Steel Series 5H USB Review

The Steel Series 5H headphones sounds pretty kill, that is if you read the back of the box. You might want to pass these over.

Summary

The number of integrated headphones has increased exponentially over the last several years.  Online gamers are looking for better performance and enhanced ergonomic designs which will make their experience more enjoyable.  Steel Series has stepped up to the plate with their new 5H USB headphone which integrates an external USB audio device, in-line controls, and extendable microphone.  While the build quality and ergonomics of the headphones are exceptional, the headphone’s overall performance is somewhat lackluster and leaves a lot to be desired.  However, for someone looking for just about everything in one place, they might be worth a try. Good alternatives that fall into the same price range include the Sennheiser PC 160’s and Plantronics.AUDIO 90. Click here for more PC headsets.

Features and Design

 

Headphones have been around for quite sometime, although their purposes vary considerably.  Ultimately those used by consumers are aimed at increasing the enjoyment and overall satisfaction of the listener on the materials they enjoy most.  The advent of online gaming and online communications has increased the difficulty in achieving this goal by requiring headphones to not only reproduce music and voice, but allow people to speak with one another.  To complicate matters further computers are often limited in their ability to reproduce music, voice or even game background sounds by the inadequacy of integrated or internal sound cards.

 

Steel Series has designed a product which is aimed at creating the best multimedia and gaming experience possible.  The 5H headphones are full of features sure to make even the most difficult-to-please gamer happy.  They have an integrated microphone which can be recessed into the right ear cup when not in use, in-line controls, two separate 1/8” connections for the headphones and microphone, and are even packaged with cable extensions which allow for a reasonable distance from the computer when connected.  The company adds that they designed the extensions to improve the wearer’s safety as well.

 

The 5H headphones are extremely comfortable to wear, even for long lengths of time.   The headphones themselves are adjustable and each ear cup swivels to make optimal placement possible.  The microphone when not recessed can be flexed along its stalk to allow for comfortable positioning.

 

The Steel Series 5H USB headphones come with an additional feature, a USB soundcard.  The idea of this card is to allow for the use of the headphones with virtually any computer without suffering from degraded sound based on the computer’s own sound card performance.  Installing this USB adaptor is simple, it’s as easy as loading the mini-CD into the computer, following the instructions for your computer, and loading the drivers necessary to operate.

 

If there is anything lacking from the list of features from the 5H headphones it’s their lack of surround sound capabilities, although according to the company the USB drivers allow for virtual 7.1 sounds.  While it might be possible to simulate this with the included USB audio card, it really didn’t make all that much difference in the sound quality or visceral impact of either music or games.

 

Image Courtesy of Steel Series

Conclusion

 

The Steel Series 5H USB headphones are certainly an option for someone wanting nearly every possible feature a gaming headphones can possess, with the notable exception of true surround sound.  While the headphones did fall far short of accurate or even suitable sound reproduction, in many cases, they were extremely comfortable to wear.  If the only thing that the headphones were to be used for was online and gaming communication, they would be great.  Overall, it would be hard to recommend these headphones for anything other then their build quality, features, and overall ergonomics.  However, if these features are important to you would be hard pressed to find something similar to this headphone package from just one source. Good alternatives that fall into the same price range include the Sennheiser PC 160’s and Plantronics.AUDIO 90. Click here for more PC headsets.

 

Pros:

 

• Integrated and well designed microphone


• Extremely comfortable and adjustable headphones


• External USB audio card

 

Cons:

 

• Extremely unrealistic sound reproduction


• Poor bass capabilities


• Short headphone cord

Performance

 

The 5H USB headphones went through a great deal of testing for this review with and without the included USB audio card.  They were used on the computer to listen to music, play games and talk to other gamers and friends.  Lastly they were connected to a stereo system to determine their abilities as stand-alone headphones in relation to other stereo headphones.

 

When connected directly to the computer their sound reproduction was somewhat dependent on the sound card in the computer.  However, even with a computer that contained a "good" sound card, they still sounded somewhat tinny and unnatural.  When playing games, they tended to sound only marginally better then the speakers within a Dell laptop.  Games such as Magic Match and Atlantis which have very simplistic and easily reproducible sounds did fairly well with the headphones.  Unfortunately this was not the case when the difficulty level of the game’s sound requirements increased.  For example on games such as Myst and Quake 4, which are more enjoyable with better playback capabilities, these headphones fell short of the mark.

 

It is probably not that surprising given their lack of performance with games that they did not work extremely well when listening to music either.  In fact, the 5H headphones fairly mundane at best on most recordings.  On material such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the lack of bass took away from the headphone’s ability to resolve the music into an enjoyable and lifelike experience.  They did fare somewhat better on material that was very easy to reproduce or was mixed specifically computer playback and the majority of low resolution MP3s.  While they still had a distinct lack of overall tonality, the headphones sounded better then the laptop speakers, at least. 

 

Connecting the 5H headphones to a "real" stereo system was perhaps a mistake.  All the shortcomings that they exhibited when they were connected to a computer became more pronounced on a dedicated audio system.  The headphones lacked many qualities, such as a defined mid-range and suitable bass, needed to truly enjoy difficult musical material.  They fared only slightly better on mass market materials mixed for loud playback in a car or from a boom box.

 

Two areas where the 5H headphones excelled were online gaming conversations and online communications.  Although the headphones did not reproduce speech perfectly, they did an adequate job.  What they lacked in audio reproduction though, they made up for with their microphone’s ability.  The combination of headphone comfort and microphone performance made even the longest conversations or gaming sessions bearable.

 

Finally, the headphones were connected to the external USB audio card.  Once again, the headphones were reviewed using the same materials as with direct connections.  The performance of the headphones did improve, especially when the USB audio card was used instead of lower quality internal audio cards.  The drivers allow for a certain amount of customization, including limited 7.1 surround sound capabilities. This added level of control also improved their performance.  While there was a definite improvement in the level of performance when the headphones were connected to the USB audio card, it was not its main advantage.  The external device allowed the headphones to perform nearly identically regardless of the computer and its capabilities.