SteelSeries H Gaming Headset

The SteelSeries H touts good audio, amazing battery life and the best possible multi-platform compatibility merely stumbles on its poor microphone, irritating mute push and stiff fit.

$299 on Amazon

Comfort

For the price, I was slightly disappointed. Expectations aside, the SteelSeries H Wireless is moderately comfortable headset suitable for hours of gaming. For comfort, it trails only the Logitech G930 and Astro A50. The cups were large plenty to fit around my ears but slightly shallow. Like many headphones, the cushions are a supple simulated-leather. The benefit to this fabric is a tighter seal for better sound and reduced noise pollution. However, that same principle also helps seal in the juices after extended clothing. Overall, the fit was a bit tight and awkward at the noon of my skull. The ring weirdly flattened out at the top. It was stiff and squeezed my caput more than the other headsets. If you take a smaller head (i.east. boilerplate height or shorter) and low profile ears, I'one thousand certain your experience will exist superior to that of mine.

Sound

This is a great sounding headset for music and games. Bass was adequate and details were richly present. Where Astro included only three predefined audio profiles, SteelSeries packed a customizable 5-ring equalizer. This allows owners to punch in the sound they like. Out of the box though, I subjectively felt the A50 sounded better for most situations. Choosing a favorite based on sound quality alone really comes downward tonal preferences. I recall the presets on the A50 have a colder sound overall, which may or may not fit your listening pleasures.

Wireless

SteelSeries touts "dual band" connectivity and "lag free" audio. Performing identically to the A50, latency wasn't an effect. Transmission delay betwixt mic to ear was most instantaneous (virtually 100ms round trip). While heavily polluting the 5.8GHz and 2.4GHz spectrum, I experienced no interruptions or weirdness. Range seemed just a tiny fraction worse than the A50. In that location were small, infrequent hiccups in the same areas where the A50 barely (and I hateful barely) worked without bug. With few obstructions and pocket-sized room sizes, the H Wireless should be usable in adjacent rooms.

Microphone

The microphone found on the H Wireless is perhaps the simply disappointment hither. It's equipped with a frustrating microphone no meliorate than headsets one-tenth its cost. Showtime, it'southward very sensitive to air current noise. Walking indoors, for case, produced wind noise as did a ceiling fan set to low. Adding your own mic cream cover could assist here, but that will get in the way of its retractable pattern and farther hurt its already sub-par clarity. Additionally, there is no secondary racket-cancelling mic and while unidirectional, it manages to choice up lots of nearby noises in painstaking particular. If you lot want noise mitigation, you must rely on your audio card's input DSP features or use the USB transmitter as your recording device. Although the transmitter'southward USB chip did a passable task of cleaning upwards mic input, my Xonar produced better results. I should add that USB was definitely preferable over my onboard Realtek flake, which I also tried.

Although the microphone's audio quality savage flat, the headset mute button is a welcomed feature. Sadly, this button also makes a loud spring-loaded clacking sound when depressed. This audio, which reverberated through the entire headset, invariably ended up in chats and recordings. Any fourth dimension the headset was muted, anybody heard this noise loud and clear before information technology actually went silent. This is but poor blueprint and a deal-breaker for me.

Features and Value

At well-nigh $300, value will be a tough proposition for whatever headset. Overall though, the H Wireless is a tour-de-force of options and features. It is such a versatile headset. The transceiver slash mixer includes a metric ton of connectivity options: 3.5mm input and output jacks, mini-USB output, as well as optical SPDIF input and outputs. On the headset itself rests a ii.5mm hook-up for console gamers. Too, 1 of each cable you lot may need is included in the box (thanks, SteelSeries!)

The uniquely feature-rich base of operations station sports an OLED screen and makes a cool-looking addition to anyone's desk. From here, you tin can navigate and customize sound profiles, chat mix, volume and device settings via a punch and some buttons. Wearers can actually control the transmitter via the headset every bit well, although it's clunky to navigate in this manner.

Battery Life

Following a full accuse, one bombardment yielded over 14 hours in synthetic testing. SteelSeries likewise designed the transmitter to accuse and business firm a secondary hot-swappable battery pack. I bombardment already provides the H Wireless with best-in-class battery life, so two batteries definitely goes above and beyond expectations. Owners will never have to plug in.

Overall Quality and Impressions

Here'due south yet another fancy box built to air-tight tolerances. In a classy motion past SteelSeries, within this box you'll find all the cables you could want. Aesthetically, the SteelSeries H Wireless doesn't rely on gimmicks or overstated glam. It's a handsome, uncomplicated looking pair with adult appeal. Its orange emphasis color may exist the just visible evidence of its gaming origins. The transmitter is a abrupt looking device with something of a loftier-tech stereo aesthetic. Depending on what you have it connected to, y'all may need to employ some cable management skills to keep the wire spaghetti tamped down -- an irony for whatever wireless device. Build quality is premium; however, I did expect more than condolement for the price. The retractable mic -- every bit frustrating as the audio is -- easily tucks away, making wearing them around the house experience a bit less light-headed.