Steelseries 5H v2 Headset
I've been through many headphones and headsets, and have a few good pairs of Sony and Sennheiser cans. So I'm a bit picky when it comes to sound. My first impression of this headset is that it is extremely comfortable. They sit comfortably around my ears, I don't feel the bridge pressing down on my head, and my ears feel just fine after several hours of use. That alone is enough to buy this headset; most headsets are uncomfortable and turn your ears red after an hour or two.
The sound quality is crisp. The first thing I noticed is a lack of bass, but I easily fixed this by turning up bass amplification in my soundcard settings, and they sound just as good as the Sony cans I usually wear for music. Most reviews will tell you these are bad for music, but that's only because they do have weak bass if you don't tweak your sound at all.
I haven't tried out the supposed Virtual 7.1 yet, but these headphones work great for gaming. I can locate the sounds coming from hunters, smokers and boomers just fine. The quality never becomes muddled or over-modulated as some headphones do when playing Left 4 Dead in a hectic horde with hundreds of zombies yelling.
The microphone is nice and simple. It retracts into the headphones if you just want to use them for audio. Good quality microphone, nobody has complained yet. And there's no cloth on the outside to get smelly, ripped up and chewed.
Great comfort, great quality, great microphone. Best headset I've ever owned.
vVv Doomhammer's Review
After using the SteelSeries 5H v2 headsets for a bit, I've decided to give a breakdown on my experiences with them. I know that some people have been having some trouble and don't think of them too favorably, but I'm finding them a joy to use.
Earpieces: Soft and comfortable. They fit well around my ear without causing pressure to the cartilage itself, which I've found with other headsets causes irritation after prolonged use. While they don't completely kill surrounding ambient surrounding noise, they do an excellent job of deadening it, which allows the sound coming through the headset to be sharp and highly audible.
Sound Quality: These things are golden. They has an excellent range of sound, which is phenomenal both in terms of music and gaming. Additionally it has excellent clarity. Sounds and voices coming through are crisp and clear.
Microphone: This is the area where most people are having trouble with the headsets. They've experienced a low quality output of sound and have been told they're hard to hear. I also experienced that briefly, but it seemed to me that the problem was mostly based on the microphone direction. THE MICROPHONE PICKUP IS SPECIFICALLY DIRECTIONAL, and given the flexibility of the microphone neck it's quite easy for the facing to be pointed wrong. Twisting it so that it's properly oriented is easy, and fixes the problem. Also, the neck holds that direction well. In addition, it's easy to tell where the proper orientation is because there's a small screw on the microphone facing the same direction as the microphone pickup. Be sure you have it facing the right way!
Misc: The cable is made of a woven material, which is both durable and flexible, and won't wear out nearly as fast as rubber will. In addition, the cable has an extra section that allows an extremely long cord or a more practical short one.
Connectors: The connectors are pretty standard. Two 1/8th inch TSR plugs, one for microphone and one for earpiece, as you'll see in almost all headsets. There's an extra adapter that is used to plug into a xbox 360 controller, and this may be the other piece of the trouble people have been having. It's the one place where feedback is important to SteelSeries because having effective connections to both xbox controllers, and more specifically the mix amps used at MLG events, is very important.
I'm extremely pleased with the quality of the headsets and I'm incredibly excited to have SteelSeries as a vVv sponsor. Their manufacture of products is exceptional, and I'm confident that collaboration between vVv Gaming and SteelSeries will help to further improve on gaming products.
Video Review by vVv Stitches:
