sound to the bigger, more expensive unit.

The 4H continues the award winning tradition of SteelSeries by really focusing on the gamer. Those looking for an all around headset for everything from Skype to iTunes to BioShock may be disappointed. Still, even with some minor sound drawbacks, the 4H comes highly recommended for its excellent construction, comfort, and features.

With the advent of VoIP services like Ventrilo and the industry mainstay TeamSpeak, the gaming industry has seen the next level in video game strategy as gamers no longer need to communicate via keyboard while trying to take down opposing forces, instead, simply talking things out and playing the game can be done at the same time.

Still a voice service is only as good as the hardware on each users end and that’s where hardware manufactures like Logitech, Microsoft, and SteelSeries come into play with low, mid, and high-end gaming headsets full of features to give gamers that added edge.

The 3H headset is the entry level offering from hardcore manufacture SteelSeries which provides an easily collapsible and storable headset with above average sound, although lacking in a few areas inherent to its price.

First the good stuff, the 3H, as mentioned, can fold and collapse onto itself making it easy to store or travel to the local LAN party. The adjustable earpieces provide adequate cushioning and never hurt your ears after extended play sessions. The microphone completely retracts into the left earpiece and can be pulled out and manipulated to an optimal position at will by the player. So when just using the headphones to listen to music, or browse the web the microphone is never in your way. The unit is very lightweight easing the strain on your head and neck during late night frag sessions.

The sound is excellent projecting bass very well, in fact, the headset loves the lower range fully projecting bass while missing some of the higher end frequencies, but since most games rely on the lower end of the spectrum, this isn’t a big shortcoming, although for true audiophiles, you might want to look at a more expensive solution. The earphones seemed to handle higher volumes as well without much distortion as we cranked up the volume, but if you enjoy hearing, its never recommended to play at volumes this high, especially with earphones.

The biggest drawback to the unit is the lack of noise cancelling on the earpieces, during our play testing, fans running at high speed in the room could be heard over the sound coming from the headphones at a reasonable volume level, while never overtaking the rich sound of our testing games (Bioshock and World of WarCraft), it is noticeable.

The final testing involved the microphone itself which seemed to pick up the sound of our voice accurately and project it through our service of choice. Even recording voice-overs through Sony SoundForge yielded excellent results in a room where ambient noise was present.

For those who will be using the headphones casually with the new built-in voice chat for World of WarCraft or occasional playtimes online need not look any farther than the 3H, its lower price does cut down on some of features found on higher end models, but for the semi-hardcore you can’t go wrong once again with SteelSeries’ offering.

With all the high tech toys computer gamers have these days, laser mice, wireless keyboards, 30” widescreen plasma monitors, sound is the only department left untouched. Most gamers have the standard two speaker and a sub setup that gets them by, but the ones that really want the true to life experience go for the surround headsets. It means more realistic sound for them and less annoyance for everyone else in their house. While some of these headsets can get ridiculously expensive, an entry in the mid price market seems to be stirring up some noise. Enter the Altec Lansing AHS615.

Upon initial inspection on the impossible to open plastic clamshell the headphone come in, I saw good, and I saw bad. The good was the padding around the speakers. Most of the headsets I’ve used become a serious earache after a few hours of wearing. The bad was the goofy looking stick that seems to be attached in the middle of the wire. I could tell that this was going to be bothersome. Boy was I ever right.

When I finally got the headphones out of the box, I was surprised at the setup of the actual unit. There’s no settings for adjustment. It’s on a tensioned joint, when I slid on the headphones the bottom strap stretched to fit comfortable around my head. My other surprise was the separate pivoting of the padding around the speakers. The speaker itself pivots, then the padding itself pivots again. The result is a very comfortable wear that doesn’t put a whole lot of pressure on the ears.

The microphone on the unit is one of the best I’ve seen on a combo set like this. It’s easily adjustable, having both the snaking tube that can be fine tuned around my gargantuan head, but it also pivots so it can be turned up towards the strap when not in use. It performs very well. The noise rejecting microphone meant I could turn up the sensitivity of the voice activation on TeamSpeak and actually be able to use it well, instead of having every clack of the keyboard or distant whining on an annoying sibling setting off the mic and hogging the talkspace.

The little stick on the wire serves a very useful purpose, but at a terrible price. The surround sound on these head phones is simply astonishing. The switch on the stick allowed me to tell the difference a little amped surround can bring. As I logged into World of WarCraft and spun the camera around my character, the noises and sounds of a bustling Orgimmar were more realistic than I’ve ever heard. When I shut off the surround, it returned to the lame boring sound that my regular speakers put out.

The realism of the surround makes this unit worth buying on its own. However,  not only does it require a AAA battery to operate, but it’s on a switch that has absolutely no auto turnoff. One slip up and the battery’s dead and the whole unit is worthless until a replacement battery is found. The stick is also placed at a terrible position on the wire. It’s about 2 and a half inches short. This translates into  having absolutely no place to keep this heavy stupid thing while I’m wearing the headphones. It comes with a little clip that apparently is able to clip onto something, but  even when I’m sitting down there’s not enough length to attach it to a pocket or belt loop. So I’m left with trying to keep this thing on my desk, which is impossible, or trying to clip it to a sleeve, which looks dumb and doesn’t work either. I wish it could have been built into the top strap or into the unit itself somehow.

This unit had the potential of being perfect. It fit well, it has amazing sound, the microphone works wonders, but the surround stick really draws from its attractiveness. Many gamers will become annoyed at trying to find a place for this cumbersome addition. Maybe if I clip it to the top strap somehow. It might look goofy, but at least it’ll be out of the way.