SteelSeries Siberia Elite Gaming Headset Review
Subjective Listening: Music, Movies, and Games
Not everyone hears the same as each other. People’s ears are different and preferences dictate our style. The subjective listening tests in our reviews not only compare the product with other gaming headsets, but also audiophile-grade headphones. Those who don’t regularly listen with higher-end equipment may not notice the sound quality deficiencies we are able to notice.
The Siberia Elite was tested on a number of different sources including the USB Soundcard V2 that is included with the headset as well as dedicated sound cards and mp3 players.
Music
The Siberia Elite is a high performing headphone with a wide audible frequency response, great detail, and adaptable sound characteristic. Its sound quality is only hindered by above-average decay at some low-mid frequencies due to the closed-back design allowing some echoes to reverberate toward the listener. Unequalized, the Siberia Elite has a mostly flat response, but the headphone is very responsive to equalization with little to no clipping. Some of the preset EQ profiles in SteelSeries Engine 3 such as Explosive Action bring the Siberia Elite’s characteristic more in line with livelier sounding headphones.
With so much to like about how the Siberia Elite sounds, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it works well for any kind of music. If the headset sounds like it’s lacking or boring, consider equalizing from the source . It responds to equalization very well and as an example, can be forced to perform as a basshead headphone by raising bass frequencies.
Movies
The Siberia Elite is tuned to create more natural sounds and as such is good for TV shows and documentaries. Movie watchers wanting more kick may want to raise the bass with a graphic equalizer such as the one included in SteelSeries Engine 3.
The stereo soundstage is good and sounds that travel from one ear to another had clear separation of channels. Dolby Headphone is available while using the USB Soundcard V2 and as enticing it may seem, this feature sacrifices sound quality for (poorly) emulated surround sound.
Games
This headset’s crisp sound focuses mostly on realistic and natural audio reproduction by default. However, the Siberia Elite does embrace its gaming roots without compromising much else in the way of sound quality. Both strategically placed peaks and modest bass that isn’t distracting rendered some noises such as footsteps more noticeable. Positional audio is also decently good. Gamers uninterested in this type of audio reproduction such as when playing story-driven titles, can equalize the headset for a different emphasis.
Microphone
The Siberia Elite’s microphone recording quality is excellent. There was no voice distortion and listeners were able to clearly recognize speech as a result.