If you are no stranger to the SteelSeries brand, the word "Siberia" should ring a lot of bells inside your head. The V1 debuted around 2004, while the V2 came along during 2009 and finally we are here to see the newest refresh for the Siberia series of gaming headsets, the Siberia Elite. Is the Siberia Elite truly a state of the art headset like how SteelSeries claims? Lets find out.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
TECH SPECS» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
SPEAKERS
Frequency: 16-28 KHz
Impedance: 32 Ohm
SPL@ 1KHz, 1V rms: 113 dB
CABLE
Length: 1.2 meters
Extension cable: 2 meters
Connectors: 3.5 mm 4-pole & 3-pole x2
MICROPHONE
Mic pattern: Unidirectional
Frequency: 75 – 16000 Hz
Impedance: <2.2K Ohm
Sensitivity: -38 dB
COLORS
Black & White
REVIEW
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Taking the Siberia Elite out of its packaging, you would feel that the packaging really suits the price tag. This is one of the best packaging I have ever encountered while unboxing products. Taking the sleeve out, reveals a nice matte black box with a varnished SteelSeries logo. The box is automatically a keeper and is able to stand up as a display piece for SteelSeries fanatics.
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Enough about the box, today we have come to check out the headset, not the packaging. Taking the Siberia Elite out of its box, we are greeted with a Velcro strap (mentioned in 3 reviews in a row, I need to tone down my love for Velcro) keeping the cables neat and tidy. The MicroUSB cable is flat, making tangling cables a non-issue here.
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So you might be wondering how you are supposed to connect the Siberia Elite to your device since the thing has a MicroUSB connector. The Siberia Elite comes with the staple USB sound card, audio only jack cable and microphone/audio splitter cable, connect the MicroUSB header to either one and you are good to go.
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But obviously you would choose to connect it via the USB sound card, because if you don't, the thing that makes the Siberia Elite special, the LED illumination, would be neutered. Speaking of cool stuff, I bet you already noticed the illuminated ring, one beside each of the ear cups of the Siberia Elite. The illuminated ring on the right also works as a volume control, while the other a microphone mute switch. I have to say that such design is a very interesting one indeed. While it may not be that intuitive compared to the in-line mic/volume control found on the Siberia V2, it certainly works and there won't be anything dangling on your USB cable too.
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I mentioned about the illuminated rings, but how exactly do they work? How are we supposed to change the colours of said rings? This is where the SteelSeries Engine 3 comes into play. Currently, only the SteelSeries Engine 3 supports the Siberia Elite so those of you who have the previous version, SteelSeries Engine 2 would need to install additional software in order to configure the headset to your liking. I have prepared a separate post about the SteelSeries Engine 3 which you can check out in the near future!
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While I am able to keep on rambling about the illuminated rings of the Siberia Elite, I have to bring your attention to something that is key in all headphones; how comfortably the Siberia Elite would sit on your head. Due to it's aluminium band construction, the Siberia Elite is much more heavier compared to other headsets available in the market. When you wear the Siberia Elite, you would certainly remember that you are actually wearing it, which may or may not be a deal-breaker for you.
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This point is also reinforced with the stretchable headband; this type of headband is certainly a "one size fit all" kind of design. While that may be a good thing, but still that means the headband is constantly pressing against your scalp. Those who are new to the Siberia series might need some getting use, but for those who have used the any of the Siberia headsets, it's a major improvement with the added padding and firmer headband.
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Another thing that affects comfort is of course, the ear cups. The Siberia Elite sports very thick padded memory foam ear cups. This makes the Siberia Elite a very comfortable headset as the memory foam would shape around your ear. There is one problem though, the inner part of the ear cups are pretty small considering the size of the headset, even the Siberia V2 had a bigger inner ring than this. This would make people with big ears have a harder time to get the comfortable experience as the inner ring does not cover the entire ear.
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Now we come to the core of the headset itself, the audio quality of course. SteelSeries places emphasis on the Dolby technology used to process the audio signals before transmitting it to the user. Personally though, the USB sound card doesn't make that much of a difference than plugging it into my laptop's audio jack, given that my laptop supports THX TruStudio so that might be why. What I can say about the Siberia Elite would be, that it gives the user a very immersive experience no matter what you are doing. I have started to play the Titanfall beta recently, and the headset gives me a truly immersive experience, explosions sound epic, guns sound powerful and a lot more (credits to Respawn, 6GB of audio data for a beta, phewit). The experience doesn't just stop at gaming. I have been listening to nightcore music recently and the audio that the Siberia Elite produces is top notch, albeit not as good as audiophile headphones within the same price range.
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Not forgetting what makes or breaks a headset, is of course the microphone itself. Of course how can one forget SteelSeries's staple retractable mic? The microphone is very flexible and can sit as near to your face as possible and even as far as possible. Atop the microphone, you also get an illuminated ring when you mute the microphone. The noise cancellation featured in this particular microphone is also top-notch and removes all ambient noises, even mechanical keyboards clacking away in the background. If you need more than my words to be sure about it, do a search on YouTube and you will be amazed as what I just said was all true.
CONCLUSION In my opinion, the Siberia Elite is an extremely well built headset with good audio quality compared to other gaming oriented headsets. But at the end of the day, it will still burn RM769 from that wallet of yours. When asked why I'd spend so much on this headset, I always answer, "Well does your headset glow every colour in the rainbow?" So, buying the Siberia Elite grants you a special bragging right that currently no other headsets can offer; basically, the thing is a hater magnet.
EDIT: Apparently the Siberia Elite has a lot of RMA issues overseas, but my contact told me the current RMA rate in Malaysia is 1/100 and they would do a 1 to 1 exchange with you if your Siberia Elite were to face any issues.
Feb 20 2014, 03:03 PM, updated 12y ago
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been looking to buy this, or maybe astro a50 haha, not sure which one is good
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